Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President

This is Robert Dallek’s conclusion about Lyndon Johnson as president. Johnson is easy to admire in some ways and easy to dislike (intensely) in others but, as Dallek says, he will never be one of the blank faces in the history of the American presidency. Dallek’s biography shows why.The book is a condensed version of Dallek’s two volume biography of Johnson. One of the strengths of the book is that this condensing does not show. Transitions are smooth and the writing flows well. Dallek’s way to deal with the telescoping of material is to have several subdivisions within each chapter. For example, the chapter “Foreign Policy Dilemmas” has seven subdivisions each with its own heading like “Vietnam: the Fork in the Road” and “The Dominican Republic.” This helps organize a mass of material and is great for the reader in terms of stopping and picking up the book again. Each subdivision has plenty of material to justify the break and the chronological flow of the book is never disrupted. The book is a well-written middle ground between Dallek’s two volume biography (and Robert Caro’s award-winning multi-volume work) and Charles Peters' short biography of Johnson in the American Presidents Series.Johnson’s unique personality is apparent throughout the book – hard-driving, shrewd, in-your-face, get things done. The chapters on his many domestic achievements and on Vietnam bring out those characteristics well. The Vietnam chapters make painful but important reading for anyone who lived through those years. If the reader is looking for a well-written one volume biography of Johnson that gives enough detail to show a well-rounded picture of the man, I recommend this book.

I grew up after President Johnson had come and gone, and most of my opinions of him were generated by bad press from the Vietnam era. The man certainly had his faults, but in this biography, Robert Dallek shows some surprising sides to LBJ. The author paints a portrait of him as a man of deep convictions, but also very pragmatic. Dallek shows Johnson as a man with long-term targets, but also an ability to compromise and seek common ground. And while that made him a very formidable force in the Senate, Dallek postulates that those same traits caused him no end of trouble as President.=== The Good Stuff ===* Dallek relates stories that shed light on Johnson's personality and his skills as a politician and self-promoter. In one marvelous tale, Congressman Johnson visits MacArthur's headquarters in Australia at FDR's "suggestion". and talks his way onto a B25 bombing mission. The plane is shot up by Japanese fighters, but Johnson and the crew return to base unharmed. For this mission, Lyndon Johnson, but not the crew, wins the Silver Star, which allows him to return to Washington as a decorated combat veteran.* In the earlier parts of the book, Dallek gives a reasonably fair account of LBJ. While he could be a tireless worker for improving the conditions of the poor and minorities, he was not about putting pressure on the FCC to assist his wife in her quest to own a television station. Dallek does take caution to show these actions in light of what were generally tolerated practices of the time.* Dallek captures LBJ at his best in the Senate. Senator Johnson was capable of working 18 hour days for weeks straight, and was one of the Senate's best vote-counters and consensus builders. The author describes his techniques for working a room and pitching individual Congressmen in a way that usually let him get what he wanted. We also watch LBJ learn that "breaking the rules" has the potential to payoff.* Finally as President, we see LBJ lose his touch. We feel his frustrations in trying to build a consensus on the Vietnam War, and fail miserably-probably because there was no consensus possible. Next Dallek relates LBJ using the same techniques that served him so well in the Senate- "controlling" the flow of information, handing out favors to supporters- fall flat as President. The author paints a scary, and sad, portrait of President Johnson as his frustration and determination not to lose the Vietnam war puts him on a slippery slope of "misleading" the American public. Toward the end of his term, President Johnson becomes almost Nixonesque- using wiretaps, FBI investigations and the IRS to further his political objectives.=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===* It is probably a natural result of Johnson's personality, but Dallek never really gives his reader a familiarity with LBJ. We see his frustrations through the eyes of others, but gain precious little insight into the man's thoughts. In 1968, we see LBJ mentally exhausted, and abusing his office in a way we associate with Richard Nixon. Unfortunately Dallek offers little insight into LBJ's state-of-mind in this period, and relies on indirect reports. We never hear from his friends or family.* Dallek writes in a rather complex style, and his longer sentences may require several re-readings to gain the context. Some of the text gets repetitive, and at times the story begins to drag. The Kindle edition has the required number of typos.* My biggest complaint is that Dallek seems to like LBJ, and can't really bring himself to be more critical. For example, LBJ knowingly lied to US citizens in describing plans and results in Vietnam. This is documented by Dallek and other sources. But Dallek seldom, if ever, uses the word "lie". Instead Johnson "misleads", or attempts to manipulate how the news is reported. In short, LBJ was capable of tremendous rationalizations to cover his actions, and Dallek acts more like press secretary than biographer.=== Summary ===The book is a marvelous history of the US from WWII until 1969. The author captures the way the US government works, and how a master politician (and I use the word with both positive and negative connotations) was able to drive the US government into successful actions, such as civil rights, and disasters such as Vietnam. In the end, we see LBJ having walked away from the Presidency, letting his hair down and running his Texas ranch.Despite the shortcomings, I would recommend the book. It uncovers quite a bit of information that was new to me, and does so in a reasonably readable and enjoyable format.

LBJ was phenomenal politician and extremely hard worker.Great synopsis of his journey from Texas thru FDR support to the house and senate (that’s as far as I have gotten)Recounts his election discrepancies that surrounded many politicians in history (Nixon, Reagan, and Carter books) sadly have shown me this dark side of democracy.

I particularly enjoyed the first part of the book. I learned a great deal about President Johnson's early family life and political career. I was impressed at this giant man's energy and early accomplishments, but particularly with his ability to build consensus and negotiate deals with members of his own party and with others. (Could we resurrect him to do something with our current congressional leaders.)There is much to be learned here about Johnson's relationship with the Kennedy family and his feelings after JFK's assisination. The book really begins to drag when we get to the war with Vietnam. The reader is forced to endure entirely too much detail about weekly conversations and decisions that were repeated over several years. It was extremely disappointing to read of Johnson and Nixon's failure to end the war due to their own political concerns.The book clearly presents Johnson's strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. With the exception of the repetitious war details, this is a very interesting read.

A composite of two longer works about LBJ. This volume could be longer, but it is interesting and seems to hit the important part of LBJ’s life