Dec. 27, 1963 - President Johnson made it clear today that the two days of talks he is starting tomorrow with Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of West Germany will focus on means of improving East-West relations. “The most important thing of all is to live in the world at peace and that we learn to live together,” said the President. Mr. Johnson, holding an informal news conference at the barbecue grounds on the banks of the Pedernales River near his home in the Texas Hill Country, also announced that he would meet President Adolfo Lopez Mateos of Mexico on Feb. 21 and 22 at Los Angeles and Palm Springs. The President also said he intended to keep all the former Presidents fully informed and to seek their advice from time to time. He said he had first contacted former President Hoover through his son, then talked to Mr. Hoover by telephone and had again telephoned Christmas Day to extend greetings, as he did with both former Presidents Eisenhower and Truman. All the ex-Presidents, Mr. Johnson said, had been “very cooperative and I am very grateful.” At the news conference, where he was surrounded by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and other top-ranking officials, the President spoke into a microphone set up on a bale of hay. Smoke from the barbecue pits drifted through a grove of oak trees. Some reporters gnawed beef spareribs as Mr. Johnson made his announcements and answered questions on domestic and international affairs. The President rode away after the news conference astride a black Tennessee Walking Horse named Lady B. Later, Mr. Johnson gave reporters and T.V. men a grand tour of the Johnson ranch and adjacent areas, including a glimpse of the cemetery where his father and mother are buried.
