Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President

409 Pages·2004·1.78 MB·English

by  Robert Dallek

lyndon b. johnson
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Also by Robert Dallek
Democrat and Diplomat: The Life of William E. Dodd
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945
The American Style of Foreign Policy: Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs
Ronald Reagan: The Politics of Symbolism
Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960
Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents
Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963
lyndon b. johnson

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portrait of a president
Robert Dallek
3

2004
1

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Copyright © 2004 by Robert Dallek

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dallek, Robert.

Lyndon B. Johnson : portrait of a president / Robert Dallek.

p. cm.

This work is a one volume abridgment of Dallek’s 2-volume biography

of Lyndon B. Johnson v. 1. Lone star rising (1991); v. 2, Flawed giant (1998).

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-19-515920-9

1. Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908–1973.
2. Presidents—United States—Biography.

United States—Politics and government—1963–1969.

I. Dallek, Robert. Lone star rising.

II. Dallek, Robert. Flawed giant. III. Title.

E847.D26 2003 973.923'092—dc21 2003011360

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Matthew and Rebecca Dallek, our children,
and Michael Bender, our son-in-law
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Contents
Preface ix

1 The Making of a Politician 1

2 The Congressman 36

3 The Senator 72

4 The Vice President 112

5 From JFK to LBJ 145

6 “Landslide Lyndon” 171

7 King of the Hill 190

8 F oreign Policy Dilemmas 208

9 Retreat from the Great Society 227

10 “Lyndon Johnson’s War” 251

11 A Sea of Troubles 272

12 Stalemate 295

13 Last Hurrahs 318

14 Unfinished Business 343

15 After the Fall 362

Suggestions for Further Reading 379

Index 382
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Preface

This relatively brief book is an abridgment of my
two-volume life of Lyndon B. Johnson, published in 1991, Lone Star Ris­
ing, and in 1998, Flawed Giant. It is not a revision of those studies but an
attempt to bring them within the reach of a wider audience, especially stu­
dents, that has neither the time nor the inclination to read more than 1,200
pages on Johnson’s life and times.
While preparing this condensed history, I had an opportunity to think
anew about this extraordinary man and reconsider his impact on the
national well-being. Controversies about Johnson’s presidency, which
remained relatively intense when I published the first volume twenty years
after he had left office, have now, fifteen years later, subsided. Arguments
over principal Great Society programs such as civil rights, Medicare-
Medicaid, and federal aid to education have all but disappeared. Debate
remains over how best to manage racial equality of treatment, to fund
health insurance programs for the elderly and the poor, and to use federal
monies to improve instruction and learning in the schools. But only a very
small number of die-hard critics would suggest abolishing these social
reforms.
Likewise, Johnson’s great foreign policy failure, Vietnam, has become
more an object of historical curiosity and an analog for what not to do in
an overseas conflict than an ongoing source of angry debate. The defeat of
Soviet communism and a search for foreign policies that can effectively
meet the challenges of a post–Cold War world—above all the threat of
Islamic terrorism since September 11, 2001—have eclipsed lingering resent­
ments toward Johnson’s unsuccessful fight to preserve South Vietnam from
a Communist takeover.
The ebbing of the controversies might have pushed Johnson to the back
of our historical consciousness. But to the contrary, he remains a larger-
than-life figure whose political career continues to have current signifi­
cance. His conscious effort to bring the South into the mainstream of the