

Lyndon Johnson

That day that changed everything

Robert Caro’s masterpiece of biography follows Lyndon Johnson to Dallas—and the White House

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A. Andros

During the gloom that followed the assasination LBJ did a solid, solid job handling the transition. It wasn't as tough as it sounds -- the System itself is so stable and the precedent established by Tyler so accepted that, grief aside, the country hardly skipped a heartbeat.

The Kennedys, a family of unprincipled arrivistes, may have scorned LBJ but those of us -- myself among them -- who followed his career prior to 1960 knew full well that he, as a politician, made JFK look bush-league. A half-century after his murder people have forgotten, or never knew, how ineffective a president JFK really was. His moment of glory was the Missile Crisis -- but he needed help from Krushcev. Apart from an (admittedly major) tax cut and a so-so farm bill, there is not much to remember about his presidency except that it ended in tragedy.

There was always a certain quality of trash with flash about JFK. He seemed always just on the edge of making a devastatingly clever and apt remark but, the odd joke aside, it never came. He was handsome, glamorous and ariculate. But, being articulate never helped him because he really had nothing to say. He was Cary Grant with a vacant look.

LBJ began banging heads together from Day One. It was his (and Humphery's) political skills that brought about the monumental Civil Rights Acts of 1964/1965. The southern Democrats treated JFK with contempt (Wilbur Mills hung up the phone on him!) but they weren't going to mess with Johnson!

A few months later LBJ steamed-rolled one Great Society Program after the next through Congress in the most fertile legislative period in American History except for the Hundred Days.

Had LBJ not involved this country in a tragic, dishonest and unnecessary war his bust might now be up there on Rushmore. As it was, he slunk out of office after almost ruining the country.

LBJ did come across like Uncle Cornpone. I used to wince while watching his speeches. He was so corny and his Texas drawl made him sound like he had been lobotomized. It was like having Gomer Pyle as president.

But, he was hell on wheels as a politician after the dilettente Kennedys. How tragic it was that he gradually sunk into a morass of lies, decpetion and war that he created for himself -- and the rest of us.

g_goebel in reply to la chevre

LC, don't ask, CF can simply cut and paste the list of books that Robert P. Morrow posts all over the internet to proclaim ad nauseum I HATE LBJ.
NEVER argue with CF. It's not that he enjoys it so much. It's that there's the remote -- very remote but finite -- possibility that you might convince him he's wrong, and you REALLY don't want him on your team. He's doing your team far more good working for the other team, and there's no sense in helping the other team get rid of him.

Brian David

His last book, Master of the Senate, was one of the best political books I've ever read (only Roy Jenkins' Churchill was better). I can't wait to read this one.

g_goebel in reply to A. Andros

AA, admittedly VietNam was LBJ's war -- but you're not saying JFK would have done different, are you? The record makes that a very hard call.

"I feel like a hitchhiker caught in a Texas hailstorm -- can't run, can't hide, and I can't make it stop." Pure LBJ.

Oddly most have forgotten him picking up his beagles by the ears -- bizarre enough, but he did it in front of the NEWS MEDIA. "Ah laik to hear 'em yip!" Boyo did the political cartoonists have fun with that one.


What is decadent about Camelot's parties? Can someone explain?

It also reads as bad style for a magazine of The Economist stature.

LBJ hoped JFK would die

I've learnt that when somthing big in the world happends (like the assasination of a president) its usually desired by more than one group of people for more than one reason. Perhaps protecting Israels nuclear weapons program wasnt the only factor in his assasination.


Texan VP inherits post from slain president in Texas? Knock knock. Hello? Is anyone in?

LBJ may not have initiated killing JFK but he sure did assist and his girlfriend is on record telling us this in Google videos. There are also many fine books documenting his assistance.


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