Lady Bird Johnson's Audio Diaries

July 11, 2007 — -- For two nights in 1997, Lady Bird Johnson talked with "Nightline's" Ted Koppel about the extraordinary years she spent with her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson, in the White House. She recalls the horrific assassination of President John F. Kennedy that thrust her husband into the Oval office and the center of one of the most turbulent chapters in the nation's history.

Below is an unedited transcript of the interview:

October 8, 1997

TED KOPPEL

(VO) It was the day America stood still.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

We were rounding the curve, going downhill. Suddenly, there was a

sharp, loud report, a shot.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) A day of personal tragedy.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

Suddenly I found myself face to face with Jackie. I don't think I

ever saw anybody so much alone in my life.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) And of a new beginning.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

There, in the very narrow confines of the plane, with Jackie on his

left, Lyndon took the oath of office.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) They've never been publicly heard before, the LADY BIRD JOHNSON

audio diaries. Tonight, November 22, 1963.

ANNOUNCER

From ABC News, this is Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted

Koppel.

TED KOPPEL

Diaries offer their authors the comfortable promise of absolute

privacy. Since most of the time the narrator and the intended

audience are one and the same, diaries are the perfect receptacle for

intimate revelations. And since they are normally kept on a regular,

if not a daily basis, the observations contained in them are clear

and fresh, unaffected by the passage of time or the loss of memory.

It is not altogether clear whether Lady Bird Johnson ever

intended her diary to become public, but she began keeping it,

dictating entries into what she called her talking machine, shortly

after John F. Kennedy was assassinated and her husband, Lyndon

Johnson, became the president of the United States. And Mrs Johnson

continued making entries into her audio diary virtually every day of

her husband's presidency.

Over the past four years, we have broadcast a number of programs

using Oval Office tapes that were recorded during the Johnson years.

If you've heard any of those tapes, I think you'll agree that they

capture something of Lyndon Johnson that would otherwise never have

emerged in public.

Helping us compile some of those programs has been historian

Michael Beschloss, whose new book, "Taking Charge: The Johnson White

House Tapes 1963 - 1964" has just been published. It includes

excerpts from Mrs Johnson's audio diary. They, and conversations

recorded aboard Air Force One on the day that Kennedy was shot are

being played in public for the first time tonight.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

Friday, November 22nd. It all began so beautifully. After a drizzle

in the morning, the sun came out bright and beautiful. We were going

into Dallas. In the lead car, President and Mrs Kennedy and John and

Nellie. And then a Secret Service car full of men and then our car

with Lyndon and me and Senator Yarborough.

The streets were lined with people, lots and lots of children

all smiling, placards, confetti. People were waving from windows.

Then almost at the edge of town on our way to the trade mart, where

we were going to have a luncheon, we were rounding a curve, going

down a hill. Suddenly, there was a sharp, loud report, a shot.

1ST REPORTER

It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route.

Something, I repeat, has happened in the motorcade route. There are

numerous people running there, but it is believed that President

Kennedy has been shot. President Kennedy was -- something is

terribly wrong. I think behind the motorcade. It looks as though

they're going to Parkland Hospital.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

It seemed to me to come from the right above my shoulder from a

building. Then one moment and then two more shots in rapid

succession. I heard over the radio system, "Let's get out of here!"

A Secret Service man vaulted over the front seat on top of Lyndon,

threw him to the floor and said, "Get down!"

Senator Yarborough and I ducked our heads. The car was

accelerated terrifically fast, faster and faster. Then suddenly they

put on the brakes so hard that I wondered if they were going to make

it as they wheeled left around a corner. I looked up and saw it said

"hospital". Only then did I believe that this might be what it was.

As we ground to a halt, I cast one last look back over my

shoulder and saw a bundle of pink, just like a drift of blossoms,

lying in the back seat. I think it was Mrs Kennedy lying over the

president's body.

Throughout it all, Lyndon was remarkably calm and quiet. He

said, "We'd better move the plane to another part of the field. He

spoke of going back out to the plane in black cars.

PRES LYNDON B. JOHNSON

What raced through my mind was that if they had shot our president

driving down there, who would they shoot next and what would they --

what was going on in Washington and when would the missiles be

coming? And I thought that it was a conspiracy and I raised that

question and nearly everybody that was with me raised it.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

People came and went. Every face that came in you searched for the

answers that you must know.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) Also searching for answers was Pierre Salinger, the president's

press secretary. He was accompanying a handful of cabinet members,

including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, on a flight to Tokyo to

prepare for an upcoming presidential trip. Pierre Salinger's Secret

Service code name was "Wayside."

PIERRE SALINGER

White House situation room, this is Wayside. Do you read me, over?

Over.

DISPATCHER

This is the situation room. I read you. Go ahead.

PIERRE SALINGER

Give me all available information on the president, over.

DISPATCHER

All available information on president follows. He and Governor

Connally of Texas have been hit in the car in which they were riding.

We do not know how serious the situation is. We have no information.

We are getting our information over the tickers, over.

PIERRE SALINGER

That is affirmative, affirmative. Please keep us advised out here.

This plane, on which secretary of state and other cabinet ministers

headed for Japan, turning around, returning to Honolulu.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) At Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Lady Bird sees Mrs Kennedy

waiting for news on the president's condition.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

Suddenly I found myself face to face with Jackie in a small hall. I

think it was right outside the operating room. You always think of

her, or somebody like her, as being insulated, protected. She was

quite alone. I don't think I ever saw anybody so much alone in my

life. I went up to her, put my arms around her and said something.

I'm sure it was quite banal, like, "God, help us all," because my

feelings for her were too tumultuous to put into words.

TED KOPPEL

When we come back, Lady Bird Johnson, Jackie Kennedy and a hurried

swearing in of the new president.

(Commercial Break)

TED KOPPEL

Just after 1:00 pm central time, about 30 minutes after the shots

were fired, news of President Kennedy's condition emerged from the

operating room. Vice President Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson were

with Malcolm Kilduff, President Kennedy's press person that day in

Dallas and Kenny O'Donnell, White House chief of staff.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON

I turned and went back to the small white room where Lyndon still

was. Mr Kilduff and Kenny O'Donnell were coming and going. I think

it was from Kenny's face and from Kenny's voice that I first heard

the words "the president is dead". Mr Kilduff entered and said to

Lyndon, "Mr President."

TED KOPPEL

(VO) A short time later, the plane loaded with cabinet members, also

received the news.

DISPATCHER

This is situation room relay following to Wayside. We have report

quoting Mr Kilduff in Dallas that the president is dead, that he died

about 35 minutes ago. Do you have that, over?

PIERRE SALINGER

The president's dead, is that correct?

DISPATCHER

That is correct. That is correct.

2ND REPORTER

We have this from Washington. Government sources now confirm that

President Kennedy is dead.

TED KOPPEL

(VO) Shortly after the president was pronounced dead, the Secret