'Reaching for Glory': The Workings of Lyndon Johnson's Mind

The New York Times (Book Review) ^ | December 29, 2001 | GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

[sarcasm]

ct. 14, 1964, is a very bad day for Lyndon Johnson. With only three weeks left in his race against Barry Goldwater, his personal lawyer, Abe Fortas, calls to report that the president's longest-serving aide, Walter Jenkins, has been arrested for performing oral sex on another man in the basement pay toilet of a Washington Y.M.C.A. An incredulous Johnson immediately takes charge of damage control. He directs Fortas to force Jenkins's resignation and to spirit damaging files from Jenkins's White House safe; orders the F.B.I. to produce an official report declaring that Jenkins is not a national security threat; asks the Pentagon to scour Jenkins's military reserve file for positive comments from his commanding officer, Barry Goldwater; urges the attorney general to intensify a bribery investigation of Goldwater's running mate, William Miller; coaches the first lady on how to secretly assure the Jenkins family that its financial future will be secure; and commissions a poll on the scandal's impact from his private pollster. Johnson suspects a Republican frame-up and fears the Jenkins arrest will cost him the presidency. ''Every farmer in the country is upset about it,'' he tells Fortas. ''It could mean . . . the ballgame.''

Of course, it didn't. Thanks to the first Chinese nuclear test, the fall of Nikita Khrushchev and Goldwater's reluctance to press the issue, the Jenkins story was only a blip in Johnson's 1964 landslide. Thanks to his penchant for recording his personal conversations and his family's generous wish to preserve the historical record, his tour-de-force display of political skill, ruthlessness and paranoia can now be observed in ''Reaching for Glory,'' the second volume of Johnson's White House tapes, edited by the historian Michael Beschloss. (It can be heard as well: cassette tapes at $26 and CD's at $32 are available from Simon & Schuster.)

Between November 1963 and January 1969, L.B.J. secretly taped 642 hours of conversations and dictation. Volume One, ''Taking Charge,'' begins the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination and ends shortly after the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, passed in August 1964. ''Reaching for Glory'' covers September 1964 through August 1965 -- a period Beschloss calls the ''pivotal'' year of Johnson's presidency, in which he pushed his Great Society programs through Congress and plunged the country into Vietnam.

It is well-plowed ground, most memorably in Robert Dallek's biography ''Flawed Giant'' and Joseph Califano's memoir, ''The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.'' But even the most polished work of history can't match the thrilling intimacy conveyed by these transcripts (to which Dallek and Califano did not have access). Better yet are the recordings themselves, on which you can hear the voice, roughened by years of Cutty Sark and cigarettes, often hoarse from exhaustion and overuse. His press secretary, George Reedy, once said that when Johnson called, it felt as if he could ''crawl through that wire'' to talk to you. Reading these pages gives you the chance to crawl right up the line with Johnson -- to feel him bully and flirt, lobby and whine. When Nixon needed to think, he picked up a legal pad and wrote outlines. Reagan composed letters. Clinton played solitaire. When Johnson needed to think, he picked up the phone. It was his all-purpose political tool. ''Reaching for Glory'' provides an incomparable portrait of a president at work, and the workings of a president's mind.

They also reveal, as Beschloss puts it, a man of ''ostentatious contradictions.'' The day after the 1964 election, Johnson is complaining to Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago about how the Republicans were running ''kind of a Klan operation'' to keep blacks from voting for him; hours later, he is joking with an old Texas friend about using similar tactics to keep whites from voting against him. Aides are saintly sons one minute, self-serving incompetents the next. But the starkest contradiction is the gulf between his mastery of the home front and his muddling in Vietnam.

Johnson was a cunning political strategist and peerless parliamentary tactician. It is easy to imagine Adam Clayton Powell pulling the phone from his ear as Johnson browbeats him for failing to push an education bill through his committee. Perhaps the Clinton White House fund-raising mess could have been averted had one of us on staff read about Johnson's refusal to hold a fund-raiser for the Kennedy Center at the White House. ''I didn't want to start raising funds at the White House -- even for the Red Cross or United Fund,'' he tells ABC's president, Leonard Goldenson, ''because one person . . . in the room could . . . have something pending in Congress, and they'd say that he was buying his way into the White House.'' Vice President Hubert Humphrey gets strict marching orders on how to pass the president's legislative program: ''I want you to be walking down the halls . . . having the administrative assistants telling you what's happening and getting the gossip.''

That's what Johnson had been doing since his days as a young Congressional aide in the 1930's. His supreme confidence in domestic politics was built on this bedrock of experience. But when discussing Vietnam with the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield, he confesses, ''I'm no military man at all.'' It shows. Dealing with domestic policy, he gives orders; on foreign policy, he seems to take them. In his conversations about Vietnam, he is tentative, full of doubt, wary of his military advisers but unwilling to take them on for fear of looking weak. Early in 1965, he tells Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, ''I don't see any way of winning'' in Vietnam. The next month, he sends two Marine battalions into battle; a year later, he calls up more than 600,000 additional troops.

But if Johnson didn't have the courage to act on his doubts, neither did his closest advisers. In these conversations, McNamara and the national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, offer no convincing alternative to incremental escalation. ''We're drifting from day to day here,'' McNamara admits as he and Johnson discuss the decision to send in the Marines. ''I'm just telling you that the field commanders recommend it and can't think of any other solution.''

Of all the president's counselors, the most prescient turns out to be his old mentor, the conservative chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Richard Russell. He thinks victory is impossible and consistently urges Johnson to find some way to ''get out with good grace,'' like encouraging the installation of a government in South Vietnam that ''didn't want us in there.'' The senator's methods may have been unsavory, but his mind was sharp. Reacting to the passive performance of the South Vietnamese Army, he tells Johnson, ''If they're going to try to fight that kind of war, I'm in favor of getting out of there.''

So was Johnson. But he wasn't willing to risk the personal humiliation, or the possible loss of American power and prestige that he feared would follow a Vietnam pullout. Over and over again, he indicates that he knows the war is unwinnable. Yet he digs in deeper. ''Vietnam is getting worse every day,'' he tells Lady Bird in July 1965. ''It's like being in an airplane and I have to choose between crashing the plane or jumping out. I do not have a parachute.''

''When he is pierced, I bleed,'' she reports to her tape-recorded diary. Mrs. Johnson has given Beschloss permission to supplement her husband's tapes with entries from her diary, and they provide a poignant counterpoint. Early on, she worries that her husband is sleeping too little or eating too much; their exchanges are sweet and light. She grows more tense as Johnson becomes distraught over Vietnam. Aides like Bill Moyers and Richard Goodwin consult with psychiatrists because they're so concerned about the president's wild mood swings.

But Aug. 27, 1965, is a happy day in Lady Bird's diary. It is the president's 57th birthday, and the White House chef has made a cake decorated with symbols of his Great Society programs. ''He was like a man riding on a crest of achievement and success,'' she says. ''He was also a happy and relaxed man.'' Deservedly so. A generation later, the programs Johnson had enacted that frenetic year -- Medicare, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act -- continue to strengthen America. Vietnam, of course, still shadows us. So the judgment that lingers, and stings, is Johnson's self-criticism, as recorded by his wife: ''I'm not temperamentally equipped to be commander in chief.''

George Stephanopoulos, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, is the political analyst for ABC News.

[PJ-Comix]

Anybody else have an update as to Caro's third volume of LBJ? The first two volumes along with the bio of Huey Long by T. Harry Williams were the BEST political biographies I have ever read.

[TEXICAN II]

A small paper-back was published approx 1965-66, A Texan Looks at Lyndon, by J. Evits Haley ( historian, was hist prof at the then West Texas State Teachers College, Canyon, Tx ). It detailed a great deal of bad acts by LBJ & Company, prior to & into his presidency. I was very nearly ejected from my high school civics class for daring to give a book report on this ( the Korean war Marine vet settled for a toung-lashing at me that took the entire next class ). It is STILL AVAIL on many used book finder sites. Another text which I took seriously was "Protracted Conflict" by several retired military & some John Birch folks ( also still true & avail ). This detailed what had happened & was on-going via the nice guys in Moscow & Bejing ( surely the title tells the tale for you ).

The Johnson family made soo much $ from their 'work' in Viet Nam they had to buy 1/3 of the banks in Texas &, now, they have lost most I hope. I was a furniture rep ( wholesale ) for many years & my father & I had a curious customer who bought more than he needed, paid on time, had race horses & race cars ( way too much $ for small town ). Years later, I met a nice young fellow who had worked at the store during high school & laughed at my ignorance of the true nature of the small town furn dealer-his last name was Johnson! He was, per the former employee, a $ laundering front for LBJ! The fellow giving me this was really straight & seemed genuine. He just exploded with laughter at my naive ignorance! West Texas is repleate with folks who profess knowledge of bits & pieces of LBJ & Billie Sol Estes ( a fertilizer kingpin who fomented huge scam in cahoots with LBJ ).

[TEXICAN II]

Do you hail from Moscow, or Bejing? Pravda is still in operation & socialism is still king there-they very well might use your work!

[billhilly]

Imagine that the first $100 billion annual budget occurred during the presidency of LBJ. Think of the magnitude of what he did. That man did more to stifle the strength of America than all of his predecessors. His "war on poverty" was a dismal failure, but an enormous waste of this country's resources.

[Marianne]

I read sometime ago that Robert Caro delayed publication of the third volume because official documents had recently been released that hadn't been available when he was doing research for the final book. He wanted to see the newly released documents before publication.

[MissAmericanPie]

I think it is a toss up between Clinton and Johnson as to who did the most damage to our nation. We have not seen the end of the damage that Clinton may have inflicted with his handing over of our missle technology to the Chinese. His act may actually lead to the murder of the entire nation, too early to tell yet.

[LiberalBuster]

LBJ was a war criminal ... and the bleeding-heart liberal that made millions of Americans dependent on the federal dole. Oh, and he was a racist.

"I'll have them n*g*ers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years." - President Lyndon B. Johnson, Inside the White House by Ronald Kessler

[jackbill]

But when discussing Vietnam with the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield, he confesses, ''I'm no military man at all.''

Yes, but the SOB was enough of a "military man" to campaign for and accept a Silver Star in WWII for flying an observation mission that turned back before seeing the enemy.

That give me enough information about the SOB to know that I'd want nothing to do with him. He always was a SCUMBAG.

[LiberalBuster]

Goldwater was disappointed with his presidential run because he didn't have the opportunity to run against an honest and honorable candidate.

He had been looking forward to going head-to-head with a decent and classy guy - JFK. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

Instead, he got LBJ, the man who mastered dirty (filthy lying) political ads. He introduced what is now classic Democrat demagoguery and fearmongering (ex. the Daisy ad implying Goldwater was nuke-trigger happy).

I don't think an honest Democrat has run for president since Andrew Jackson. Granted, JFK comes close.

[jackbill]

On the plus side Johnson achieved a great many domestic gains. (Unmatched by any subsequent President) These include Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights. When he left office the country was divided over Vietnam, yet the budget was balanced and unemployment was at historic lows. With time both his supporters and his critics will be taking a more balanced view of his Presidency.

Horse Crap!!! He will forever go down in history as a piece of garbage.

Perhaps, in the future, the Vietnam Wall will be renamed "Johnson's Legacy".

[GretchenEE]

I note you posted this very appropriately under "Crime, Corruption."

LBJ was a blot on the face of America. I wonder if he could have succeeded in his colossal failure in Viet Nam without a military draft. I doubt it.

[KC_Conspirator]

A generation later, the programs Johnson had enacted that frenetic year -- Medicare, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act -- continue to strengthen America.

Johnson is the worst president ever, even worse than Jimmy Carter. Medicare is an inefficient money pit. Head Start, despite its nice connotation, has yet to produce ANY long term benefits and has not had an cost-benefit analysis until recently, where it failed. As for the Voting Rights Act, it has alienated a whole country of african Americans to the point where they are captive of left wing politics.

Johnson sent Americans into a war and he did not let them win. He also presided over the collapse of the black family and crime rates tripled during his time in office.

[RLK]

The entire groups was a collection of mental defectives.

[AmericanVictory]

You are right.
This is spin.
He was given an opportunity to do the right thing and
he did not reach for glory,
he ran away from it
and viciously attacked those who gave him the opportunity
for an American victory and for glory.

The man did not have it in him.

[AmericanVictory]

You are right.
This is spin.
He was given an opportunity to do the right thing and
he did not reach for glory,
he ran away from it
and viciously attacked those who gave him the opportunity
for an American victory and for glory.

The man did not have it in him.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

I don't think an honest Democrat has run for president since Andrew Jackson. Granted, JFK comes close.

JFK definitely had charisma and charm, and handled himself well in the presidency. He certainly had more backbone and honesty than his brother Theodore does, who is a liberal sellout to this country.

But administratively, I'd say he was a failure. From the Berlin crisis, to Cuba, to Vietnam, which Johnson inherited, Kennedy was a washout.

But the media has martyred him because he was an assassinated liberal.

It would have been interesting though to see what he would have done with Vietnam if he had been able to continue. That war tore the country apart.

[911]

As Reagan so aptly put it, "We declared war on poverty, and poverty won."

[sarcasm]

I only read Path to Power - it left me so disgusted that I couldn't bear to read more about LBJ's corruption.

[SteveH]

It took me a while to get to the bottom line: "we can win the war against Communism and we can win the war against poverty" at the same time... with the help of a temporary increase in income taxes. Evil**3.

[PJ-Comix]

I only read Path to Power - it left me so disgusted that I couldn't bear to read more about LBJ's corruption.

Too bad because "Means Of Ascent" was really terrific. In particular the LBJ's Senate race against Coke Stevenson in which some "mysterious: votes gave him victory. Also of great interest was the section about Pappy "Pass the Biscuits" O'Daniel.

BTW, the reason for the delay of volume 3 from what I understand is that Robert Caro found new material that couldn't be ignored. I am wondering if this new material are those hundreds of hours of conversations that LBJ secretly taped?