Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965

Written by Michael R. Beschloss

Narrated by Michael R. Beschloss

Reaching for Glory lets us eavesdrop on LBJ's private, often tortured thoughts during the most crucial year of his presidency -- when his dreams of being hailed as the equal of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt were destroyed by the war in Vietnam.
As Reaching for Glory opens, LBJ is campaigning for the greatest presidential landslide in history. To win, he hands embarrassing secrets about Barry Goldwater to friendly reporters. When Johnson's closest aide is arrested in a sex scandal, he tries to keep it from exploding before the election.
This audiobook reveals the secret history of how Lyndon Johnson took us step by step, often by stealth, into Vietnam. While publicly boasting that there will be victory in Vietnam, he privately worries that the war can never be won and that it will crush his presidency. He foresees the backlash against the war, civil rights, and the Great Society that will bring Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to power.
Reaching for Glory lets us hear LBJ's private telephone conversations with Jacqueline Kennedy just after her husband's assassination. It allows us to live at Lyndon Johnson's side, day by day, through the dramatic, triumphant, catastrophic, and pivotal year of a turbulent presidency that continues to affect all of our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Nov 1, 2001
• ISBN: 9780743563666

Michael R. Beschloss

Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. He has written nine books on American Presidents and is NBC News Presidential Historian, as well as contributor to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife.

Reviews for Reaching for Glory

[MARK HESSENTHALER · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible experience, to be able to listen to LBJ’s conversations with MLK, RFK, Hoover, Eisenhower and more. Also appreciated getting to hear Lady Bird’s perspective on various moments, and the psychologic toll of the Vietnam War on the presidency. A Must Listen, even for a casual history buff.

[ohernaes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The short introductions and the original tapes gives a great closeness to the history.Continuous agonizing over the uncertainty and what to do in Vietnam, despite boasting public statements and taking the US ever deeper into the war, is the theme that goes through the whole book. Also important is of course the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory voting registration practices occurring in many Southern states. Johnson seemed like a man that had a difficult time to change course when people expected that he would continue on the set path. The book gives a good feeling of the messiness of politics, there were always questions about the verifiability of information and uncertainty regarding the consequences of different actions, issues that are often not so prevalent in other political stories. It would have been interesting to hear some more of the animosity between Johnson and Robert Kennedy.Tested ideas' popularity with polls. Johnson's "Great Society" implemented historical progressive measures in the US, in poverty reduction, education, health care and other areas, and perhaps above all in civil rights, including banning of discrimination, segregation and certain voter-qualification tests. However it is Vietnam that he will probably be remembered for.