The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963-1969

What is it about election years? The recent publication of the fourth volume in Robert Caro’s massive biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson may not answer this question, but it does make us rethink the legacy of LBJ, and compel us to acknowledge the power, the responsibility and the basic human dimension of America’s highest elected office. Lyndon Johnson was the fourth man to assume the office after the assassination of the president, joining company with those following the assassination of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. In The Vantage Point Johnson memorably recalls those terrible minutes in the Dallas motorcade when Secret Service Agent Youngblood “pushed me to the floor and sat on my right shoulder to keep me down and protect me… I was still not clear about what was happening.”