Includes bibliographical references and index.

The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, Lyndon Johnson ordered the tapes to be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But now they have been unsealed, providing a close up look at a President taking power such as we have never had before - from John F. Kennedy's murder in November 1963 to Johnson's campaign for a landslide victory. Michael Beschloss has transcribed and annotated the secretly recorded tapes, providing historical commentary that allows readers to understand fully the people, crisis, and controversies that appear on them. TAKING CHARGE offers spellbinding insight into how Johnson used power by flattering, provoking and twisting the arms of some of the dominant personalities of our times, including Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We come to understand Johnson's complex, changing relationships with Lady Bird and the rest of his family, Jacqueline Kennedy, ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower and members of his Cabinet and White House Staff.

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