Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After

I've reached the point where Air Force 1 has now taken off. If they wanted to do a good show, you'd think they could at least have a fuzzy video of a 707 or DC-8 taking off, not some rinky-dink little DC-9.

Some editor has to catch that kind of stuff.

 

If that audio of the phone call between LBJ and Lady Bird with Rose Kennedy is authentic, wow, that's some piece of history I've never, ever heard. And Mrs. Kennedy was amazingly poised.

 

That floored me, too. The fact that she greeted him with, "Hello, Mr. President" ... that got me.

 

One classy, dignified lady who set the example for the country during four of the darkest days in its history. Just amazing stuff.

 

TMZ would have it first.

 

Having watched the whole thing now another thing that really fascinates is the tension between the Kennedy people and the Johnson people. The fact that some of the Kennedy people didn't want Johnson on Air Force 1 for the flight back to Washington is amazing. In a way, it's almost as if they're trying to imply Johnson had something to do with it all.

Another thing I found interesting were all the references to how, as vice president, Johnson's career was totally going nowhere and just about done. I know Johnson was a compromise pick, but, geez, it sounds as though the two couldn't stand each other and their staffs followed suit.

 

There's quite a bit of truth to that I think. Sounds like there was not a lot of love lost between the two and Johnson was there mainly to bring in the South (and especially Texas). I've read several books that go into this.

From the show, I was especially struck by the paranoia in the Johnson camp that somehow, Bobby was going to find a way to deny LBJ the presidency.

Are we ever going to get closure to this question? You know, the whole "Did Oswald act alone" thing. Or are we doomed to spend the rest of our history wondering about it?

 

I think it would have come out by now if there was a conspiracy. The combination of that and the fact that one of the shows a few years back duplicated the "Magic Bullet" makes me believe Oswald did act alone.

And your point about Johnson's paranoia about Bobby Kennedy denying him the presidency also was spot-on. I wonder how he thought Bobby would have been able to do that.

 

I'd have to agree about Oswald at this point.

I wonder if, in about another 50 years when most everyone with an axe to grind or a buck to make over this is gone, if the Warren Commission report will finally become settled history.

As far as Johnson's paranoia ... heck, who knows. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not plotting against you ... But I think the 25th Amendment is pretty clear about the line of succession. I'm not sure what LBJ and his boys were worried about.

 

Scheduled to be re-run this Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern, Moddy.

 

You can bet that it will be shown Nov. 23 and definitely some time during that week.
The show was very interesting. Leaves you to think about what really happened. If I'm not mistaken, aren't there supposed to be some papers released next year about the assassination?