Chapter:
Part two of a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president.
Now
Playing
Related Clips
Watch here for related video from this and other Presidential biographies.
• See Comments •
You must log in to submit a comment. If you don't have an account at American Experience, you will need to register to comment. It's fast and easy to do!
Post a Comment (Limit 5000 Characters)
• View Transcripts •
Transcript: Chapter 15
Narrator: He promised an America without poverty, where the young would be educated, the old would be cared for, where black Americans would be equal citizens. On the night of his inaugural gala, all his dreams seemed within his grasp. Dark tales were still rumored about his rise to power, but within a hundred days, Lyndon Johnson would be compared to Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Other presidents had called the White House a prison; Johnson said, "I never felt freer."
Roger Wilkins, Johnson Administration: Lyndon Johnson filled the air. This was his town.
Clark Clifford, Presidential Adviser: Sometimes, I would be with him and I would have the feeling that I'd been with a great, hurtling locomotive running down the track.
Ronnie Dugger, LBJ Biographer: He was kind, he was cruel, he was a son of a bitch, and yet he could be awfully decent and generous -- you know, everything, a very strange person, because he had it all.
J. William Fulbright, Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Yeah, I think he would have been considered a great president if he hadn't gotten involved in Vietnam.
Larry Berman, Vietnam Historian: The tragedy of the war was that it destroyed everything that Johnson had dreamed of.
Major funding provided by the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Web site do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Pledge Your Support
Stories to Go
