The day after he returned from Asia, Lyndon Johnson summoned news photographers to the Cabinet Room of the White House for a picture-taking session. What was the occasion? "I'll give you the caption later," the President told the puzzled cameramen. Minutes afterward—when the stock exchanges had closed for the day on Wall Street—Johnson sent for reporters. They assumed that he was going to brief them on his last-minute campaign swing. Instead, he began reading a prepared statement.
"I wanted you to know that my doctors have recommended that I undergo surgery to repair a defect at the site of the...
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