deancorll_ • 57 points •
You can read Robert A. Caro's "The Passage of Power" for a moment-by-moment breakdown of this. It took about two hours after Kennedy was shot for Johnson to be sworn in, and the plane was not particularly chaotic (although it was very hot).
The rough timeline: Kennedy is shot at 12:30pm Dallas time, the motorcade diverts to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the excellently-named Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood sets up LBJ in a hospital room 'cubicle' until more information can be gathered.
At 1:20pm Johnson is told by Kennedy Aide Kenneth O'Donnell that Kennedy has passed. At THIS point, Johnson has become President. He doesn't actually need swearing in. It is a seamless transition of power, although Johnson, as a keen and astute political player, is aware of the visual and theatrical impact necessary to facilitate the transfer of power.
Johnson quickly left the hospital with Rufus Youngblood and other agents under armed guard, Lady Bird Johnson leaving in another car, as the assassination event had not been fully locked down and determined yet. Johnson's one friend in the Kennedy family had always been Jackie, and he quickly arranged for a photo op/swearing in ceremony on the stifling plane, which, lying on the tarmac, did not have the chance to utilize the air conditioning. Johnson, additionally, in an act of almost unconscionable political cruelty, called and asked Bobby Kennedy (whom he loathed), the exact phrasing of the oath of office he would need to take to assume his newly-deceased brother's office.
Johnson, additionally, refused to leave JFK's body and casket were aboard Air Force One. He was quickly in command an found a political ally in Texas, judge Sarah Hughes, to swear him in (a task almost entirely performed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). Things were somewhat tense, but not chaotic enough for Lyndon Johnson to settle a personal score between himself and Bobby Kennedy, await Jackie Kennedy to stand by his side (and her request that JFKs body get aboard) during the photograph of the swearing in. From actually become president at 1:20 to gathering the necessary people, the former president's body, getting a federal judge, and coordinating a swearing along with a famous photograph, took just under 90 minutes. Caro's book makes it very clear that once he is made aware that Kennedy is dead and that he is president, Johnson is very much in charge, in command, and has very little doubt of the way forward, resulting in very little chaos between the hospital and takeoff, and between takeoff and the rest of the day.
MrDowntown
• 17 points •
I don't doubt that LBJ was always politically calculating, but I'm not sure how much animus to ascribe to the actions surrounding taking the oath. RFK was Attorney General, so wouldn't his office be the logical one to call for the wording of the oath? Surely LBJ didn't demand that RFK himself read the wording over the phone. And presidential oaths have often been administered by the nearest official. Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in by a district judge; Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his notary public father.
Is it Caro throwing shade on LBJ for calling RFK and having a local federal judge swear him in, or is that your gloss?
angrynerdist84 • 3 points •
Johnson should know the exact wording of the oath, considering it is in the constitution and he was in Congress since 1937. If Johnson didn't know where to locate the exact wording then that would call into question his political astuteness. Him asking RFK around 60 minutes after his brother died is at least disrespectful to RFK. There was little need to include RFK, from a legal standpoint, on this.
Johnson insisting on the public transfer of power is not entirely out of left field. This is only a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis after all, and I think that demonstrating to the American public, her allies and certainly the Soviets at this time that someone is in fact legally in charge is prudent and assertive.
MrDowntown
• 4 points •
There was little need to include RFK, from a legal standpoint, on this.
Not for the wording of the oath, maybe. But Johnson is, as you say, working hard to demonstrate constitutional succession and continuity of government in an uncertain and frightening moment. Both the president and sitting governor had been shot; what might be the larger picture? No one knew. Conferring with the Attorney General on exactly what steps should be taken to effect a proper transfer of power seems to me more prudent than perverse.
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