LBJ vs. The Kennedys: Chasing Demons – originally aired by the History Channel on June 1, 2003
This is a very good documentary that details the absolute war that was going on between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy in the aftermath of the JFK assassination.
Years ago I was showing my Political Parties students this film. The documentary is a psychological examination of the behind-the-scene confrontation between Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and its impact on America in the period following John Kennedy’s assassination. The film utilizes actual recorded phone calls between the principals, with insightful commentary by key historical persons/witnesses involved in these matters.
We now know from recently published books and taped interviews that the “elephant in the room” which is never discussed or mentioned in the program was the firm belief by both Robert Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy that Lyndon Johnson was involved in JFK’s murder in a coup d’état. The film dramatically portrays Lyndon Johnson’s increasing paranoia and dark manic suspicions concerning Robert Kennedy and his ulterior motives against him, fueled by covert intelligence reports given to him by his long-time close associate (and next door neighbor) FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, enemy of both John and Robert Kennedy.
One of my students remarked that the documentary resembled the plot intrigue in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I pointed out that this was an outstanding and very perceptive observation, for there had actually been a very controversial play, Mac Bird, written on this theme. All the other students then began to see parallels between the two stories from what they had remembered from studying Macbeth in their English Language Arts class.
The reason for this is that Lyndon Johnson had just orchestrated the murder of JFK in response to the Kennedys trying to utterly destroy him with massive coordinated media exposes of his corruption as well as a Senate Rules Committee investigation into LBJ’s corrupt behavior that was also being instigated by Attorney General Robert Kennedy in early November of 1963. The Kennedys were not merely going to drop Lyndon Johnson from the 1964 Democratic ticket; they were going to napalm LBJ into roasted ruins.
The death of President Kennedy thrust Lyndon Johnson into the nation’s highest office–and a new chapter in a bitter feud with Robert Kennedy. One of the greatest rivalries in U.S. history, this feature-length look at their tumultuous relationship features never-before-heard oral histories and LBJ’s White House telephone recordings. It reveals how the Kennedys saw Johnson as a threat to the New Frontier, while LBJ nursed a deep-seated fear of being overshadowed by an increasingly mythologized JFK legacy.
The strained relationship between former president Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy is chronicled through Dictaphone recordings; dramatic reenactments; and commentary from many who knew both men. Among those commenting: former Johnson secretary Marie Fehmer; former press secretary George Reedy; and Nicholas Katzenbach, former assistant attorney general.
This production was basically hidden away as it was pulled from circulation when powerful persons close to the legacy of Lyndon Johnson objected to how he was portrayed during that week over several shows, as much as certain persons might complain that his legacy was tarnished, keep in mind that this program uses archival audio recordings, and that most of the people interviewed for this 2003 program were his peers.
It is quite odd that the History Channel would air this program that had so many persons who lived during the Kennedy and Johnson years in the White House talk of intimate details and then to have the show discarded from their lineup of related programs. Obviously this Chasing Demons special was removed along with the 2003 The Men Who Killed Kennedy series episodes, partially at the powerful insistence of LBJ’s widow, Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson.
11:33 am on August 17, 2024
