Lyndon Johnson: Greater than a book's criticism
A new volume in a generally critical series of books looks at Johnson's start as president. Eventually, Johnson will be judged in the upper ranks of presidents.
The fourth volume of author Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson was released this month to anticipated critical acclaim. The current volume, The Passage of Power, covers LBJ's career from 1958-64, leaving off before the Vietnam War began to swallow his presidency, which had begun with historic domestic-policy achievements.
There are no stunning new disclosures in the most recent Caro volume. Most of the ground has been covered before by others, including historian Robert Dallek, whose two-volume Johnson biography is an authoritative source for later scholars. But Caro's work stands out, in particular, because of the numerous personal interviews he undertook over many years with figures of the period.
The first volume of Caro's Johnson series, The Path to Power, was published in 1982 to favorable reviews and to general horror by the Johnson family and friends. It traced LBJ's early rise in Texas and made him appear a man who would resort to just about any means to attain and hold political power.
Soon after that first book's publication, what amounted to a Johnson rally was held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., organized principally by former LBJ staffer Jack Valenti, then head of the Motion Picture Association of America. Alumni of the Johnson White House and Administration gathered for dinner and a program afterward, which featured Lady Bird Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, asked about the Caro book, said, "I understand that it will be the first of a series. The books will be heavy and, piled together, they should make a good doorstop."
By 1999, when a similar reunion was held at the LBJ Ranch in Texas, hosted by Mrs. Johnson, a second volume had been published, not quite so critical of LBJ as the first, although by no means adulatory. By then antagonism toward Caro had waned and, over two days, no one mentioned him or his project.
A third volume was published in 2002, dealing with Johnson's tenure as a highly skilled Senate Majority Leader. By that time Caro already was researching the next one.
I had a long luncheon with Caro in New York, nearly six years ago, focused mainly on the period 1965-8. (That period will be covered in his upcoming fifth volume.) Caro took copious notes. He expressed surprise that, although Johnson often had bullied and mistreated my boss at the time, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, I nonetheless took a balanced view of LBJ. I did not like Johnson's treatment of Humphrey or his escalation of the Vietnam War, I told him, but nonetheless respected his domestic achievements and his attempts to escape the Vietnam trap on honorable terms.
I also was sympathetic to LBJ as an insecure man doing his very best to get big things done. Caro was pleased at the time because Harry Middleton, a former LBJ White House aide, had just retired as director of the Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, and his successor had granted Caro, for the first time, access to the archives there.
Caro himself no doubt will be the subject of later studies for his immersion over some 35 years in the life of a man, LBJ, whom he mainly disliked. I asked him why he had taken on the LBJ project. He said that, while writing a 1974 biography of New York public-works czar Robert Moses, he had become fascinated with men who understood and effectively exercised power. That led him to Johnson.
Caro was and is an archetype New York Upper West Side liberal, far in cultural orientation from Johnson's rural Texas Hill Country populism. His books reflect that gap.
Finishing the current book, I wondered: What would Johnson think of it? I could imagine him saying, first of all: "Hell, this book is as much about the Kennedys as it is about me!"
That would really have nettled Johnson, who resented what he saw as the Kennedys' patronizing treatment of him while he served as President John Kennedy's vice president and who shared with Robert Kennedy a mutual dislike verging on hatred. The Johnson-Kennedy tensions were well known at the time but they were only a part of the Johnson story in the years covered.
Readers of The Passage of Power, however, could easily conclude that they overshadowed everything else., There was a lot of drama and intrigue in the relationship, though, and those who may be reading about it for the first time will be engrossed.
Caro recounts how Robert Kennedy tried to get his brother to withdraw his offer of the 1960 vice-presidential nomination to Johnson. (As it turned out, Johnson's presence on the ticket carried Texas, and the election, for JFK). During the three years of Kennedy's presidency, Johnson often was ridiculed and frozen out by the president and his staff. Yet, after the JFK assassination, Johnson went out of his way to reach out to Kennedy's family and inner circle and to give him more than his due publicly as he moved forward liberal programs which had languished under JFK.
For those of us once removed from the Kennedy-Johnson line of fire, the whole rivalry seemed a shame. It was mainly personal and related to style more than substance. The Kennedy Cabinet members, with the exception of Robert Kennedy, rallied to Johnson on his assumption of the presidency. Council of Economic Advisors Chair Walter Heller would become an invaluable counselor to both presidents.
It could be argued that LBJ's eventual downfall was caused, ironically, by Kennedy holdovers on his national-security team: Secretary of State Rusk, Secretary of Defense McNamara, and National Security Advisors McGeorge Bundy and Walt Rostow. They were the architects of his Vietnam escalations.
Most of the Kennedy and Johnson inner circle are now deceased. But, back in the 1960s and 1970s, I knew most of them on a working basis and developed long friendships with several. They were, for the most part, an admirable collection of dedicated, hard-working people.
Even the most avid loyalists in both camps came over time to recognize that they were part of the same family and shared a common outlook toward politics and policy. The statements and attitudes attributed to some of them in Caro's book reflected their outlooks during the 1958-64 period covered but not necessarily in later years. The leading Kennedy-associated figures all attended Johnson's January, 1973 funeral service in Washington, D.C.
Caro has maintained his intense focus on the project over several decades and forged on against obstacles, including Johnson associates' initial reluctance to cooperate with him and, then, his own serious health setback a couple years back.
The closing lines of Caro's new book suggest that his next volume will be rough on Johnson. LBJ deserves his share of blame for continuing and deepening a mistaken Vietnam War. But he also deserves recognition for politically courageous and historic civil-rights and social-welfare achievements which changed America for the better. He died in Texas, isolated and depressed, before his time. History's ultimate consensus no doubt will be that he reached high, sometimes succeeded, at other times failed, but that his transforming successes should qualify him for rank among the top tier of American presidents.
Like what you just read? Support high quality local journalism. Become a member of Crosscut today!
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feeds
Comments:
Posted Sun, May 6, 10:28 a.m. Inappropriate
"Caro was and is an archetype New York Upper West Side liberal, far in cultural orientation from Johnson's rural Texas Hill Country populism. His books reflect that gap."
What the heck does this mean, TVD? Maybe you should have added "Jewish intellectual" and then we'd understand even more about how Caro purportedly doesn't get the milieu, despite his decades of exhaustive research. How about explaining and showing how you don't think Caro gets the milieu, rather than engaging in your usual argumentum ad hominem? Also, TVD writes as if LBJ hasn't already gotten overwhelming historical acclaim for his domestic policy achievements. I don't know where he's been but LBJ is considered by most historians a giant in American presidential history.
Posted Sun, May 6, 12:13 p.m. Inappropriate
A day without a snide Meyer comment would be a day without rain.
"New York Upper West Side liberal" is not synonomous with "Jewish intellectual." I've personally resided three times on the Upper West Side, was involved in reform clubs there, and am neither Jewish nor an intellectual. Nor, for that matter, do I consider Caro an intellectual.
He is a journalist and author. "Upper West Side liberal" is meant to connote a certain cultural and political mindset familiar to those who have lived there and/or spent much time in New York.
Many historians have indeed given high marks to Johnson's presidency.
Some others have not, however, and there remain a huge number of Americans who associate him only with the Vietnam tragedy and with nothing else.
Posted Mon, May 7, 1:13 p.m. Inappropriate
TVD. I'm sure you'll be equally dismissive but your labeling of the author as a New York Upper West Side liberal or Johnson from 'rural Texas Hill Country populism' just isn't meaningful. Unless your from NYC or Texas, I doubt this 5 word adjectives mean anything to most people.
It sounds equally snide for you to label people just because of where they are from. The Hill country of Texas? So are all people from Texas populists? Are there no conservatives on the UWS of NYC?
These are the kinds of labels that Republicans often use. Like 'California liberal' or 'San Francisco liberal'. They are neither descriptive nor complimentary.
Posted Sun, May 6, 12:23 p.m. Inappropriate
Good piece; thank you. I think Doris Goodwin (?) wrote an intimate (or at least highly personal) biography of Johnson's political life. Johnson apparently revealed himself more to her than other writers. It does puzzle me that the Goodwin book is not mentioned anywhere in reviews of the Caro book. I think Caro tends to be an assassin and any hint of sympathy for his subjects is treated as a great concession on the author's part. I don't think this is a good attribute for a biographer.
Posted Sun, May 6, 1:02 p.m. Inappropriate
TVD, how about dealing with the substance of my comment? I asked you to demonstrate how Caro failed to understand and capture the milieu of LBJ's rural Texas background. That's a real question, and instead you turned again to argumentum ad hominem. Your comments both about Caro's background and my comment/question were inappropriate.
Posted Sun, May 6, 2:03 p.m. Inappropriate
Interesting article, thanks much. Amazing how Caro has been able to so thoroughly immerse himself in the lives of others. I look forward to reading the latest installment.
Posted Sun, May 6, 4:45 p.m. Inappropriate
Kieth: Doris Kearns Goodwin was a White House Fellow during LBJ's presidency and then spent time working with him in Texas after he left office. Her book was indeed more personal---and seemed to imply perhaps a deeper personal relationship with Johnson than existed.
She quotes LBJ in her book as saying that "you remind me of your mother." Horace Busby, an LBJ associate who was in the room at the time, said that LBJ indeed said that to Doris but, as she left the room, added that "My mother was fat too." (Kearns is quite slender now).
Doris' view of LBJ is complicated by the fact that she is married to Dick Goodwin, a speechwriter LBJ fired and who then became quite hostile to Johnson. The Dallek volumes, which I mention, were written by a detached historian without any prior relationship with LBJ or preconceptions going in. An interesting book about LBJ, which I reviewed for The Washington Post Book World, was written by his onetime chief of staff, Marvin Watson. Watson was not an originator of policy or independent counselor but instead a faithful agent of Johnson's will. He was the sole speaker at Johnson's funeral service in Washington, D.C. (After I reviewed the book, I received a call from Watson's former secretary. "Who would have thought that Marvin could write a book!" she said, "and then you end up reviewing it!").
Watson was a 110 percent admirer of his boss but the book rings completely true and contains material I've not seen elsewhere.
Posted Sun, May 6, 4:46 p.m. Inappropriate
Kieth: A typo. Johnson said to Doris Kearns Goodwin that "you remind me of MY mother" not"your mother." My glitch.
Posted Sun, May 6, 5:19 p.m. Inappropriate
TVD, thank you very much. It is generous of you to add background that is, not surprisingly, all new to me. As I recall (I think I have the Goodwin book around here somewhere) LBJ was portrayed starkly but with at least some sympathy.
Posted Mon, May 7, 7:58 a.m. Inappropriate
The worship of democrat party failures amazes me...the 'Great Society' welfare state is a 50 year drag and burden upon the American economy and LBJ could not even run for re-election...he was a horrible president and re-writing history can not elevate him.
Posted Mon, May 7, 11:05 a.m. Inappropriate
An excellent piece. I bet Bill Moyers would concur. Johnson along with Eisenhower were the last 2 Great presidents America had in the oval office. 'Great' meaning their impact and the strength of their vision and political leadership. Johnson was a very human and truly tragic figure - can you image a political figure today feeling the remorse that ended Johnson's life prematurely? Many of the programs Johnson created the Reagan Revolution has spent the last 30 years destorying but that was no easy edifice to take down!
Posted Mon, May 7, 1 p.m. Inappropriate
I think the conflict between Harris and TVD exactly demonstrates, on a micro-scale, the problem with politics in our country. Namely, people like TVD who have spent a career in DC, are dismissive of people who disagree with him, just like the Dems and Rs are dismissive of each other. Lots of people are talking but no one is listening. This toxic dynamic is further fed and fueled the Murdoch propaganda empire and the unlimited money from corporations. I'm not hopeful.
Posted Mon, May 7, 2:48 p.m. Inappropriate
Animalal, I hate to single out one part of your comment, because I know it isn't even your main point, but I will because it's a pet peeve of mine: there is no such thing as the "democrat party." Since its founding, it has always been the Democratic party. Using the same terms for debate is what makes it civil; namecalling or deliberate misquotation is playground stuff.
To your larger point, I don't know who you think is "worshipping" LBJ here; he was a human with flaws like all others, which is how Caro seems to present him (though I haven't read the book, I will admit). But LBJ also just happened to do a lot of things for underprivileged Americans. That isn't "worship," it's just a fact.
Posted Mon, May 7, 4:19 p.m. Inappropriate
I have read the first Caro books, and find them to be completely different from what TVD describes, and neither in those books, nor anywhere else, am I aware of anyone "worshipping" LBJ.
I am old enough to remember the elections- and LBJ was NOT a very sympathetic character even when he won- he was an old line politician who got what he wanted by force, guile, and blackmail- as it happens, I agree with some of his results- but I dont know anybody who even thinks his techniques were moral or legal, much less "worships" him.
We NEEDED the Civil Rights act and the Voting Rights act, and LBJ made them happen by threats, backroom deals, bribes, and old fashioned politicing- and he is the living example of how you dont want to know the secrets of either government or sausage making.
I read the Caro books with a morbid fascination at what an incredible piece of work LBJ was, with awe at the depth of research, with appreciation of how he lays out the whole realpolitik of the last century- they are great.
In particular, the explanation of how LBJ came to power thru pork barrel projects, grandstanding corruption investigations, and bribes and kickbacks from what became Halliburton tells you so much about how we go the terrible place we are today, in terms of corporations calling the shots in return for trillions of borrowed taxpayer dollars- LBJ and Brown and Root invented and perfected the system.
Posted Tue, May 8, 2:37 p.m. Inappropriate
I heard Caro this morning on the Diane Rehm Show. He did not sound like a man with a vendetta against LBJ. Not in the way, say Mr. Meyer has a vendetta against Mr. Van Dyk. :-) His account of the events following JFK's assassination was riveting.
Login or register to add your voice to the conversation.