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To: Torie
Excellent post. Thank you.

Johnson's White House aide John P. Roche wrote years after LBJ died that he could not make Johnson understand that Ho Chi Minh was a dedicated Leninist. Johnson, Roche recalls, kept asking, "'What does Ho want?' as if Ho were a mayor of Chicago holding out for five new post offices." Such a question could only come from a man for whom politics is merely a nihilistic series of deals, utterly without any principled ground.

Fascinating. The one thing that completely befuddled Johnson was a man who wanted power for the sake of a deeply held principle, even if that principle was an evil ones. In the end politics is about principles. Johnson's number one principle was self-advancement at all cost, and feeding his own perverse carnal desires for sex and power.

27 posted on 11/28/2002 10:18:27 PM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: Zack Nguyen
Johnson's number one principle was self-advancement at all cost, and feeding his own perverse carnal desires for sex and power.
You hit the nail firmly on the head with that one. After reading the 3 volumes I wondered what made LBJ tick and that's what I came up with: the next deal and how he was going to screw someone out of something.
And that's why LBJ's presidency was such a failure: he could no longer be the "professional son" (see his relationships to his father, FDR, Sam Rayburn, Richard Russel) he had to stand on his own principles and lead people. He had none and the world came collasping down on him.
Your post about Ho Chi Minh was interesting. I'm trying to think of a time when LBJ met a principled politician (and I'm talking zealotly principled, like Ho) and dealt with them in a manner that's not like horse trading. When the other person doesn't want your horses you're stuck.
33 posted on 11/29/2002 11:05:49 AM PST by lelio
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