For the first time, the public will be able to see the fiery side of former president Lyndon B. Johnson in the days after the Kennedy assassination.
Transcripts of 275 phone calls taped in November and December 1963, will be made available Wednesday, at the LBJ Library in Austin and National Archives in Washington, D.C.University of Texas history professor Lewis Gould said while the tapes reveal some history, "Johnson's personality is going to impress people, more than any clues to the Kennedy assassination."
Gould told The Dallas Morning News that on one tape, Johnson presses a reluctant Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., to sit on the Warren Commission, which was formed a week after JFK's slaying in Dallas. Russell does not like Chief Justice Earl Warren.
"He (LBJ) just keeps after Russell," Gould said, "and he says, `I don't want to serve' and Johnson says `Dick, I've just called a press conference and announced you're going to serve.' "
Other discussions ranged from inviting former President Truman to attend a state funeral in Greece to the Vietnam War, an issue that would split the nation and eventually crumble Johnson's presidency.