Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes 1963-64

by Lyndon B. Johnson, Michael R. Beschloss (editor)

The Barnes & Noble Review
October 1997

As seen on "Nightline" and "Larry King Live," and excerpted extensively in Newsweek, the presidential tapes of Lyndon B. Johnson have been unsealed. They are examined in Michael R. Beschloss's Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964.

The only president to record his private conversations from his first day in office, LBJ ordered the tapes to be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But that request has been preempted and the tapes unsealed, providing a close-up look at a president taking power in a way we have never seen before, beginning with John F. Kennedy's murder in November 1963 and continuing through Johnson's campaign for a landslide victory. In Taking Charge, Beschloss, whom Newsweek has called "America's leading presidential historian," has transcribed and annotated the secretly recorded tapes, providing historical commentary that allows us to understand fully the people, crises, and controversies that appear on them.

Significant events and revelations chronicled in Taking Charge include the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, including Johnson's conversations with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover about the killing. Although he publicly endorsed the Warren Commission's lone-gunman findings, LBJ privately suspected that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, probably backed by Fidel Castro.

As early as the spring of 1964, while he prepared for possible military action in Southeast Asia, LBJ privately expressed doubts that the United States could ever win a land war in Vietnam.

Johnson feared, after signing the Civil Rights Act, that blacks, inspired by Communists and the man he called "Muslim X" (Malcolm X), might riot and bring about a national white backlash against civil rights.

The Johnson White House tapes provide us with an intimate look at Johnson's complex, changing relationships with Lady Bird and the rest of his family, Jacqueline Kennedy, ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and members of the White House staff. Taking Charge is not only a unique exploration of a momentous presidency but also a highly personal look at the private man who took office after an American tragedy and led the nation into some of its most tumultuous years.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Presidents, Biography, Politics, American History, Audiobook

592 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Lyndon Baines Johnson (often referred to as LBJ), was the thirty-sixth President of the United States (1963–1969). Johnson served a long career in the U.S. Congress, and in 1960 was selected by then-Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to be his running-mate. Johnson became the thirty-seventh Vice President, and in 1963, he succeeded to the presidency following Kennedy's assassination. He was a major leader of the Democratic Party and as President was responsible for designing the Great Society, comprising liberal legislation including civil rights laws, Medicare (health care for the elderly), Medicaid (health care for the poor), aid to education, and a "War on Poverty." Simultaneously, he escalated the American involvement in the Vietnam War, from 16,000 American soldiers in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very insightful on LBJ and the times of his presidency. Each chapter chronicled a month from his assumption of Presidency (22 November 1963) through 29 August 1964. There were many subjects discussed in conversation: the JFK assassination & the Warren Commission, J. Edgar Hoover & the FBI, civil rights, the murder of the 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi, family & close political friends, various domestic & international programs & relations, reelection, and the whole debacle leading into Vietnam.

Here is a Youtube video I found with excerpts that list the date of conversation. I would look up the date in the book and read along as I listened. The author published 100%-legit transciptions for his book!

https://youtu.be/Ba_HmKiwsqI?si=qIzTD...

Overall I thought this was great. Initially I had to readjust because with the exception of some narrative to explain the upcoming conversation, you read nothing but telephone transcription. I really liked this first volume and I will start number two very soon. Highly recommended for thos interested in the LBJ administration and US politics of the time. Thanks!

[Ray LaManna · Rating 5 out of 5]

These secretly recorded tapes, along with the subsequent series for 1964-1965, really show how complicated the job of President of the US really is. LBJ was a master politician who took over after the assassination of John Kennedy. LBJ stumbled badly in expanding the war in Vietnam, but he also shepherded historic civil rights and voting rights legislation through Congress, along with setting up Medicare. What a change from the terrible race-baiting that the Fool in the White House (like Voldemort, I cannot pronounce his name!) engages in.

Don't buy the book...instead, listen to the tapes.

[Tanya Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so interesting to listen to as an audiobook. It contains passages from the actual tapes, so you can hear LBJ having conversations with people like Robert McNamara, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, and LBJ's wife, Lady Bird, among others. Anyway, I definitely recommend it if you're interested in LBJ's presidency as well as the sociopolitical climate of the times as the US was getting ready to (officially) enter the Vietnam War. Crazy stuff and worth the listen. There's another volume covering 1965-1966, and I plan eventually to listen to that one, too. For a while now, I've immersed myself in studies of the Vietnam War, and examining the Johnson presidency (among so many other factors surrounding the war and the social upheaval here in the US) is critical to having a better understanding of it (I could go into when the conflict actually started, all of the presidents involved, socio-political factors, the Cold War but I won't...just trying to review this book haha...the moving parts are endless). Anyway, give it a listen. LBJ was a flawed yet interesting and complex man. Whether you like him or not, it's still valuable to get an insider view of his personality and his former role in our government.

[Louise Yarnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating to see how LBJ operated at the outset of his presidency. He relied on J. Edgar Hoover to keep tabs on the civil rights leaders and Robert Kennedy. He worked closely with Georgia's Richard Russell, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk, and many other close confidants to strategize the Great Society legislation and the Civil Rights Act, while struggling mightily to manage the well-connected Kennedy clan, who worked the media and their elite connections going back generations. Very interesting to see how everyone on both sides of the aisle thought Robert McNamara could do no wrong. McNamara had more self doubt. Just a fascinating read with terrific footnotes from Lady Bird's diary and memoirs of many other players.

[Scott Wessman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great use of the audiobook format, with actual recordings from LBJ included. It is fascinating to hear people speak to each other exactly as they actually spoke.

[Robert A. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to be a fly on the wall as a U.S. President talks on the phone to Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Robert McNamara, J. Edgar Hoover and other giants of the 1960s? Get the audio book of The Johnson White House Tapes and you'll have a dozen CDs of priceless conversations from that era. Listening to these, I came away with a much greater appreciation for LBJ, the Democratic Party's forgotten president. Johnson's phone calls prove he played a major role in the success of the Civil Rights movement. As a Southerner, he played both sides of the fence, engaging movement leaders like King, while mollifying Southern Democrats who dead set against equality for "Negroes." Eventually he passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a monumental achievement. Unfortunately at the same time he was being drawn deeper and deeper into the morass of Vietnam -- something you also hear about in conversations with his generals and defense secretary. Fascinating.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually I'm listening to this one in the audible.com version. For this book, that is actually better I think than text since hearing the real voices from the tapes adds a lot to the experience.

One reason I like this book is that it makes it so clear how the historical record takes time to emerge and following current events in the news gives a very misleading and incomplete impression of what is happening. This should make us humble. We should think that we won't really know a lot of the facts for decades and so we shouldn't be too dogmatic in our judgments. Most of us can't suspend judgment for five minutes, much less for 40 years.

My second reason is to see, once again, how much the decisions that are made on world-historic events are done on the basis of misinformation and petty personal concerns. Montaigne wrote about it 450 years ago,but to actually listen to Johnson's fantasies and fears is sobering.

[Aaron Million · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating to read the unvarnished and off-the-record conversations of some major players in the mid 1960s. Looking forward to reading the second volume, and also the third when it comes out.

[Nila Novotny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Beschloss is a well respected Presidential biographer. This particular book isn't exactly a biography, but rather, is White House tapes ....... much like the Nixon tapes. The great thing about this as an audiobook is that you can actually listen to the voices of LBJ in addition to JFK, RFK, Hubert Humphrey, Barry Goldwater and the list goes on. There's something wonderful about hearing those voices. This doesn't even come close to covering Johnson's whole life.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the nation goes through a tragedy like no other, Johnson took the Presidency and tried to hold on. This work examines not only the man but the relationships he has with those close to him. Good book to read and remember life in those days.

[BookwormWithGoggles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook version and was initially not sure what to expect. I found this very enlightening. Interesting to hear the actual conversations and machinations behind the political scenes interspersed with some more domestic conversations.

[Russ Weimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if you like voyeristic reading.....

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating listen and glimpse into LBJ, the person.

[Randy Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most interesting question about LBJ as President was how a man so brilliant at working with people in an institutional setting like Congress could be such a flagrant failure when working in the realm of foreign affairs. This book which contains many of LBJ's conversations during the first 9 months of his Presidency showcases his thinking about both sides of that Presidential coin.

What I saw in this book was his excitement and passion when it came to passing civil rights, controlling the budget and the giving a helping hand to the poor in America. He saw the mind fields in all these areas but he also knew that they were all of a piece. He had vision and understanding of how to transform that vision into reality. I could sense in every conversation that concerned his domestic agenda that he saw the person or people he talked to as a building block to the larger goal.

For example, he had a fascinating relationship with Richard Russell the powerful Senator from Georgia. Russell was a passionate and longstanding segregationist. Johnson had begun his career aligned on that issue with Russell but over-time he became a powerful believer in civil rights. That didn't destroy his relationship with Russell. Instead he knew exactly how to temper and control Russell's segregationist proclivities so that they couldn't prevent LBJ's signature domestic achievement. Johnson is always praising Russell, calling him his real father and never pushing Russell politically in a direction he was uncomfortable.

But when it came to Vietnam, Johnson felt trapped from the very beginning. He knew the South Vietnam government was very weak and would require enormous American resources simply to survive. But he was a product of containment thinking. Truman and Eisenhower had been reasonably successful in holding the line with the Soviets and Chinese Communists. The belief was that holding on to territory was the best that could be done. American Presidents didn't want to directly confront the USSR and the People's Republic of China. Instead the Cold War was a matter of proxies that fought wars on the great powers behalf. America could believe it was saving the Free World but not triggering a nuclear war with Russia and to a lesser extent China.

But Johnson didn't understand or want to understand that Vietnam wasn't such a simple matter. There were the Soviets, the Chinese, the North Vietnamese and especially the Viet Cong in the South that were doing most of the active fighting. Each of these parties had their own agenda. The Viet Cong didn't neatly roll-up into the North Vietnamese, the North didn't neatly roll-up in the Chinese Communist who didn't take direction from the Soviets. Who was our enemy? We couldn't decide on who was our enemy. So what did winning look like? We didn't know that either. Johnson just knew he couldn't let South Vietnam collapse. That was defeat and keeping that from happening was victory. However, the price for such a hollow definition of victory was too high for Americans and as our involvement increased and the human and material costs mounted such a small victory grew even smaller with every American death, every soldier having to deploy to Vietnam causing pain and suffering to him and his family.

Yet Johnson clung to this small notion of victory of not losing South Vietnam. He had no positive vision for the war, for the people of Vietnam or what really America would get out of it. He didn't understand that in reality the policies he was pursuing were in the name of defeat and not victory. There is nothing like listening to LBJ himself to grasp that the Vietnam trap was one he set himself.

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that transcribes and provides commentary on the LBJ tapes in the time from his ascendancy until the 1964 election. This book allows the reader to get into the mind of LBJ and see how he cajoles, threatens and often gets his way. This books show a master politician at work. Highly recommended for fans of LBJ.

This isn't a biography so there are other books for that such as Bob Caro's Passage of Power or Master of the Senate.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of audio transcripts...so it can only be SO exciting. That being said, I did learn a lot -- I had sort of known about the Bobby Baker scandal, but I had thought it had disappeared after Jack Kennedy died. Nope! LBJ was fighting that issue for years. I also found it interesting that LBJ almost decided not to run the week before the 1964 convention because he felt that the issue with the seating/challenging of the all-white Mississippi delegation just showed he was powerless. I also had the same eerie feeling with the Nixon tapes -- everyone just feels so amateur and often talking about mindless things. But I certainly got the feeling that LBJ used the phone ALOT -- he is constantly talking to his various staff/executive branch members, as well as members of Congress and other outside the government opinion shapers. I found it interesting how often he was speaking directly with newspaper columnists. LBJ's close relationship with Bob McNamara (who he would have REALLY wanted as his vice president, despite being a Republican), his battles (whether real or imagined) with Bob Kennedy, and the events of Vietnam are all interesting in this book.

[Dave Gaston · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome set of audio books. Beshloss does all the setup and color commentary between the actual taped recordings of President Johnson. Johnson had all his phones taped, the oval office, his private lines, the coffee table, the situation room. Beshloss screens the previously sealed archived collection and hand picks critical and sometimes comical sound-bites from throughout Johnson’s ruckus first presidency. It is just an astounding effort. We’ll never again have taped access to the intimate running of the White House as we do in this collection (thanks to the Nixon Tape snafu). Lady Bird is there in full glory, Martin Luther King and the Southern black movement. Jacq, Jack and Ted Kennedy jockey for position in the wake of John’s death. Mac’s Vietnam is contemplated, launched and promptly mismanaged. The list goes on and on. It will change your vantage of Johnson to the positive. Powerful stuff.

[Shawn Lepard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any political or policy wonk should listen, not read, this book. I listened to it while traveling and found myself not wanting the book to be interrupted by stops for fuel. The author did a fantastic job of focusing on the select tracks that helped give the listener a good perspective of the critical and sometimes humerus events of Johnson's first term.

I was enthralled by the discussion about his 1964 election. Listening to the audio version provides the listener the opportunity to feel like they're having the conversation with LBJ.

I don't care which way ones personal politics swing, listening to the detailed thoughts of the leader of the country is a glimpse into the incredibly stressful and joyful aspects of the position. My only complaint is not having more depth. But, to get more would require much more time than one book should provide.

[Louis Picone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was included to read this after hearing on a radio program that it was the best presidential book ever written. Its difficult to say its the best, but it definitely gives better insight into the day to day life of being president than any other boom I've read. Its fascinating hearing his candid conversations from the day he became president through August 1964 which includes the escelation in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incudent, his tension with RFK, picking a VP, etc.

[Mel [profile closed] · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was said that Johnson ran in fear of the Kennedys, and his White House tapes seem to prove it. He continued to pour troops into Vietnam because he was afraid that Robert and Teddy Kennedy would paint him as weak on the war.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually I "read" the audiobook, which includes the recordings, while driving back and forth across the USA in my car between 1998 and 2004. The book is a collection of transcripts drawn from the recordings. Both versions include the editor's commentary.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this before going to the Johnson Library in Austin. Made me more sympathetic to Johnson, as I was definitely not a fan of his in the 60s!

[Abdul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Beschloss did a really good job with this book. I listened to it and really got a feel for the rough and tumble of politics. Looking forward to part 2.

[Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well done.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it but it just kind of stopped. Not a great way to end a book. It was like the author just got tired of it and said I'm done.

[Mike Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like the tapes were spliced a little too much. Truly loved the audio though. Excited for 2020 when the rest of the LBJ tapes are released to the public

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fun. Listening to conversations between LBJ and people like Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Billy Graham etc. was interesting. There's the whole gamut here from famous people to Johnson making ridiculously detailed demands on how he wanted clothes made for him.

[Karen]

After all this scandal with Trump and the firing of Comey, this book is should be a fun read especially because if you buy the audio book, you get the Johnson White House tape recordings as currate and narrated by Michel Beschloss. Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex71I...

[Daniel Mount]

Quite dry and tedious reading. Few will want to read this cover-to-cover.