With a sitting VP running for President for the first time since Al Gore’s failed bid for the White House in 2000, there’s been a lot of talk about the role the VP plays in government, the impact a VP pick has on a Presidential campaign, and just how much Kamala Harris’ record as VP/relationship to President Joe Biden can show us about her own agenda, should she win the White House. So today we begin a three-episode run focused on the Vice Presidency and those who have held the office with a conversation on Lyndon B. Johnson.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Presidency is bookended by the tragedies of JFK’s assassination and the escalation of the Vietnam war, but his career in politics and the policies he championed transcend his time in the Oval Office. In this episode, two of the foremost experts on LBJ, Mark Updegrove and Mark A. Lawrence, join Bob & Ben to discuss Johnson’s life and legacy.
Mark Updegrove is the President & CEO of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, TX, the presidential historian for ABC News, and the author of multiple books on Presidential History, including Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency.
Dr. Mark Atwood Lawrence is Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum and Associate Professor of History at UT-Austin. He is the author of multiple books on US history including The Vietnam War: A Concise International History.
This is a rebroadcast of RTN #256, which originally aired on December 12, 2022. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.