McPherson's A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider's view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson's presidency.

McPherson served in Germany as an intelligence officer, studying Russian troop deployments and plotting targets.

After Kennedy was elected with Johnson as his vice president, McPherson continued to serve as counsel to the Democratic Policy Committee under Senator Mike Mansfield.

His responsibilities included settling civilian disputes in the Panama Canal Zone and Okinawa, and overseeing the Army Corps of Engineers.

The following year (August 1964-August 1965) he served as assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which arranged for thousands of foreigners to study at American universities, for foreign officials and cultural groups to visit the United States, and for American orchestras and dance companies to travel abroad.

An evocative writer with a keen feel for Johnson's style of speaking and desire for terse, spare prose that included "a little poetry" and some alliteration, McPherson crafted all the President's major addresses beginning in the summer of 1966.

[3] McPherson drafted Johnson's landmark televised address of March 31, 1968, announcing the policy turnaround in Vietnam as well as the fact that he would not seek reelection.

[3] McPherson's A Political Education, covering the years 1956 to 1969, concludes as follows: Perhaps the most serious question of all was whether we could learn from our experience and shorten the lag between events and our response to them.

McPherson counseled businesses, nonprofit organizations, foreign governments, and individuals on a range of matters involving Congress, the executive branch, and regulatory agencies.

President Ronald Reagan appointed him vice chairman of the United States Cultural and Trade Center Commission, which planned a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) facility in the Federal Triangle.

Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton appointed him a member of the 1993 U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

[8] From 1983 to 1988 he was president of the Federal City Council, a civic organization of business, professional and cultural leaders in Washington.

Anatole Broyard of The New York Times described the book as "fascinating to read" and McPherson as "refreshingly candid in both his praises and his criticisms.

[11] It is frequently cited in two definitive biographies of Johnson, Caro's Master of the Senate and Dallek's Flawed Giant.

McPherson was the author of numerous articles on foreign policy and political issues published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.