-
Throw the Book at Him
June 13, 2013 | 196 comments
-
Testimonial to a Great American
June 6, 2013 | 39 comments
-
A Close Call at the Newseum
May 30, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Obama’s Imbroglios
May 23, 2013 | 45 comments
-
My Rahm Reunion
May 16, 2013 | 16 comments
The Current Crisis
Nixon v. Johnson
A Watergate footnote you won’t read about in Woodward and Bernstein.
WASHINGTON — One of my favorite controversialists is back, Bob Woodward with his sidekick Carl Bernstein. Sunday in the Washington Post they wrote that Richard Nixon was more hideous than we have heretofore known. The 37th President conducted five wars while in office, according to the boys, and those do not even include his minor fracases, the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the Vietnam War.
I say Woodward is a controversialist. You might recall his controversial “interview” with CIA Director Bill Casey conducted on Bill’s deathbed when no one was watching. It made it into Woodward’s book Veil, saving its author from the embarrassment of admitting that Bill had kept Woodward utterly in the dark about Iran-Contra and so much else during their more conventional interviews earlier. This time Woodward somehow circumvented Bill’s CIA guards, his doctors and nurses, his wife and daughter — one of whom was in the hospital room at all times — to get his incomparable interview. Moreover, Bill had completely lost the power of speech, his face being a mask of terrible deformity, as his friend Bert Jolis reported within days of the so-called interview. Woodward overcame every hurdle to extract from the dying man a confession of involvement in Iran-Contra about which Woodward knew nothing while writing the book. Possibly, he had disguised himself in Bill’s hospital room as a cockroach.
So Woodward has returned and on the very same weekend when I was huffing and puffing my way past page 353 of Robert A. Caro’s new 714-page treatment of Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Passage of Power. Despite the pious tosh that you hear from the enthusiasts of dying Liberalism, the book is a shabbily written monstrosity, but not without its usefulness.
To begin with, Caro’s sentences judder along as though they were translated — badly translated — from the original German. His endnotes are so chaotic as to be useless to casual readers or even to scholars. Many of them are from secondary sources. For instance, Caro speaks of Camelot as though John F. Kennedy’s White House was always called Camelot. Actually the administration did not receive the appellation until after the President’s assassination. Then a distraught Jacqueline Kennedy arranged an interview with the journalist Theodore White and therein conjured up Camelot for future generations. If readers are unaware of this they can be excused, for Caro includes no citation. What exactly he thinks is unknown. Later he cites “détente” so vaguely that he might be referring to a policy of the New Frontier, though it was a policy of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon — again he gives us no endnote. I really do not know what Caro knows either about Camelot or détente.
Richard Nixon, that name again. The reminder of him provokes a fugitive thought: how would Woodward, or for that matter Caro, compare Nixon and Johnson. Nixon labored to end the war that John Kennedy created and Lyndon Johnson bungled at massive expense in lives and treasure. Nixon was on track to save South Vietnam before he was driven from office. Nixon did save the state of Israel even as he was fighting off impeachment. He and Kissinger played the Soviet Union and China like a Stradivarius, ending the performance with China as a virtual ally. All and all, it was not a bad record.
Then there is Johnson. Among Caro’s many infelicities, lazy research is not one of them. He faithfully records how President Johnson turned the purchase of a $17,500 radio station into a vast media fortune through the manipulation of such federal agencies as the FCC. By middle age he, a lifelong government employee, was a millionaire. He stole his first election — in high school! — his Senate seat in 1948, and the state of Texas for his running mate in 1960. That last race being against Nixon, who would not contest the contest. Then there is his psychological makeup. He was insecure, unstable, often a wreck. As vice president he was an emotional ruin from run-ins with the Kennedys until that sad day in Dallas when, in a car ahead of him, John Kennedy was shot.
Almost eerily within minutes of the President’s death Johnson underwent a kind of emotional epiphany, rising to his former bluff, albeit phony, self. Very rudely within a half hour of Bob Kennedy’s discovery of his brother’s death President Johnson called to conduct business. The insensitivity is shocking.
Yet ever since Nixon was driven from office we have been led to believe Nixon was squirrely and a threat to our democratic ways, and Johnson was… well, what was Johnson? We are on the road to national bankruptcy because of his poorly funded policies today. I say, wherever he is, bring back Nixon. Nixon’s the one.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (25) | Leave a comment
More Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
More Articles From The Current Crisis
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/06/14/nixon-v-johnson
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.14.12 @ 6:48AM
The liberals are obviously hoping that bringing up Nixon will distract from the most horrible President ever, an out in the open disaster named Obama.
What they don't understand is that few if any under 40 probably know who Nixon is thanks to a liberal school system that promotes diversity of thought.
You don't have to learn anything just have diversity of thought and you're a modern day champion.
TLP| 6.14.12 @ 9:04AM
"The Liberals are obviously hoping that by bringing up Nixon will distract from the most horrible President ever, an out in the open disaster named Obama."
Hoping?
What is Tyrrell writing about?
What are you writing about?
Brooksifier | 6.14.12 @ 3:32PM
LBJ was the most horrible president ever, without Dallas, he never would have been POTUS, and we would have been spared his meatgrinder policies in 'NAM.
Jack in Wi| 6.14.12 @ 6:53AM
I read Caro's fist book on Johnson and found it to be quite good. I got bogged down in the second one and never finished it. Since then he has had a couple more. They are all as thick as door stops, with more to come. Johnson does not deserve such detail. I can sum him up in a few words. He was a no good crook who ruined the country. Nixon can be sumed up with the same group of words.
Crassus| 6.14.12 @ 10:52AM
Junior, may the ghost of George Parr and his pistoleros pay you a visit on a cold Wisconsin night for your comments about Means of Ascent, one of the greatest political books of the 20th century.
drofdarB| 6.14.12 @ 10:55AM
The country crook; he who was ruined good, no?
CJW| 6.14.12 @ 8:45AM
I agree with Tyrrell. I tried to read Caro's first book about LBJ and gave up after the first two chapters. LBJ was a crook, a liar, and incopetent. He gave up in 1968 after Gene McCarty got 40% of the vote in New Hampshire. Nixon had to clean up the mess in Vietnam created by JFK and LBJ. Nixon even tried to prevent the publication of the Pentagon papers, stolen by the traitor Ellsburg, which detailed the bungling of the best and the brightest in the JFK/LBJ adminitstrations. LBJ taped everyone, he and JFK had an illegal surveillane on Martin Luther King, and yet Nixon is called a crook by the lefties.
ObamarStomper| 6.14.12 @ 9:06AM
Yes, old LBJ was all the things you have cited and more! Crook, liar, thief and an incompetent. But DON"T YOU DARE ACCUSE JFK!!! He's a Liberal Socialist ICON and above ANY criticism!
ObamarStomper| 6.14.12 @ 9:04AM
It is an enigma, LBJ standing for civil rights. During his lifetime there was NEVER a Black hand hired on at the Johnson Ranch. No Blacks worked at KLBJ in Austin...ever until LBJ assumed room temperature. So, why did he do it? LBJ was simply NOT a flaming Liberal. Sadly, he gets little credit for his accomplishments. He is the forgotten president. Maybe it's better that way.
cuban pete| 6.14.12 @ 9:13AM
The history of warfare is written by the victors and until Limbaugh, Drudge, the internet, etc. came along the Cronkites and liberal dominated newspapers were where we in the great unwashed got our information. The left won the cultural war.
Walter and his soulmates wanted to continue to be invited to sail and schmooze with the Kennedys so they reported what they were told and we were no wiser.
Things have changed and while we have not won yet at least we're back in the fight.
cp
Anthony| 6.14.12 @ 9:44AM
"Passage" is a wonderful book and Caro is a gifted writer. His LBJ series has been magnificant.
I confess that I enjoyed the book largely because of the shadenfraude it depicted amount the central characters.
First, how the Kennedy's trashed LBJ and LadyBird. Cornporne is what the New England elites called LBJ behind his back. LBJ was reduced to a sniviling, sulking, insignificant loser, having given up his huge power base as D majority leader of the Senate.
Bobby Kennedy was a vicious, nasty, and cold-blooded hack for his brother John, who stayed above the frey, as Bobby did what Bobby did best, hate those who were not one of THEM.
Johnson's famous line was "power is where power goes", and he truly thought he was in a deadend situation, until Dallas.
Then LBJ got to do to Bobby Kennedy what Bobby in particular had done to him. Humiliate him as often as possible, until Bobby was no longer needed to help LBJ make the transition to his administration.
Despite the wonderful writing and rich historical context, one is really left with the feeling that all of Washington is full of snakes, who will turn on each other and devour each other all for a few years of fleeting power.
These people are truly a breed of their own.
Controse| 6.14.12 @ 12:34PM
Despicable is as despicable does.
Anthony| 6.14.12 @ 10:08AM
"Fast and Furious" is a scandal of epic proportion. Unlike Watergate, which was not dissimilar to Plamegate, it was much to do about nothing, but involved Rs.
Two American agents are dead as a result of Obozo and Holder. They are accessories to murder; this is plain and simple black letterlaw.
They allowed weapons to end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel leaders, all to create a phony crisis about the 2nd Amendment. The forseeable consequence of their actions was the death of these two Americans.
What Obozo and Holder did is no different from giving the keys to the car to an intoxicated person and letting him drive off.
Obozo and Holder need to be indicted, convicted and sent to prison. Instead, our feckless R leaders can't even muster the balls to cite Holder for contempt.
We Americans need to muster our contempt for Congress and the D.C. establishment and get rid of these hacks and bums.
Kelly Staples| 6.14.12 @ 11:04AM
We live in the Age of Johnson. That's not a good thing. Taking down the USSR was small beer compared to Johnson's welfare state. The US economy is circling the drain, and the best Pubbies can do is "compassionate conservatism." British historian Paul Johnson (no relation) calls the miasma of the Johnson-Kennedy years "America's suicide attempt." The election of '08 was the latest attempt at self-destruction. Eventually people who are set on commiting suicide get their way.
loulou| 6.14.12 @ 11:45AM
Brilliant post. Thank you.
Who Knows?| 6.14.12 @ 11:49AM
Ah, now it’s coming back to me.
My own history!
When entering college, math and science were obviously the way to go, since there are only so many hours in a day, and there is ENDLESS history, practically. I think I checked out the long books required for Western Civ, and figured it was useless to even try to read about what happened in England in, say, 1267.
How many know the details about a Buchanan presidency, NOW, as Tyrell does about LBJ and tricky Dick? What does it matter?
Who Knows?| 6.14.12 @ 11:49AM
“There has been no initial fall, and there is no need for re-transformation. Nirvana, says Nagarjuna, is non-ceasing, unachieved. There is only the dissolution of false views, but no becoming in the real. The Absolute has always been of one uniform nature. In the last resort, the consciousness of achievement too is subjective.
The function of the Madhyamika dialectic is not to bring about a change in things, but in our mentality. Therefore it is declared in the texts that through wisdom the real things are not made unreal; things themselves are unreal. Sunyata (voidness) is not an arbitrary prescription to view things as unreal; it is their intrinsic nature. And this frees the human mind of the cobwebs of false views and wrong perspectives.” Pages 233-234 Central Philosophy of Buddhism, by T.R.V. Murti, 1955
satan| 6.14.12 @ 12:47PM
Ooo, look over here.
Derek Leaberry| 6.14.12 @ 1:08PM
Caro's first book on Johnson was excellent. I have not read the others. Perhaps as Johnson, a man of absolute spiritual and moral ugliness, gained a bigger stage, Caro lost the ability to explain Johnson in an interesting fashion.
Lyndon Johnson was the Louis XVI of American history. For instance, similar to how the Sun King preferred lackies to clean him after defecating, Johnson enjoyed sitting on his bathroom throne dictating notes to his toadies as he relieved himself. He was a megalomaniac.
Crassus| 6.14.12 @ 4:27PM
Louis XIV was the Sun King. Louis XVI got his block knocked off during the French Revolution.
Mark| 6.14.12 @ 1:27PM
The received history on a lot of topics need skeptical review. I doubt Nixon planned a watergate break-in, but he taped himself condoning the crime and so he doesn't get to distort the history of the period to his liking -- instead, his adversaries seized the privilege.
PolishKnight| 6.14.12 @ 4:29PM
Nixon signed off on the marriage penalty which haunts us to this day. Unwed mothers get massive tax breaks while married families are penalized.
Occam's Tool| 6.14.12 @ 7:22PM
The most efficiently capable President after Washington was James K Polk. I like what he did a lot. Yet he is forgotten, although he won a brilliant war, aggrandized America's possessions, achieved all of his campaign promises, and did it all as promised within one term. Why is that?
Johnson was a piker and a fool, who fumbled his major responsibility and cost his country dearly because he was screwing too many of his secretaries.
Barks| 6.14.12 @ 8:45PM
Finally, someone agrees about Caro's writing. I almost gave up the English (American) language when reading Caro's first LBJ book at the same time I was reading Manchester's 'The Last Lion". The contrast was stark and I thought perhaps Caro only suffered with an unfair comparison. Nope, he really is that bad.
Theo Prinse| 6.17.12 @ 6:07AM
Thanks for the artical mr. Tyrrell. It reminds of the dirty telephone conversation President Johnson had with Senator Clinton Anderson. Senator Anderson was the driving force behind the Technical Readiness Level 10 Nuclear Thermal Rocket ROVER-NERVA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA killed by Nixon ...
Today we have the surfacing of Ann Dunham (the mother of the current ineligible President) in vintage fetish and bondage magazines. The photos were taken at Frank Marshall Davis’ house in Honolulu .. http://www.westernjournalism.c.....al-father/