Comments on: The Unmaking of the President

The Unmaking of the President

veedubya — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:58:23 -0800

Lyndon Johnson believed that his withdrawal from the 1968 presidential campaign would free him to solidify his legacy—but four days later, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:42:41 -0800

Robert Caro's "The Orator at Dawn" in the New Yorker several years back (abstract) is a pretty good introduction to the relationship between Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. It was interesting because it talks about the interplay between a powerful personality (Johnson) and a weaker rival (Humphrey), and how Johnson the New Dealer effectively neutralized the activism of Humphrey, the liberal from the Plains. The New Yorker was so great when David Remnick first took over.

By: jpburns

jpburns — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:23:11 -0800

My wife wrote a great feature about the King funeral in Atlanta Magazine, in the April issue (for some reason, not up on the site yet). She conducted oral history style interviews with folks involved, and really came up with something I found very moving. Part of the raw audio will be up on the site when they get around to updating it. Of course... I'm just a wee bit biased.

By: Marie Mon Dieu

Marie Mon Dieu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:38:09 -0800

I remember distinctly from The Fog of War or another source (??) that Lyndon Johnson relied on the Beatles to keep him going during hard times when hearing of casualties in the Vietnam War. (jpburns, would love to read that article when the link works) A friend of ours was big into film in the '60's and he sent a crew from NYC to film Bobby Kennedy's last speech. One young lady in the crew was standing near him when he got shot. She returned to NYC and said, "I'm outta this business." Bad times, those, I don't think anyone who didn't live through it can comprehend what a big deal MLK was and how much of a shift he caused in our society. Nowadays we know it's not cool to say the "n" word and judge people by their skin color but back then it was the social norm that people with darker skin tones were lessor human beings. I had someone ask me once if I was of African American descent because of my curly hair and big lips and I was like, "hrm, maybe, but why do you ask?"

By: joannemerriam

joannemerriam — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:34:44 -0800

veedubya, thanks for linking this. Interesting reading.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:01:44 -0800

I remember distinctly from The Fog of War or another source (??) that Lyndon Johnson relied on the Beatles to keep him going during hard times when hearing of casualties in the Vietnam War. Must have been an another source. That's never mentioned in The Fog of War. (Transcript here.) Fascinating thought, though.

By: brandz

brandz — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:33:24 -0800

very good article. thanks for posting.

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:17:35 -0800

#: I had someone ask me once if I was of African American descent... It's my understanding that it's become practically fashionable -- unless, of course, you're writing from about 1963 or thereabouts.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 08:48:08 -0800

Very interesting article, thanks.