Of books focus on one singular question. Who shot jfk . Of ahis part militaryindustrial complex because of initiatives that kennedy had taken . These issues are fascinating and they have inspired what is and remains and will remain a passionate debate among people on all different sides of this issue. Thats not what this book is about. I am not writing a book about who shot j. F. K. I have no new theories to offer about where the bullets came from or who shot j. F. K. This is actually a very different book. What im interested in is not who shot j. F. K. , im interested in the transfer of political power that takes place in the hours after the assassination, and i want to move the focus away from the tragedy thats unfolding in the president ial limousine and move it back about 60 feet to the car carrying Lyndon Johnson, follow Lyndon Johnson over the course of the day, as he goes to Parkland Hospital and then to air force one and back to washington, d. C. , to give people a sense of the texture of the decisions that he had to face and the choices he confronted. When you think about it, the kennedy assassination represented the most dramatic and sudden transfer of political power in u. S. History. Kennedy was the first chief executive to die instantly from his wounds. Even abraham lincoln, who was shot at pointblank range at the ford theater survived and lived until the following morning when he died. Kennedy died instantly, which confronted johnson with what i believe is an unprecedented crisis. What im interested in is the issues of Crisis Management and president ial leadership in the hours that followed the president ial assassination and i focus on the first 24 hours. You know, which is very different from other books that ive written and the books that other professional historians write, because normally what were trying to do is to connect the dots, to tell the story of change over a period of time, but what i try to do here instead is to focus on a single 24 hour period to give you a sense of the texture of the moment. You know, my students over the years have always complained that number one, i talk too fast, and number two, that history is boring. They say history is boring because we know the conclusion. We know the end of the story, so why do we need to learn about dates and names and times . And what i find fascinating about history is being able to go back in a moment in time and understand that the past has many different possible paths, that there are lots of possibilities, choices that were not taken and to put people back in that moment at that time, to understand the range of choices, in this case, that Lyndon Johnson faced and to realize how contingency and unintended consequences play in the historical process and produce a result which no one at the time could have anticipate. By focusing on 24 hours, by focusing on some of the details that oftentimes get air brushed out of history, i think were able to transport people back to that moment, so you not only can now, with the benefit of hindsight get a sense to re evaluate some of the decisions that Lyndon Johnson made, but you can also put yourself back in that moment, so youre at parkman hospital and someone comes to you and you have the same information in front of you that Lyndon Johnson had in front of him, you find out the president has been shot, that this is possibly the first shot in what could potentially be a confrontation with the soviet union. What do you do in that moment . What choices do you make . I know what i would do. I would hyperventilate and pass out. Thats why im a professor and not a president , but it allows the individual, the people reading this book to allow people to go back in that moment in time and experience it and experience the same type of situations and the same choices that Lyndon Johnson confronted and not only is the framework different, but in terms of the issues, there are new sources that are available, and i am very gradeful to the family of william manchester, who gave me access to all of the Research Materials that mr. Manchester used to write his controversial book. The death of a president was published in 1967 and these materials were opened up for the first time last year and these materials, almost all of these people, with a few exceptions, are now dead, but you go back and you look at the interviews, manchester interviewed all the Major Players in 1964 and 1965 when this material was still fresh and these people come alive and what comes alive are some of the Human Dimensions to the story, the Human Dimensions that have been left out of the Warren Commission, which for example is a legal brief, which is sort of clinical and very concise, but also it focused on solving a crime and its not focused on Lyndon Johnson or his actions after the assassination, and i also found that people just volunteered and gave manchester material, material that was not available to the Warren Commission, so there are for example, documents in the manchester papers, which he chose not to use, and parts of interviews which he chose not to use, which i think provide a fresh light, new perspective on the events that took place that day. I also and i sought out the manchester papers and i found them, theyre at Wesleyan University in a special collections archive at Wesleyan University. I also came across a very valuable and useful oral history that was conducted by the john f. Kennedy president ial library if 1978 with Brigadier General godfrey mchugh, he was kennedys air force aid, and this just falls into the category of pure dumb luck. I happened to be working at the Kennedy Library on the day 31 years after he conducted the interview that the interview was declassified, so within hours of it being open to the public, i was able to get access to it and use it for the first time and i will talk later on about some of the insights that this oral history provides us, but finally, because im asking different questions of the material, theres a lot of information thats been open to the public for a long time, that other people looking into this issue have not focused on. Theres at both, the Johnson Library and at the National Archives in washington, d. C. , for example, there is a report conducted by the secret service, where all the secret Service Agents involved in the president ial detail and the vicepresident ial detail gave very detailed reports of what they were doing on that day, what they saw and when they saw them. Most people, the few people who have used this report have been looking at it primarily to glean information about the assassinations, but if you look at it instead to try to get a sense of what Lyndon Johnson is doing, you get this great understanding of Lyndon Johnson and every step hes taking and whos in the room and who hes talking to and its really essential in trying to tell the story, so what do you end up . Whats new . So theres new questions youre asking, using a different format so what is it that im able to say about november 22, 1963, that no one has said before . Well, the first part of this story, i think, thats important is the events that take place in Parkland Hospital. The roughly 40 minutes that Lyndon Johnson is at Parkland Hospital from 12 40 until 1 30 p. M. When he leaves for air force one and the question that i asked of the material, which has not been asked before is why does he it take so long for Lyndon Johnson to find out that kennedy is dead . According to the Warren Commission, kennedy is shot at 12 30 p. M. , they arrive at Parkland Hospital at 12 40 p. M. , kennedy is pronounced dead at 1 00 p. M. Lyndon finds out that kennedy is dead at 1 20 p. M. I think that timeline is actually wrong. Heres what happens, Lyndon Johnson to set the stage for Parkland Hospital, Lyndon Johnson is two cars behind kennedy in the motorcade when they turn onto daley plaza. When the shot rings out, Lyndon Johnson said he didnt think anything about it, he thought it was back fire from a motorcycle. He wasnt the least bit alarmed. Rufus youngblood, the secret Service Agent in the front seat of the car hears the same sound, hes also not alarmed but what he sees that alarms him, hes looking out at the grassy knoll where the vicepresident ial car is making the turn and he sees people falling to the ground and he looks ahead and sees in front of him and sees what he describes as unusual movements in the president ial car, so youngblood leaps out of the front seat of the car, he jumps over the back seat and he grabs Lyndon Johnson and he throws him to the floor of the car and as johnson is being thrown to the floor of the car, you hear the second shot and the third shot and depending on what theories you believe, the fourth, fifth and sixth shot. But Lyndon Johnson is on the floor of the limousine. He hears these shots, but he doesnt see anything. He hasnt seen anything in the president ial motorcade. As soon as hes on the floor and rufus youngblood, all 180 pounds of rufus young blood are on top of him, the car picks up speed and they begin this frantic race to Parkland Hospital. Johnson doesnt know whats going on, he feels the car accelerate. This car is going 70 miles an hour, its an open limousine, the air is blowing through it. I the radio is at full blast. Johnson wanted to hear how the local radio stations were covering the motorcade, so he had the radio on the entire time, so theyre racing to Parkland Hospital and he keeps looking over to make sure lady bird is ok, but he hears chatter over the secret Service Channel but he doesnt know what is taking place and what is happening. Rufus youngblood, at one point, theres so much noise, in order to talk to johnson, he leans down and yells in his ear, were going to a hospital, its possible that theres been an incident in the president ial motorcade, when we get to the hospital, were going to take you to a secure location, do you understand and johnson says yes, partner. So they pull up to Parkland Hospital and i realize that johnsons car is just a few seconds behind president kennedys limousine. The limousine is parked a few yards away and the president is laying in the arms, in the lap of the first lady, but johnson doesnt see any of this. As soon as they screech to a halt, agents surround him, they rush him into Parkland Hospital, they close the blind, remove people, put a guard at the gate and put him in booth 13, so there you have Lyndon Johnson, lady bird, rufus young blood in a room with a sterile metal operating table, examination table and two plastic chairs, thats all at this point, Lyndon Johnson knows nothing. So the question then is, is why does it take so long for him to get information about whats happened to the president . Just about everybody else in the president ial motorcade has either saw the shots, or they saw kennedys body when they arrived at Parkland Hospital and they had an understanding of how serious this was. So johnson wants information, he doesnt know whether connelly has been shot, the first lady or that no one is hurt. He gets his first report from Emory Roberts, who was the shift supervisor of the secret service. Emory roberts, as soon as the cars pulled into Parkland Hospital, he opens up the back door and he wants to get a sense wall door and he wants to get a sense of how serious the president s wounds are and he lifts up the first ladys arm and looks at the president s head and he tells william manchester, in the interviewed he did with manchester, that at that moment he knew that kennedy was dead and Lyndon Johnson was president of the United States and he says my secret Service Manual tells me to protect the president of the United States, and that was johnson. So he goes into hes the first person to give a report to Lyndon Johnson. Now, roberts has already made up his mind that kennedy is dead and johnson is president , but when he sees johnson thats not what he says. What he says to johnson, he says, i have seen the president s wounds and i dont think he can survive. And johnson says, i need more information, i want to hear from Kenny Odonnell, who was his title was appointment secretary, he was in fact, sort of chief of staff for the Kennedy White house, and he wants to hear from roy kellerman, who was president kennedys secret Service Agent, so Emory Roberts leaves the room. He runs into lem johns, who is another secret Service Agent, who had arrived at the hospital late and says to roberts, have you seen whats the president s condition . And he says very matter of factually, the president is dead and later, roberts told william manchester, he said, johnson didnt know what i knew which is that kennedy is dead. The next person who comes in is roy kellerman. Roy kellerman was in the president ial limousine, he was one of the people who helped lift kennedys lifeless body from the car on to a stretcher and to bring him into Parkland Hospital. He says the president s condition is not good. Anyone who has seen the president s wounds, thats an understatement. The president s condition is more than not good. The president s condition is fatal. And then a few minutes later, Kenny Odonnell comes back and says the president was in a bad way. What im struck by is that all these people, Kenny Odonnell was riding in a car 15 feet behind kennedy when he sees the fatal third shot and he turns to abe powers and says hes dead. So what im struck by, the question im asking myself is why doesnt anyone state the obvious . Why doesnt anyone come to Lyndon Johnson and say mr. Is vicepresident , the president has suffered a major head wound, even if doctors are able through some miracle, to keep his heart beating, he clearly can no longer function as president. You need as of this moment to assume the powers of the presidency, but they never say that. And the question is why . Why are they reluctant to say that . In the book, i explore sort of all the different dimensions of this and i think theres lots of different reasons, obviously grief and confusion and chaos all play a role in it, but i think theres also the issue that most of the kennedy people simply cannot accept the idea that Lyndon Johnson is now president of the United States. This is a man who they detest. And its hard enough for them to accept that their leader, this man who they loved, john f. Kennedy, was now dead. But it was just too much for them to accept and to have to verbalize that Lyndon Johnson, a man who they ridiculed, who they never wanted to be vicepresident in the first place, was now going to occupy the chair that john f. Kennedy once occupied, so theyre not able to tell him that. They give him the right advice. They all tell him, get on the plane and fly back to washington, so they tell him what they should have told him, but they cant bring themselves to tell him that kennedy is dead, and that he needs now to assume the powers of the presidency. This is i think one of the sort of the issues that you have to deal with in talking about Parkland Hospital, but theres another dimension to it. While people like Kenny Odonnell cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that kennedy is dead and to tell Lyndon Johnson hes now president , they give him the right advice, but Lyndon Johnsons own insecurities are being played out at Parkland Hospital. Johnson clearly has enough information, he knows from Emory Roberts that kennedy is in very serious condition and may likely die. So why doesnt johnson seize power . Why doesnt johnson assume the powers of the presidency, having this general understanding of what kennedys condition is and the problem is that Lyndon Johnson is so paranoid about robert f. Kennedy and hes so afraid that if he appears to be overreaching, if he appears to be literally stepping over the body of a dead president in order to assume the powers of the presidency, that hel