Lady Bird Johnson passes away

[Michael Hogan]

The wire services are reporting she died this afternoon, surrounded by family and friends. She was 94.

[Ron Ecker]

I wonder if this means that the final volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ will finally be published. I remember reading (I don't recall who said it) that Caro may have been waiting till after Lady Bird's death to tell the rest of the story.

[Kathleen Collins]

I was thinking of Lady Byrd last night. I was going to post how kind she was for attending Jacqueline Kennedy's funeral. A car brought her and when everyone went inside, she made her way up the stairs with the help of a walker and sat in the last pew, trying hard not to attract attention to her. I always admired her for that. I thought last night, oh, no one will be interested in that and it's appropos to what?

She was also a good partner for LBJ. She knew he was screwing around, but he would never leave her. When he suffered from bouts of depression in the Oval Office during his presidency, she would send him a letter of encouragement.

I don't know what members think of Lady Byrd, but I have nothing against her. She also said, after the assassination of Kennedy that she "never met a woman more suited for wearing lace," meaning Jackie."

Kathy

[Myra Bronstein]

I was thinking of Lady Byrd last night. I was going to post how kind she was for attending Jacqueline Kennedy's funeral. A car brought her and when everyone went inside, she made her way up the stairs with the help of a walker and sat in the last pew, trying hard not to attract attention to her. I always admired her for that. I thought last night, oh, no one will be interested in that and it's appropos to what?

She was also a good partner for LBJ. She knew he was screwing around, but he would never leave her. When he suffered from bouts of depression in the Oval Office during his presidency, she would send him a letter of encouragement.

I don't know what members think of Lady Byrd, but I have nothing against her. She also said, after the assassination of Kennedy that she "never met a woman more suited for wearing lace," meaning Jackie."

Kathy

She put LBJ's radio station in her name and he used it to launder bribe money.

It's hard to imagine she was unaware of this fact, and of her husband's corruption.

If she was unaware of all that then she must have been quite oblivious (euphemism).

[Myra Bronstein]

I wonder if this means that the final volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ will finally be published. I remember reading (I don't recall who said it) that Caro may have been waiting till after Lady Bird's death to tell the rest of the story.

I hope so.

Caro is willing to tell the ugly truth about LBJ.

[Jack White]

I wonder if this means that the final volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ will finally be published. I remember reading (I don't recall who said it) that Caro may have been waiting till after Lady Bird's death to tell the rest of the story.

I hope so.

Caro is willing to tell the ugly truth about LBJ.

It was Bird and Valenti who censored THE GUILTY MEN.

I wonder if maybe it has a chance now.

Jack

[Myra Bronstein]

I wonder if this means that the final volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ will finally be published. I remember reading (I don't recall who said it) that Caro may have been waiting till after Lady Bird's death to tell the rest of the story.

I hope so.

Caro is willing to tell the ugly truth about LBJ.

It was Bird and Valenti who censored THE GUILTY MEN.

I wonder if maybe it has a chance now.

Jack

And Moyers?

Moyers sure is a mystery.

Carries the devil's water for years, then becomes Mr PBS Uber Journalist supposedly exposing corruption...

All the while fighting to hide his master's crimes.

I suppose there's a guilty conscience in there somewhere.

But not guilty enough.

[Tim Gratz]

Whether or not LBJ was a conspirator or even had knowledge of an assassination plot, I submit the following two points about him:

(1) He was pretty clearly politically corrupt, was he not?

(2) On the other hand, he had some significant accomplishments, primarily among them the civil rights legislation of the mid-sixties.

(3) Yet on the other hand, he will long be remembered for the escalation of the war in Vietnam and the incredible number of deaths on both sides of that war.

Speaking of which, I want to go back to the intellectual dishonesty of Robert Strange MacNamara who David Talbot quotes as having been told by KFK that the was in Vietnam was unwinnable. I have reservations about whether MacNamara is speaking honestly about JFK's position. If he is not, he is a xxxx. But if he is, that only further indicts him as one of the architects of the war under LBJ.

Back to Lady Bird, I suspect many of us here believe she probably went to her grave with at least some knowledge of facts about the assassination.

[Shanet Clark]

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She sure helped balance his legacy when she

advised him not to run in 1968.

This distanced him from the reputation of ruthless

power grabber, that colors perception of Dallas 1963.

I think some interesting papers will emerge in the

wake of her passing..........

[Ron Ecker]

Who was the comedian playing Lady Bird who said of LBJ (paraphrasing), "I helped mold him from his days as a young senator from Texas to the thing that he is today"?

[John Simkin]

I wonder if this means that the final volume of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ will finally be published. I remember reading (I don't recall who said it) that Caro may have been waiting till after Lady Bird's death to tell the rest of the story.

I have suggested that was the case. It does seem strange that the last volume, Master of the Senate, was published in 2002. The next volume will deal with Bobby Baker, the TFX scandal and the assassination of JFK. It would have been difficult to deal with these issues while Lady Bird was still alive.

A journalist friend of mine was commissioned to write the biography of a famous businessman. He was given the man's paper so that he could write the "official" biography. During his research he discovered that he had been involved in several corrupt activities. He included this in the manuscript he submitted. He was then paid off and the book was never published. I wonder if this is what happened to Caro. However, did Lady Bird have enough money to pay off Caro as clearly a book that exposed LBJ's corruption would sell very well?

Edited July 12, 2007 by John Simkin

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

"However, did Caro have enough money to pay off Caro as clearlt a book that exposed his corruption would sell very well."

Huh?

[John Simkin]

John wrote:

"However, did Caro have enough money to pay off Caro as clearlt a book that exposed his corruption would sell very well."

Huh?

Thank you for pointing out the mistake.

[Tim Gratz]

John, I am still not sure who you thought might have paid Caro not to publish his final volume?

[John Simkin]

John, I am still not sure who you thought might have paid Caro not to publish his final volume?

I don't. I think when commissioned to write an official biography of someone in history, it is difficulty to reveal the criminal behaviour of the subject when the person who commissioned it is still alive. Caro was in a difficult position. His reputation as an historian would have been damaged if he had published the next volume without discussions about the TFX scandal, Bobby Baker and his friends who made their fortunes out of the Vietnam War.