36.A) LBJ & Vietnam, an interview with Mark Lawrence

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[Abridged] Presidential Histories

Few presidents have a darker mark on their resume that LBJ’s handling of the Vietnam war. Though overwhelmingly popular at first, the war divided the nation and broke Johnson’s political power just 4 years later.

How did the United States get into Vietnam? Why didn’t LBJ see what the American people saw as public opinion turned against it? And what can we learn from Johnson’s handling of the war in Vietnam?

Mark Lawrence, director of the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum in Austin and author of The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era, discusses the legacy of LBJ’s leadership of the Vietnam War.

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38.B) The History of the Pardon, an interview with Kimberly Wehle

On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned recently-resigned president Richard Nixon of any crimes he may have committed in the presidency, and the pardon has never been the same since. Law Professor Kimberly Wehle, author of the new book Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works - and Why, discusses the origin and history of the presidential pardon and the danger its potential abuse poses to the future of democracy.

If you'd like to read more from Kim, check out her Substack at https://kimwehle.substack.com/

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2.A) John Adams and the modern presidency, an interview with Lindsay Chervinsky

Pandemics, political violence, partisans recognizable by the color of their hat - it may sound novel, but it's been with us practically since the beginning of the republic. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, discusses the wildly volatile John Adams administration (1797-1801) and the lessons it offers as we face our own modern political moment.

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40.) Ronald Reagan 1981-1989

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem," - Ronald Reagan's inaugural address, January 20, 1981.

For the first 50 years after the onset of the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Roosevelt, the United States had been led by politicians who believed government held the power to make life better for the American people. Then came Ronald Reagan, one of the most talented political orators in American history. Follow along as Reagan rises from the great depression to realize his dreams in Hollywood, then takes his talents into politics, where he upends a half-century of big-government consensus and pivots the United States toward a small-government future.

Bibliography
1. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
2. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
3. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
4. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
5.  Richard Nixon, the life – John A. Farrell


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