JFK and LBJ: Friends or Foes?

The political partnership between John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson was a mystery from the day it began -- on July 14, 1960, when #JFK asked #LBJ to be his running mate at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Both Sen. #Kennedy and Sen. Johnson's closest advisors, friends, and even family members were vehemently opposed to Johnson joining JFK on the ticket (most famously Jack's campaign manager and brother Bobby Kennedy, who tried several times to talk Jack and Lyndon out of it).

But Jack's mind was pretty well made up. It had to be Johnson. As he told TIME Magazine's Hugh Sidey a few days before the convention:

“There is no question in my mind,” said Kennedy. “Lyndon would be the best man I could get to run with me. He’s a Texan, a Southerner, he knows Congress, Washington, and he has the ability to be President. But I’m convinced he wouldn’t take it. He’d be more powerful staying as majority leader. What do you think?”

Sidey had already gone over the question every which way with L.B.J. the night before, until Johnson got irritated and stormed that he would not do the Kennedy family’s bidding.

He declared that the vice presidency was a worthless job compared with being Senate leader, related the sad tenure of “Cactus Jack” Garner, who had called the office nothing more than a “pitcher of warm spit,” and said Speaker Sam Rayburn had told him to stay far away from it. (Cactus Jack had actually used much more colorful language, saying that the vice presidency "wasn't worth a bucket of warm piss.")

"If he could not be President," Sidey later recalled, "he would stay in the Senate, Johnson had told me with such rage and finality — his nose an inch from mine — that I chalked him off."

Kennedy listened, grinned, nodded. Both were awed and amused by the tumultuous Johnson.

“Have you decided on a vice-presidential nominee?” Sidey asked.

“Yes,” answered Kennedy.

“Can you tell me?” Sidey inquired.

"I will if you promise not to publish it,” J.F.K. replied.

“Senator, don’t do that to me,” Sidey implored. “We’ve got two days before the magazine is printed, and I’m sure the name will leak. I don’t want to be bound. So don’t tell me.”

Kennedy gave a wry smile, said, “O.K., I won’t.”

In the future president's mind, the only path to victory against Nixon in November was LBJ. (And he was right. Without LBJ bringing in Southern votes, JFK would have likely lost that razor-thin 1960 race.)

During his presidency and long after his assassination, rumors swirled about the Johnsons and the Kennedys not getting along. #RFK and Lyndon by all accounts hated each other. However, the relationship between JFK and LBJ was far more friendly and based on mutual respect.

What's the real truth about LBJ and JFK? Was Johnson ever trusted by President Kennedy? Did the Vice President have anything to do with the President's 1963 assassination, as some conspiracists allege, thus effecting an Executive Branch coup d'etat?

Historian Lori Spencer breaks it down in this episode of The Kennedy Chronicles!