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The Passage of Power
PRESIDENTIAL SERIES
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12. Presidential Series: PASSAGE OF POWER ~~ Dec. 3rd ~ Dec. 9th ~~ Chapters TWENTY ONE and TWENTY TWO (503 - 557); No Spoilers Please
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Chapter Overviews and SummariesChapter Twenty One: Serenity
LBJ spent the holidays at his ranch in Texas. One of the biggest events was the state dinner for German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard. The dinner consisted of BBQ and a square dance, and Erhard and his delegation met many Germans living in the Texas Hill Country. By the end of the dinner, Erhard and LBJ became friends.
LBJ was putting his own stamp on the presidency. More press and government officials came to Texas to report and work on policy. LBJ made official press announcements there, such as reducing the federal work force that he needed to get the budget under $100 billion.
LBJ worked to kill Margaret Mayer's stories about his radio and TV stations. He also worked on getting the Houston Chronicle in his camp by helping the president of the paper get a bank merger approved. LBJ also made many phone calls to his blind trust manager, Anton Moursund, which indicated his blind trust was not really that blind.
LBJ also worked on Vietnam policy at the ranch. He was getting reports that the situation was deteriorating and McNamara, McCone, and Bundy went to Vietnam, confirming that the situation was worse. Senator Mansfield countered that a war in Vietnam was too costly and the U.S. was not prepared for war. LBJ read a report from General Victor Krulak's committee recommending escalating covert operations, commando raids at North Vietnam coastlines, guerrilla raids at Ho Chi Minh Trail, and shelling military installations in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was approved on January 16, 1964. He also did not draw down military troops as expected. All this was kept secret from Congress and the public due to the November election.
Finally, LBJ looked into poverty programs while the State of the Union was being written. He approved of JFK's investigation on poverty programs and put his full weight behind it. He found existing money from other federal programs totaling $1 billion dollars, and asked his staff to find specific and creative programs to spend the money on.
When he returned to D.C., LBJ presented his State of the Union with high praise.
Chapter Twenty Two: "Old Harry" II
LBJ brought Byrd into the White House to go over the budget numbers. He got them under $100 billion and told Byrd that he got the president to reduce the budget. The tax bill was still a problem as senators wanted to add amendments to exempt goods from their own state. With LBJ's persuasion, Byrd was able to bundle up all the amendments and vote it down in one vote. Byrd wrote the committee report over the weekend, because the House was looking to vote out the civil rights bill, and LBJ wanted the tax bill passed before the Senate tackled the civil rights bill. On February 7, the Senate passed the tax cut bill and three days later, the House passed the civil rights bill.
Something small caught my eye in the beginning of chapter 21. Caro mentions LBJ had violent mood swings (p. 504).I think at times, he must have been a hard man to be around.
I can see why the ranch helped smooth the edges.
Yes, mixing power with mood swings can create quite an atmosphere for others close by. Cato keeps the thought of “Power” in the forefront throughout his book. Article 2 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution details the specific inherent executive power that comes with the office of the President of the United States.Three-Star USMC Gen. Brute Krulak is mentioned on page 533. Hopefully, in his final series book, Cato will elaborate on a future White House meeting that Krulak had with President Johnson.
Krulak felt that the true casualty rate in Vietnam was not being reported to the American public and also that too many Marine casualties were needlessly due to the rules of engagement imposed by Washington D.C. officials that issued no-fly zones and restricted American bombing. During the summer of 1967 Krulak’s convictions prompted him to voice his concerns through the chain of command on up to the very top and a one-on-one meeting with the Commander-in Chief, President Johnson. He knew full well that by taking an obligatory stand he might receive “The Johnson Treatment” and jeopardize his distinguished career. During the exchange of words Krulak’s biographer Robert Coram noted:
““Johnson had had enough. “He got to his feet,” Krulak recalled, “walked around, and put his hand on my shoulder—not to console me or to say he was in agreement, but to propel me to the door. He did not say a word. He just ushered me out.”” ("BRUTE: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine" pg.313)
Months later, Lt. Gen. Krulak the front runner to be the 24th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was bypassed by LBJ’s selection. However, decade’s later one of Krulak’s sons, General Charles Krulak, rose to become the 31st Marine Corps Commandant.
by
Robert Coram
I have the feeling that the ranch provided him with a feeling of balance . . . there he could be himself and was surrounded with things that gave him comfort and he was proud of it . . . it was a showcase of everything he didn't have growing up. After reading about his meeting with Erhard I was actually smiling to myself. But the reality of his hubris came back soon enough when reading about how he handled Mayer's stories about his business dealings.
And then later . . . learning about the installation of the private phones that allowed him to continue with his personal business all throughout his term of office was an interesting bit of info.
All during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, he, either himself or through a press secretary, would insist that he had divorced himself completely from his business interests. 'As the American people know,' George Reedy said in one of many such statements--all approved word for word by the President--'the President has devoted all his time and energy to the public business and he is not engaged in any private enterprise, directly or indirectly.' And all during his presidency , the phones stayed in place, and the calls went on. Nook eBook p. 705/1041
The dichotomy of LBJ is shown us again in the story about the birthday party for Horace Busby at the segregated Forty Acres Club where he showed up with his pretty black secretary Gerri Whittington on his arm . . . and effectively integrated it in one night.
Just as an aside, I have to say I would have loved being at the Erhard party at Fredricksburg.What I did get out of this was as Time reported ".... Erhard showed with genuine feeling that he had established a personal friendship with the president...."
This, of course, was Johnson's great skill.
Tomerobber wrote: "I have the feeling that the ranch provided him with a feeling of balance . . . there he could be himself and was surrounded with things that gave him comfort and he was proud of it . . . it was a s..."Ii think Caro does a good job in showing the various sides of LBJ. I was right there with you, Tomerobber, smiling about the the state dinner, then shaking my head about his blind trust.
You come back to MLK's quote: great ego, great power.
Mark wrote: "Yes, mixing power with mood swings can create quite an atmosphere for others close by. Cato keeps the thought of “Power” in the forefront throughout his book. Article 2 Section 2 of the U.S. Consti..."Thanks, Mark for the background. It shows you another aspect of power: killing military leaders' careers.
G wrote: "Just as an aside, I have to say I would have loved being at the Erhard party at Fredricksburg.What I did get out of this was as Time reported ".... Erhard showed with genuine feeling that he had ..."
And what a great idea to get the German descendants together. Brilliant.
Tomeroober, I think you are correct, the ranch gave him a balance and show his authenticity. Also, the ranch was a great way to put his own stamp on the presidency. Totally different than JFK.
Bryan wrote: "And what a great idea to get the German descendants together. Brilliant.I too thought the rural Texas atmosphere along with German descendents singing was a great simple way to celebrate with Erhard. It truly depicted life in America outside of Washington D.C.
I enjoyed the description of the German festivities at the ranch. At first I wondered how the press was going to react, given LBJ's previous reputation of being a something of a country yokel. the press reaction was very positive, however, and the very caual party was really more conducive to forging personal relationships than formal state dinners - at least as far as Erhard was concerned.I was surprised that so many people in that town still spoke German, given the ant-German feelings provoked by two World Wars. My uncle told me that the people in his small town in South Dakota just suddenly stopped speaking German because of those feelings. However, he was not the most reliable reporter, especially in the last stages of his life.
It was very interesting to read how involved LBJ was with his "blind" trust. He was a very successful businessman and had built his investments himself, so it would have been very difficult to detach himself. It made me wonder about other so called "blind" trusts.His ruthlessness and deceits also made me wonder if these characteristics generally go along with great political power. This book is making me more and more cynical, or maybe just wiser.
Ann wrote: "I enjoyed the description of the German festivities at the ranch. At first I wondered how the press was going to react, given LBJ's previous reputation of being a something of a country yokel. the..."Interesting about South Dakota. I didn't know what to expect from the press, either. It really seemed to be a success, more impressive since it came a month after JFK's assassination.
Ann wrote: "It was very interesting to read how involved LBJ was with his "blind" trust. He was a very successful businessman and had built his investments himself, so it would have been very difficult to deta..."I do think LBJ had a control issue; it would be hard for him to give it all up. Lady Bird had good business sense, as well, but she couldn't run things, either.
Yeah, I think great political power goes hand in hand with some deceit and ruthlessness, maybe shades of it. I guess I hope there are people out there that are powerful, but less deceitful and ruthless. To keep power, you use power...
" To keep power, you use power... Very well said, Bryan.
I think having power is one thing . . . but what you do with it speaks more to character of a person.
Very true, Tomerobber, we return to the theme of how LBJ used power, don't we?
The evolution of Johnson's Vietnam policy is becoming clearer in this section. Discussing the options with John Knight, he said “One [option} is run and let the dominoes start falling over. And God almighty, what they said about us leaving China would just be warming up compared to what they’d say now."… (Kindle Locations 13056-13058).
Johnson fully bought into the domino theory that said that if Vietnam fell, there went all of Southeast Asia. Given those beliefs, who would want that responsibility?
Many Americans blamed the government for "losing" China, which, of course, was not ours to lose.
Even though I think the U.S. Vietnam policy was a terrible failure, we have to view it in the context of the Cold War. I remember as a child worrying that the planes flying overhead were the Communists coming to drop bombs on us. We watched TV which showed Soviet Communist kids betraying their parents for the cause. Our mistake was viewing the Communists as one coordinated, monolithic enemy.
I think Truman's "loss of China" produced a long shadow on the political history of the 1950s and 1960s, as Ann says. No successor would want that again, and I do think it weighed on LBJ's mind re: Vietnam.I'm troubled that he kept things secret from the public and Congress even at this stage. In my head, I understand his motives: Caro argues it is for the 1964 election. Also, covert ops can be effective but they must remain secret...but Congress does have security clearance for this kinds of stuff. However, it is hard to swallow knowing what will happen.
Good point about the secrecy, Bryan. Congress had a right to know.
State of the Union, Part One:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv9aim...
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the House and Senate, my fellow Americans:
I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long.
Last year's congressional session was the longest in peacetime history. With that foundation, let us work together to make this year's session the best in the nation's history.
Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time; as the session which declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United States; as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our older citizens; as the session which reformed our tangled transportation and transit policies; as the session which achieved the most effective, efficient foreign aid program ever; and as the session which helped to build more homes, more schools, more libraries, and more hospitals than any single session of Congress in the history of our Republic.
All this and more can and must be done. It can be done by this summer, and it can be done without any increase in spending. In fact, under the budget that I shall shortly submit, it can be done with an actual reduction in federal expenditures and federal employment.
We have in 1964 a unique opportunity and obligation—to prove the success of our system; to disprove those cynics and critics at home and abroad who question our purpose and our competence.
If we fail, if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly. But if we succeed, if we can achieve these goals by forging in this country a greater sense of union, then, and only then, can we take full satisfaction in the state of the Union.
Here in the Congress you can demonstrate effective legislative leadership by discharging the public business with clarity and dispatch, voting each important proposal up, or voting it down, but at least bringing it to a fair and a final vote.
Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right.
In his memory today, I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party, and to always debate principles; never debate personalities.
For my part, I pledge a progressive administration which is efficient, and honest and frugal. The budget to be submitted to the Congress shortly is in full accord with this pledge.
It will cut our deficit in half—from $10 billion to $4,900 million. It will be, in proportion to our national output, the smallest budget since 1951.
It will call for a substantial reduction in federal employment, a feat accomplished only once before in the last 10 years. While maintaining the full strength of our combat defenses, it will call for the lowest number of civilian personnel in the Department of Defense since 1950.
It will call for total expenditures of $97,900 million—compared to $98,400 million for the current year, a reduction of more than $500 million. It will call for new obligational authority of $103,800 million—a reduction of more than $4 billion below last year's request of $107,900 million.
But it is not a standstill budget, for America cannot afford to stand still. Our population is growing. Our economy is more complex. Our people's needs are expanding.
But by closing down obsolete installations, by curtailing less urgent programs, by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise, by insisting on a dollar's worth for a dollar spent, I am able to recommend in this reduced budget the most federal support in history for education, for health, for retraining the unemployed, and for helping the economically and the physically handicapped.
This budget, and this year's legislative program, are designed to help each and every American citizen fulfill his basic hopes—his hopes for a fair chance to make good; his hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a full-time job on full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent community; his hopes for a good school for his children with good teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or unemployment or old age.
Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope—some because of their poverty, and some because of theft color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.
This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.
It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. One thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return $40,000 or more in his lifetime.
Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the state and the local level and must be supported and directed by state and local efforts.
For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House.
The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs.
Our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools, and better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job opportunities to help more Americans, especially young Americans, escape from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them.
Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.
But whatever the cause, our joint federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists—in city slums and small towns, in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps, on Indian Reservations, among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in the boom towns and in the depressed areas.
Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it. No single piece of legislation, however, is going to suffice.
We will launch a special effort in the chronically distressed areas of Appalachia.
We must expand our small but our successful area redevelopment program.
We must enact youth employment legislation to put jobless, aimless, hopeless youngsters to work on useful projects.
We must distribute more food to the needy through a broader food stamp program.
We must create a National Service Corps to help the economically handicapped of our own country as the Peace Corps now helps those abroad.
We must modernize our unemployment insurance and establish a high-level commission on automation. If we have the brain power to invent these machines, we have the brain power to make certain that they are a boon and not a bane to humanity.
We must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than two million workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power.
We must, by including special school aid funds as part of our education program, improve the quality of teaching, training, and counseling in our hardest hit areas.
We must build more libraries in every area and more hospitals and nursing homes under the Hill-Burton Act, and train more nurses to staff them.
We must provide hospital insurance for our older citizens financed by every worker and his employer under Social Security, contributing no more than $1 a month during the employee's working career to protect him in his old age in a dignified manner without cost to the Treasury, against the devastating hardship of prolonged or repeated illness.
We must, as a part of a revised housing and urban renewal program, give more help to those displaced by slum clearance, provide more housing for our poor and our elderly, and seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system a decent home for every American family.
We must help obtain more modern mass transit within our communities as well as low-cost transportation between them.
Above all, we must release $11 billion of tax reduction into the private spending stream to create new jobs and new markets in every area of this land.
These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone. Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, hospitals, and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create.
That tax bill has been thoroughly discussed for a year. Now we need action. The new budget clearly allows it. Our taxpayers surely deserve it. Our economy strongly demands it. And every month of delay dilutes its benefits in 1964 for consumption, for investment, and for employment.
For until the bill is signed, its investment incentives cannot be deemed certain, and the withholding rate cannot be reduced—and the most damaging and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in America is to keep him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is. And I say that we should now reduce to 14 percent instead of 15 percent our withholding rate.
I therefore urge the Congress to take final action on this bill by the first of February, if at all possible. For however proud we may be of the unprecedented progress of our free enterprise economy over the last three years, we should not and we cannot permit it to pause.
In 1963, for the first time in history, we crossed the 70-million job mark, but we will soon need more than 75 million jobs. In 1963 our gross national product reached the $600 billion level—$100 billion higher than when we took office. But it easily could and it should be still $30 billion higher today than it is.
Wages and profits and family income are also at their highest levels in history—but I would remind you that four million workers and 13 percent of our industrial capacity are still idle today.
We need a tax cut now to keep this country moving.
For our goal is not merely to spread the work. Our goal is to create more jobs. I believe the enactment of a 35-hour week would sharply increase costs, would invite inflation, would impair our ability to compete, and merely share instead of creating employment. But I am equally opposed to the 45- or 50-hour week in those industries where consistently excessive use of overtime causes increased unemployment.
So, therefore, I recommend legislation authorizing the creation of a tripartite industry committee to determine on an industry-by-industry basis as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs, and authorizing the establishment of such higher rates.
State of the Union, Part Two:Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities—in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field—must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House.
All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good.
Today, Americans of all races stand side by side in Berlin and in Vietnam. They died side by side in Korea. Surely they can work and eat and travel side by side in their own country.
We must also lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country, particularly those who have much needed skills and those joining their families.
In establishing preferences, a nation that was built by the immigrants of all lands can ask those who now seek admission: "What can you do for our country?" But we should not be asking: "In what country were you born?"
For our ultimate goal is a world without war, a world made safe for diversity, in which all men, goods, and ideas can freely move across every border and every boundary.
We must advance toward this goal in 1964 in at least 10 different ways, not as partisans, but as patriots.
First, we must maintain—and our reduced defense budget will maintain—that margin of military safety and superiority obtained through three years of steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic, our conventional, and our antiguerilla forces. In 1964 we will be better prepared than ever before to defend the cause of freedom, whether it is threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those in Hanoi and Havana, who ship arms and men across international borders to foment insurrection. And we must continue to use that strength as John Kennedy used it in the Cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty—to demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of lasting peace.
Second, we must take new steps—and we shall make new proposals at Geneva—toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms. Even in the absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful.
It is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our production of enriched uranium by 25 percent. We are shutting down four plutonium piles. We are closing many nonessential military installations. And it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the same.
Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of peace—making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation—to hungry people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper conditions of distribution.
Fourth, we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of outer space, focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade—in cooperation with other powers if possible, alone if necessary.
Fifth, we must expand world trade. Having recognized in the Act of 1962 that we must buy as well as sell, we now expect our trading partners to recognize that we must sell as well as buy. We are willing to give them competitive access to our market, asking only that they do the same for us.
Sixth, we must continue, through such measures as the interest equalization tax, as well as the cooperation of other nations, our recent progress toward balancing our international accounts.
This administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the dollar.
Seventh, we must become better neighbors with the free states of the Americas, working with the councils of the OAS, with a stronger Alliance for Progress, and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really believe in liberty and justice for all.
Eighth, we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must help the poor—and we must do our part. We must achieve a more rigorous administration of our development assistance, with larger roles for private investors, for other industrialized nations, and for international agencies and for the recipient nations themselves.
Ninth, we must strengthen our Atlantic and Pacific partnerships, maintain our alliances and make the United Nations a more effective instrument for national independence and international order.
Tenth, and finally, we must develop with our allies new means of bridging the gap between the East and the West, facing danger boldly wherever danger exists, but being equally bold in our search for new agreements which can enlarge the hopes of all, while violating the interests of none.
In short, I would say to the Congress that we must be constantly prepared for the worst, and constantly acting for the best. We must be strong enough to win any war, and we must be wise enough to prevent one.
We shall neither act as aggressors nor tolerate acts of aggression. We intend to bury no one, and we do not intend to be buried.
We can fight, if we must, as we have fought before, but we pray that we will never have to fight again.
My good friends and my fellow Americans: In these last seven sorrowful weeks, we have learned anew that nothing is so enduring as faith, and nothing is so degrading as hate.
John Kennedy was a victim of hate, but he was also a great builder of faith—faith in our fellow Americans, whatever their creed or their color or their station in life; faith in the future of man, whatever his divisions and differences.
This faith was echoed in all parts of the world. On every continent and in every land to which Mrs. Johnson and I traveled, we found faith and hope and love toward this land of America and toward our people.
So I ask you now in the Congress and in the country to join with me in expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation, a nation that is free from want and a world that is free from hate—a world of peace and justice, and freedom and abundance, for our time and for all time to come.
(Source: http://millercenter.org/president/spe...
A pretty impressive speech. LBJ didn't seem to be a policy wonk, but let others do the crafting. However, he had the vision: I found the money, now find me original anti-poverty programs.
It's interesting to see LBJ wrestle with one of the major problems of today - combining tax cuts and budget cuts. Everyone seemed to take it for granted that lower tax rates would stimulate the economy. Perhaps one reason was that tax rates were so much higher at the time. Per Wikipedia,The Office of Tax Analysis of the United States Department of the Treasury summarized the tax changes as follows:[2]
reduced top marginal rate from 91% to 70%
reduced corporate tax rate from 52% to 48%
phased-in acceleration of corporate estimated tax payments (through 1970)
created minimum standard deduction of $300 + $100/exemption (total $1,000 max)
A reduction of the top marginal tax rate to 70%! How times change!
They were high compared to today.
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine (other topics)The Passage of Power (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert Coram (other topics)Robert A. Caro (other topics)
The week's reading assignment is:
Week TWELVE - December 3rd - December 9th -> Chapters TWENTY ONE & TWENTY TWO p. 503 - 557
TWENTY ONE - Serenity and TWENTY TWO - "Old Harry II"
We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.
We look forward to your participation. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library.
There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to begin reading this selection and/or to post.
Bryan Craig is the assisting moderator who will be leading this discussion. We hope you enjoy this discussion of another great book in the Presidential Series.
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Notes
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Table of Contents and Syllabus
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~Bryan