History Channel apologizes (for LBJ documentary)

[Newsjock]

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040405/6080051s.htm
Second item in story

The History Channel has apologized to Lady Bird Johnson and her family for last year's documentary that implicated President Lyndon Johnson in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

''Our commitment is to historical accuracy, and in this case, we regrettably did not live up to our standards,'' History Channel chief Dan Davids wrote.

The Guilty Men: An Historical Review will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT Wednesday. Three historians will review the original Guilty Men and present their findings.

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[THUNDER HANDS]

1. he probably had a hand in it

I think it's very odd that of all the conspiracy theories out there about JFK's assasination that not many people point to LBJ as having a hand in it.

I mean, who had more to gain from Kennedy being shot than the guy who replaced him?

Seems kinda simple to me.

[JI7]

2. too simple

there still isn't any proof he was involved. and there are many people who still blame lbj even without proof.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Jeez, Magic Rat...

Do you really believe that? I mean, LBJ was a lot of things, but complicit in a presidential assassination isn't one of them. Don't forget, this is the same man who signed the Civil Rights Act. I just can't imagine him advocating such a thing.

On edit - great sig line photo! :thumbsup:

[JI7]

7. if you take out vietnam, he would be one of the best presidents

vietnam has tainted his legacy. but i can't ignore what he did on civil rights, and helping the poor. and if you read about him unlike bush he actually struggled with things like war. even deciding he will not run for re-election unlike bush.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. Have you never read any biographies on this man?...

...Try "A Texan Looks at Lyndon".

For his involvement in the JFK assassination, try this google-list:

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=LBJ+JFK+assassination&btnG=Google+Search>

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. LBJ signed JFK's Civil Rights Act because he knew that minorities...

...would be over-represented in Vietnam and this was a way to blunt that particular criticsm. LBJ also felt that he needed the minority vote to win the 1968 election. LBJ was a consummate politician if nothing else.

As far as LBJ's involvement in JFK's assassination, I offer the following:

Madeleine Brown
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbrownM.htm>

The meeting at Clint Murchison's house has been verified by other JFK assassination researchers. Also present were a number of former CIA executives that had been fired following the Bay of Pigs, as well as some current CIA operatives. The military was also represented at this meeting.

Additionally, LBJ ordered JFK's limo, still filled with evidence, to be sent back to Detroit for repairs immediately following the return to Washington, DC. Here's a link for your review:

<http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/TM-L.html}[br />
The Warren Commission was established to smooth over the assassination and get people to buy into the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. Only LBJ could have ordered that commission into existence. Arlen Specter, now a Senator from Pennsylvania, invented the "Single Bullet Theory" to make all of the wounds appear as if one round had gone through both JFK and Connally. Ford, a member of the commission, later became president to smooth over the scandal of Nixon's resignation and to pardon Nixon for any and all crimes.

Four days after JFK's assassination, LBJ signed NSAM 273, escalating the war in Vietnam:

<http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM273.html}[br />
This was in marked contrast to NSAM 263, which JFK had signed authorizing the beginning of the withdrawal from Vietnam:

<http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM263.html>

[pop goes the weasel]

5. oh come on

LBJ was constantly worried that the same forces that did in JFK would do him in. Why do you think he sponsored the escalation of a war he did not want, a war that he knew would harm his social programs, "the woman he love" as he put it?

[WI_DEM]

4. Good

I think LBJ had major flaws but he also accomplished Great things--but I don't believe that he had a hand in JFK's assassination. The White House Tapes do show a man who honestly did believe that there was a conspiracy involving Castro which could have led to WW3--and I do think that he wanted the Oswald Lone Gun theory to prevail with the Warren Commission--to prevent a war.

[On the Road]

8. Could You Elaborate, Wi_Dem?

"a man who honestly did believe that there was a conspiracy involving Castro"

I've heard hours of the LBJ tapes on NPR, but I didn't hear this. Do the tapes show LBJ expressing his belief that Castro was behind the assassination?

I know that Nixon referred to the Warran Commission finding as a joke in his own tapes, but tantalizingly he never expanded on that comment.

[David__77]

6. LBJ's mistakes outweigh his positive contributions.

His criminal actions regarding Vietnam will forever be a bloody stain on his name.

[happyending]

9. The Path to Power

I think there were supposed to be three of these books
and that I only read the first two.

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1)
by Robert A. Caro


Well, shoot, I only see a volume 1 and a volume 2

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Robert%20A.%20Caro/002-1646267-1641615

Annnnnnnyyyyyyway, they are a good read, if you like that sort
of thing.

[Zomby Woof]

10. Means of Ascent

Path to Power, and Master of the Senate. Those are the 3.

[nolabels]

13. My first clue would who would be wanting to smear who

CNN is getting write up the point of being a source to believe the opposite happened when they report on it. Sure does seem funny they put their feelers out in a place like Entertainment before they go whole hog.



LBJ aides say JFK documentary a smear
Film alleges Johnson had role in JFK assassination

Thursday, November 20, 2003 Posted: 10:46 AM EST (1546 GMT)


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A television documentary claiming Lyndon B. Johnson helped plot the Kennedy assassination was condemned as an absurd smear by Johnson's family and former staff members.

A History Channel film that aired Monday alleges that then-Vice President Johnson and members of his staff were responsible for President Kennedy's 1963 killing, said LBJ Foundation Chairman Tom Johnson, no relation to the former president.

"I do not know of a greater injustice to the reputation of a former president -- especially to be on The History Channel," Tom Johnson, who worked in the Johnson White House, said in an interview Tuesday.
(snip)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/19/tv.johnson.jfk.ap/

[Festivito]

14. LBJ with military suppliers makes most sense to me.

LBJ is the monied trail. The other trails seem only ideological.

Kennedys, MLKing were against the larger Vietnam war -- all shot dead. LBJ was no sweet little alter boy, he could be approached. I don't think he would have planned it, other than possibly standing where needed. He gets to be king, er, president.

Military suppliers get tax dollars for bombs, planes, helicopters, boats, ... LBJ realizing he could not offend them, escalated the war, MAYBE in hope of ending it in a way that would not get himself killed. Doing good things like Great Society and Civil Rights kept people from thinking about his not testifying at Warren Commission, AND it left him a legacy.

I think he liked becoming president, then lost desire.

There is a similar scenario today. Son of arms military supplier oversees attack on America and won't testify to investigative committee.