LBJ ASKS FOR HELP, STRENGTH & PRAYERS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 28, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a Thanksgiving address* to the Nation from the Oval Office. The President said...
"I come before you to ask your help...your strength...your prayers that God may guard this Republic and guide my every labor."
It had been just six days since his predecessor, President John F. Kennedy, was gunned down as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas. It was, without doubt, the saddest Thanksgiving in America's history.
LBJ continued...
"A great leader is dead, a great nation must move on."
*The speech was the work of Horace Busby who had been on LBJ's staff since 1948. Horace Busby (1924-2000) served LBJ as both a speechwriter & "idea man." He was also deputy to McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser. HB resigned his position in Sept 1965.
SOURCE
"Thanksgiving, 1963: the long weekend that defined LBJ's presidency," by Josh Zeitz, November 26, 2015, Politico, www.politico.com/
