The Best Defense travel guide: Thoughts after visiting LBJ's ranch in Texas

I wasn't really up for a visit to the LBJ Ranch, because I decided against
writing a book on the Vietnam War and I have small admiration for the man. But
my wife talked me into it, so after listening to music in Luckenbach we headed northeast to the
Pedernales Valley.

I am glad we did. Knocking around the ranch and seeing his house
helped me understand Johnson better. The thing that struck me most was that there
were telephones and televisions everywhere -- three TVs in the living room, and
even a telephone in the dining room, under the table at his big cowhide-covered
seat at the head of the table. Our National Park Service guide said he sometimes
spent 18 hours a day on the phone. Yet for all that, I thought, he was a poor
communicator. While he could intimidate congressional colleagues, he never
really spoke to the country about the war he was waging in Vietnam. I still
don't understand why. If it was worth killing and dying for, it was worth
talking about to the people. LBJ's hero, FDR, knew this, yet Johnson didn't
learn the lesson.

Second, as Texas ranches go, it really wasn't very big. But it is
in a pretty location, and those are rare in much of Texas. The Hill Country is
nice enough -- a desiccated plateau, I think, of scrubby land. It wouldn't make
my top 20 list of the most beautiful regions in the United States. Nor even my
top 100.

Third, the comments by Johnson on the CD we bought for the driving
tour were odd. He spoke, I think he thought affectingly, of how the air was
clearer and the water purer here in the Hill Country. As I listened, I looked
down at the trickle of the Pedernales and
thought that it probably is one-third cowshit and another third sheep and deer
shit. After heavy rains, when tons of manure are sluiced down the valley, the
e. coli count is probably so high that the river vibrates. I wondered how much
of LBJ's problem was an ability for self-deception for what he considered the
best of reasons.

Finally, I was surprised that Johnson grew up just east of
Fredericksburg, the heart of the 19th century German-American settlements in
central Texas. As I understand it, there was a progressivist streak in those
isolated settlers. Many were anti-slavery, and some sided with the Union during
the Civil War. "The God damn Dutchmen are Unionists to a man," complained Capt.
James Duff, commander of the Confederate troops sent to occupy Fredericksburg,
according to T.R. Ferhenbach's Lone Star:
A History of Texas and the Texans. Those suspected of disloyalty were
harassed and lynched. When a bunch of German-Americans opted to head for Mexico, they were pursued and killed by Confederates,
including nine who had been taken prisoner. I wonder how much of this rubbed
off on young Lyndon. If a lot, then I would say he was from the South, but not
really of it.

The Fredericksburg High School motto, BTW, is "Billie Pride Uber Alles."

As I left, I wondered if LBJ was a little man trying to act big --
kind of the person Harry Truman was accused of being, incorrectly.