When he was assassinated, I told Lyndon,
"People are saying you are responsible." He told me that it was
the oil people and intelligence that were involved.
ELIOT: Where did LBJ--a strong Southerner stand in regards
to civil rights?
MADELEINE: He was forced to having to take a stand when he was in Texas.
Various incidents including a personal one caused him to become
aware of the depth of the unequal treatment of blacks in the U.S.
Although he didn't say anything personally about Martin Luther King,
he said that J. Edgar Hoover said that King was out of control
and must be assassinated.
ELIOT: Did I hear that last statement correctly?
MADELEINE: Yes.
ELIOT: Did Lyndon Johnson feel inadequate because of J. Edgar Hoover's
power?
MADELEINE: Hoover would blackmail people. He never should have
been in the position he was in.
ELIOT: I don't recall seeing him smile very often.
MADELEINE: He was a very egotistical person. He refrained from smiling
a lot because he wanted the American people to know that he
was very serious about what he did. He thought he would go down in
history as the number one President of the United States.
He felt he served the country very well.
ELIOT: Why did he pick Hubert Humphrey as his running mate in 1964?
MADELEINE: Lyndon liked Hubert Humphrey. He had the choice of many
people for his Vice-President. He was so strong-willed and
he knew he could control Humphrey.
ELIOT: How did they keep scandals off of TV and radio.
MADELEINE: There ws such tight control, people wouldn't say anything
against him. I wasn't his only mistress. There were others . He
had another love child born to a white house secretary.
ELIOT: What other intimate things can you tell us about him?
MADELEINE: He had a violent temper if anything upset him. He could be
like a lion one minute and a lamb the next. He tried to control it.
When Robert kennedy asked him why he had his brother killed,
there was a shocking expression on his face.
he was upset when Hooevr died and Nixon didn't allow an autopsy.
He was horrified when John Connelly and other Democrats came out
to support Richard Nixon in 1968. He couldn't believe that they
would turn from the party like that.