Reel 1271

(2 hrs.)

Return. The fourth season begins with writer-producer David Grubin's four-hour political biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson--a mover, a crowd, a charmer [and a bully] who also was narrator. David McCullough says, "the central character in a struggle of moral importance ending in ruin." Part 1 opens by examining LBJ's start in Texas politics as a New Deal Congressman in the late 1930s; the "stolen" Senate election of 1948, in which "Landslide Lyndon" beat Gov. Coke Barbenson by 87 votes; and his rising power in the '50s as Senate majority leader. During these years, one-time Presidential Press Secretary George Reedy notes, Johnson mastered the art of persuasion through "an incredible blend of blagging, cajolery, reminders of past favors [and] promises of future favors." LBJ's failed Presidential bid in 1960 led to a frustrating stint as John Kennedy's Vice President. "My future," he told an aide, "is behind me." It wasn't, and Part 1 concludes with the early days of LBJ's Presidency, which saw bold initiatives on ethnic issues. It also saw the escalation of an "inherited" conflict in Vietnam. Among those interviewed: Lady Bird Johnson, George Ball, Clark Clifford, John Connally, Daniel Ellsberg, J. William Fulbright, Dean Rusk, R. Sargent Shriver, Roger Wilkins. (2 hrs.)

(2 hrs.)