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September 15 - September 17, 2024
the assassination. A later investigation by federal authorities will find no evidence that Kennedy played a role. However, he was routinely briefed by the CIA in the days leading up to Diem’s murder. On the morning of the assassination, the CIA delivered $42,000 to pay the Vietnamese assassins carrying out the hit.7
Dallas, Texas. November 22, 1963. A day of sunshine. Crowds line the streets, eager to see Kennedy
was John Kennedy who promised that America would have a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, which happened. He founded the Peace Corps and initiated sources of government spending that led America out of a recession within a month of taking office. His handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, where he forced Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev to back down, showed that the inexperienced statesman who blundered at the Bay of Pigs had matured. It is also known that John F. Kennedy had many progressive social issues he wished to pursue in his second term. He did not believe he would be
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or color, sex, religion, or national origin.
Poverty is such a powerful presence in young Lyndon’s life that as an adult he will burst into tears while watching the movie The Grapes of Wrath because it reminds him of his childhood.
No president before or since has drifted in this manner. At eighteen, realizing a college education is important to his future, Johnson enrolls in
He makes his fortune through insider stock trading and sweetheart deals arranged through federal grants, the information gleaned from senators and congressmen eager to take advantage of Baker’s many “services.”
he asks Claudia to marry him. She says no. So, he asks her again on every date thereafter until she gives in five months later.
another woman. In 1937, he begins an affair with a six-foot-tall blonde from Texas named Alice Glass. She actually knew Lady Bird at the University of Texas and is currently the mistress of influential Austin newspaper owner Charles Marsh, who is also a major political backer
He smokes sixty cigarettes a day but quits immediately after suffering a heart attack in 1955. Through Lady Bird’s tight-fisted financial running
breaks a story saying the Precinct 13 votes were indeed phony. So, Johnson won the Senate seat illegally. But the statute of limitations in Texas is just three years for voter fraud.5
coming at the age of fifty-two, should see his power expand. It does not. JFK and his brother Bobby have no use for LBJ. For almost three years, to the point of severe depression, Johnson is ignored by the Kennedys as he tries to insinuate
newly inaugurated president knew the shooting was going to take
President Johnson cannot win. Some Americans believe he should bring the troops home. Others state he should intensify the war, leveling the communist capital of Hanoi. This “hawks” versus “doves” argument further divides the nation.
At 3:39 p.m. on January 22, 1973, Johnson has another heart attack. This one
one of the most powerful politicians in American history. Despite domestic policy accomplishments in civil rights, education, and the war on poverty,
History has not been kind to Lyndon Johnson. The disastrous Vietnam War divided Americans and ushered in a distrust
Without the presence of Johnson, there would have been no President Richard Nixon.
Nixon’s political past has not been so celebratory. His 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy left him bitter and disillusioned. And his 1968 victory over Hubert Humphrey was too close to enjoy until the last ballots were counted.
China in February 1972, something no American president has ever done.
Completely overlooked is the specter of scandal. Five months ago, on June 17, 1972, burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters on the sixth floor of the Watergate Office Building in Washington. No one tonight is even thinking about that. But they will be.
The young Nixon’s grades are so good that he is offered admission to Harvard University. That presents a problem. His family needs help to run the business. So, Nixon enrolls at Whittier College, a Quaker institution. Now approaching age twenty, he stands six feet tall and is solidly built. He is also socially active. In
life of a small-town lawyer.3
Eisenhower does not include him in the executive process. Asked about Nixon’s contributions, Eisenhower later tells a reporter, “If you give
and fills in for Ike (without usurping the presidential role) when Ike has a stroke.
The president enjoys cottage cheese so much that an abundant supply is always kept in the White House kitchen.
Not a man of small talk, Nixon likes his meetings short, five to ten minutes at a time, though some stretch to a half hour. This allows him to fill the morning with dozens of guests.
As with Pat Nixon’s chain-smoking, which she will conceal from the public right up until her death, the president keeps this deception a secret.
The big question is—how much did Richard Nixon know?
what will become known as the Saturday Night Massacre. To make matters worse, Vice President Spiro Agnew is charged with taking bribes in a separate incident.
The public turns against the president. “I am not a crook,” a combative Nixon tells an Associated Press reporter. But former president Harry Truman
The resignation will take effect at noon on August 9, 1974.
Will Richard Nixon go to prison? Ford is immediately under siege.
History has not been kind to Richard Nixon. Even while in the White House, he was an object of media derision. Many Americans believe that Nixon was a cold, heartless man.
Richard Nixon’s reputation is almost entirely one of corruption. That
Richard Nixon admits he lied about covering up Watergate. That is the headline on his legacy. The sagas of Nixon and Spiro Agnew allow Gerald Ford to become the nation’s fifth unelected president.5
He is the first African American president, an extraordinary achievement in a country that still grapples with racial division.
The African tells Ann that he is divorced. She soon becomes pregnant, and the couple wed just weeks after meeting.3
So, what it makes you realize is how much of an impact, even if it’s only a month, that [a parent] has on you,” the future president will write in his memoirs.
After graduating, Barack Obama takes a series of jobs before being accepted to Harvard Law School, where he becomes the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review.4
When traveling, however, Obama often puts his healthy diet aside. He is fond of take-out cheeseburgers. He eats almost no sugar, avoiding soft drinks, but is known to enjoy a Seattle-based confectioner named Fran’s Chocolates.
reading for a half hour before calling it a night. But not before
ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden has been located and shot dead by United States Navy SEALs. The raid is risky, with United States Special Forces flying into Pakistan by helicopter in the dead of night.5
an extremely controversial statement, Barack Obama says, “When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids.… If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”7 Going into the 2012 reelection cycle,
From that moment on, Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, lose momentum. On November 6, Election Day, Obama captures the popular tally by nearly five million votes and the Electoral College 332–206.
Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. Before the night is through, one of them will be elected president of the United States.
Clinton is three million votes ahead in the popular count, but there is no way she can defeat Trump. The two speak for about a minute, after which Hillary Clinton concedes.
have no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.”
Obama’s eight-year tenure. He governed to the left, but cautiously. His signature achievement, Obamacare, remains controversial but has aided millions of low-income Americans.
America is bitterly divided over the two, often forming impressions based on distorted data put forth by an ideological media. The authors of this book are not interested in advancing false narratives or promoting fallacious conspiracy theories. We are a fact-based duo that strives for accuracy and insight. Our approach has been successful. We are the best-selling historical authors in the world.
