Johnson family hits at Kennedy killing slur

A television documentary claiming Lyndon B Johnson helped plot the Kennedy assassination was condemned as an absurd smear by Johnson’s family and former staff members.

A History Channel film shown on Monday alleges that then-Vice President Johnson and members of his staff were responsible for President John F Kennedy’s 1963 killing, said LBJ Foundation Chairman Tom Johnson, no relation to the former president.

“I do not know of a greater injustice to the reputation of a former president - especially to be on The History Channel,” Tom Johnson, who worked in the Johnson White House, said in an interview.

He and Jack Valenti, another former Johnson staff member and current president of the Motion Picture Association of America, issued a joint statement on behalf of the Johnson family.

“Sadly, President Johnson and the staff members who are wrongly smeared by the conspiracy theorists are no longer alive to defend themselves,” the statement said. “In televising this production, The History Channel has distorted history beyond recognition.”

The programme aired as part of an umbrella series titled The Men Who Killed Kennedy, a package of documentaries about various conspiracy theories regarding Kennedy’s death, said channel spokeswoman Lynn Gardner.

“The History Channel does not say that any of these theories are correct,” the channel said in a statement. “We are, however, presenting a point of view that has been meticulously researched.”

Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

The Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin, but claims of more extensive plots continue to fascinate the public.