Speaking up and Speaking Out

2014 will be the 50th anniversary of the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey in the 1964 election. This collection of speeches by my husband, Thomas L. Hughes, displays one privileged insider's unusual role during LBJ's five years in office. The political courage and literary merit of these speeches were highly praised the time. Their targeted distribution usually carried a "not for publication" restriction. Together they cover a variety of significant foreign...
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2014 will be the 50th anniversary of the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey in the 1964 election. This collection of speeches by my husband, Thomas L. Hughes, displays one privileged insider's unusual role during LBJ's five years in office. The political courage and literary merit of these speeches were highly praised the time. Their targeted distribution usually carried a "not for publication" restriction. Together they cover a variety of significant foreign policy topics from the 1964-69 years.After graduating from Carleton College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School, Tom served as Senator Humphrey's Legislative Counsel in the Senate from 1955-59, when Johnson was Majority Leader. President Kennedy appointed him Director of Intelligence and Research in the State Department, and he remained in that position until the summer of 1969. In fact Dean Rusk and Tom were the only presidential appointees to serve at State from the first day of Kennedy's administration to the last day of Johnson's. Because of his long Humphrey association, Tom was also regarded by many as the Vice President's man in the State Department. Thus some of these speech themes were inevitably perceived, rightly or wrongly, as examples of what the Vice President himself might be thinking, if he were not obliged to toe the official line on controversial issues like Vietnam, China, and Latin America. What is unique about the speeches is that their various themes were topics deliberately chosen to influence policymakers inside the government, as well as observers outside (hence "Speaking Up and Speaking Out.")