LBJ Adviser McPherson Dies
Posted/updated on: February 20, 2012 at 11:36 am
AUSTIN (AP) — Harry McPherson Junior, who was an adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson, has died. He was 82. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin says McPherson died Thursday. The library said McPherson had cancer.
McPherson, who was born and raised in Tyler, served as special assistant and special counsel to Johnson. He influenced the president on a range of policies from civil rights to bombing in Vietnam. He helped write Johnson’s 1968 speech announcing a halt in bombing in Vietnam and that Johnson would not run for re-election.
After working for Johnson, McPherson worked as a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He wrote a 1972 memoir, “A Political Education,” recalling his experience in government and the Johnson presidency.
