-Part 2-
Katharine Graham & LBJ
December 1963
(WH k6312_01_19)
White House Telephone

President Lyndon Johnson talks with Washington Post editor Katharine Graham. After he initially flirts with her, she asks if he would be willing to speak at a gathering of newspaper editors. Johnson then goes on to talk about a speech he had recently given before Congress, and the falling out he had had with John Kennedy’s speechwriter Ted Sorenson over it. Johnson in particular did not want only to eulogize the recently assassinated Kennedy, but also to use the speech to lay out his own agenda, including the promotion of the Civil Rights Act. Johnson gets worked up at the thought of the Congress not working on this bill, and instead taking long vacations and doing nothing.

President Nixon and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a much different opinion of Mrs. Graham, as can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eO27Vgq0-s (NIXON TAPES: “Old Bag” Editor & Pentagon Papers (Hoover))

(Photo: President Lyndon Baines Johnson on the telephone.)