History Lesson 
LBJ’s Living Legacy
Twenty-seven years after his death, Lyndon Johnson lives on in his friends, advisers, and four generations of family.
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"ONE OF MY last conversations with Johnson was right before he died. I had a pair of shoes that were patent leather. The president told me, 'Well, you rich lawyers have all those nice things. If I were rich, I'd like to have a pair of shoes like that.' The next day, I sent him a pair with a note that said, 'I know you can't afford them'—he could have bought and sold me about a million times over—'but I want you to have these.' He would wear them around the hospital and referred to them as 'My Larry Temple shoes.'"
A. W. Moursund Age: 81
Longtime business partner
Now: lawyer, rancher, and businessman; Round Mountain
"THE PRESIDENT NEEDED a friend. I liked him, and he liked me. It's just not true that we had a falling out before he died. But reporters were always telling lies about our business dealings. Smaller people think that tearing down someone builds them up. Back in the fifties, I was particularly mad at one story, and he just laughed and said, 'A.W., don't you know that if a chicken wants to get his head above the weeds, he's going to get rocks thrown at him?' I didn't get much sympathy from him."
Walt W. Rostow Age: 83
Chairman of the Policy Planning Council for the State Department, 1961-1966; national security adviser, 1966-1969
Now: professor emeritus, University of Texas; Austin
"PEOPLE FORGET THAT Johnson was an important figure in foreign policy in the fifties. The last time he saw Eisenhower, they exchanged courtesies, and Eisenhower's temples began to throb. He said, 'If it weren't for you and Sam Rayburn, I never could have conducted a civilized foreign policy.' Whenever trouble would arise, Johnson knew all about the background to those problems."
E. Ernest Goldstein Age: 81
Special assistant to the president, 1967-1969
Now: legal adviser to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center; Austin
"I WAS IN Paris practicing law, and I got a message that the president wanted to see me. I flew to the White House, and he asked, 'Ernie, how soon can you go to work?' And I said, 'Well, Mr. President'—I was acting like a horse's ass—'I'm doing some work for a Marlon Brando film, and I don't know how long it will take.' He put his arm around me and said, 'I've got news for you. I've got bigger problems than Marlon Brando. You get over here in a week.'"
Joseph Califano Age: 69
White House aide in charge of domestic affairs, 1965-1969
Now: president and chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University; New York
"JOHNSON OFFERED ME my job from the shallow end of his pool. He shouted across the water, 'Are you ready to come help your president?' Another time, we were swimming, and we stopped near the deep end. He was poking me in the shoulder for emphasis as he talked. 'I want to straighten out the transportation mess in this country,' he said. 'Next, I want to rebuild American cities. Third, I want a fair-housing bill.' He asked me if I would help him do these things. Breathless from treading water, I told him I would. I didn't find out until later that Johnson had brought me to a spot where he could stand but I had to tread water."
Ramsey Clark Age: 72
Assistant attorney general, 1961-1965; deputy attorney general, 1965-1967; acting attorney general, 1966-1967; and attorney general, 1967-1969
Now: lawyer; New York
"IT HAD NEVER been a federal crime to assassinate the president—we had depended upon the states to prosecute those murders—so Congress decided to protect a number of federal officials, including the president. I testified for the legislation but opposed a provision for the death penalty on behalf of the Department of Justice. Johnson called me up after that in good humor and said, 'Well, I see you were against the death penalty for the assassination of the president. What are you trying to do, get me killed?'"
Bobby Baker Age: 71
Secretary to the majority, U.S. Senate, 1955-1963
Now: real estate developer; St. Augustine, Florida
"AFTER JOHN KENNEDY picked his brother Bobby to be attorney general, Johnson called me and said, 'This will be the most humiliating thing that could ever happen to me if the Senate doesn't confirm him.' At his request, I contacted Senator Richard Russell, who was a great friend of mine, and I poured more whiskey in him than I should have. I said, 'I know you have the votes to defeat Bobby'—because all the Republicans were going to vote against him and the other Southern Democrats would have voted with Russell. He agreed to go with Johnson, and that's how Lyndon got Bobby confirmed."
Liz Carpenter Age: 79
Executive assistant to Lyndon Johnson, 1961-1963; press secretary for Lady Bird Johnson, 1963-1969
Now: author and lecturer; Austin
"WHEN JOHNSON LEFT Parkland hospital on the day of the assassination, he saw me in a police car and motioned for me to follow him. We sped across Dallas to Air Force One, and once onboard, I became aware that there were no writers with us. I pulled out a card and scribbled some words—'...We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed...'— for Johnson to use to make a statement. I've written thousands of words in my lifetime, but those fifty-eight were by far the most important."
Robert Hardesty Age: 69
Speechwriter and assistant to the president, 1965-1972
Now: president emeritus, Southwest Texas State University; Austin
"I WORKED WITH Johnson on his memoirs after he left the White House. I had had a coronary and spent three months at home. We were eager to get back to work, so when I was getting ready to go out to the ranch, I realized that I hadn't had a haircut. My kids told me, 'Ah, Dad, that's the style now.' But the first thing LBJ asked me was, 'Robert, your hair's getting a little bit long, isn't it?' I told him it was to distinguish myself from those short-haired bastards in the White House, Haldeman and such. From then on his hair began to creep down to his shoulders."
George Christian Age: 73
Press secretary, 1966-1969
Now: public affairs consultant; Austin
"WE GOT INTO an argument about some matter, and I quit going over to his bedroom in the morning. LBJ asked why I wasn't coming anymore, and when he found out I was mad at him, he arranged for me to go to Camp David with my family. Really, he exiled me to Camp David. So I spent some time there. I enjoy skeet shooting and had done that, but in the August heat with little to do, I called him and told him I was ready to come back. We made up, but do you know that when I returned, I got an itemized bill from the Navy for everything I had done, right down to every shell I had fired?"
Bill Moyers Age: 66
Special assistant to the president, 1963-1967; press secretary, 1965-1967
Now: broadcast journalist; New York
"THE PRESIDENT CALLED me just after the Daisy ad [which suggested that Goldwater couldn't be trusted with nuclear arms] ran and said he'd been swamped with calls. He was having dinner with some people and was putting on this act, saying, 'What in the hell do you mean running that ad? The Goldwater people are calling it a low blow.' He told me to come over, and there were about eight or nine people with him when I arrived. I assured him that the ad was running only once and turned to leave. He followed me and whispered, with his back to the group, 'Bill, you sure we ought to run it just once?'"
Sargent Shriver Age: 84
Director of the Peace Corps, 1961-1966; special assistant to the president for the War on Poverty, 1964-1968
Now: chairman and president of the Special Olympics; Washington, D.C.
"ONE SATURDAY MORNING he called me and said that he wanted to announce that I was the head of the new War on Poverty. I told him that I hadn't talked to my wife or the people in my office. He said, 'The truth is, we've just got to get on with the war against poverty. Talk to Eunice now, and I'll call you back.' So he called back about twenty minutes later and said in a low voice, 'Now, listen, I'm going to announce you, and I can't speak about it loud because I've got the whole Cabinet here, but you just have to understand that this is your president speaking.' I turned to my wife and said, 'It looks as if I'm going to be the head of the War on Poverty.'"
Harry Mcpherson Age: 70
Special assistant and counsel to the president, 1965-1969
Now: lawyer; Washington, D.C.
"I WROTE BOTH versions of the speech that Johnson was to give on March 31, 1968. I had done about a dozen drafts that proposed that the American people hang in there on Vietnam, but Clark Clifford made a passionate argument in which he said that the country wanted to change course. I wrote another speech that conveyed the desire for peace and sent them to the president with a note that said I hoped he selected the second one. He called me and started talking about changes he wanted in the second draft. That was all I needed to know; he was changing our Vietnam policy. I later told him that I had shortened the ending, and he told me that he might have a little ending of his own. The ending was that he wouldn't run in 1968."
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