LBJ aides say JFK documentary a smear
Film alleges Johnson had role in JFK assassination
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Kennedy meets with aides during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A television documentary claiming Lyndon B. Johnson helped plot the Kennedy assassination was condemned as an absurd smear by Johnson's family and former staff members.
A History Channel film that aired Monday alleges that then-Vice President Johnson and members of his staff were responsible for President Kennedy's 1963 killing, said LBJ Foundation Chairman Tom Johnson, no relation to the former president.
"I do not know of a greater injustice to the reputation of a former president -- especially to be on The History Channel," Tom Johnson, who worked in the Johnson White House, said in an interview Tuesday.
He and Jack Valenti, another former Johnson staff member and current president of the Motion Picture Association of America, issued a joint statement on behalf of the Johnson family and others.
"Sadly, President Johnson and the staff members who are wrongly smeared by the conspiracy theorists are no longer alive to defend themselves," the statement said. "In televising this production, The History Channel has distorted history beyond recognition."
It was the second recent TV project about a former president to draw criticism. CBS yanked its November miniseries "The Reagans" after supporters of former President Reagan said it distorted his legacy while he suffers Alzheimer's disease.
The latest program aired as part of an umbrella series titled "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," a package of documentaries about various conspiracy theories regarding Kennedy's death, said channel spokeswoman Lynn Gardner.
The films in "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" series are from producer Nigel Turner and have aired before on cable TV, channel spokeswoman Gardner said. Monday's film, titled "The Guilty Men," was based in part on the book "Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K." by Barr McClellan, she said.
"The History Channel does not say that any of these theories are correct nor does not in any way say that the theory in this program is correct," the channel said in a statement. "We are, however, presenting a point of view that has been meticulously researched.
"By presenting different viewpoints we enable our viewers to decide to agree or disagree with them and to arrive at their own conclusions," the channel said.
'Garbage, ugliness'
Lyndon Johnson became president upon Kennedy's death.
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Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin, but claims of more extensive plots continue to fascinate the public.
"I'm puzzled, bewildered, that a distinguished enterprise like the History Channel would put on the air such garbage, such ugliness," Valenti said in an interview. "It makes one sick."
Another former LBJ aide, journalist Bill Moyers, hadn't seen the program but called its premise "absurd." Liz Carpenter, who was press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, called the program "outrageous."
Attorneys were being consulted but it was unknown if any legal action could be taken, said Tom Johnson, also a former president and CEO of CNN.
The documentary was "exceptionally upsetting" to Johnson's widow, who recently suffered a stroke, and daughters Luci and Lynda, Tom Johnson said. President Johnson died in 1973.
The family did not try to block the program's broadcast as in the case of organized Republican efforts against CBS' "The Reagans," Tom Johnson said. The Reagan drama was shifted to cable channel Showtime and is showing November 30.
"We left the decision on editorial content and accuracy up to the History Channel," Tom Johnson said.
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Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
