Oral history transcript, Jack Albright, interview 1 (I), 12/11/1980, by Michael L. Gillette

Title:

Oral history transcript, Jack Albright, interview 1 (I), 12/11/1980, by Michael L. Gillette

Number of Pages:

108

Description:

How General Albright came to work for LBJ; Colonel George J. McNally; telephone system and security; functions of the White House Communications Agency; the teleprompter; LBJ’s lighting and background requirements for public appearances; problems with the podiums, microphones, and transporting the teleprompter system; recording problems in Vietnam; the fact that LBJ was a more effective speaker in a small non-televised setting; problems with a PA system in Pocatello, Idaho; arguing with LBJ; LBJ’s reputation for firing people; arrangements to have LBJ’s 3/31/68 speech announcing he would not run ready for the teleprompter; Marvin Watson’s opinion of why LBJ chose not to run again; LBJ’s behavior following the 3/31/68 speech; LBJ’s preparation for a possible 1968 nomination in Chicago and quietly clearing out WHCA staff members when it became apparent that Hubert Humphrey would be nominated; Johnson’s weak support of Hubert Humphrey; a system of lights to keep track of LBJ’s whereabouts in the White House and how they kept track of LBJ outside the White House; non-secure radio systems; the two White House phone systems and who controlled them; LBJ’s phone; who was allowed to call LBJ anytime; Jim Cross and collecting money for a relocation site that was kept secret from Congress; television reception problems at the Ranch; LBJ’s capability to make and receive direct calls; the early dictabelt system to record phone conversations; later recording systems—who had them, how they worked, transcripts of conversations; William Gulley’s Breaking Cover; recording in the Cabinet Room; Robert Kennedy interfering with recording; LBJ’s love of gadgetry; getting small tape recorders from Japan for LBJ; removing recording devices from the White House before Nixon came to office; assuring H.R. Haldeman that there were no recording devices in the White House; LBJ’s in-house television system and video recording system; LBJ’s ticker tape and awareness of current events; maintaining communications during a secret flight to Mexico for LBJ to see a ranch, Las Pampas, he was thinking of buying; LBJ’s growing passion for secrecy; WHCA staff working as farmhands at the Ranch; LBJ’s resentment of Secret Service; LBJ’s radio system in Texas; the New York City blackout; gadgets in LBJ’s car; working with local and foreign telephone companies; LBJ’s 1966 trip around the world: Flying to Thailand and the Vatican, refueling at Lajes Field, the Azores; problems landing in Italy before seeing the Pope.

Contributor:

Albright, Jack

Collection:

LBJ Library Oral Histories

Collection Description:

Go to List of Holdings

Series:

Transcripts of LBJ Library Oral Histories

See Also:

See all online interviews with Jack Albright

Relation:

Go to Interviewee bio page

Rights:

Possibly copyright restricted: see deed at end of transcript for details