Today Lyndon B. Johnson would have been 106 years old. In his honor, I am writing an entire diary about my favorite president. I will try not to discuss Vietnam, because, to quote LBJ himself:
“I knew from the start that if I left the woman I love—the Great Society—in order to fight that bitch of a war, then I would lose everything. All my programs. All my hopes. All my dreams.” - See more at: http://www.lbjlibrary.org/...
Also, LBJ himself seemed to sense that Vietnam was a lost cause even before he escalated. Here is a poignant quote from an eerily prescient conversation with McGeorge Bundy in May 1964:
And we just got to think about it. I'm looking at this Sergeant of mine this morning and he's got 6 little old kids over there, and he's getting out my things, and bringing me in my night reading, and all that kind of stuff, and I just thought about ordering all those kids in there. And what in the hell am I ordering them out there for? What in the hell is Vietnam worth to me? What is Laos worth to me? What is it worth to this country? We've got a treaty but hell, everybody else has got a treaty out there, and they're not doing a thing about it.
(Emphasis my own)
May 27 1964 telephone conversation transcript,
Audio of 1964 Bundy LBJ conversation (Quote above starts at 2:22 if you're interested) Follow me below the orange Texas ranch brand.
After that depressing intro, let's turn to something lighter, an amazing telephone conversation of LBJ ordering pants. I'll let you listen for yourself to see what Lyndon has to say. And remember, this is the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES. Enjoy!
Here's another classic, LBJ talking about dogs in 1970. Really nice story of LBJ and his childhood dog, Rover, Yuki (the dog he's holding below), and, at the end...well I'm afraid you'll have to listen for yourself. (See? I can be as devious as Richard Nixon.)
Speaking of Dick Nixon, most of you know about my strange fascination with LBJ's successor. Here is one of my favorite photos of the two men.
The caption for the photo says:
President Johnson and his wife Lady Bird greet Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, the 1968 presidential and vice-presidential nominees, at the LBJ Ranch in August 1968.
Source:
LBJ National Historical Park. Frankly they look like they're sizing each other up. If you want, feel free to imagine your own conversation between these two in the comments below. Look how formal Nixon and Agnew are compared to LBJ.
Here's another photo from 1957:
This was my Twitter background photo for months.
I can't end this diary without posting one of my favorite LBJ speeches, which is also the source of my signature: (See if you can spot Dirksen and McNamara. Some Congressmen clearly dislike this speech! The quote is at 21:10, though the rest of the speech is well worth listening to.)
So, happy birthday, LBJ! Oh, and thank you for the Great Society, the War on Poverty, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. I am aware that I probably used too much media, and not enough of my own thoughts. I doubt I have the spare time to expand much more because of college course work. (By the way, the videos do not seem to work on smartphones, but they should work on the computer.)