http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21768668
Declassified tapes of
President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into
his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the
1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he
caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said
nothing.
After the Watergate scandal taught Richard Nixon the
consequences of recording White House conversations none of his
successors has dared to do it. But Nixon wasn't the first.He got the idea from his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, who felt there was an obligation to allow historians to eventually eavesdrop on his presidency.
"They will provide history with the bark off," Johnson told his wife, Lady Bird.
The final batch of tapes released by the LBJ library covers 1968, and allows us to hear Johnson's private conversations as his Democratic Party tore itself apart over the question of Vietnam.
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