A rich discussion ranging from Lyndon Johnson's personality to the behavior of American intellectuals in the 1960s, the link being Mr. Goldman's stint as "intellectual in residence" at the White House: "Actually, that job, and ... my being offered it, is one of the more rococo parts of my period in Washington. The President had asked me to come down. I had never met the President in my life ... The President at that meeting said that he wanted to be a very good President of this country and he needed help and he wanted help from what he called, excuse me, the best minds of our nation. That's a phrase which seems to come easily to men who are just becoming President of the United States. I notice Mr. Nixon, the other day, said he wanted help from the best minds of the United States."