Joseph A. Califano - The triumph & tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: the White House years

Cover

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NUMBER EIGHT
The Joseph V. Hughes, Jr., and Holly O. Hughes
Series in the Presidency and Leadership Studies

James P. Pfiffner, General Editor

Series Editorial Board

Peri Arnold
H. W. Brands
George C. Edwards III
Fred I. Greenstein
Erwin C. Hargrove
Charles O. Jones
Martha Joynt Kumar
Roger Porter
Stephen J. Wayne

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THE
Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson

THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS

Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS
College Station

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Copyright 2000 by Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved
First Texas A&M University Press edition
Previous edition published by Simon & Schuster, 1991

The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48-1984.Binding materials have been chosen for durability.

Texas A&M University Press
expresses its appreciation for support
in publishing works on the presidency and leadership to
The Center for Presidential Studies
George Bush School of Government and Public Service
Texas A&M University

For a complete list of books in print in this series, see the back of the book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Califano, Joseph A., 1931

The triumph and tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: the White House years Joseph A. Califano, Jr.1st Texas A&M University Press ed.

p. cm. (Joseph V. Hughes, Jr., and Holly O. Hughes series in the presidency and leadership studies; no. 8)

Originally published: New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. With new afterword.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-89096-960-4 (pbk.)

1. Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 19081973. 2. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. 3. United StatesPolitics and government19631969. 4. Califano, Joseph A., 19311. Title. II. Series.

E847.C32 2000

973.923'092dc21

[B]

00036413

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To MARK, BROOKE, JOE III, FRICK, and CLAUDIA

May your children give you the same
pride and joy you have given me
and
May each of you experience
the exhilaration and exhaustion
of spending yourself in a worthy cause

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IN JULY 1965, two months after my thirty-fourth birthday, Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed me to his White House staff.

For the next three and one-half years, I worked with him day and nightand he used every waking minute of his presidency. I ate more meals with him than with my own family and frequently saw him early in the morning in his bedroom and late at night as he fell asleep. He barked orders at me over the phone at dawn and after midnight, in the formal setting of the Oval Office and as he stood stark naked brushing his teeth in his bathroom. I watched him laugh, swear, get angry, cry, get hurt, hurt others, dream, and achieve things most everyone thought impossible.

I saw Lyndon Johnson inspire senators and powerful citizens to put their country ahead of their careers and their companies, drive men to distraction, work his aides and cabinet members to the limit and then demand and get more than they realized they had left. I watched him endure humiliation, and humiliate those he loved as well as those he hated.

He drew programs out of Congress that changed this nation irrevocably. He pursued equal rights and worked to redistribute wealth to bring millions of Americans out of poverty and provide opportunity for the disadvantaged. He could persuade legislative foes to support his programs and outmaneuver them when persuasion failed.

I saw him struggle to communicate with the American people

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and manipulate public opinion as the Vietnam War shackled his dreams and sapped his political firepower. In the end, I agonized with him as he came to doubt his ability to govern and recognized that he had to sacrifice himself and withdraw from the 1968 presidential race in order to heal the divisions he had come to symbolize.