LBJ Saw 'Treason' in Candidate Nixon's Actions

...and other revelations from a new book of interviews

(NEWSER) - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was not a fan of Martin Luther King Jr, once describing him as "tricky" and a "phony," after hearing FBI tapes of him with a woman other than his wife in a hotel room. That's just one of the revelations contained in a new book, Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy, which details, and even includes audio recordings of, a series of interviews Jackie gave shortly after JFK's assassination. The AP got an early copy of the book and its accompanying eight audio CDs, and reveals these tidbits: More»

War logs don't match revelations of Vietnam skullduggery

(NEWSER) - The release of 92,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan war has prompted many comparisons to the Pentagon Papers. But that's a bit superficial, writes Richard Tofel for ProPublica . "In terms of important disclosures, it's not even close." The biggest WikiLeaks revelations involve Taliban fighters' use of heat-seeking missiles and the Pakistani intelligence service's complicated relationship with Taliban leadership—neither of which were actually secret. More»

Joe Biden will go down in history with these other respected figures

(NEWSER) - Quite a big deal has been made over Joe Biden dropping the F-bomb . “But America has a long and honorable tradition of top elected officials using salty language,” writes John Dickerson on Slate . Allow him to educate you:

• Barack Obama: Famously called Kanye West a “jackass.”
• Joe Biden: Oh no, this wasn’t his first time. After being greeted by a former colleague as “Mr. Vice President,” he responded, “Give me a fucking break.”

War kept both awake; Nixon's 4am walkabout more 'heartrending'

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s predawn trip to welcome home fallen Americans today has echoes of Richard Nixon’s 4am stroll to the Lincoln Memorial in 1970, hours before a huge anti-war protest. “What both Obama and Nixon had in common was that a war kept them awake,” Amy Davidson writes, noting, “There’s something unsettling about presidents wandering around in the night.” More»

(NEWSER) - A lot of things would have been better in America if Walter Cronkite had been elected vice president in 1972, writes Frank Mankiewicz in the Washington Post, and it could have happened. Mankiewicz was the political director for George McGovern’s campaign, and, “armed with a poll showing Walter Cronkite to be the most trusted man in America, I proposed that the senator put forward Walter Cronkite for vice president.” More»