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President Johnson determines to fulfill Kennedy's programs.
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Transcript: Chapter 08
Title Card: Part Two: My Fellow Americans
Narrator: "I took the oath," Johnson said, "but for millions of Americans, I was still illegitimate, a naked man with no presidential covering, a pretender to the throne, an illegal usurper. And then, there were the bigots and the dividers and the Eastern intellectuals who were waiting to knock me down before I could even begin to stand up. The whole thing was almost unbearable."
Rumors of dark schemes and conspiracies were everywhere. Anxious Americans knew little about the new president. What they did know was that their beloved John F. Kennedy was gone.
"I always felt sorry for Harry Truman and the way he got the presidency," Johnson told an aide, "but at least his man wasn't murdered."
Man: [Joint Congressional Session, November 27, 1963] Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States.
Narrator: President for only five days, Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress. After decades in Washington, he knew them all and he knew what they were thinking -- would he measure up?
President Johnson: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the House, members of the Senate, my fellow Americans, all I have, I would have given gladly not to be standing here today. The greatest leader of our time has been struck down by the foulest deed of our time. Today, John Fitzgerald Kennedy lives on in the immortal words and works that he left behind.
Narrator: He was never very good at formal speeches, but in the most important speech of his life, he reassured a shocked and grieving nation.
President Johnson: John F. Kennedy told his countrymen that our national work would not be finished in the first 1,000 days nor in the life of this administration, but he said, "Let us begin." Today, in the moment of new resolve, I would say to all my fellow Americans, "Let us continue."
Narrator: With a few simple words, he invoked the legacy of the dead president. The new president would carry on. "I knew it was imperative that I grasp the reins of power and do so without delay," Johnson later wrote. He convinced a reluctant and grieving Kennedy Cabinet to stay on, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
John Connally, LBJ Adviser: I said, "These are all Kennedy people. A lot of them are good people, but they are Kennedy people. They were committed to him and not to you." I said, "I don't know that these people will be disloyal, but they obviously can't have the same feeling for you that they had for Jack Kennedy. You're entitled, as president of the United States, to have your own Cabinet, people that you know, whom you trust." "Well," he said, "I just can't change them now." He said, "I promise you I'll change them after the election in '64."
Narrator: "I had to take the dead man's program and turn into a martyr's cause," he said. "That way Kennedy would live on forever and so would I." An accident of history had given him the power that he had reached for his entire life. Now, he was determined, as he said, to be "the greatest president of them all, the whole bunch of 'em."
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