Landslide (56 page)
Authors: Jonathan Darman
At first it seems bizarre that Reagan’s and Johnson’s visions should have such staying power. After all, they were the product of unique moments in time. Indeed it can seem that Johnson’s and Reagan’s thousand days never would have happened were it not for the coincidence of unique, utterly unpredictable events.
Who could have predicted that the greatest legislator in modern history would be thrust suddenly into the presidency and presented with the greatest legislative opportunity of any president since FDR?
Who could have predicted that a man who won the largest landslide in American history would lose his popularity and control of his presidency in just two years’ time?
Who could have predicted that a middle-aged actor playing a supporting character in a troubled Hollywood film would rise, in the space of just a thousand days, to transform his country’s politics for generations?
And yet, as we have seen, none of these strange coincidences was accidental—they were all tied up in one another, each one both cause and effect. And with the distance of history, we can see that they are all connected by a single strand: the tension that thrives in a nation with its eyes on an uncertain future, the promise, and the terror, of a world that is changing fast. A thousand days is not a long time, but it is more than long enough for a country’s people to journey from fear to hope and back again.
It makes sense, then, that today’s America, gripped once again by profound anxieties about its future, would still reach for the old myths. Reagan’s and Johnson’s visions were specifically designed to reassure a country that was sometimes terrified about what was coming next. The old myths, for all their flaws, offer comfort in a time of uncertainty. The problem for today’s political system—and it is an existential one—is that people no longer believe those myths.
To fix its broken politics, today’s America needs new stories. Or perhaps it just needs a new version of an old one. The shared vision that Johnson and Reagan discarded in the course of their thousand days—the old consensus vision of Roosevelt and Kennedy—
contained lasting wisdom that today’s leaders would do well to adopt. In that worldview, politicians had to be deeply realistic and humble when making promises for the future, for they knew that the future never turns out exactly the way we think it’s going to. But they also had to have the courage to tell the people that though government would never be able to solve all its people’s problems, it had a sacred obligation to try.
That old vision could serve America well in an often frightening new century. The answer to our problems may come from a leader who brings such a simple message. It is a message that neither Reagan nor Johnson had much use for but that the story of both of their lives confirms: what lies ahead of us is not the certain promise of utopia, but the infinite possibilities of life itself.
For Julie Granum
In the preceding pages, I have set out to tell the story of how two iconic presidents took hold of the American imagination over a period of three years. To understand how Americans in the mid-1960s saw the world, I immersed myself in their media. Much of the texture in my story comes from television newscasts and broadcasts, Hollywood films, print and television advertising, and magazine and daily newspaper coverage from the period. I took great pleasure in the long hours I spent reading issues of
Time
and
Newsweek
from the 1960s, a golden age of newsmagazines in which writers crafted sweeping stories from a wealth of small but significant details. Those details proved a treasure trove in my research.
In focusing on a brief period in the careers of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, two men who, between them, played a significant part in national politics for half a century, I have necessarily relied on the existing scholarship on both men’s lives. Luckily, both have been blessed with fantastic biographers. My understanding of Johnson owes a great deal especially to the work of Robert Caro and to informative biographies by Robert Dallek and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Michael Beschloss’s masterly study of the Johnson White House recordings first drew me into the mesmerizing mind of LBJ, and in returning to the recordings for this project, my appreciation grew for the scope and skill of Beschloss’s undertaking. My work on
Reagan was illuminated by a number of biographies, most significantly those by two formidable chroniclers, Lou Cannon and Edmund Morris. My understanding of decision-making in the Vietnam War was shaped by enduring works by Stanley Karnow and David Halberstam.
In my research, I was lucky to have the help of a talented archivist, Jessica Gallagher. In spite of her training as a medievalist (or perhaps because of it), Jessica quickly took a shine to the unique personage of Lyndon Baines Johnson and became an expert on the topic. She offered vital assistance throughout the project, and her work on the chapter notes and bibliography was brilliant and heroic. Melissa Carson Thomas is a gifted researcher who provided fantastic fact-checking with remarkable thoroughness, efficiency, and good cheer.
In writing this book, I have looked to the example of two great teachers from my career in journalism. I have been fortunate to have an esteemed biographer, Jon Meacham, as a friend and wise editor for the past decade. Jon helped me find my way to this topic and offered sage advice and reassurance at crucial moments in the process. At
Newsweek
, I watched Evan Thomas turn the mess of the busy world into gripping, elegant drama for the magazine’s pages each week, and from him, I learned so much about storytelling. A distinguished historian of the period I write about, Evan provided helpful advice and encouragement, and I am thankful for both.
At Random House, it is my great good fortune to have Kate Medina as an editor. Kate’s wisdom and her extraordinary sense for the shape of a book, combined with her graceful, generous spirit, make her an ideal guide, protector, and champion of a writer publishing a book for the first time. Like Kate, Anna Pitoniak manages to match uncommon insight with unfailing kindness, and the combination makes her a brilliant editor. Every page of this book is better because of her. I am thankful for the talented professionals at Random House who have published this book with creativity, foresight, and
style. Thanks especially to Tom Perry, Sally Marvin, London King, Leigh Marchant, Selby McRae, Robbin Schiff, and Janet Wygal.
I am grateful to Andrew Wylie, whose high standards, sharp thinking, and lively wit make him an invaluable agent and a wonderful ally. Many thanks to Sarah Chalfant, who helped bring me to Random House. Thanks as well to Diego Nunez and Jacqueline Ko.
Thanks to friends and colleagues for kindnesses large and small offered in the writing of this book. I am especially obliged to Oscie Thomas, Louisa Thomas, Julie Bosman, Ceridwen Dovey, Kate Burch and Gary Belkin, Elliott Holt, Katherine Marino, Mark Kirby and Erin Owens, Madeleine Sackler, and Rachel Ptak. Will Darman and Elizabeth Holt provided comfortable and congenial accommodations in Washington and I am grateful to them, and to Emmet Darman, for encouragement along the way. James Lawler read, pondered, and lived this book from conception to publication and I am grateful for all of his contributions and for everything else.
My mother, Kathleen Emmet, is a gifted storyteller who first introduced me to the captivating story of America in the 1960s. My late father, Richard Darman, taught me that politics can be noble and that the drama of politics can reveal deep, human truths. I am grateful to my parents for encouraging me as a writer and for introducing me to the questions posed in the 1960s, still the most important questions of all.
Prologue: Men on Horseback
1
“There is but one way to get the cattle out of the swamp”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 172.
2
“like a bunch of cattle caught in the swamp”
Ibid.
3
The previous day—Election Day
Mohr, “President Sees a Unity Mandate,”
New York Times
.
4
“For the first time in all my life”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 209.
5
“He spent the night”
“The Presidency: A Different Man,”
Time
.
6
“that son of a bitch”
Telephone conversation between LBJ and John Connally, November 4, 1964, Citation $6145.
7
As the hour grew late on Election Day
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 512.
8
“By God, we said we would get you seven-fifty”
Telephone conversation between Richard Daley and LBJ, November 4, 1964, Citation $6167.
9
“May the Lord shower his blessings upon you”
Ibid.
10
“Well, you oughtta be a banker, Pat”
Telephone conversation between Edmund G. Brown and LBJ, November 5, 1964, Citation $6237.
11
“You’ve been around this business long enough”
Morris,
Dutch
, 323.
12
“In the space of a single Autumn day”
“GOP ’66: Back on the Map,”
Newsweek
.
13
“We shall overcome”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Special Message to Congress: The American Promise” (speech, Washington, DC, March 15, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, vol. I, 284.
14
“It’s the time of peace on Earth and good will among men”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks at the Civic Center Arena in Pittsburgh” (speech, Pittsburgh, PA, October 27, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, vol. II, 1479.
15
“Is our world gone?”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1965),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1965, vol. I, 74.
16
All that has happened in our historic past
“Lyndon Johnson’s Pledge,”
Newsweek
.
17
“We have every right”
Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1981),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1981, 2.
18
“has three telephones in his car”
Reston, “The Three Telephone Man in the White House,”
New York Times
.
19
“When you’re bleeding up on that Hill”
Lawrence (Larry) O’Brien OH VI.
20
“Hell … if I’d stayed in there much longer”
Miller,
Lyndon: An Oral Biography
, 524–25; Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 320–24.
21
“Abundance or annihilation”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks at the Opening of the World’s Fair” (speech, New York, April 22, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, vol. I, 515.
22
“We’ll preserve for our children this”
Ronald Reagan, “Campaign Address for Goldwater Presidential Campaign: A Time for Choosing” (speech, October 27, 1964),
Rendezvous with Destiny
Recorded Program.
23
“Heady wine”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 28–29.
1
“The president of the United States is dead”
Today
, NBC, November 23, 1963.
2
At 1:35 P.M., the network Teletypes carried a wire
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 221.
3
“The body of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is at this moment in the White House”
Today
, NBC, November 23, 1963.
4
The department stores have taken down their Christmas decorations
Caro,
Passage of Power
, 355.
5
“The people here … are like the people out on Christmas Eve,”
Today
, NBC, November 23, 1963.
6
only a single White House photographer
See Manchester,
Death of a President
, 324–26 and Caro,
Passage of Power
, 322 and 333.
7
For a while the phones in Washington don’t even work
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 254–55.
8
On average this weekend, American households will watch 8.5 hours of television each day
Feldman and Sheatsley, “The Assassination of President Kennedy” 197, and “National Survey on Public Reactions and Behavior,” 159.
9
“we were watching you to see if you had any”
Watson,
Expanding Vista
, 215; “America’s Long Vigil,”
TV Guide
, January 25, 1964.
10
“old friends … telling us about the tragedy until we could absorb it”
Watson,
Expanding Vista
, 216.
11
At 8:40 that Saturday morning
Semple,
Four Days in November
, 203.
12
To think of the things they’d been worried about
See Manchester,
Death of a President
, 6–7, for preparations for the Kennedy visit to the ranch.
13
The Johnsons had been riding several cars behind the Kennedys
See Manchester,
Death of a President
, 155–56 and 166–67; Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 3–7; Caro,
Passage of Power
, for accounts of Johnson during events of the assassination.
14
“Let’s get out of here”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 163.
15
“They’ve killed him”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 4.
16
At the instruction of his security detail
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 229 and Caro,
Passage of Power
, 316–17.
17
“He’s gone”
Caro,
Passage of Power
, 317.
18
He worried that Kennedy’s assassination might be the first step
Manchester,
Death of a President, 220
.
19
at his insistence
See Caro,
Passage of Power
, 326–33.
20
Greeted at Andrews Air Force Base
Ibid., 365.
21
Still, when … he finally climbed into this own bed
Ibid., 371.
22
Americans …“were all spinning around and around”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 172.
23
“Hell … the Johnsons could strut sitting down”
Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 68.
24
“Now the light came in from the East”
Rebekah Baines Johnson,
A Family Album
, 17; Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 21.
25
“A United States Senator was born today!”
Caro,
Path to Power
, 3.
26
Johnson refused to read
This story is repeated in several biographies: see Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy
, and Caro,
Path to Power
, 69.
27
“When Miss Kate excused one of her students”
Caro, ibid.
28
In August 1934
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 15.
29
“he told me all sorts of things that I thought were extraordinarily direct”
Goldman,
Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson
, 406–7; Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 80. Lady Bird discusses her courtship with Lyndon in oral history accounts, commenting that “he came on very strong, he was very direct and dynamic,” and references his swift proposal: “I do believe before the day was over he did ask me to marry him, and I thought he was out of his mind” (Lady Bird OH IV); also see Lady Bird interview with Ruth Montgomery, Baylor University.
30
The goal … was “to keep her mind completely on me”
Goodwin,
Lyndon Johnson
, 80.
31
As a twenty-three-year-old clerk
Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 3.
32
a margin of 87 votes
See Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 386–87. Johnson’s tiny margin in the 1948 run-off prompted accusations of fraud that followed him throughout his career. In his second volume,
Means of Ascent
, published in 1990, Caro demonstrated that Johnson’s campaign did in fact use unlawful means—including falsifying votes from the dead and those who did not participate in the election—to erase a 20,000 vote deficit and steal the election from Stevenson.
33
“the right size”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 136; Miller,
Lyndon: An Oral Biography
, 171.
34
“genius for studying a man”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 136.
35
“FDR-LBJ, FDR-LBJ—do you get it?”
Ibid., 111.
36
“When you and I talked last night”
Caro,
Passage of Power
, 374.
37
The night before
Marie Fehmer OH II.
38
“You are dealing with a very insecure, sensitive man”
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 119. Kenneth O’Donnell OH I, 25.
39
“a spectral presence”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 622.
40
On the rare occasions
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 290.
41
“It was like the teacher walks”
Harry McPherson OH I.
42
“He looked absolutely gross”
Ibid.
43
“He can’t even let the body get cold”
Gillon,
Kennedy Assassination
, 179; Cliff Carter OH.
44
In the year 1961 it had been ten hours and nineteen minutes
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 622.
45
“I need you more than you need me”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 453.
46
“Do you know he asked me to be out by
9:30
?”
Ibid.
47
“First he expressed his condolences”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 609.
48
“Where’s Jackie?”
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 278.
49
“Why, God?”
Charles Spalding, interviewed by Jean Stein, January 22, 1970, 18–19 Stein Papers, cited in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 611.
50
“I want to talk to you”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 454.
51
“Hey sonny”
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 96.
52
“Son, you’ve got to learn to handle a gun like a man”
Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 33.
53
“Now, you don’t like me, Bobby”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 623. Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 278.
54
“a very very ambitious young man”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Dean Rusk, August 17, 1964, citation $5009.
55
“I thought they’d get one of us”
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, 609. Guthman,
We Band of Brothers
, 244.
56
“Without question”
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, 283.
57
Could Johnson wait a while before moving in?
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 454.
58
“Well, of course”
Ibid.
59
Under Jacqueline Kennedy’s instruction
Ibid., 418.
60
“Morning, Mr. President”
Today
, NBC, November 23, 1963.
61
“Mr. Johnson … prefers to hold his appointments in the vice presidential office”
Ibid.
62
“It will give the people confidence”
Manchester,
Death of a President
, 454–55.
