“All the Way with LBJ”: The 1964 Presidential Election

This site contains audio excerpts and transcripts of around 60 conversations from Lyndon Johnson’s secretly recorded telephone calls related to the 1964 election. The pages below also include photographs from the campaign, television ads used by both sides, and various other items of political paraphernalia.

The site is divided thematically rather than strictly according to the chapters of All the Way with LBJ. I have provided a minimal introduction to most of the clips; readers can find far more detail in the book. All audio clips and transcripts were prepared by me. Full digitized files of all the publicly available Johnson conversations (as well as those of John Kennedy and Richard Nixon) can be found at the Presidential Recordings Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.

The thematic topics:

• The Politics of Legislation (late 1963 and early 1964)
• The Bobby Baker Scandal (clips from both early and late in the campaign)
• Politics and Foreign Policy (early 1964)
• LBJ Analyzes the Republican Opposition (clips from late 1963 through mid-1964)
• The Vietnam War in the Campaign (excerpts from spring and summer 1964)
• The Kennedy Vice-Presidential Campaign (June and July 1964)
• The Vice-Presidential Selection (July and August 1964)
• The Democratic National Convention (in Atlantic City, August 1964)
• The Frontlash (August and September 1964)
• The Nuclear Issue (summer and fall 1964)
• LBJ as Campaign Manager (fall 1964)
• The Jenkins Scandal (October 1964)
• LBJ on the Election Results (November 1964)
• Assorted Clips
• Appendix: The 1968 Johnson Campaign

President Johnson works the telephone