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S3 Ep 7 - Tangled Web

In the fall of 1971, Richard Nixon had reason to be optimistic. The long sought China Summit had just been announced, for the following year, to …

S3 Ep 6 - Off the Rails

With the publication of the Pentagon Papers in June ’71, the demons that Richard Nixon has wrestled throughout his presidency – indeed, through much of his public life – begin to gain the …

S3 Ep 5 - Beginning of the End

In early February ’71, with pressure building at home to complete the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, Nixon puts his Vietnamization program to a crucial and very public …

S3 Ep 4 - Searchlight on the Lawn

In the spring of 1970, the war in Vietnam comes home with a vengeance.  A year of secret bombing having produced no movement from the North Vietnamese, Nixon and Kissinger raise the stakes, …

S3 Ep 3 - Sideshow

In December 1968, only weeks after his election, Nixon names Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor. The appointment will prove to be the most consequential of his presidency. The …

S3 Ep 2 - Madame Chennault

Coming out of the conventions in August ’68, Richard Nixon begins his campaign against Hubert Humphrey, his Democratic opponent, with what looks like an insurmountable lead.  Running as the …

S3 Ep 1 - October Surprise

Get in and get those files.  Blow the safe and get it.

-President Nixon to aide H.R. Haldeman

For President Richard Nixon, the publication of the Pentagon Papers, in June 1971, ought not …

Trailer - Welcome to Nixon at War

Most accounts of the collapse of Richard Nixon’s presidency begin with Watergate —- the now iconic tale of a bungled break-in and the misbegotten …

S2 Ep 7 - Post Script

So what do historians think, fifty years out, about LBJ’s Great Society and its long term impact on American life and politics?  In early February, …

S2 Ep 6 - The Engineer

Five decades after Lyndon Johnson first unveiled his lofty vision of a Great Society, politicians and pundits are still arguing about what he …

S2 Ep 5 - Give Us the Ballot

By his own account the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was Lyndon Johnson’s greatest achievement – the jewel in the crown of the Great Society, and widely considered the most effective piece of …

S2 Ep 4 - Medicine Man

FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK all attempted to pass some form of universal health care — but no one had gotten even close. Johnson believed he might succeed where his predecessors had failed, …

S2 Ep 3 - The Bully Pulpit

“We will not win our war against poverty until the conscience of the entire Nation is aroused,” LBJ told an aide. But how to do that when most …

S2 Ep 2 - Mr. Poverty

"I didn't know a damn thing about poverty and didn't want the job," Sargent Shriver would later recall, of his conversation with the president, “and …

S2 Ep 1 - The Great Unveiling

On the night of JFK’s assassination, with the nation reeling, Lyndon Johnson stayed up much of the night with two young aides, and laid out a list of legislative initiatives he proposed to …

Trailer - Welcome to LBJ and the Great Society

While President Lyndon B. Johnson is remembered today largely for his failure in Vietnam, this podcast tells a different story, revealing his unprecedented success in shaping domestic …

Epilog: “I Shall Not Seek…”

Lyndon Johnson's March '68 announcement, that he would not seek re-election, stunned the nation and the world, and marked the effective end of a …

S1 Ep 6 LBJ's War - The Shock of Tet

“Whammo, we got caught with our pants down,” a CIA analyst says of the Tet Offensive, the massive surprise attack that North Vietnam launched against American and South Vietnamese forces in …

S1 Ep 5 LBJ's War - The Preacher and the President

“I’ll try to be worthy of your hopes,” LBJ told Martin Luther King, just days into his presidency, and for the next two years, largely made good on …

S1 Ep 4 LBJ's War - Parting the Curtains

For fifteen months, LBJ kept the country largely in the dark about the Vietnam War. Then, in February ’66, the powerful Senate Foreign Relations …

S1 Ep 3 LBJ's War - The Carrot and the Stick

By the spring of 1965, pressure is building on President Johnson to make his case for the war to the American electorate. He resists, preferring to manage the conflict without public …

S1 Ep 2 LBJ's War - The Tonkin Incident(s)

Twice in six weeks, in the late summer of 1964, U.S. destroyers reported they were under unprovoked attack, by North Vietnamese PT boats, while …

S1 Ep. 1 LBJ's War - The Churchill of Asia

“They started with me on Diem,” LBJ told an old friend, “that he was corrupt, and he ought to be killed. So, we killed him.”  Not quite true, it …

Trailer - Welcome to LBJ’s War

LBJ’s War is a podcast that tells the story of LBJ's failure in Vietnam and fall from grace in the voices of those who were there.

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Start listening to Trailer - Welcome to LBJ and the Great Society
2:46
Start listening to Trailer - Welcome to LBJ and the Great Society
2:46