When John Kennedy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. to be Under Secretary of Commerce early in March 1963, he had every intention of boosting him eventually into the No. 1 spot at Commerce, then held by Luther Hodges. To give Roosevelt some show case exposure before the promotion, Kennedy sent him into Appalachia with orders to find a prescription for poverty there. But a year later, when Roosevelt submitted his 93-page report. Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.
Lyndon praised Roosevelt's Appalachia work, used it as a base for much of his own anti-poverty program. But the President did...