An Evening With Scott Busby and Harry McPherson Moderated by Harry Middleton, Monday, April 3, 2006, LBJ Auditorium, Mr. Busby will sign books from 5:15 to 5:45 p.m. Speech is at 6:00 p.m.
“The Speech that Changed History”
It was a presidential speech that stunned not only America, but the world. On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson uttered those now famous words. “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
Although he was not on the White House staff in 1968, Horace Busby had been one of the President’s chief speechwriters, and the President called on him to help with the March 31st address. Busby was instrumental in crafting the historic sentence that ended a presidency and altered the course of the Vietnam War. Harry McPherson wrote the first part of that speech which announced a halt in the bombing in North Vietnam, a move the President hoped would lead to peace talks. Busby and McPherson were insiders at the White House and among the few who knew the President was seriously considering announcing he would not run for re-election.
Horace Busby had worked with Johnson for twenty years and had become a trusted advisor. Following his death in 2000, Busby’s son, Scott, began the process of sorting through his father’s papers and memorabilia. Inside an unmarked blue stationery box, Scott Busby found a manuscript his father had written about his long and extraordinary relationship with Lyndon Johnson. Horace Busby’s manuscript has been compiled by Scott Busby into a book, The Thirty-First of March: An Intimate Portrait of Lyndon Johnson’s Final Days in Office. Page 2.
In a panel discussion, Scott Busby and Harry McPherson will talk about the conflict, drama, and behind-the-scenes anguish over the President’s war-time political announcement on March 31, 1968. McPherson was Special Counsel to President Johnson in 1968 and the author of A Political Education. Moderating the discussion will be Harry Middleton, who also worked as a speechwriter for President Johnson in 1968 and was Director of the LBJ Library and Museum for thirty years.
- Scott Busby was born in Austin, received a journalism degree from The University of Texas, and later worked at UT as editor of the Texas Times journal. He is founder and CEO of The Busby Group, a public relations firm in Venice, California.
- Horace Busby attended The University of Texas where he was editor of The Daily Texan.
- Harry McPherson is a 1956 graduate of The University of Texas Law School.