people from voting. king said we have to get the president some power. >> so we had bloody sunday. >> people couldn't turn away anymore. the presidential car moving out. it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade -- >> lbj was intensely aware that he came into the office under the cloak of tragedy. >> he assumes office and the first thing he goes to get done is the civil rights act. >> in the south that's like throwing a match on gasoline. >> the airways were full of discussions about how unprecedented this was and yet he was depressed, and he said i think we just delivered the south to the republican party

for the rest of my life and yours. >> long before lyndon johnson came into a position of power our leaders were recommending great advances in the field of civil rights and great advances in the field of health and education and environment, things of that nature. i just happened to be the catalyst. >> lbj, like so many of our presidents, was driven to greatness. he wanted to be a great president. he wanted to do the greatest good for the greatest number. that was his motivation. that's how he wanted to be judged. lbj spends practically his whole adult life towards the aqua acquisition of power. finally he obtains the ultimate political prize. not just the people of texas or the president of the united states. he is the president of the united states. >> i never thought that i would

awaken and find myself in a position of power that a president has, but i am here and i have it and i am going to use it. in november 1963, the legislative machinery had grounded out and everything had begun to stop. kennedy was unable to get anything done, and then he is killed. an engineer that could not make a train run is now dead, we hear. we're all out in the middle of the desert someplace, and a guy gets up and says i will get up and run the train, i know how to fix these things. he gets his wrench and he gets in the train and fixes it, and

pretty soon the train starts to roll and everybody lets out a great cheer. it was a spectacular performance. >> it's really important to remember the degree of trauma that the kennedy assassination imposed on the united states. that trauma really lingers in 1964. >> i am deeply impressed by the spirit of unity in this country. i am pleased with what the congress has done in passing the education bill, the passage of the civil rights bill. >> there's unease, but there's still a lot that seems to be going well and there's an underlying confidence that says, yes, we can do big things. we can launch a great society. >> the great society was the umbrella under which all of lbj's domestic policy, sweeping domestic reform, fell. fdr had the new deal, and jfk

had the new frontier, and lbj had the great society. >> what johnson was going to do was tell the country we can't just focus on the fact that we are rich. we can't just focus on the fact that we are powerful. we have to be great. >> the purpose of protecting the life of our nation and preserving the liberty of our citizens is to pursue the happiness of our people. in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society but upward to the great society. >> where the challenge now lies is in the quality of american life. how good are our schools? how beautiful are our cities? can we deal with the most desperate and suppressed.

>> it demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. >> the great society was education and health care, immigration, anything that lbj thought could make america a better place. and it's not bullshit. he so wanted to use the power to make america a better place, and it's not some slogan, and i only deeply, deeply, deeply regret that we took the wrong path in southeast asia. >> pretty good. how are you, mr. president? >> oh, i got lots of trouble. what do you think about this vietnam thing? i would like to hear you talk a little bit. >> well, frankly,mr. president if you were to tell me that i

was able to settle it as i saw fit, i would respectfully decline to undertake it. it's the worst mess i ever saw. >> vietnam was really a difficult thing for him. he never was comfortable with our presence in vietnam. >> i will tell you the more i stayed awake last night thinking about this thing, the more i think bit, i don't know what in the hell -- it just worries the hell out of me. i don't think it's worth fighting for and i don't think we can get out. >> it's an awful mess. >> he felt the united states had given its word with two different administrations, the truman and kennedy administration. >> we signed the treaty called the southeast asia treaty, and

every signor had an obligation. spompl -- responsibility to come to the aide of any country attacked. >> a war had already been taking place for four years between vietnamese parties. of course growing american involvement under kennedy. >> kennedy sent 20,000 troops into vietnam. >> we were fighting in vietnam. >> that's all the commitment and all the statements that kennedy made, bobby kennedy made, and i would be the first american president to put my tail between my legs and run out. didn't have the courage to stand up. of two other presidents. >> for lbj who had been kept out of decision making with regard to vietnam, he believed he had no choice but to keep on kennedy's secretary of state, dean rusk, and what they wanted to do was stay the course and continue kennedy's legacy with

regard to vietnam. >> it was being presented to the american people that this could be one of the dominos that might fall, that if we don't stop the communist in asia, we might have to stop them in san francisco. >> as a congressman he had seen the domino theory play out in europe. in world war ii. >> he was confident that if he capitulated in vietnam, there would be a domino theory through southeast asia. >> what he wants is to hold the country together. i'll win in '64 and stand in vietnam in '65. the most great of these is the great society, and he could have both, but he would not accept the notion that he is going to be the one who can't have the alamo.

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lbj, he certainly ambivalent about vietnam, and he didn't want to compromise in any way the great society programs. at the same time he can't walk away from vietnam, especially after the gulf of tonkin incident. >> we just had word by television that the destroyer is under torpedo attack. >> where are these torpedos coming from? >> we don't know. >> early august in 1964, i was a reporter in saigon at the time and the administration announced a series of incidents on the

gulf of tonkin. there had been an early attack on an american warship on august 2, and there was a second possible attack. >> the gulf of tonkin events in early august of 1964 gave lbj the ability to show that he's no wimp, that he's going to be able to request a joint resolution in support of his ability to respond and to act in southeast asia without having to seek a declaration of war is huge. there were only two dissenting votes. majority of the senate had full confidence in lbj. his ability to turn the events in the gulf of tonkin into the gulf of tonkin resolution, i think, was just pure genius. >> he used it to fight a whole war without any continuing authorization from congress or even the american public.

>> the gulf of tonkin becomes an inflexion point in the lbj presidency. he ultimately doubles down on the war in vietnam. >> all the information i had was, that they were serious, and i felt at the time and i feel now that if confronted with an identical situation tomorrow i would respond the same way. >> for lbj it's escalation or appeasement, and he's damned if he will appease the north vietnamese and give into communism. >> barry goldwater was saying we know what the problem is, we should launch attacks against the trail. >> in the 1964 election, the republicans nominate senator barry goldwater, a right-wing senator from the southwest. >> they don't know whether to vote for him or just plug it in.

>> goldwater is strongly anti-communist, and very militaristic, and another crucial threat is goldwater takes a stand against civil rights and starts to mobilize votes in the south. >> my fellow americans, i accept your nomination. >> there was quite a stir about him. newspaper campaigns, supporting robert kennedy for the vice president nomination on the democratic ticket. the president wanted no part of that. >> i'm not going to let them put somebody in bed with me that will murder me, i just can't be president and that's what he wants. >> bobby kennedy didn't want to be vice president. he wanted to be president. he knew lbj had health problems, a weak heart. >> my father felt like he was in a race against time from the

time he had a heart attack at 47. >> i have been treated for serious almost fatal heart attack. >> my blood pressure dropped to zero. when you go through a situation like that, you never forget it. it's always there. >> he believed and would say so to many staff, not just to me, that he would die young, his father died young. >> no male member of his family lived to be 64 and he had no reason to believe he would be 65. >> he did carry that in his mind and in his thoughts and would frequently say i have to get this done because i don't have much time. >> i hope that you would choose as the next vice president of the united states senator hubert humphrey of minnesota! >> i think he selected hubert humphrey because he regarded hubert humphrey as being more in his camp than he did any other vice president candidate.

hubert was not in any way connected with the kennedys. johnson wanted to be elected in his own right. >> many people on his campaign staff said the south will be lost as a result of the 1964 civil rights bill, and my mother said no. >> it was difficult for the president to go through the south and campaign. the decision had been made to have lady bird carry the campaign through the south. >> she took a trip on a train called the lady bird special and went through the south of the united states, and she was booed. >> there was a bomb, we understand, had been planted in northern florida on the railroad tracks. >> i remember my mother standing on the back of that whistle stop train while a big placard said, blackbird, blackbird, fly away home.

>> my friends, this is a country of many viewpoints and i respect your right to express your own. now it's my turn to express mine. thank you. >> i saw crowds just dissolve. >> they heckled her a lot. they were pretty ugly in south carolina and when a child gets hurt he goes home and doesn't go back, and we don't want that to happen. we love those people and the only thing to do is to go and tell them we love them. >> one of lbj's motivations in his life was to be loved. he wanted to do good without question, and he also wanted to be recognized for doing that good. >> as we moved into the campaign, we encountered crowds and affection and applause, adulation. something big was brewing.

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>> lyndon johnson's victory is a breath to behold. all the standards in measurement in politics, that's a landslide. >> sorry about georgia. >> louisiana is a bunch of crooks and mississippi is too ignorant to know any better and alabama is the same way, but georgia knows better. >> you did awfully well. we're proud of you. i don't see any way it could have been improved. you campaigned well and carried the election. >> no question, somebody that craved approbation, he would be gratified by getting the biggest mandate in history. the same token he was pragmatic about it. he said when a president is first elected, he's a giraffe. six months later he's a worm. he knows he can't rest on his laurels if he can't get as much legislation through as he can. >> he was ready to go.

>> he picked up something like 37 seats in the house and a couple seats in the senate. he had everything he needed to be able to move a legislative agenda, and being lyndon johnson he was not going to let a moment go to waste. >> almost in the very hour the polls closed the president was whipping his staff into a greater frenzy. >> johnson was a man on a mission, not knowing how long his honeymoon would last, how long he would be in office. >> hello? >> yes, mr. president. >> i thought i would call half a dozen folks or so and tell them how much i appreciate their confidence. now we have to get out of their bondage. >> yes, we are happy about the outcome. it's such a great victory. i think we have great challenges and opportunities ahead, and we

all are with you. >> thank you, doctor. thank you so much. >> president lyndon johnson invited us to come to the white house after winning the nobel prize. we had an appointment at 4:00 and didn't get to see him until almost 7:00, and bundy and russell were coming out as we were going in, and we realized what was going on. they were trying to get him to escalate the war in vietnam. my feeling was that this wasn't the president johnson i had seen in action and that i knew. this was a president johnson where they had been beating up on him, he was tired and he was worn and there was no fire in him. we were asking president johnson to try and pass a voting rights act. >> johnson says, look, i have

done all -- you know, i have my hands full with the war and blah, blah, blah, and he says i don't have the power to do that. >> he said i know we need this but i cannot do it right now. i just don't have the power. >> i want to play something, you had that meeting on december 18th of '64. this is a phone call four days earlier, december 14th, with the attorney general. >> try to figure out what i can do to get 100% people to vote. we're going to try and get everybody to register, and those that don't register we are going to register them with the postmasters. i basically believe if we can have a simple effective method

of getting registered, now, if the state laws are too high and they disqualify a bunch of them maybe we can go into the supreme court and get them held unconstitutional. >> it's a problem, yes, sir. >> i know that. see what you can do and do that pretty quick. >> i wish i had known that. i had not heard that. that was before we got there. >> my god. i mean, it's unbelievable. if there ever was an exhibit a of being a masterful politician, that was it. >> johnson is not taking anything for granted. he knows he may not be able to get a law through congress so he's trying to find other ways to make this happen, even the possibility of making the postmaster generals, a federal employee that is controlled by lyndon johnson, the president of the united states and not the governor of the deep southern

states. at the same time he doesn't tell king that he himself is trying to work out through non-legislative means a way to get voting in the south. he's keeping that up his sleeve because he wants martin luther king to put it all out there for this cause. he wants him to think that it's all on him. >> johnson certainly is well aware of king's great strategic abilities and his ability to put moments in front of not just the nation, but in front of the entire world and would create greater support, sympathy, empathy for what was happening to african americans in the deep south when they were simply trying to exercise their right to vote. it is a wonderful example of how the president and a movement work together. in this instance, the civil rights leaders didn't necessarily know they were on

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selma had the representation of being one of the toughest towns. jim clark had the reputation of being one of the strongest and meanest sheriffs in the south. selma did everything to prevent people from voting. they closed the registration office when black people showed up. when they kept it open, they gave them the voting applications and then said there was something wrong and they would tear it up and throw it in the trash can. >> literacy tests and poll taxes and the very creative work of segregationists in the deep south to prevent people of color from voting. >> these people are just so vicious. they intimidated every voter here, you would get a parking ticket if you tried to vote and all that kind of stuff. >> we were not thinking tactfully about losing.

or winning. this was wrong. i realize we have the capacity to get the president some power. if we started a voting rights march in selma, we could get the president some power. >> beginning in january of 1965, the world began to come into my parents' home, in a house that was occupied with a mother, a father and little girl. the world knew dr. king as martin luther king, i knew him as uncle martin. he and my parents became friends in the 1950s, and they talked about life and the challenges, particularly what all african american families were feeling at the time. so when the selma to montgomery march approached, he asked my parents if he could plan the march from this house.

>> there had been organizing and efforts already under way in selma, but when king gets there it really lights a fire. >> all of a sudden people from all over the united states as well as the world came here to meet with dr. king. >> by marching from selma to montgomery, we were not only taking the movement to the cradle of the confederacy, we were taking it to george wallace's doorstep. >> the planning of the march, of course, involved washington very heavily, and president johnson, even though president johnson never came to this house, he would call into my parents' home on a regular basis. >> i think it's very important that we not just say that we are doing this and we not do it because there are negros and whites, but we take the position every person born in the country, when he reaches a certain age, he has a right to

vote, and we extend it to whoever it is and we don't want special privilege for anybody but equality for all and we can stand on that principle. >> i think president johnson is very concerned at not being perceived as not supporting the voting rights activism. that doesn't mean he doesn't support voting rights, but not withstanding the difficulty that stands ahead, he needs others to intervene on the ground while he can be above the fray, so to speak. >> if you can find the worst condition of being denied the right to cast a vote and get that one illustration and get it on radio and on the television, every place you can, pretty soon the fella that didn't do anything in vain but drive a tractor, he will say that's not right, that's not fair.

we'll do things even the '64 act couldn't do. >> lbj has faith in the american people they will do what is right, but they need to see first what is wrong. >> johnson leans in with king to put those moments in front of the nation. let people see what's going on, what's happening. we see in the months that would follow king's work in selma, alabama. >> president johnson and dr. king had been deliberating for sometime, brokering an agreement, if you will, that dr. king deliver a peaceful march. >> the people over in the selma area started coming in from all of these towns around and they had their knapsacks and they were ready to march from selma, montgomery.

sheriff clark had an injunction against demonstrations. no more than two people could walk down the street together. dr. king and other preachers were in their churches congregations, so the march was led with john lewis. >> i am saying that this is an unlawful assembly. you have two minutes to turn around and go back to your church. this march will not continue. >> josé just asked, can we have a minute of prayer. >> i have got nothing further to say to you. >> so we had bloody sunday.

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you are ordered to disperse now. >> we were really shocked that they responded with tear-gas and horses and billy clubs . >> was it the sheriff or state troopers that stopped the march? >> the state troopers stopped it, and most of the brutality was done by the sheriff deputies, those fellows on horses. >> the police state tactics of sheriff clark were an outrage, and the televised beating of the nonviolent protesters on the edmund pettus bridge, and those shocking scenes.

and they contradicted the image of the united states that most americans had. >> it showed what the opposition to democracy was. in alabama. people would stop what they were doing and came to selma, so we knew we had to march. >> the biggest problem we have is communicating with george wallace. they are going to have another march tomorrow and as we see it it's going to go from bad to worse. do you think you have that much standing with him? >> my relationship with george has been very good, but you can't trust him. >> after bloody sunday and that thwarted march, lbj is working behind the scenes to ensure that there's a peaceful march, contrary to the depictions of lyndon johnson. lyndon johnson was very much in favor of a march from selma to montgomery. that's an incredibly important

part. lbj wants to see this march come to fruition. to show such a thing is possible in the united states in america. >> there may be three or four things that could be explored with the attorney general, and one is letting them march part of the way or agreeing in some way where it did not endanger lives. >> johnson and his administration were actively brokering between the two sides to try and make sure that the horror that had taken place would not be repeated. >> lbj is over every single detail, getting reports of every minute of the date about the negotiations back and forth. >> there could be the possibility of letting them march part of the way -- use his influence.

>> so we deliberately negotiated with the justice department that if stopped we would turn around and go back to the church. >> the best we can do now is just hope that wallace will be true to his word and king will break them up peacefully after 35 or 40 minutes. >> and king did break them up peacefully to go back. >> i don't know if lyndon johnson knew we would have bloody sunday, and at that moment it meant people couldn't turn away anymore. johnson recognized that moment would provide the legislative leverage that he needed. >> you look at the timeline, and the march over the edmund pettus bridge is the 7th, and then on the 10th, lyndon johnson is advocating voting rights

legislation. that's not a lot of time. >> we listened to that with dr. king at the home of dr. and ms. sullivan jackson. >> everybody was waiting on the president. nobody knew what was going to be said, but there was an air in the house that night that was very helpful. hopeful. >> i speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. at times history and fate meet at a single time, in a single place, to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. what happened in selma is part

of a far larger movement, which we choose into every section. it's the effort of american negros to secure for themselves the full blessings of american life. their cause must be our cause, too. because it's not just negros, but really it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice, and we shall overcome. >> we didn't shout. we didn't clap when president johnson said we shall overcome. it was as though we were all praying silently, thank god. that was the only time i ever saw martin luther king shed a tear.

>> you have the president of the united states taking this communal theme of the soul of this movement, we shall overcome, and bringing it front and center of his speech, proposing new voting rights legislation. >> president johnson made one of the most meaningful speeches than any president in modern time in the question of voting rights and civil rights. >> he embraced the song of the civil rights movement, which i interpreted it as embracing the vision that he shared with martin luther king. >> i do feel that president johnson was sending a direct message to dr. king that night. >> he was doing it because he wanted black people to know that finally you have a white

southern politician that knows how to use power. >> i remembered that time in the office when dr. king said that we got to get the president some power, and it was less than 100 days. where dr. king gave him some comment. dr. king and john lewis gave lyndon johnson some comment. >> this cnn original series, lbj:triumph and tragedy" brought to you by medicare plans. ary ca. ...and lab tests. - wow. - uh-huh. plus, $0 copays on tier 1 & tier 2 prescription drugs. - wow. - uh-huh. unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans. including the only plans with the aarp name. most plans have a $0 premium. take advantage now. wow!

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it is wrong -- deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow americans the right to vote in this country. wednesday, i will send to congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote. this bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections. >> well, i think president johnson said what i expected him to say about voting rights and about submitting the voting rights act. what i didn't expect was for him to make it so personal. >> my first job after college was as a teacher in katula,

texas, in a small, mexican-american school. few of them could speak english and i couldn't speak much spanish. >> it's a very interesting thing to me that lyndon johnson left school and went to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. elementary kids in catula texas, that shows something about him as a human being which i don't think anybody talks about very much. >> he had the personal experience of seeing and teaching the young, suffering students of catula texas. >> my students were poor, and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry, and they knew, even in their youth, the

pain of bprejudice. >> he always talks about how he would look in their eyes what he was teaching them, what they were saying is why do people not like us because of the color of our skin? and somehow, you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child. >> for the first time, he sees through their eyes the sting of poverty and bigotry and racial hatred. >> catula made lyndon johnson a different person. being exposed to somebody who was disregarded just because of their background made a big difference to him. >> it never occurred to me in my fondest dreams that i might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all

over this country. but now, i do have that chance. and i'll let you in on a secret, i mean to use it. >> that sort of lets you know who he really was. and i think that that is probably one of the most sincere and devout confessions ever made by an american president. >> mr. johnson was making more than a political speech. he didn't have to say all the things he said. president johnson spoke out of his heart. >> lyndon johnson understood the political condition of negros in america better than any other politician in my lifetime. any other white politician in my

lifetime. >> he knew that the soul and the democracy of an america was dependent on the notion that every citizen in america would have the right to vote and i think that's why he and uncle martin worked so tirelessly for the passage of the voting rights act. >> they were both committed. they were both terrific politicians. i think they knew that they were doing something that they needed the other one for. >> the voting rights act signed in law in august, 1965, and johnson was so happy. he viewed that as important as any piece of legislation. he said this law will change america, if, if, if, if, many ifs he said, the negros will get out and vote, and it has changed america. >> african americans, women, other people of color, have an avenue to advocate for

themselves and their rights as citizens that they had never had before. >> that problem with respect to race and his aggressive attitude towards making it fair, we got more adverse mail, more criticism on the racial programs of the great society than we did on the vietnam war. >> the irony of johnson passing the voting rights act is that the celebration was incredibly brief. >> you have this enormous high signing of the voting rights act, and then couple of days later, what? the riots. >> i think lyndon johnson would be seen today as one of our top three greatest presidents but he made one bad mistake.

>> once lbj gave west moorland 150,000 ground troops, really there was no turning back. >> he wasn't happy with the press and the press wasn't happy with him. >> the big lie was optimism. >> he had no idea of the vengeance that would come down on him. hello, everyone, i'm michael holmes coming to you live from laviv in ukraine, ahead this hour, joe biden agrees in principle to a summit with vladimir putin to drive to prevent russia from invading ukraine, follows an ominous warning from the u.s. about what the latest intelligence indicates. details plus what these new satellite images mean. >> and i'm linda kinkade live at cnn headquarters in atlanta, queen elizabeth tested positive for coronavirus as england i