The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #4)

by Robert A. Caro

we land. Nothing long. Make it brief. We’ll have plenty of time later to say more.” Together the three Texans composed a draft, and Fehmer typed it and gave it to him. It was short, but Johnson could always improve a statement—and this one didn’t have to be cleared with anybody. He made it more personal, changing their line “The nation suffers a loss that cannot be weighed” to “We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed,” and more dramatic, reversing two phrases in the last sentence. The draft said, “I ask God’s help and yours”; he changed it to “I ask for your help—and God’s.” The question of where the congressional leadership meeting would be held was important. McGeorge Bundy seemed to feel that Johnson could hold it in—and indeed could immediately begin to work out of—