The only US President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, Lyndon Johnson ordered that the tapes be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But now they have been unsealed to provide a close look at a President taking power, from John F. Kennedy's murder to Johnson's campaign for a landslide victory. Here transcribed, edited, set in context and annotated by a professional historian, the tapes offer insight into how Johnston used power by flattering, provoking and twisting the arms of dominant personalities such as Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They also illuminate Johnson's changing relationships with his wife and the rest of his family, with Jacqueline Kennedy, with ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and with members of the Cabinet and White House staff.