Taking Charge cover art

Taking Charge

The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Taking Charge

By: Michael R. Beschloss
Narrated by: Michael R. Beschloss
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

 Taking Charge brings you into the room with an American political legend, still hated and revered a quarter century after his death. We hear Lyndon Johnson as he schemes and blusters, rewards and punishes, and reveals a bedrock core of unshakable political beliefs.
The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, LBJ ordered these tapes 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.
Taking Charge is filled with revelations about the full-blooded Texan behind the public image. You will hear LBJ:
* Revealing his self-doubts and personal anguish over the responsibilities of the presidency
* Receiving the frank criticism of his wife, Lady Bird Johnson
* Staking his presidency on a revolutionaly civil rights bill
* Scuttling Robert Kennedy's drive to be his Vice President
* Using the Tonkin Gulf attack to expand the American beachhead in Southeast Asia
* Unveiling his private, tortured early doubts that we could ever win a war in Vietnam
Taking Charge gives us an unprecedented look into a crucial presidency that continues to shape our lives today. In LBJ's own words, it is history "with the bark off."©1997 Michael R. Beschloss; (P)1997 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. Americas Genre Fiction United States War & Military
All stars
Most relevant
This is an interesting compilation revealing some of LBJ's complexities, qualities, manners and thinking, but the post-assassination conversations, which most would be interested in, are seriously under-represented. No mention whatsoever of the taped-over 14 minute conversation with J Edgar Hoover the day following JFK's death (or its transcript) and nothing about the hatching and execution of the Warren Commission. These omissions (or explanations wherefore) significantly limit the success and appeal of this audiobook, despite the clear transcriptions and fascinating exchanges between LBJ and RFK.

Post-assassination tapes glossed over

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.