JFK and LBJ: the last two great presidents

289 Pages·2015·1.807 MB·English

by  Hodgson, Godfrey;Johnson, Johnson Lyndon Baines;Kennedy, Kennedy John Fitzgerald

JFK and LBJ
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JFK and LBJ
The Last Two Great Presidents
GodFrey Hod Gson
•new Haven and London
Copyright © 2015 by Godfrey Hodgson.
All rights reserved.
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including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying
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set in Minion roman type by Integrated Publishing solutions,
Grand rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United states of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Hodgson, Godfrey.
JFK and LBJ : the last two great presidents / Godfrey Hodgson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-300-18050-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald),
1917–1963. 2. Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908–1973. 3. United states—
Politics and government—1961–1963. 4. United states—Politics and govern-
ment—1963–1969. 5. Presidents—United states—Biography. I. Title.
E842.H58 2015
973.0999—dc23
2014045527
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In Memoriam
Harry C. McPherson Jr.
Friend and teacher
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Contents
Preface ix
Introduction A Parting of the Ways 1
Part One: The Actors
Chapter one Life Is Unfair 27
Chapter two one Brief shining Moment 69
Chapter three doctor Fell 83
Part Two: The Actions
Chapter four rumors of War, rumors of Peace 107
Chapter five other Americas 134
chapter six surpassing Kennedy 150
viii Contents
Chapter seven no Umbrella Man 180
Conclusion 217
Notes 231
Acknowledgments 261
Index 263
Preface
Why are the lives of these two “almost great men,” John F. Kennedy
and Lyndon B. Johnson, worthy of attention thirty and forty years after
their respective deaths? Why, to make it personal, did I decide to write
this book?
First, from my days as a young White House correspondent I have
been convinced that JFK, for all his style and charm, his good inten-
tions, and his real achievements, was overrated, and that LBJ was not
merely underrated but deprived of his due reputation as not only the
more liberal but in many ways the more effective president, the greatest
since Fdr.
I still think the comparison between JFK and LBJ tells us some-
thing about how vulnerable public opinion in a democracy is to decep-
tive stereotypes. I have long been astonished by the way in which the
Washington press corps, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the access
it has to the White House, unequaled in other large democracies, has
demonstrated its ability to get presidents and other major figures wrong.
In my political lifetime, most prominent Washington journalists (not
all, of course) fawned over John Kennedy, snubbed Lyndon Johnson,
idolized Henry Kissinger, and patronized Jimmy Carter. They called
George Herbert Walker Bush, an unusually gifted athlete who had been
twice fished out of the Pacific in crashed fighter aircraft, a “wimp.” With
ix