Long Haired Lyndon

[FedoraFan112390]

I thought this photo was really interesting:

A longhaired Lyndon Johnson, also donning long sideburns, 1972:

 

[Tiller]

I thought this photo was really interesting:

A longhaired Lyndon Johnson, also donning long sideburns, 1972:

Yeah, from what I've heard Lyndon kinda went a bit nuts after he left office. He was always worried about his legacy, and was disturbed that he would be most famous for escalating the Vietnam war then anything else. Supposedly he began to drink very heavily, and smoked a lot in his retirement, which is one of the reasons he went so fast.

Then again the skinny dipping Johnson always was a bit off his rocker. He was famous for having staff come in and debrief him well he was using the toilet. He was a bit of a snob, he loved being pampered and was famous for being easily angered when his staff didn't live up to his expectations. According to the History Channel anyways, so who knows how true it is .

 

[FedoraFan112390]

He had suffered two heart attacks in the 1950s--Almost died from the second one. After that, he stopped smoking (mostly) even though he had enjoyed smoking greatly beforehand.

"Johnson's retirement of just over four years was not a happy one. He grew his hair long and is described by one biographer as "waiting to die." According to author Michael Beschloss, on the day that Richard Nixon was sworn in as President in January of 1969, Johnson got on the plane to Texas and took out a cigarette. Although he had reportedly snuck cigarettes during his time in the White House, he had not smoked openly in front of his daughters. One of them pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and said to him "Daddy, what are you doing, you're going to kill yourself." Johnson reportedly took the cigarette back and said "I've raised you girls, I've now been President, now it's my time!" In the words of Beschloss, Johnson "went into a very self-destructive spiral."

Besides caring about his legacy, I've read he felt PERSONALLY guilty about Vietnam. Tapes as early as 1966 show he felt Vietnam was unwinnable, but he didn't want to pull America out as he didn't want America to lose a war, but he saw no way of winning it. He was trapped, and he knew it.

 

[Tiller]

Didn't Mike Wallace do an interview with Johnson on his ranch, where Johnson did nothing but talk about all his social programs until Wallace brought up Vietnam? Then Johnson became visibly angry, especially after Wallace said that Vietnam was a large part of his legacy.

I can't find it on the net anywhere so maybe I am simply wrong.

As far as his smoking goes, it was my understanding that after he left office he began to smoke and drink regularly.

Ah yes here it is for those of you who are interested in it. Although it's simply Wallace talking about what happened when he was suppose to interview Johnson, I think it's a pretty fair picture of how Johnson was in those days.

 

[HoundstoothLuke]

Johnson's other curious habits included urination in public, and when confronted, respond with "have you ever seen something this big?".

Also, he came up with the best chat-up line ever- "this is your president. Move aside".

 

[Tomasso]

Yep, LBJ was quite a character.

Here's a conversation regarding his pants.

 

[Talbot]

"have you ever seen something this big?".

If you mean the picture posted, no.

 

[John in Covina]

I recall a TV program where when they interviewd some people, one spoke about Johnson after leaving office letting his hair grow out. The point the the interviewee made was it seemed that it was a surrender to the tide of the youth movement and the backlash against the Vietnam war. It echoed the long haired look of the protesters. It may have been a surrender or perhaps a reaching out to them saying I am like you.

Johnson was a very dynamic man plus an extremely dangerous and effective opponent to have in the political arena. I do like the push he had for bringing electricity to the rural areas of the country that was great infrastucture (sp) building that went a long ways to prepare the US for WWII and the growth to follow.

 

[4spurs]

Yep, when I see that picture of Lyndon the Longhair it just shows to me that the Viet Nam war changed all of us.

I've been to that poor as dirt town in west Texas where LBJ taught in a segregated school; he taught Mexican-American kids who were segregated from white kids. LBJ put the first Black American on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. On race issues LBJ was AOK.

 

[dhermann1]

We tend to forget he was a dedicated New Dealer, all along. It has been said that he completed FDR's program.

 

[Pompidou]

I think LBJ would've had a much better legacy had be been sandwiched between two less noteworthy presidents. Maybe legacy is the wrong word. I guess it's better to say, he tends to fall in the camp of the forgotten presidents, if it's scientific at all to ask people to list the presidents whose names they can remember. When your term lies between historical juggernauts like Kennedy and Nixon - an assassination and a resignation, your odds of amounting to much in the public memory are slim.

 

[Tiller]

The thing with Kennedy is that by in large he is become less known as time goes by. Last Presidential Poll by historians I saw had him falling from the top 10. Mostly because the man really wasn't in office very long, and the most important aspect of his Presidency was that Cuban Missile Crisis. The reason he is still remembered in thw culture today is because of the tragedy of his death. I wonder if in another hundred years will JFK simply be another James Garfield.

What's the old saying? History remembers the famous with one sentence. "Lincoln freed the slaves." "Washington was the first President." "Andrew Johnson was impeached.""Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms."

I think JFK will end up being... "JFK was murdered in Dallas." Nixon will be. "Nixon resigned the Presidency." If I had to guess LBJ will be remembered as "LBJ kept us in Vietnam."

 

[Talbot]

Down under, the phrase famously uttered by our Prime Minister at the time, "All the way with LBJ" has become synonymous with conscription and our involvement with the Vietnam war.

Say it to any Aussie of the era....

 

[FedoraFan112390]

FDR was Johnson's hero. He had a lot of flaws, made a lot of mistakes, but the man had a lot of heart. The mistakes he made--Vietnam--haunted him. He is as much a tragedy of the 1960s as everyone else of that period. Some older like JFK, RFK and MLK went by bullets; others like Jim Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin went by drugs and drinking; Still others in the youth didn't die, but destroyed their minds and very souls and ruined their lives with false, overly eager dream and drugs. I think everyone who was old enough to experience the 1960s--Everyone, up to the highest levels--came out changed or scarred in some, even small, way.

For whatever reason, it was just a very very dark time in our history, and you can't blame it all on Vietnam or Johnson. People like Oswald, Sir Han Sir Han, James Earl Ray weren't motivated by Vietnam to do the horrible things they did, which traumatized this country. Even the radical groups, I believe, simply used "Vietnam" as an excuse to carry out their evil deeds--It gave them the metaphorical ammo to get naive, young supporters to their cause.

It was just a strange, dark time full of tragedies which shattered a triumphant, hopeful, optimistic post War America, and really ended the period and the way of life which many of us here pine for.

 

[Tomasso]

LBJ put the first Black American on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. On race issues LBJ was AOK.

[video=youtube;r1rIDmDWSms]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rIDmDWSms[/video]

 

[FedoraFan112390]

Yet he's saying it in a conversation talking about the Civil Rights bill. I don't think he was racist; You have to remember, he was born in 1908 in Texas. For a man of his time and where he came from, the N word was probably the most common word used to describe black people.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

FDR was Johnson's hero. He had a lot of flaws, made a lot of mistakes, but the man had a lot of heart. The mistakes he made--Vietnam--haunted him. He is as much a tragedy of the 1960s as everyone else of that period. Some older like JFK, RFK and MLK went by bullets; others like Jim Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin went by drugs and drinking; Still others in the youth didn't die, but destroyed their minds and very souls and ruined their lives with false, overly eager dream and drugs. I think everyone who was old enough to experience the 1960s--Everyone, up to the highest levels--came out changed or scarred in some, even small, way.

For whatever reason, it was just a very very dark time in our history, and you can't blame it all on Vietnam or Johnson. People like Oswald, Sir Han Sir Han, James Earl Ray weren't motivated by Vietnam to do the horrible things they did, which traumatized this country. Even the radical groups, I believe, simply used "Vietnam" as an excuse to carry out their evil deeds--It gave them the metaphorical ammo to get naive, young supporters to their cause.

It was just a strange, dark time full of tragedies which shattered a triumphant, hopeful, optimistic post War America, and really ended the period and the way of life which many of us here pine for.

Very good post FedoraFan.
I graduated HS in 1965 and experienced all the above. I don't know whether you were there...but you certainly have good insight about that era..as if you were. I wholeheartedly agree with your statements.
HD

 

[Tomasso]

For a man of his time and where he came from, the N word was probably the most common word used to describe black people.

I knew men of that time and place and they would use the term colored; but then they were gentlemen.

 

[4spurs]

I knew men of that time and place and they would use the term colored; but then they were gentlemen.

It's ironic that you use a video of Johnson saying the "N" word in a recording of him pitching the voting rights act to make your point; did you miss the point of his recorded conversation?

 

[Tomasso]

It's ironic that you use a video of Johnson saying the "N" word in a recording of him pitching the voting rights act to make your point;did you miss the point of his recorded conversation?

No, in fact I listened to it several times, marveling at his disingenuousness. Are you naive enough to think that the act passed without a lot of arm twisting and record amounts of pork, and even then with much reluctance of the members.