LBJ & Willard Wirtz, 5 Oct. 1964
In LBJ’s only recorded comments about the daisy ad—from early October with Willard Wirtz—he worried that the ad had gone too far.
President Johnson: Let’s be sure that we don’t get into something like we did on that spot thing, that we’re overdoing it.
Willard Wirtz: [Puzzled.] Overdoing the . . .
President Johnson: You remember the little girl pulling the petals out on the [TV] spot, and the bomb going up?
Wirtz: Yeah. Yeah.
President Johnson: Now, this Springfield [Illinois speech] has got some good facts about strontium-90 being reduced—
Wirtz: Yeah.
President Johnson: —and so forth, and I just don’t want them to think that I’m overdoing it.
KC Johnson 