The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After

by StevenM.Gillon (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $18.64

  A riveting account of the critical hours following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and transfer of power to Lyndon B. Johnson

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $7.91

  This is a narrative of the 24 hours after Kennedy was shot, in which LBJ became president, destroyed his relationship with Robert Kennedy, and set the stage for the great schism in liberal politics. US presidents are expected to be prepared for the unexpected, but on November 22, 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was forced to grapple with one of the most painful, unexpected, and tragic events in American history. The public assassination of the president at 12:30 PM and the non-stop television coverage that followed traumatized the nation. Johnson was in a particularly bad position: he was away from Washington, unable to communicate with his advisors; worse, he was outside the White House's security perimeter, facing a potential threat to his life. No one knew whether the assassination of JFK was part of a larger plot to decapitate the US government. Was Johnson next? In November 22nd, 1963 , historian Steven Gillon traces Johnson's movements and machinations for the following 24 hours, as he confronts Kennedy's grieving family, consolidates his support among Kennedy's staff, and assumes the presidency. It is a fundamental reevaluation of the aftermath of Kennedy's assassination-and it revisits a historical view that has not been kind to Johnson. Accused of being boorish and insensitive to Kennedy's grieving widow and brother, Johnson was so offended by the negative coverage of the event that he ordered his staff to prepare a rebuttal. The information Johnson compiled, including statements by eyewitnesses, has never been published, and provides a particularly vivid look at a momentous day in 20th century history. While capturing the excitement of the moment and the texture of life on that day, Gillon analyzes how the decisions made in these first critical hours altered the course of American history. The tensions and conflicts that arose from the start are the seed of the problems that would eventually destroy the Johnson presidency, divide the nation, and produce a civil war in the Democratic Party. A gripping narrative of a pivotal moment in American history, November 22nd, 1963 sheds new light on one of the most written-about events of the 20th century by focusing not on the assassination of the president, but rather the desperate first hours of president-in-waiting.