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I recently completed Robert Dallek’s book, Lyndon Johnson, Flawed Giant. The author made the observation that a cross-section of historians rate Johnson an average president despite his incredible achievements in orchestrating the legislation of many Great Society programs. His standing reflects in large part many personality flaws that affected his public and private life. In essence, his inability to manage his personality led to failings, with his Vietnam policy being his most salient failure. Johnson reminds one of a Greek tragedy where the personality faults ultimately consume the subject. Indeed, the book could have been aptly titled Giant Flaw.

Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency following the assassination of John Kennedy in November 1963. He marred his moment of triumph by demanding that the grieving widow, Jackie Kennedy, witness his swearing-in oath. This tasteless display of power characterized much of Johnson’s style. Almost all of his actions, although nominally clothed in “servicing the public good” covered his uncapped passion for political power. Johnson was committed to obtaining an objective irrespective of means—lying, cheating, maligning, flattery, strong-arming, etc. He relished his mastery of insider tricks, and yet appeared to be “hurt” when critics pointed out his unsavory methods. His mean-spirited treatment of long time friends such as Hubert Humphrey helping contribute to the latter’s defeat in his presidential race against Richard Nixon underscore why Johnson had few, if any, intimate friends.

Let us give the “devil his due.” Under President Johnson the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 passed, despite fierce conservative opposition. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination in places of public accommodation-restaurants, hotels, theatres, and even gas stations. The 1965 Civil Rights Act enabled Blacks to register, and this power of the ballot led to long lasting political changes, particularly in the Deep South. Johnson was committed to a War on Poverty and the Economic Opportunity Act passed that year. Many new programs were enacted including the Job Corps, which offered remedial and vocational education to school dropouts. A domestic peace corps, Volunteers in Service to America, was established.

In 1965 90 legislative acts were passed. Several of the most notable were the Appalachian Development Act which allocated $1 billion to the eleven states Appalachian region for the development of highways and other projects and the other was Head Start that sought to provide poor children with skills necessary to improve the educational levels. Under Johnston, the nation implemented major air and war environmental protection laws. Thus, by the end of 1966, Johnson had achieved many of his goals for the Great Society.  The quagmire of Vietnam stalemated further legislative success. 

 

Despite these enormous domestic successes, the weaknesses in Johnson’s character were never far from the surface. Ultimately, he orchestrated his disastrous Vietnam policy that overshadowed his legislative successes. The author stressed that Johnson never had a command of foreign affairs, and somehow felt that he could translate the American vision abroad. Johnson disregarding the advise of Charles De Gaulle falsely believed that American military power could overcome serious logistical problems.   His notable forays into the Dominican Republic and Vietnam were justified by either outright lies or exaggerations. In Vietnam, much of the legal basis of American action was based upon the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Some forty years later, the circumstances involved in the attacking of an American ship remain hazy. Moreover, after Johnson received Congressional approval, he took military action far beyond the original mission statement of Congress, thereby undermining both his credibility and America.

The author pointed out that as the outsized American presence in Vietnam grew, Johnson removed critics McNamara and George Ball who questioned whether the war was winnable and the longevity of our Vietnam domestic policies. That is, our commitment to democracy in Vietnam was undermined when for example we supported a General KY who said, “His hero was Adolph Hitler.” We never implemented major land reforms, thereby losing peasant support to the Communists. Lastly, Johnson hid the economic costs of the war from the American public. Our terrible inflationary problems in subsequent decades largely stemmed from this fiscal irresponsibility. Sadly, many of the domestic economic programs were insufficiently funded or improperly implemented because of the domestic civil unrest that attended American disenchantment with the Vietnam War. That is, Johnson alienated the liberal establishment that had the most vested interests in his far-ranging domestic policy reforms.

 

Since many of our recent presidents seem to lack personal morality, we have become conditioned to these laxities. I will not waste time describing his boorish antics, but merely state he was an uncouth boor. Unfortunately, this lack of personal constraint frequently led to insensitive treatment of professionals, including prominent domestic and foreign politicians. In essence, once the Johnson mystique faded his many personal failures undermined the prestige of the office of the presidency.