rmm413c's video: LYNDON JOHNSON TAPES: Pressuring Gerald Ford on Foreign Aid

Gerald Ford & LBJ December 20, 1963 (WH k6312_11_12) White House Telephone Democratic President Lyndon Johnson calls future president Gerald R. Ford to ask him to support a larger monetary amount for a Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill that the Congress was then considering. Ford, a Republican congressman at the time, hedges on giving Johnson his assurances on the bill and in return brings up how important the Republicans consider a Wheat Amendment (to discriminate against the USSR in wheat sales) to the appropriations bill. Johnson feels that such an amendment would only antagonize the Soviet Union, and he refuses to consider it. This conversation illustrates LBJs involved style in dealing with the Congress. (Photo: Gerald R. Ford.)