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Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President
Robert Dallek's brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Michael Beschloss, in The Los Angeles Times , said that it "succeeds brilliantly." The New York Times called it "rock solid" and The Washington Post hailed it as "invaluable." And Sidney Blumenthal in The Boston Globe wrote that it was "dense with astonishing incidents."
Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available. Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the "human dynamo," from the Texas hill country to the White House. We see LBJ, in the House and the Senate, whirl his way through sixteen- and eighteen-hour days, talking, urging, demanding, reaching for influence and power, in an uncommonly successful congressional career. Then, in the White House, we see Johnson as the visionary leader who worked his will on Congress like no president before or since, enacting a range of crucial legislation, from Medicare and environmental protection to the most significant advances in civil rights for black Americans ever achieved. And we see the depth of Johnson's private anguish as he became increasingly ensnared in Vietnam.
In these pages Johnson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven: "A tornado in pants." Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this
Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available. Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the "human dynamo," from the Texas hill country to the White House. We see LBJ, in the House and the Senate, whirl his way through sixteen- and eighteen-hour days, talking, urging, demanding, reaching for influence and power, in an uncommonly successful congressional career. Then, in the White House, we see Johnson as the visionary leader who worked his will on Congress like no president before or since, enacting a range of crucial legislation, from Medicare and environmental protection to the most significant advances in civil rights for black Americans ever achieved. And we see the depth of Johnson's private anguish as he became increasingly ensnared in Vietnam.
In these pages Johnson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven: "A tornado in pants." Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this
420 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Robert Dallek
55 books171 followersRobert A. Dallek is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon.
In 2004 he retired as a history professor at Boston University after previously having taught at Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Oxford University.
He won the Bancroft Prize for his 1979 book Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, as well as other awards for scholarship and teaching.
In 2004 he retired as a history professor at Boston University after previously having taught at Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Oxford University.
He won the Bancroft Prize for his 1979 book Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945, as well as other awards for scholarship and teaching.
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October 19, 2021
Robert Caro has so far written 4 volumes of biography of Lyndon Johnson and has not yet completed his task – in page numbers it’s 960 + 592 + 1232 + 736 = 3510. Robert Dallek has written a complete two volume biography of LBJ which is 752 + 784 = 1536. So if you are like the world’s most hardcore Johnson fan you will have already read 1536 + 3510 = 5046 pages about this one American president. That is slightly insane. Especially when you compare it with Abraham Lincoln, for whom I see the usual 500 or 700 one volume biographies.
So much to say about LBJ, evidently.
This book here is a condensed version of Mr Dallek’s 2 big volumes and it’s enough for most people. Like a vapid butterfly I flit carelessly from subject to subject. I’m just not 5046 pages serious about anything. Look at that [points to head] – all straw.
LBJ groans and rattles his chains in the background of Nixonland but strictly on a cartoonish how-many-kids-did-you-kill-today level. I wanted to find out the answers to two questions :
1. How come this guy who comes across as the ultimate smokey back room political fixing good ole boy from Texas was actually a flaming liberal?
2. How come he was the hero of all America and ending a big speech to Congress by declaiming “we shall overcome!” and getting 70% plus approval ratings in 1964/5 and two years later was a hated figure crushed by his office who tossed in the blood stained towel and quit?
That's like - whoah.
So this book answers question number 2 very well but pretty much skates over question 1. ( Apparently, he just wanted to help poor people, especially black people. Really? As simple as that?)
And now, my favourite quote of the whole book. Why was LBJ so good at ramming bills through Congress? How did he do it, this famous power that he had of smashing through the usual logjams and getting all the senators and representatives in a line? It was called The Treatment, he dished it out in person to each and every congressman, and LBJ’s was a very large person; and it consisted of :
Supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, the hint of threat. It was all these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless.
And elsewhere:
Johnson, in the Texas manner,was all over everybody – always the grip on the shoulder, tug at the lapel, nudge in the ribs, squeeze of the knee. He was a crowder, who set his great face within a few inches of the object of his attention, and as the more diffident retreated, backed them across the room in the course of a monologue.
(So please, keep LBJ well away from me! Just tell him I’ll vote whichever way he wants me to!)
He worked 16 hour days and expected his staff to do the same, which they did. Once when he was President he phoned a senator one morning at 6 a.m. “I hope I didn’t wake ya,” he said. “Oh no,” said the senator. “I was lying here just hoping you would call.”
So briefly, the story is of a human dynamo who was a political natural, who attacked every campaign with maniacal zest, putting in twice as much work than his rivals, who rose like a skyrocket, became leader of the Senate, and then, just when it looked like the nomination of President was his for the taking, along comes silver spoon Kennedy and whisks it from under his nose. Some horse trading later, he becomes Veep, the most rubbishy job in American politics; and then he gets promoted by Lee Harvey Oswald.
He consciously used the national mood in early 64 to put together a whole collection of civil rights laws inspired by Kennedy’s own plans, but with many added features; he’s desegregating schools and housing, he’s ensuring black people get the vote in the Southern states, he’s a whirlwind of pure liberal goodness with a very loud voice.
But from Kennedy he inherits the poisoned chalice of Vietnam and of that bitter cup must he drink. And he drank deep. He couldn’t understand it (no one could – how come the world’s most powerful nation could only achieve stalemate in the jungles in 1965 and 1966? Stalemate?). America itself was opposed to the Vietnam war, it’s absolutely clear from this book and Nixonland, it wasn’t just the longhaired students, it was a good 65-70% of everybody. What was America doing there? America in Vietnam was Macbeth saying
I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
So America went up in flames in the ghettos and the campuses, it was a perfect storm – black people saw the liberating laws being passed in DC but nothing was happening in Detroit, or Philadelphia, or Selma, so they were getting really mad about that; and everyone else was mad about Vietnam. And Vietnam cost so much damned money that these poverty alleviating programs invented in 64 and 65 had to be cut or stopped in 66 and 67. What a complete nightmare. It invaded Johnson’s spirit, it all trampled his heart to pieces, he was broke down, he was tore down, it was a sorry thing to see, Vietnam buried this man as it buried so many others.
What a strange story, full of hope and horror, awe and sorrow, and what a great character.
October 7, 2017
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...
“Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President” is Robert Dallek’s 2004 abridgment of his two-volume series on LBJ which was published between 1991 and 1998. Dallek is a retired professor of history and the author of nearly two-dozen books including a bestselling biography of JFK (which I recently read) and a more recent dual-biography of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
For many readers, the brevity of “Portrait of a President” (with just 377 pages) will make it a tempting alternative to Dallek’s full series which clocks in at more than 1,200 pages. Other than the missing notes and bibliography, this single-volume abridgment is extremely faithful to the underlying series, packing nearly all the punch of the two volumes but in just one-third the space.
Like the series, “Portrait of a President” is more a political than personal biography. Readers learn almost nothing of LBJ’s family life and relatively little of his youth. The book’s first ten pages cover Johnson’s first two decades and Dallek spends virtually no time in this biography exploring Johnson’s relationship with his wife and daughters. And anyopne unaware of LBJ’s penchant for promiscuity will not be meaningfully enlightened here.
Although readers will finish this book with an excellent understanding of LBJ’s inherent contradictions and complexity – and a keen appreciation for his larger-than-life persona – missing will be any sense of actually knowing or understanding the man. Dallek does a nice job keeping Johnson at the center of the action, but the reader never sees the world through his eyes or feels any personal connection with him.
Like the series from which it was distilled, this biography reveals the writing style of a historian and not a storyteller. Facts appear in abundance…but an engaging, colorful narrative is nowhere to be found. Only when Dallek introduces new characters (such as LBJ’s White House aides and his Cabinet members) is the reader drawn into the story-line. Otherwise the book reads more like an articulate but sterile FBI profile of Johnson.
“Portrait of a President” is at its best when describing his twelve years in the Senate. This is where his political skills were honed and then successfully deployed and Dallek captures this period adroitly. LBJ’s Vice Presidency – a miserable time in his life by any standard – is also quite well-documented although the series captures these years with even more success.
This single-volume abridgment (along with the two-volume series) also proves surprisingly well-balanced. Although the reader eventually deduces the author is a fan of LBJ, Dallek seems earnest in his effort to maintain appropriate distance from his subject. He occasionally seems like an apologist for his subject – often seeking the silver lining around each dark cloud – but is nearly always critical (if not quite censorious) when Johnson errs.
Overall, Robert Dallek’s “Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President” proves both an excellent abridgment and a mediocre biography. Readers lacking the time or tenacity to navigate Dallek’s two-volume series will find this book contains significant “bang for the buck.” But while the public LBJ (the power-hungry and pugnacious politician) is on full display, the private LBJ (the husband, the father of two daughters and the man from modest means always looking over his shoulder) remains largely inaccessible.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
“Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President” is Robert Dallek’s 2004 abridgment of his two-volume series on LBJ which was published between 1991 and 1998. Dallek is a retired professor of history and the author of nearly two-dozen books including a bestselling biography of JFK (which I recently read) and a more recent dual-biography of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
For many readers, the brevity of “Portrait of a President” (with just 377 pages) will make it a tempting alternative to Dallek’s full series which clocks in at more than 1,200 pages. Other than the missing notes and bibliography, this single-volume abridgment is extremely faithful to the underlying series, packing nearly all the punch of the two volumes but in just one-third the space.
Like the series, “Portrait of a President” is more a political than personal biography. Readers learn almost nothing of LBJ’s family life and relatively little of his youth. The book’s first ten pages cover Johnson’s first two decades and Dallek spends virtually no time in this biography exploring Johnson’s relationship with his wife and daughters. And anyopne unaware of LBJ’s penchant for promiscuity will not be meaningfully enlightened here.
Although readers will finish this book with an excellent understanding of LBJ’s inherent contradictions and complexity – and a keen appreciation for his larger-than-life persona – missing will be any sense of actually knowing or understanding the man. Dallek does a nice job keeping Johnson at the center of the action, but the reader never sees the world through his eyes or feels any personal connection with him.
Like the series from which it was distilled, this biography reveals the writing style of a historian and not a storyteller. Facts appear in abundance…but an engaging, colorful narrative is nowhere to be found. Only when Dallek introduces new characters (such as LBJ’s White House aides and his Cabinet members) is the reader drawn into the story-line. Otherwise the book reads more like an articulate but sterile FBI profile of Johnson.
“Portrait of a President” is at its best when describing his twelve years in the Senate. This is where his political skills were honed and then successfully deployed and Dallek captures this period adroitly. LBJ’s Vice Presidency – a miserable time in his life by any standard – is also quite well-documented although the series captures these years with even more success.
This single-volume abridgment (along with the two-volume series) also proves surprisingly well-balanced. Although the reader eventually deduces the author is a fan of LBJ, Dallek seems earnest in his effort to maintain appropriate distance from his subject. He occasionally seems like an apologist for his subject – often seeking the silver lining around each dark cloud – but is nearly always critical (if not quite censorious) when Johnson errs.
Overall, Robert Dallek’s “Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President” proves both an excellent abridgment and a mediocre biography. Readers lacking the time or tenacity to navigate Dallek’s two-volume series will find this book contains significant “bang for the buck.” But while the public LBJ (the power-hungry and pugnacious politician) is on full display, the private LBJ (the husband, the father of two daughters and the man from modest means always looking over his shoulder) remains largely inaccessible.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
January 7, 2018
I wasn’t ready to tackle any of the popular multi-volume works on LBJ. I found Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President to be a good introductory book on the subject. It offers a fairly comprehensive account of the man’s political life but I found it lacking when it came to his personal or family life (LBJ was a workaholic so perhaps there wasn’t much to speak of). With LBJ, it would be all too easy to break chapters up topically (civil right, Vietnam, etc) so I appreciated that the author largely followed a chronological approach so I could better understand how all these areas influenced each other over time. The writing style was good but there were times you could tell this was an abridged work of the author’s 1200 page, 2-volume set on LBJ.
Johnson himself I found an interesting character. Being both conservative and a member of the military, I didn’t start the book with a very high opinion of the man. Having finished it, I don’t think my opinion has improved (though the reasons may have changed). Though LBJ was trying to do good for others he was a pretty dirty politician (wiretaps on domestic and political opponents, abusing his office for financial gain, conflicts of interests, etc). On Vietnam, I never truly appreciated how slow the bleed was. He entered the conflict with overwhelming support and it stayed high for a really long time. I always appreciated the constraints he faced (not fighting to win because it could risk a wider war) but never really understood how far he went to hide his major decisions from the public in an effort to avoid debate (the side effect being he built no lasting consensus for the war). Once things went south, he stayed the course partly from conviction that it was the right thing to do but also because he could never admit it was a mistake and he would not be the first President to lose a war.
I enjoyed the author’s concluding assessment of his Presidency: LBJ was a quixotic man, the same grandiosity and energy that encouraged him to think he could build a Great Society and conquer poverty, led to his belief he could break the will of North Vietnam. His record is a study in paradox. He tackled big things that others were too timid to, but in so doing overreached himself. His grandiosity led him to promise more than he could deliver (an end to poverty, a Great Society free of racial tension, victory in Vietnam). His Presidency was one of great achievement and painful failure. Many loved him and many despised him. Some remember his great works, others excessive governance at home and defeat abroad. He was a reflection of the country’s greatness and limitations.
What follows are my notes on the book.
Born and raised in rural Texas without indoor plumbing or electricity. His father served in the state House of Representatives. His mother was a teacher from a family of Baptist ministers. LBJ had a palpable interest in politics from an early age. He would listen to front porch discussions of local politics, sit in the gallery of the state legislature, and accompany his father in their Model T while campaigning (1-6). His religious training never matched his attention to politics or adolescent high jinx. He was a rebellious teenager who drank, fought, and ran away to California. At 18, he was an uneducated and unskilled laborer. He eventually relented to his mother and agreed to go to Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos (11).
His fellow students remembered him being in perpetual motion and “always in a high gallup.” He was aggressive, ambitious, overbearing, and self-centered but could also be extraordinarily personable and empathetic. This combination was not entirely paradoxical…the two sides of Lyndon were comfortably linked: in return for the attention, influence, and power he craved, he gave concern, friendship, and benevolent support. The faculty viewed him as exceptional, but not for his academic performance. He ingratiated himself with his teachers, staying with them after class and listened intently as they poured their hearts out (12-15). Due to lack of funds, LBJ took a year off and taught at an impoverished Mexican-American school in Cotulla, TX. He threw himself into the work with a peculiar enthusiasm (16).
In 1930, he received his degree in education and history. He secured a well-paying job teaching in Houston. Later that same year, he accepted appointment as secretary to his district’s new congressman (a well-paying job in the midst of the Depression) (17-19). Congressman Kleberg was a wealthy playboy, and left the entire work of his office to 23 year old Lyndon. He latched onto other staffers and congressman who mentored him. He worked 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week with his characteristic, endless energy. He lived and breathed politics, developing his own convictions about good policy. He detested Hoover’s do-nothing government and supported FDR’s New Deal proposals (20-23). LBJ convinced the conservative Kleberg to support these programs despite his concern they were socialistic. He did so not because he had developed any guiding philosophy but because he believed it was good politics and he was always concerned with winning and being effective (23).
In 1934, he met Claudia Alta (Lady Bird) Taylor during a trip to Austin. Within 24 hours of meeting, he asked her to marry him. Within 3 months of meeting they were married. After 3 years, he was looking to start his own career. When Roosevelt established the National Youth Administration, Johnson secured an appointment as the head of the Texas branch. He attacked the project with his typical workaholic zeal making it the model for programs in other states. When Congressman Buchanan died in 1937, LBJ ran against 8 other candidates for his seat in the House (31). To overcome his relative obscurity, Lyndon aggressively aligned himself with FDR. He worked harder than any other candidate and won the seat with 28% of the vote (34).
His identification as a Roosevelt man gave him access that helped his career (37). He befriended Majority Leader Sam Rayburn. Lyndon was a southern New Dealer who sought to integrate the South into the mainstream of American economic life. He was a strong believer in using Federal power to help Americans (38). He was also a self-seeking opportunist who used his connections to advance himself. New Deal contracts enriched TX construction companies (like Brown & Root) which then paid his DC based law firm handsome fees and/or funded his campaigns. In 1939, Lyndon decided to run for Senate and began collecting hidden, illegal contributions from the Brown brothers (44). Despite raising more funds than anyone, machine politicians in Texas swung enough votes at the 11th hour to his competitor, Governor Pappy O’Daniel (47). Campaign finance laws and ballot box manipulations were not revelations to Johnson but his defeat convinced him politics was a dirty business and that being unprincipled was a requirement for success (48).
In 1940, anticipating the US entry into war, he sought and received a naval appointment as a Lt Commander. As a sitting member of Congress, he worked in the Navy Under Secretary’s office on war production. After WWII broke out, he believed a future bid for higher office would depend on a record of wartime service. He finagled a token trip to the South Pacific as an observer for FDR. There, he convinced MacArthur to let him ride along on a combat mission. The plane was damaged and dropped out of formation and barely avoided being shot down by Japanese Zeros. Even though he was just a passenger, MacArthur awarded LBJ a Silver Star. The pilot and other crew members received no such honors. LBJ went home with a “war record” and MacArthur gained a new vocal advocate in Washington (48-51).
Johnson purchased a radio station in Austin after favorable FCC support. The IRS investigated Brown & Root’s tax write-offs (secret donations to LBJ) and discovered $1M owed in back taxes. Pressure from the White House dropped the amount owed to $372K (52-53). In 1948 he made another run for Senate. He rented a helicopter (then a novelty) and flew into towns all over Texas spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (the limit was $10K under TX law) thanks to large contributions from the companies he made rich with New Deal and wartime contracts (61-63). Johnson defeated his Republican opponent but the rampant ballot manipulation and voter fraud in his primary victory called into question his legitimacy in the Senate (70).
From the start he strove to ingratiate himself with Senate leaders and learn every detail on the inner workings of the Senate. In 1951, Johnson became a compromise for party Whip (the youngest Whip in party history) (74). In 1952, he used the power of his office to gain an FCC license to construct the only VHF television station in Austin. While other cities had multiple stations, Johnson’s monopoly in Austin brought him significant financial gains (75-76). In 1952, he was elected the youngest Senate Minority Leader in Party history. Working with Ike, he established a reputation as a Democrat who put country above party (77-78). He became Majority Leader when the Democrats retook the Senate in 1956.
Lyndon established a system of control that made him the most effective Leader in Senate history. He dominated others by sheer force of personality. He broke long stand seniority rules and placed allies into coveted committee assignments (83). He became intimately familiar with the personal and professional interests of every Senator, Republican or Democrat, accumulating political debts to be paid back later (85). He masterminded the art of complex legislation, managing numerous bargains and trade-offs among senators. Journalists called Johnson’s method “the treatment”, a mix of supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, and hint of threat (87). Johnson thought the term nonsense that painted him as a bully domineering over paralyzed idiots. He believed his success a matter of enormous preparation and his talent for debate (88). Information was power and LBJ gathered every detail he could on other senators (strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, work ethic, beliefs, values, and personal behavior (alcohol, women, family life) (88-89).
A heart attack in 1955 discouraged a run for higher office though speculation was rampant. Joe Kennedy (JFK’s dad) offered to bankroll his campaign if he would bring his son on as his running mate. LBJ turned him down, beginning a long-term feud with Bobby Kennedy. LBJ thought Joe was setting JFK up to run in 1960, expecting LBJ to lose to the popular Ike in 1956 (94-95). Johnson needed some bigger accomplishments before running. Balancing his liberal beliefs against the reality of Southern politics, he pushed through a Civil Rights Act of 1957 but which largely had no teeth. In response to Sputnik, he co-sponsored a bill creating NASA (110).
LBJ thought he was best positioned for his Party’s nomination in 1960. He viewed JFK as an unaccomplished, untested playboy. LBJ vastly underestimated the importance of style in Presidential politics. He finally announced his candidacy too late to build momentum and JFK won the nomination. JFK, despite opposition from family, wanted LBJ on the ticket to draw in Southern states. Johnson was losing his control over the Senate and viewed being VP as good step towards integrating the South back into the national consensus (115-117). He believed he could re-invent the Vice Presidency but he grew just as frustrated as his predecessors. He was given ceremonial tasks (like goodwill ambassador trips overseas) & had limited roles in the administration (as evidenced by his silence during the Cuban Missile Crisis (131).
On Vietnam, Johnson view was in line with the prevailing wisdom in the administration, Congress, and the press (domino theory). He supported Kennedy’s move to expand the number of military advisors there (130-131).
Always the political animal, he would exploit Kennedy’s death by pushing for legislation in his name (144). He intended to pick up where FDR left off with the New Deal: opening opportunity to the poor and honoring the country’s equal treatment rhetoric. A “war on poverty” excited hiss imagination. In his first State of the Union he declared his aim was “not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it, and above all prevent it” (147-148). Speaking at the University of Michigan, he outlined his utopian goals for a “Great Society”. While few believed his rhetoric about curing poverty, they supported his positive outlook in the wake of Kennedy’s death (157).
As President he thought himself liberated from the constraints imposed on a Texas Senator and made a strong push for civil rights. He believed segregation only separated the South from the rest of the nation, a sort of relative the nation could neither disown nor accept (164). He was supremely satisfied with his historic gain (Civil Rights Act of 1964), though he feared he had delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. H feared the bill would damage his chances for being elected in his own right. Because it was passed by Congress (rather than judicial fiat) the bill would be accepted by the South (though he had no way of knowing that at the time)(169-170).
Though many viewed Goldwater’s nomination as absurd, LBJ took it seriously, viewing it as the outgrowth of long public unrest with Big Government and Big Spending (174). Goldwater’s rabid anti-communism likely contributed to LBJ taking a more aggressive stance on Vietnam to eliminate it as a campaign issue. While he had no intention of taking the US into an undeclared war, he viewed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution & retaliatory bombing raids as a way to put Hanoi on notice and demonstrate American resolve (179). The resolution rushed through Congress under crisis conditions was no substitute for debate & building up popular support.
The campaign was particularly nasty with LBJ painting Goldwater a dangerous extremist who would lead the country into nuclear war (YouTube the “Daisy” ad). LBJ won an Electoral College landslide 486-52. LBJ took the result as an endorsement of his Great Society and War on Poverty (189). He pushed several significant pieces of his agenda through Congress (federal aid to education, Medicare, and the Voting Rights Act). Medicare would prove enormously popular that no future president could oppose, unfortunately, it also directly contributed to staggering increases in medical costs (201). White American support for LBJ’s agenda plummeted after the Watts riots (207).
Remembering the lesson of Munich, Johnson refused to show weakness in Vietnam. McNamara believed the current course would end in defeat and pushed for greater US involvement. Rolling Thunder, the eight week, limited bombing campaign followed. Still Johnson didn’t see himself as committed to war (211). As the situation deteriorated, Gen Westmoreland asked for more troops and to abandon a defensive posture and take the fight to the enemy. All Johnson’s “wise men” agreed he needed to expand the war. Johnson announced the troop increases in such a way to avoid media attention that would distract from his domestic agenda (217). Troop levels went from 75K to 125K but Johnson said his decision “did not imply any change in policy” and surrounded his announcement with talk of his Great Society agenda (219). He also chose not to call up reserve units.
Johnson didn’t make his decision lightly. Firm belief in the domino theory and fear of a right-wing reaction that would wreck his administration if he lost Vietnam dominated his thoughts. Plus he assumed the Viet Cong and North Vietnam couldn’t hold out against America’s massive military power forever (220). LBJ assumed the mere presence of so much US power in Vietnam was enough to do the job and failed to develop a strategy for how to use that power (223). He thought critical members of the media were “subversives” who publicized US atrocities but ignored those of the Viet Cong. Still, public polling showed 10-1 against withdrawal from Vietnam (he took these results at face value, failing to recognize how superficial they were) (225).
By 1966 the War on Poverty faltered due to reduced funding and its own internal contradictions. While federal spending on the poor had increased dramatically under LBJ, budget analysts told him that the reduction in poverty actually came from increasing employment (242-243). Great Society programs gave some poor a modest hand up, but in black ghettos the policies were irrelevant. The effect there was increased numbers on welfare and thus greater dependency of black families (246).
Johnson saw a Republican wave building for the mid-term elections and didn’t campaign for Democrats to insulate himself (249). Even in 1966, a majority of Americans approved of his handling of Vietnam. Public attitudes toward the war bewildered LBJ. He couldn’t understand how people saw him as a villain; he was fighting for freedom for people everywhere (259). North Vietnam was always on the verge of faltering, victory was almost at hand. We were winning every battle, inflicting massive casualties. We were NOT losing, yet he couldn’t understand why negotiations failed to materialize (266).
Problems were growing at home as well. Crime had increased six times faster than population growth in the JFK-LBJ era. 1960s Supreme Court decisions banning school prayer, loosening obscenity laws, and expanding criminal rights contributed to arguments that bleeding heart liberals were soft on crime and trying to subvert the American way (278). LBJ abused the power of government to go after anti-war protestors and political opponents. More race riots in Detroit and Newark exploded in 1967. LBJ had been more attentive to the problems of blacks than any President and felt the riots were embarrassing and undermining him (281). Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court to further promote equality and justice under the law (291).
By 1967 the war was a stalemate producing domestic divisions and a nightmare from which LBJ couldn’t wake. He grew irrational and repressive towards his opponents. He still refused to escalate but was desperate to end the war. It was crippling his freedom on domestic affairs and budget deficits were forcing him to cut funding to his own programs. But having invested so much of his energy into the war he stubbornly refused to admit it was a mistake (302). Losing was never a word in Johnson’s vocabulary. LBJ appointed McNamara (on the verge of mental breakdown) to be president of the World Bank (319).
1968 brought fresh hopes for a settlement until the Tet Offensive. Moving out of the jungles, the US devastated the North Vietnamese. However the size of the offensive shook US public opinion (322). The war, riots, loss of domestic support, and a primary challenge from Bobby Kennedy led him to not run for a second term. LBJ’s preferred successor was Rockefeller (Humphrey’s anti-war sentiments annoyed him) (339). After Bobby was assassinated, LBJ secretly pulled for Nixon (354). He flirted with running again but the protests at the DNC convention eliminated any last ideas about that (351).
He chose not to expose Nixon's interference in the peace talks (doing so would expose that he had bugged the Nixon campaign) (357-8). Politics was his life and his return to Texas felt like actual suicide. He suffered huge mood swings and dedicated his energy to five major projects: memoirs, presidential library, TV interviews, establishing a school of Public Affairs at Univ. of Texas, and putting his ranch and business interest in order (364). He detested McGovern and worked behind the scenes to ensure Nixon’s reelection (368). He died in 1973.
Johnson himself I found an interesting character. Being both conservative and a member of the military, I didn’t start the book with a very high opinion of the man. Having finished it, I don’t think my opinion has improved (though the reasons may have changed). Though LBJ was trying to do good for others he was a pretty dirty politician (wiretaps on domestic and political opponents, abusing his office for financial gain, conflicts of interests, etc). On Vietnam, I never truly appreciated how slow the bleed was. He entered the conflict with overwhelming support and it stayed high for a really long time. I always appreciated the constraints he faced (not fighting to win because it could risk a wider war) but never really understood how far he went to hide his major decisions from the public in an effort to avoid debate (the side effect being he built no lasting consensus for the war). Once things went south, he stayed the course partly from conviction that it was the right thing to do but also because he could never admit it was a mistake and he would not be the first President to lose a war.
I enjoyed the author’s concluding assessment of his Presidency: LBJ was a quixotic man, the same grandiosity and energy that encouraged him to think he could build a Great Society and conquer poverty, led to his belief he could break the will of North Vietnam. His record is a study in paradox. He tackled big things that others were too timid to, but in so doing overreached himself. His grandiosity led him to promise more than he could deliver (an end to poverty, a Great Society free of racial tension, victory in Vietnam). His Presidency was one of great achievement and painful failure. Many loved him and many despised him. Some remember his great works, others excessive governance at home and defeat abroad. He was a reflection of the country’s greatness and limitations.
What follows are my notes on the book.
Born and raised in rural Texas without indoor plumbing or electricity. His father served in the state House of Representatives. His mother was a teacher from a family of Baptist ministers. LBJ had a palpable interest in politics from an early age. He would listen to front porch discussions of local politics, sit in the gallery of the state legislature, and accompany his father in their Model T while campaigning (1-6). His religious training never matched his attention to politics or adolescent high jinx. He was a rebellious teenager who drank, fought, and ran away to California. At 18, he was an uneducated and unskilled laborer. He eventually relented to his mother and agreed to go to Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos (11).
His fellow students remembered him being in perpetual motion and “always in a high gallup.” He was aggressive, ambitious, overbearing, and self-centered but could also be extraordinarily personable and empathetic. This combination was not entirely paradoxical…the two sides of Lyndon were comfortably linked: in return for the attention, influence, and power he craved, he gave concern, friendship, and benevolent support. The faculty viewed him as exceptional, but not for his academic performance. He ingratiated himself with his teachers, staying with them after class and listened intently as they poured their hearts out (12-15). Due to lack of funds, LBJ took a year off and taught at an impoverished Mexican-American school in Cotulla, TX. He threw himself into the work with a peculiar enthusiasm (16).
In 1930, he received his degree in education and history. He secured a well-paying job teaching in Houston. Later that same year, he accepted appointment as secretary to his district’s new congressman (a well-paying job in the midst of the Depression) (17-19). Congressman Kleberg was a wealthy playboy, and left the entire work of his office to 23 year old Lyndon. He latched onto other staffers and congressman who mentored him. He worked 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week with his characteristic, endless energy. He lived and breathed politics, developing his own convictions about good policy. He detested Hoover’s do-nothing government and supported FDR’s New Deal proposals (20-23). LBJ convinced the conservative Kleberg to support these programs despite his concern they were socialistic. He did so not because he had developed any guiding philosophy but because he believed it was good politics and he was always concerned with winning and being effective (23).
In 1934, he met Claudia Alta (Lady Bird) Taylor during a trip to Austin. Within 24 hours of meeting, he asked her to marry him. Within 3 months of meeting they were married. After 3 years, he was looking to start his own career. When Roosevelt established the National Youth Administration, Johnson secured an appointment as the head of the Texas branch. He attacked the project with his typical workaholic zeal making it the model for programs in other states. When Congressman Buchanan died in 1937, LBJ ran against 8 other candidates for his seat in the House (31). To overcome his relative obscurity, Lyndon aggressively aligned himself with FDR. He worked harder than any other candidate and won the seat with 28% of the vote (34).
His identification as a Roosevelt man gave him access that helped his career (37). He befriended Majority Leader Sam Rayburn. Lyndon was a southern New Dealer who sought to integrate the South into the mainstream of American economic life. He was a strong believer in using Federal power to help Americans (38). He was also a self-seeking opportunist who used his connections to advance himself. New Deal contracts enriched TX construction companies (like Brown & Root) which then paid his DC based law firm handsome fees and/or funded his campaigns. In 1939, Lyndon decided to run for Senate and began collecting hidden, illegal contributions from the Brown brothers (44). Despite raising more funds than anyone, machine politicians in Texas swung enough votes at the 11th hour to his competitor, Governor Pappy O’Daniel (47). Campaign finance laws and ballot box manipulations were not revelations to Johnson but his defeat convinced him politics was a dirty business and that being unprincipled was a requirement for success (48).
In 1940, anticipating the US entry into war, he sought and received a naval appointment as a Lt Commander. As a sitting member of Congress, he worked in the Navy Under Secretary’s office on war production. After WWII broke out, he believed a future bid for higher office would depend on a record of wartime service. He finagled a token trip to the South Pacific as an observer for FDR. There, he convinced MacArthur to let him ride along on a combat mission. The plane was damaged and dropped out of formation and barely avoided being shot down by Japanese Zeros. Even though he was just a passenger, MacArthur awarded LBJ a Silver Star. The pilot and other crew members received no such honors. LBJ went home with a “war record” and MacArthur gained a new vocal advocate in Washington (48-51).
Johnson purchased a radio station in Austin after favorable FCC support. The IRS investigated Brown & Root’s tax write-offs (secret donations to LBJ) and discovered $1M owed in back taxes. Pressure from the White House dropped the amount owed to $372K (52-53). In 1948 he made another run for Senate. He rented a helicopter (then a novelty) and flew into towns all over Texas spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (the limit was $10K under TX law) thanks to large contributions from the companies he made rich with New Deal and wartime contracts (61-63). Johnson defeated his Republican opponent but the rampant ballot manipulation and voter fraud in his primary victory called into question his legitimacy in the Senate (70).
From the start he strove to ingratiate himself with Senate leaders and learn every detail on the inner workings of the Senate. In 1951, Johnson became a compromise for party Whip (the youngest Whip in party history) (74). In 1952, he used the power of his office to gain an FCC license to construct the only VHF television station in Austin. While other cities had multiple stations, Johnson’s monopoly in Austin brought him significant financial gains (75-76). In 1952, he was elected the youngest Senate Minority Leader in Party history. Working with Ike, he established a reputation as a Democrat who put country above party (77-78). He became Majority Leader when the Democrats retook the Senate in 1956.
Lyndon established a system of control that made him the most effective Leader in Senate history. He dominated others by sheer force of personality. He broke long stand seniority rules and placed allies into coveted committee assignments (83). He became intimately familiar with the personal and professional interests of every Senator, Republican or Democrat, accumulating political debts to be paid back later (85). He masterminded the art of complex legislation, managing numerous bargains and trade-offs among senators. Journalists called Johnson’s method “the treatment”, a mix of supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, and hint of threat (87). Johnson thought the term nonsense that painted him as a bully domineering over paralyzed idiots. He believed his success a matter of enormous preparation and his talent for debate (88). Information was power and LBJ gathered every detail he could on other senators (strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, work ethic, beliefs, values, and personal behavior (alcohol, women, family life) (88-89).
A heart attack in 1955 discouraged a run for higher office though speculation was rampant. Joe Kennedy (JFK’s dad) offered to bankroll his campaign if he would bring his son on as his running mate. LBJ turned him down, beginning a long-term feud with Bobby Kennedy. LBJ thought Joe was setting JFK up to run in 1960, expecting LBJ to lose to the popular Ike in 1956 (94-95). Johnson needed some bigger accomplishments before running. Balancing his liberal beliefs against the reality of Southern politics, he pushed through a Civil Rights Act of 1957 but which largely had no teeth. In response to Sputnik, he co-sponsored a bill creating NASA (110).
LBJ thought he was best positioned for his Party’s nomination in 1960. He viewed JFK as an unaccomplished, untested playboy. LBJ vastly underestimated the importance of style in Presidential politics. He finally announced his candidacy too late to build momentum and JFK won the nomination. JFK, despite opposition from family, wanted LBJ on the ticket to draw in Southern states. Johnson was losing his control over the Senate and viewed being VP as good step towards integrating the South back into the national consensus (115-117). He believed he could re-invent the Vice Presidency but he grew just as frustrated as his predecessors. He was given ceremonial tasks (like goodwill ambassador trips overseas) & had limited roles in the administration (as evidenced by his silence during the Cuban Missile Crisis (131).
On Vietnam, Johnson view was in line with the prevailing wisdom in the administration, Congress, and the press (domino theory). He supported Kennedy’s move to expand the number of military advisors there (130-131).
Always the political animal, he would exploit Kennedy’s death by pushing for legislation in his name (144). He intended to pick up where FDR left off with the New Deal: opening opportunity to the poor and honoring the country’s equal treatment rhetoric. A “war on poverty” excited hiss imagination. In his first State of the Union he declared his aim was “not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it, and above all prevent it” (147-148). Speaking at the University of Michigan, he outlined his utopian goals for a “Great Society”. While few believed his rhetoric about curing poverty, they supported his positive outlook in the wake of Kennedy’s death (157).
As President he thought himself liberated from the constraints imposed on a Texas Senator and made a strong push for civil rights. He believed segregation only separated the South from the rest of the nation, a sort of relative the nation could neither disown nor accept (164). He was supremely satisfied with his historic gain (Civil Rights Act of 1964), though he feared he had delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. H feared the bill would damage his chances for being elected in his own right. Because it was passed by Congress (rather than judicial fiat) the bill would be accepted by the South (though he had no way of knowing that at the time)(169-170).
Though many viewed Goldwater’s nomination as absurd, LBJ took it seriously, viewing it as the outgrowth of long public unrest with Big Government and Big Spending (174). Goldwater’s rabid anti-communism likely contributed to LBJ taking a more aggressive stance on Vietnam to eliminate it as a campaign issue. While he had no intention of taking the US into an undeclared war, he viewed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution & retaliatory bombing raids as a way to put Hanoi on notice and demonstrate American resolve (179). The resolution rushed through Congress under crisis conditions was no substitute for debate & building up popular support.
The campaign was particularly nasty with LBJ painting Goldwater a dangerous extremist who would lead the country into nuclear war (YouTube the “Daisy” ad). LBJ won an Electoral College landslide 486-52. LBJ took the result as an endorsement of his Great Society and War on Poverty (189). He pushed several significant pieces of his agenda through Congress (federal aid to education, Medicare, and the Voting Rights Act). Medicare would prove enormously popular that no future president could oppose, unfortunately, it also directly contributed to staggering increases in medical costs (201). White American support for LBJ’s agenda plummeted after the Watts riots (207).
Remembering the lesson of Munich, Johnson refused to show weakness in Vietnam. McNamara believed the current course would end in defeat and pushed for greater US involvement. Rolling Thunder, the eight week, limited bombing campaign followed. Still Johnson didn’t see himself as committed to war (211). As the situation deteriorated, Gen Westmoreland asked for more troops and to abandon a defensive posture and take the fight to the enemy. All Johnson’s “wise men” agreed he needed to expand the war. Johnson announced the troop increases in such a way to avoid media attention that would distract from his domestic agenda (217). Troop levels went from 75K to 125K but Johnson said his decision “did not imply any change in policy” and surrounded his announcement with talk of his Great Society agenda (219). He also chose not to call up reserve units.
Johnson didn’t make his decision lightly. Firm belief in the domino theory and fear of a right-wing reaction that would wreck his administration if he lost Vietnam dominated his thoughts. Plus he assumed the Viet Cong and North Vietnam couldn’t hold out against America’s massive military power forever (220). LBJ assumed the mere presence of so much US power in Vietnam was enough to do the job and failed to develop a strategy for how to use that power (223). He thought critical members of the media were “subversives” who publicized US atrocities but ignored those of the Viet Cong. Still, public polling showed 10-1 against withdrawal from Vietnam (he took these results at face value, failing to recognize how superficial they were) (225).
By 1966 the War on Poverty faltered due to reduced funding and its own internal contradictions. While federal spending on the poor had increased dramatically under LBJ, budget analysts told him that the reduction in poverty actually came from increasing employment (242-243). Great Society programs gave some poor a modest hand up, but in black ghettos the policies were irrelevant. The effect there was increased numbers on welfare and thus greater dependency of black families (246).
Johnson saw a Republican wave building for the mid-term elections and didn’t campaign for Democrats to insulate himself (249). Even in 1966, a majority of Americans approved of his handling of Vietnam. Public attitudes toward the war bewildered LBJ. He couldn’t understand how people saw him as a villain; he was fighting for freedom for people everywhere (259). North Vietnam was always on the verge of faltering, victory was almost at hand. We were winning every battle, inflicting massive casualties. We were NOT losing, yet he couldn’t understand why negotiations failed to materialize (266).
Problems were growing at home as well. Crime had increased six times faster than population growth in the JFK-LBJ era. 1960s Supreme Court decisions banning school prayer, loosening obscenity laws, and expanding criminal rights contributed to arguments that bleeding heart liberals were soft on crime and trying to subvert the American way (278). LBJ abused the power of government to go after anti-war protestors and political opponents. More race riots in Detroit and Newark exploded in 1967. LBJ had been more attentive to the problems of blacks than any President and felt the riots were embarrassing and undermining him (281). Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court to further promote equality and justice under the law (291).
By 1967 the war was a stalemate producing domestic divisions and a nightmare from which LBJ couldn’t wake. He grew irrational and repressive towards his opponents. He still refused to escalate but was desperate to end the war. It was crippling his freedom on domestic affairs and budget deficits were forcing him to cut funding to his own programs. But having invested so much of his energy into the war he stubbornly refused to admit it was a mistake (302). Losing was never a word in Johnson’s vocabulary. LBJ appointed McNamara (on the verge of mental breakdown) to be president of the World Bank (319).
1968 brought fresh hopes for a settlement until the Tet Offensive. Moving out of the jungles, the US devastated the North Vietnamese. However the size of the offensive shook US public opinion (322). The war, riots, loss of domestic support, and a primary challenge from Bobby Kennedy led him to not run for a second term. LBJ’s preferred successor was Rockefeller (Humphrey’s anti-war sentiments annoyed him) (339). After Bobby was assassinated, LBJ secretly pulled for Nixon (354). He flirted with running again but the protests at the DNC convention eliminated any last ideas about that (351).
He chose not to expose Nixon's interference in the peace talks (doing so would expose that he had bugged the Nixon campaign) (357-8). Politics was his life and his return to Texas felt like actual suicide. He suffered huge mood swings and dedicated his energy to five major projects: memoirs, presidential library, TV interviews, establishing a school of Public Affairs at Univ. of Texas, and putting his ranch and business interest in order (364). He detested McGovern and worked behind the scenes to ensure Nixon’s reelection (368). He died in 1973.
March 7, 2018
LBJ’s “substantial impact on all our lives has made searching out his motives all the more compelling.” The author nailed it there. LBJ was an outsized political force, and he has had a huge influence on American government and society, more than most of us acknowledge or even realize. And he was a real character, to put it mildly.
December 2, 2020
This is a serviceable one volume life of LBJ. It's readable and includes all the important stuff, giving you a good sense of the man's impact and his place in history.
But if you want to read the best presidential biography of all time, read Robert Caro's multivolume (and, as yet, still not quite finished) biography instead. Caro's book is the result of intense research, deep thought, and years of living day in and day out with Lyndon Johnson. Caro gives us a picture of the man in full; Dallek gives us a sketch.
But if you want to read the best presidential biography of all time, read Robert Caro's multivolume (and, as yet, still not quite finished) biography instead. Caro's book is the result of intense research, deep thought, and years of living day in and day out with Lyndon Johnson. Caro gives us a picture of the man in full; Dallek gives us a sketch.
May 8, 2020
I had completed Dallek's biography of JFK, and found that book to be a bit boring, I was dreading taking up his biography on Lyndon B Johnson. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Dallek had written a 2-volume biography on LBJ, and this book, Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President, is actually a condensation of that original. Perhaps having reworked previously written material provided Dallek with the opportunity to deal with some of the issues that I found reading his JFK book more difficult: more concise segmented chapters and a weeding out of some of the tedious details that were distracting in the book. I can honestly say that I feel that I have a fair, balanced view of LBJ's presidency having read this biography, understanding a man who had an ego the size of....well, Texas!
LBJ was born and reared in rural Texas early in the 20th century, seeing first-hand the difficulty of the poor and disenfranchised blacks and Hispanics. He was educated as a teacher, and one of his early jobs was working National Youth Association, one of FDR's New Deal projects. LBJ had a taste of politics, having witnessed his father in local politics and by becoming the personal secretary to a local state representative (who allowed LBJ to actually to run the office while he played wealthy jet setter). That role became a stepping stone for LBJ into state and eventually into national politics. LBJ was a born politician. He knew how to work his will, manipulating his peers using private details of their lives. He eventually positioned himself into Majority Leader, where he worked successfully, developing a reputation as a non-partisan politician during the Eisenhower administration.
Johnson had aspirations for the presidency in 1960, but was slated instead as the vice-presidential candidate to JFK. Their victory actually put LBJ into the uncomfortable position of having stepped down from being a mover and a shaker in the hallowed halls of Congress to being a Senate figurehead whose only other job was to being the understudy to the hero of the script, not a role to which LBJ was well suited. LBJ was determined to make the most of it. He made many trips abroad, glad-handing the populations of Southeast Asia in true LBJ fashion, sort of like an American tsunami to visit their shores! It is during this time that LBJ develops a life-long animosity towards Bobby Kennedy, two men with completely different styles vying to influence the president.
An assassin's bullet changes everything, and in a moment, LBJ becomes president.
His presidency is characterized by two main issues: domestically, his Great Society program, including civil rights and the War on Poverty, and internationally, Vietnam or in his own words, VEETNAM.
LBJ's hope for American was birthed in FDR's New Deal. I truly believe that his compassion for the poor and disenfranchised was authentic. He really did want to raise the standard for all Americans. He sought to improve education, especially for the blacks. He promoted Medicare for the elderly. He wanted to raise the minimum wage and get more Americans above the poverty line. He actually did make inroads in some areas, but as is usual with politics, issues are inter-related, and his domestic policies were hampered by his foreign policies which in a word was Vietnam.
I was in my pre-teens and teens during the Vietnam War. I remember listening to the hourly news on KDKA radio, which always ended with the number of soldiers killed, injured, or missing-in-action. And I remember protests to the war: sit-ins, violent clashes, and anti-war demonstrations (I can still hear CSN&Y's "Four dead in O-hi-o"). It was interesting to read a more studied account of what was actually going on. Kennedy inherited Vietnam from Eisenhower, who then passed it on to LBJ. Had Kennedy lived beyond that date in November 1963 the war may have proceeded very differently. Kennedy was realizing the futility of our involvement and was heading towards deceleration. LBJ was convinced (mislead perhaps) that American involvement could prevent the toppling of the other Southeast countries falling into the communist orbit in domino fashion. LBJ really thought that more bombing and more troops would eventually overwhelm North Vietnam into negotiating peace, leaving South Vietnam with a stable democratic form of government. His failure was his unwillingness to openly discuss with Congress and America at large the goals and values of continuing to stoke the war machine. He was afraid that the country would not willingly support both a war on poverty on the domestic front and the war on Vietnam simultaneously, so he kept quietly escalating the war, pouring more troops into the fray, as if the American population would not eventually notice the number of young men missing in their communities. Eventually the American public, fearing that this war lacked the morale cause of World War II, began to doubt the LBJ's leadership, and saw it only as a waste of American lives and American tax dollars. LBJ just could not imagine that a small entity as Vietnam could defeat the United States and and dreaded being the first American President to lose a war. So he pushed on, hoping that this new campaign or this new patch of American troops would drive the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table. The unexpected Tet offensive illustrated to the American public that things were not going as well as they were being told, though it does appear that the same Tet offensive actually caused the North more war damage than the South. Eventually LBJ came to realized that Vietnam was his own Waterloo and decided that, in his own words, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept..." a second term, committing what his daughter called political suicide.
The irony is that LBJ actually seemed to lean more towards Nixon than Hubert Horatio Hornblower...I mean, Humphrey as his presidential choice. At the last minute, he experienced first-hand the duplicity that we were all to eventually experience at the hands of Nixon (whose underlings were influencing South Vietnamese leaders from coming to the negotiating table before the election, though he claims he had no knowledge. Yeah, right! Remember this duplicity, we'll see it again!). As a result, weeks before the election, he began to back Humphrey, which might have just been a little too late.
I think that perhaps for all of LBJ's failures in office, he left one significant legacy: he helped to begin to drag the South out of their out-dated mode of segregation. He challenged the South to realize that their apartheid was beginning to segregate them from the rest of the country, and perhaps only an LBJ, who styled himself as a corn pone, tall tale telling Southerner could do. A century had passed in American politics between a post-Civil War Johnson and the next Southern president, another Johnson. He broke the barrier, and over the next 50 years, we elected four southern Presidents: Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, Jr.
LBJ was born and reared in rural Texas early in the 20th century, seeing first-hand the difficulty of the poor and disenfranchised blacks and Hispanics. He was educated as a teacher, and one of his early jobs was working National Youth Association, one of FDR's New Deal projects. LBJ had a taste of politics, having witnessed his father in local politics and by becoming the personal secretary to a local state representative (who allowed LBJ to actually to run the office while he played wealthy jet setter). That role became a stepping stone for LBJ into state and eventually into national politics. LBJ was a born politician. He knew how to work his will, manipulating his peers using private details of their lives. He eventually positioned himself into Majority Leader, where he worked successfully, developing a reputation as a non-partisan politician during the Eisenhower administration.
Johnson had aspirations for the presidency in 1960, but was slated instead as the vice-presidential candidate to JFK. Their victory actually put LBJ into the uncomfortable position of having stepped down from being a mover and a shaker in the hallowed halls of Congress to being a Senate figurehead whose only other job was to being the understudy to the hero of the script, not a role to which LBJ was well suited. LBJ was determined to make the most of it. He made many trips abroad, glad-handing the populations of Southeast Asia in true LBJ fashion, sort of like an American tsunami to visit their shores! It is during this time that LBJ develops a life-long animosity towards Bobby Kennedy, two men with completely different styles vying to influence the president.
An assassin's bullet changes everything, and in a moment, LBJ becomes president.
His presidency is characterized by two main issues: domestically, his Great Society program, including civil rights and the War on Poverty, and internationally, Vietnam or in his own words, VEETNAM.
LBJ's hope for American was birthed in FDR's New Deal. I truly believe that his compassion for the poor and disenfranchised was authentic. He really did want to raise the standard for all Americans. He sought to improve education, especially for the blacks. He promoted Medicare for the elderly. He wanted to raise the minimum wage and get more Americans above the poverty line. He actually did make inroads in some areas, but as is usual with politics, issues are inter-related, and his domestic policies were hampered by his foreign policies which in a word was Vietnam.
I was in my pre-teens and teens during the Vietnam War. I remember listening to the hourly news on KDKA radio, which always ended with the number of soldiers killed, injured, or missing-in-action. And I remember protests to the war: sit-ins, violent clashes, and anti-war demonstrations (I can still hear CSN&Y's "Four dead in O-hi-o"). It was interesting to read a more studied account of what was actually going on. Kennedy inherited Vietnam from Eisenhower, who then passed it on to LBJ. Had Kennedy lived beyond that date in November 1963 the war may have proceeded very differently. Kennedy was realizing the futility of our involvement and was heading towards deceleration. LBJ was convinced (mislead perhaps) that American involvement could prevent the toppling of the other Southeast countries falling into the communist orbit in domino fashion. LBJ really thought that more bombing and more troops would eventually overwhelm North Vietnam into negotiating peace, leaving South Vietnam with a stable democratic form of government. His failure was his unwillingness to openly discuss with Congress and America at large the goals and values of continuing to stoke the war machine. He was afraid that the country would not willingly support both a war on poverty on the domestic front and the war on Vietnam simultaneously, so he kept quietly escalating the war, pouring more troops into the fray, as if the American population would not eventually notice the number of young men missing in their communities. Eventually the American public, fearing that this war lacked the morale cause of World War II, began to doubt the LBJ's leadership, and saw it only as a waste of American lives and American tax dollars. LBJ just could not imagine that a small entity as Vietnam could defeat the United States and and dreaded being the first American President to lose a war. So he pushed on, hoping that this new campaign or this new patch of American troops would drive the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table. The unexpected Tet offensive illustrated to the American public that things were not going as well as they were being told, though it does appear that the same Tet offensive actually caused the North more war damage than the South. Eventually LBJ came to realized that Vietnam was his own Waterloo and decided that, in his own words, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept..." a second term, committing what his daughter called political suicide.
The irony is that LBJ actually seemed to lean more towards Nixon than Hubert Horatio Hornblower...I mean, Humphrey as his presidential choice. At the last minute, he experienced first-hand the duplicity that we were all to eventually experience at the hands of Nixon (whose underlings were influencing South Vietnamese leaders from coming to the negotiating table before the election, though he claims he had no knowledge. Yeah, right! Remember this duplicity, we'll see it again!). As a result, weeks before the election, he began to back Humphrey, which might have just been a little too late.
I think that perhaps for all of LBJ's failures in office, he left one significant legacy: he helped to begin to drag the South out of their out-dated mode of segregation. He challenged the South to realize that their apartheid was beginning to segregate them from the rest of the country, and perhaps only an LBJ, who styled himself as a corn pone, tall tale telling Southerner could do. A century had passed in American politics between a post-Civil War Johnson and the next Southern president, another Johnson. He broke the barrier, and over the next 50 years, we elected four southern Presidents: Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, Jr.
August 26, 2020
This is a good single-volume account of Lyndon Johnson's life, but meaning no offense, Robert Dallek is no Robert Caro.
September 2, 2020
If you want a good biography on LBJ, look elsewhere. This book lacked a clear narrative arc and the chronology bounced around.
September 9, 2020
This is an abridged version of Dalleks 2 volume version, and thankful for that. I have been putting off reading about President Johnson for years as I new it would be tough having grown up during this period of history...Vietnam. Thankfully this book is much more than the war. I had such a negative memory of Johnson, as an adult I owed it to myself to take a fresh look at this history. I learned so much I did not know about Johnsons accomishments in the House then the Senate, remarkable achievements. And while hearing of The Great Society and Civil Rights law these were not easy but created so many programs that we all benefited from. As for the war he inherited from JFK, LBJ wanted to fight communism and while the war was a stalemate, years after worries about China and Russia were abated. The author includes many of LBJ's flaws and concerns about some decisions. This helped me put together many memories of the 60's. For that giving 5 stars.
August 15, 2009
Finally finished with this 1,000 page sucker. Lyndon Johnson was president for 5 years and 59 days, but it seemed twice as long because of his 18 hour days. I was partly greatly impressed with Dallek's work and partly miffed because while great, he writes in a non-linear fashion, by subject rather than chronology. He covers civil rights in chapters instead of letting the natural course of Johnson's presidency flow as it happened. The result is less effective than it could have been and he glosses over major events at times like the assassinations, riots and foreign events that took place in the '60s. The Tet Offensive gets a few paragraphs while reams of pages are given over to internal White House discussion of bombing halts in Vietnam and the debate about how to get Hanoi to the bargaining table. Maybe Dallek figured that so much had been written about those events already that it was superfluous, but David Halberstam wrote it better in "The Best and the Brightest".
Obviously a great deal of the book deals with the misery of Vietnam, the all-consuming, never-ending war that destroyed Johnson's promising presidency. Dallek gives very little insight on what the American public believed about the war except through opinion polls, gave no detailed description of the fighting, and major figures like General Westmoreland seem to be ignored almost entirely.
Criticisms aside, though, this is sort of a monumental book that is condensed to a digestable level. Robert Caro, by contrast, has written three volumes on Johnson and is only up to the Democratic convention of 1960. The best parts of this book come at the beginning, where Dallek describes Johnson's unhappy two and a half year tenure as Kennedy's vice president and the last part which details the 1968 election and Johnson's years on his ranch in retirement. Johnson was high-minded, low-minded, cruel, dishonest, psychologically unfit to be president, totally competent and the hardest working person ever to be in the office. In other words, unquantifiable. He was the last liberal president, (Jimmy Carter being a fiscal conservative and Bill Clinton being a phony) and by most measures of presidential greatness he stands quite highly: Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, gun control, aid to education, the War on Poverty, more national parks and monuments than the previous six presidents and the beginnings of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Russians, not to mention the space program.
Obviously a great deal of the book deals with the misery of Vietnam, the all-consuming, never-ending war that destroyed Johnson's promising presidency. Dallek gives very little insight on what the American public believed about the war except through opinion polls, gave no detailed description of the fighting, and major figures like General Westmoreland seem to be ignored almost entirely.
Criticisms aside, though, this is sort of a monumental book that is condensed to a digestable level. Robert Caro, by contrast, has written three volumes on Johnson and is only up to the Democratic convention of 1960. The best parts of this book come at the beginning, where Dallek describes Johnson's unhappy two and a half year tenure as Kennedy's vice president and the last part which details the 1968 election and Johnson's years on his ranch in retirement. Johnson was high-minded, low-minded, cruel, dishonest, psychologically unfit to be president, totally competent and the hardest working person ever to be in the office. In other words, unquantifiable. He was the last liberal president, (Jimmy Carter being a fiscal conservative and Bill Clinton being a phony) and by most measures of presidential greatness he stands quite highly: Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, gun control, aid to education, the War on Poverty, more national parks and monuments than the previous six presidents and the beginnings of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Russians, not to mention the space program.
October 26, 2021
When I began this book I had little knowledge of LBJ beyond his replacing JFK after his assassination and as the subject of chants when as a young police officer I stood outside the US Embassy in London facing the hordes of anti-war demonstrators chanting "Hey, Hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today" There is no doubt that his Presidency will always be tainted by his actions in Vietnam which is a real shame because it overshadows his achievements on domestic issues , especially civil rights and the ending of overt segregation. Two quotes near the end of the book struck me -firstly at a conference after he left the White House "While the races stand side by side, white's stand on history's mountain and black's stand in history's hollow. Until we overcome unequal history we cannot overcome unequal opportunity" and another at his lying in state after his death- one black woman said to her little girl "People don't know it, but he did more for us than anybody, any President ever did.."
He was flawed but if it hadn't been for Vietnam I feel that this book shows that he would have been regarded as one of the great Presidents
He was flawed but if it hadn't been for Vietnam I feel that this book shows that he would have been regarded as one of the great Presidents
May 4, 2012
Not easy for me to give Dallek's biography of LBJ a decent shake. 'Lyndon B. Johnson-Portrait of a President' (2004) is the abridged history decanted from 'Lone Star Rising' (1991) and 'Flawed Giant' (1998). The extensive bibliography and notes from these two volumes are missing here. As the author himself states in the introduction to the work in the preface, "this is a relatively brief book."
Even so, this portrait may only be an outline sketch from those two earlier publications, but Dallek is a great writer of American political history. His 'John F. Kennedy:An Unfinished Life' is another very good read. I've encountered nothing new here that I previously read in 'LBJ-Architect of American Ambition' by Randall Woods, yet found many dark avenues of research not touched by both Dallek and Woods that are researched in Nelson's 'LBJ-Mastermind of the JFK Assassination.'
For students of twentieth century American political history, all the books mentioned in this review can be recommended.
Even so, this portrait may only be an outline sketch from those two earlier publications, but Dallek is a great writer of American political history. His 'John F. Kennedy:An Unfinished Life' is another very good read. I've encountered nothing new here that I previously read in 'LBJ-Architect of American Ambition' by Randall Woods, yet found many dark avenues of research not touched by both Dallek and Woods that are researched in Nelson's 'LBJ-Mastermind of the JFK Assassination.'
For students of twentieth century American political history, all the books mentioned in this review can be recommended.
August 10, 2013
LBJ has always been one of my favorite 20th century presidents but I didn't much about him besides his presidency. I really enjoyed reading about his early life (he was a teacher!) and his work in the Senate. The book confirmed my admiration for him for the work he did for civil rights and his life-long devotion to education and alleviating poverty. Of course, his Vietnam policy was a complete disaster, as the book makes clear. At first, I thought Dallek wasn't going to be critical enough of Johnson. It is clear he admires him, but he is critical of his actions, particularly his paranoia about the anti-war movement and his decisions on Vietnam. The book was long (and this is only the 1-volume version! The author also has a multi-volume version!) and I started skimming a lot at the end. The end chapters move so slowly and there was a lot of minutiae about his polling numbers and how they changed from month to month that just bogged down the narrative.
March 7, 2013
Excellent biography. It mostly avoids the biographer's curse of falling so in love with one's subject that all objectivity is lost. I am not sure if I could have personally taken much more Johnson; I enjoyed the "condensed" size.
October 5, 2021
Dallek's condensed single volume biography of Johnson is good and this one of those times where I really have to watch myself and judge the book by its style and content rather than the person behind it. I admittedly didn't know a whole lot about LBJ outside of his handling of the Vietnam War, which I was pretty sympathetic towards. He was caught between a rock and a hard place in a lot of cases and was not helped at all by military brass and a public which was mercurial in their war support. I have to give this book quite a bit of credit, because it completely changed my perception of the man, and not for the better. I don't think that is what Dallek wanted to happen, but his discussion of Johnson's cynicism throughout his political career now dominated my understanding of the man.
Now I know all those Caro fans will be like, "NOOOOOOO YOU DON'T KNOW HOW DEEP HE IS!!!!! CARO HAS WRITTEN 50,000 PAGES ON HIM!!!!!" I would say that Johnson is interesting, but that doesn't make him a good president or a good person. Johnson reminded me a lot of Hoover. Where he was someone who was not ideological, or only ideological when it suited him. He towed the party line in nearly all cases and told people what they wanted to hear. We say this about all politicians, but it isn't true for all of them. Whether or not you like FDR, he took stands that got him whacked by his own party, same goes for Teddy, and Jefferson and many other presidents. There are those, like Johnson, who simply put power and prestige above all things. Do I think he cared about civil rights and poor people? Sure, but only when it was convenient. Nothing solidified this more than Dallek discussing his civil rights record where he would bring in southern senators and call black people "niggers," and essentially agree with them on desegregation. In truth he was simply following where the power was. In the 40's and early 50's he didn't care all that much about civil rights because if he did anything about he would have been voted out of office. Suddenly in the late 50's he finds his conscience and began to advocate for light civil rights reforms. I'm pretty forgiving because often times if we have mistaken beliefs it takes us a long time to grow out of them, but Johnson wasn't actually a committed segregationist. He just said/supported whatever was going to get him power. Then he finally got it in the presidency and fumbled, so at least there is justice there. Oh, he also probably stole his senate election, which is not great.
These were the main takeaways I got from this book and honestly Dallek does a great job presenting this as a neutral. He doesn't hide anything and he also doesn't take an overly negative tone or a positive one. His prose flows well and I had a tough time putting it down at some points. With so many huge multi-series biographies on this guy, this would be the one to start with to get your feet wet. It is probably the best single-volume biography on him.
Now I know all those Caro fans will be like, "NOOOOOOO YOU DON'T KNOW HOW DEEP HE IS!!!!! CARO HAS WRITTEN 50,000 PAGES ON HIM!!!!!" I would say that Johnson is interesting, but that doesn't make him a good president or a good person. Johnson reminded me a lot of Hoover. Where he was someone who was not ideological, or only ideological when it suited him. He towed the party line in nearly all cases and told people what they wanted to hear. We say this about all politicians, but it isn't true for all of them. Whether or not you like FDR, he took stands that got him whacked by his own party, same goes for Teddy, and Jefferson and many other presidents. There are those, like Johnson, who simply put power and prestige above all things. Do I think he cared about civil rights and poor people? Sure, but only when it was convenient. Nothing solidified this more than Dallek discussing his civil rights record where he would bring in southern senators and call black people "niggers," and essentially agree with them on desegregation. In truth he was simply following where the power was. In the 40's and early 50's he didn't care all that much about civil rights because if he did anything about he would have been voted out of office. Suddenly in the late 50's he finds his conscience and began to advocate for light civil rights reforms. I'm pretty forgiving because often times if we have mistaken beliefs it takes us a long time to grow out of them, but Johnson wasn't actually a committed segregationist. He just said/supported whatever was going to get him power. Then he finally got it in the presidency and fumbled, so at least there is justice there. Oh, he also probably stole his senate election, which is not great.
These were the main takeaways I got from this book and honestly Dallek does a great job presenting this as a neutral. He doesn't hide anything and he also doesn't take an overly negative tone or a positive one. His prose flows well and I had a tough time putting it down at some points. With so many huge multi-series biographies on this guy, this would be the one to start with to get your feet wet. It is probably the best single-volume biography on him.
May 7, 2024
3.5 stars
I read this biography of LBJ as part of a now decades-long goal to read a biography of every US president. I generally like to pick the "best" biography of a given president, but for LBJ the most commonly acknowledged "best" biography is Robert Caro's still unfinished 5-part series. Dallek's 2-volume series was another good option, but I didn’t want to invest the time that either multi-volume biography was require, so instead I chose Portrait of a President, which is an abridged version of Dallek’s 2-part biography.
Although I'm not an expert historian, this seemed to be a good, balanced look at LBJ's life, specifically his life as a politician. Lots of space is given to his political campaigns, his legislative work, and his years as president, especially on the Vietnam War and on his vision for the Great Society. We get to know Lyndon Johnson the man as his personality affected the way he functioned as a politician, but the book doesn't really touch on his family life or anything outside of politics.
Like many men of ambition who end up in the presidency, Johnson is right to be remembered for some significant achievements, but he also had significant faults. Although Johnson's War on Poverty and vision for The Great Society were always too ambitious and optimistic to be completely achieved, their impact on American society is indisputable. Under Johnson the country saw significant steps forward in civil rights, environmental conservation, and social services such as Medicare and Head Start.
And yet Johnson's legacy is also marred by Vietnam. While an American military presence in Vietnam began under Eisenhower (with military advisors) and was continued by Kennedy, Johnson continued to escalate the US's involvement in the war and the number of troops on the ground. He deceived the American public about changes in policy and realities of what was really happening in Vietnam, while allowing critics of the war and protestors to be harassed. Dallek asserts (and many modern historians agree), that it was clear as early as 1965 that the war was unwinnable, but Johnson refused to be "the first American president to lose a war."
A good, readable biography focusing on LBJ the politician, although not a complete picture of LBJ the man.
I read this biography of LBJ as part of a now decades-long goal to read a biography of every US president. I generally like to pick the "best" biography of a given president, but for LBJ the most commonly acknowledged "best" biography is Robert Caro's still unfinished 5-part series. Dallek's 2-volume series was another good option, but I didn’t want to invest the time that either multi-volume biography was require, so instead I chose Portrait of a President, which is an abridged version of Dallek’s 2-part biography.
Although I'm not an expert historian, this seemed to be a good, balanced look at LBJ's life, specifically his life as a politician. Lots of space is given to his political campaigns, his legislative work, and his years as president, especially on the Vietnam War and on his vision for the Great Society. We get to know Lyndon Johnson the man as his personality affected the way he functioned as a politician, but the book doesn't really touch on his family life or anything outside of politics.
Like many men of ambition who end up in the presidency, Johnson is right to be remembered for some significant achievements, but he also had significant faults. Although Johnson's War on Poverty and vision for The Great Society were always too ambitious and optimistic to be completely achieved, their impact on American society is indisputable. Under Johnson the country saw significant steps forward in civil rights, environmental conservation, and social services such as Medicare and Head Start.
And yet Johnson's legacy is also marred by Vietnam. While an American military presence in Vietnam began under Eisenhower (with military advisors) and was continued by Kennedy, Johnson continued to escalate the US's involvement in the war and the number of troops on the ground. He deceived the American public about changes in policy and realities of what was really happening in Vietnam, while allowing critics of the war and protestors to be harassed. Dallek asserts (and many modern historians agree), that it was clear as early as 1965 that the war was unwinnable, but Johnson refused to be "the first American president to lose a war."
A good, readable biography focusing on LBJ the politician, although not a complete picture of LBJ the man.
December 22, 2023
Robert Dallek is a great political biographer and this like others is a perfect example of his work. An abridged piece of his two extensive works on Johnson, this book provides a great narrative of Johnson in government and his policies conserning the Vietnam war and the Great Society.
Not much is spoken of Johnson’s early years nor his private life, if one is looking for a purely political biography that is balanced and focused on fact then this is the perfect book for you. Yet if one craves to know the person behind the president seal I would advise to look elsewhere.
Johnson is a personal favourite of mine among American Presidents, his personality and his methods make him one of the most interesting individuals to hold the office. And in my opinion he far outshines his immediate predecessor and many of his successors, yet this book does not explore Johnson the man as President, it explores his decisions as President and in doing so ignores much of the man.
For personal preference (that being too much focus in my old school lessons) Vietnam tends not to peak my interest, with this in mind, Johnson’s Presidency in a large part is focused upon this foreign affairs mission, as such much of the book had little appeal. Saying this the whole sections on Vietnam are packed full of detail and do provide a balanced view upon the war.
Dallek’s conclusion is perhaps one of the best historical notes on LBJ, saying he will always be a divisive figure who will divide the American public for the rest of time but he is a man that will never be forgotten. He may stand tall or low in your beliefs but he stands all the same, his Presidency will be remembered and so will the man who occupied it. LBJ will not be forgotten anytime soon, and in part Robert Dallek is to thank for that.
Not much is spoken of Johnson’s early years nor his private life, if one is looking for a purely political biography that is balanced and focused on fact then this is the perfect book for you. Yet if one craves to know the person behind the president seal I would advise to look elsewhere.
Johnson is a personal favourite of mine among American Presidents, his personality and his methods make him one of the most interesting individuals to hold the office. And in my opinion he far outshines his immediate predecessor and many of his successors, yet this book does not explore Johnson the man as President, it explores his decisions as President and in doing so ignores much of the man.
For personal preference (that being too much focus in my old school lessons) Vietnam tends not to peak my interest, with this in mind, Johnson’s Presidency in a large part is focused upon this foreign affairs mission, as such much of the book had little appeal. Saying this the whole sections on Vietnam are packed full of detail and do provide a balanced view upon the war.
Dallek’s conclusion is perhaps one of the best historical notes on LBJ, saying he will always be a divisive figure who will divide the American public for the rest of time but he is a man that will never be forgotten. He may stand tall or low in your beliefs but he stands all the same, his Presidency will be remembered and so will the man who occupied it. LBJ will not be forgotten anytime soon, and in part Robert Dallek is to thank for that.
December 23, 2019
I enjoyed this book, which is an abridged version of two of Dallek’s books on LBJ. The first of those two volumes covered Johnson’s life up until he became vice president and the second covered 1961 on. Together the two tun to some 1,200 pages, which I was unprepared to tackle.
Dalleck’s portrait of Johnson is generous, I think, in minimizing some of Johnson’s failings, including violations of campaign finance laws and his use of the FBI for political purposes (including widespread use of illegal wiretaps). But the author is correct in emphasizing some of Johnson’s strengths including high intelligence, high energy, strong work ethic, devotion to the cause of racial equality and faith in the power of the government to have a positive influence on ordinary citizens.
LBJ had many successful policies put in place in his time, many having to do with civil rights (dismantling many Jim Crow practices) and healthcare (introducing Medicare and Medicaid). He’d have had more success with his Great Society programs had he not devoted so much of his abilities and the nation’s blood and money on the war in Vietnam. His failure to understand the almost inevitable conquest by the North split the country in two and killed any hopes he had for re-election in 1968. At the end of the day, Vietnam is possibly the most significant policy failure of the Cold War era. It is, unfortunately, what LBJ will best be remembered for. One thing is undeniably true, though, as Dallek points out: LBJ will not be forgotten.
There were some editing errors in this abridged version that should have been caught. And Dallek and his editors decided to not provide footnotes, so checking for sources and other information usually available in a serious history is impossible here.
Dalleck’s portrait of Johnson is generous, I think, in minimizing some of Johnson’s failings, including violations of campaign finance laws and his use of the FBI for political purposes (including widespread use of illegal wiretaps). But the author is correct in emphasizing some of Johnson’s strengths including high intelligence, high energy, strong work ethic, devotion to the cause of racial equality and faith in the power of the government to have a positive influence on ordinary citizens.
LBJ had many successful policies put in place in his time, many having to do with civil rights (dismantling many Jim Crow practices) and healthcare (introducing Medicare and Medicaid). He’d have had more success with his Great Society programs had he not devoted so much of his abilities and the nation’s blood and money on the war in Vietnam. His failure to understand the almost inevitable conquest by the North split the country in two and killed any hopes he had for re-election in 1968. At the end of the day, Vietnam is possibly the most significant policy failure of the Cold War era. It is, unfortunately, what LBJ will best be remembered for. One thing is undeniably true, though, as Dallek points out: LBJ will not be forgotten.
There were some editing errors in this abridged version that should have been caught. And Dallek and his editors decided to not provide footnotes, so checking for sources and other information usually available in a serious history is impossible here.
November 15, 2020
I’ve never really bought the vilification of Lyndon Johnson from some quarters - the war monger famed by the slogan ‘Hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?’.
This biography is a distillation of a much more substantial two volume life by Dallek and it sets out the life of a man who is arguably the most experienced politician ever to sit in the White House, having previously sat in both the House and Senate before being Vice President under JFK.
His Presidency was, on the one hand, progressive with his ‘Great Society’ bringing legislation in the arena of civil rights, education and Medicare. However irrespective of how successful he was on the home front his Presidency will forever be defined by foreign policy - the Vietnam War being the black hole that sucked in everything and dominated the second half of his Presidency almost to the exclusion of everything else.
The passage of time allows for perspective and after reading this biography it solidifies in my mind the belief that LBJ was in the top tier of American Presidents. In terms of 20th Century presidents arguably only FDR has a greater record.
This biography is a distillation of a much more substantial two volume life by Dallek and it sets out the life of a man who is arguably the most experienced politician ever to sit in the White House, having previously sat in both the House and Senate before being Vice President under JFK.
His Presidency was, on the one hand, progressive with his ‘Great Society’ bringing legislation in the arena of civil rights, education and Medicare. However irrespective of how successful he was on the home front his Presidency will forever be defined by foreign policy - the Vietnam War being the black hole that sucked in everything and dominated the second half of his Presidency almost to the exclusion of everything else.
The passage of time allows for perspective and after reading this biography it solidifies in my mind the belief that LBJ was in the top tier of American Presidents. In terms of 20th Century presidents arguably only FDR has a greater record.
May 15, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Book 59 of 2024. “Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President” by Robert Dallek.
“Robert Dallek’s brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available.
Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the ‘human dynamo’, from the Texas hill country to the White House. In these pages, Johson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven. Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this singular biography reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage.”
“Robert Dallek’s brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available.
Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the ‘human dynamo’, from the Texas hill country to the White House. In these pages, Johson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven. Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this singular biography reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage.”
December 4, 2025
Strangely distant from its subject, Dallek's combined work is based on two former volumes and remains lifeless, focusing more as a retelling of America's foreign policy dilemmas of the 1960s. His pre-White House years are more revealing - the ascent to power and in particular the congressional years where his reputation for legislative achievements are legendary. His route into congress, like so many, is shrouded in controversial vote counting - for LBJ in his home state of Texas.
The presidential era of 1963 to early 1969 reads more like a roster of opinion polls and tactical shifts in Vietnam rather than any in-depth portrait of the man, the Great Society achievements apart. Notably Lady Bird receives few mentions and his daughters barely a few lines.
The dilemmas he faced are well drawn but the man himself seems as out of sight by the end of the book as at any stage earlier.
The presidential era of 1963 to early 1969 reads more like a roster of opinion polls and tactical shifts in Vietnam rather than any in-depth portrait of the man, the Great Society achievements apart. Notably Lady Bird receives few mentions and his daughters barely a few lines.
The dilemmas he faced are well drawn but the man himself seems as out of sight by the end of the book as at any stage earlier.
July 21, 2022
I do love Dallek’s books. I read his biographies for FDR and Kennedy and found this one as, if not more, rewarding than either. If I had more time, I’d read the longer volumes but this abridged edition suited my personal presidential curiosity just fine. Johnson is now my solid answer for who I’d like to meet if I could go back in time (sorry Truman).
I found myself wishing that the book covered more of the Great Society and less of Vietnam, but then Johnson did feel the same way about his presidency, so I’m not deducting any stars for my misguided expectations. Plus, I did this to myself by reading the abridged version. In my defense, the two volumes I think are more than 1500 pages together.
I found myself wishing that the book covered more of the Great Society and less of Vietnam, but then Johnson did feel the same way about his presidency, so I’m not deducting any stars for my misguided expectations. Plus, I did this to myself by reading the abridged version. In my defense, the two volumes I think are more than 1500 pages together.
August 22, 2022
I have read a lot of books about LBJ, including the two lengthy Dallek volumes of which this is a condensed version. While nothing comes close to Robert Caro’s masterful multi volume biography of this complex man, Dallek’s digest is a good introduction to him for readers who don’t have the time or the inclination to invest in Caro. The chapters on Vietnam are especially good because they aptly reflect the swirling confusion of US policy.
One thing I like about Dallek’s approach is his willingness to just lay out the story, to let the reader come to his own conclusions about LBJ, withholding his own analysis until the last few pages.
Overall, a good introduction which I hope will whet the appetite of readers to try the full Dallek volumes or , even better, Caro.
One thing I like about Dallek’s approach is his willingness to just lay out the story, to let the reader come to his own conclusions about LBJ, withholding his own analysis until the last few pages.
Overall, a good introduction which I hope will whet the appetite of readers to try the full Dallek volumes or , even better, Caro.
January 26, 2024
This one is a bit of an odd duck, it's an abbreviation of two previous books and aimed at folks tackling Johnson for the first time.
I'll fess up that I have read way more Johnson books than any rational person should. So a bit of bias here.
It's pretty weak on the early years, and even up through about mid 1966. But the 66-68 stuff, especially the Vietnam stuff, is actually quite good. The late political stuff in 1968 is also high caliber.
If you are a first timer looking for an easier, but yet quality read on Johnson than tackling the Robert Caro books.. yeah. This is it.
But if you are a serious deep diver... read Dallek's two book version of this, or even better take the deep dive into Caro.
I'll fess up that I have read way more Johnson books than any rational person should. So a bit of bias here.
It's pretty weak on the early years, and even up through about mid 1966. But the 66-68 stuff, especially the Vietnam stuff, is actually quite good. The late political stuff in 1968 is also high caliber.
If you are a first timer looking for an easier, but yet quality read on Johnson than tackling the Robert Caro books.. yeah. This is it.
But if you are a serious deep diver... read Dallek's two book version of this, or even better take the deep dive into Caro.
January 18, 2018
Excellent biography, honest about LBJ and his achievements. On one hand a driven self centred person having trouble to listen to ideas and even facts which do not suit him. On the other hand motivated by the New Deal from FDR and his youth and background to do something to improve the civil rights for blacks and work on poverty.
Dallek did a good job. The outlook what happened with the LBJ legislation in later years was enlightening. He sketches a human being with strong and weak points just as many people are. Everybody can make up his mind with the information in this book on how he or she judges LBJ. T
Dallek did a good job. The outlook what happened with the LBJ legislation in later years was enlightening. He sketches a human being with strong and weak points just as many people are. Everybody can make up his mind with the information in this book on how he or she judges LBJ. T
March 4, 2022
Extremely well researched and easy to read. However, it reads and feels more like an abridged set rather than a single volume. It’s one of the few times I wish a book was longer as I felt Dallek cut too much out (two volume set around 1000 pages this book is under 400). Just like his work on JFK, Dallek really hates discussing the worts in LBJ’s life unless he absolutely has to. For those that aren’t interested in multiple works, this is probably the best there. However, if you really want to understand the man rather than 300 page list of his accomplishments, the two volume work is much more complete.
June 7, 2020
I really wanted to learn more about LBJ after reading the chapter about him in "The Soul of America". My previous impression of him was of a crude, power-hungry man who led the country into the Vietnam War. Those things were all true but I am glad to have learned of his genuine compassion and love for disadvantaged people. I now understand where that compassion came from and how very hard he worked to create opportunities for the the poor.
October 25, 2023
Certainly not the most comprehensive biography out there, but this wasn’t intended to be and it does give a broad overview of much of Johnson’s career. Easy read and I liked that it wasn’t bogged down with minute details of events, though some major, global events probably weren’t given enough space to really communicate their impact on his life.
March 12, 2018
Probably started this two years ago and just now picked it back up to finish it. For a quick, one volume biography of LBJ this served its purpose well. Lots of memorable anecdotes and a good description of the man.
March 1, 2020
Unremarkable. His nearly constant references to poll ratings during LBJ’s presidency nearly drove me to distraction. I found his account of LBJ’s nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court disappointing, and misleading almost to the brink of inaccuracy.
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