The Passage of Power

by Robert Caro

LBJ had a fear of losing. If a measure might be defeated, he didn’t bring it. “Pyrrhic victories were not his cup of tea.” (17) “He had a horror of defeat” even when young.

His father, Sam Ealy Johnson, paid too much for a ranch and went into debt in order to look rich. “Johnsons always strut. They even strut sitting down.” That came crashing down – the ranch failed, and he lost his position in the state legislature. He died “a penniless bus inspector.” Living through this may have given LBJ his fear of losing. (18-19)

Chapter 2 on Kennedy: 6 feet tall, 140 lbs, frail. (27) His father was SEC chairman, investor, very rich. JFK was lazy, sickly, with a bad back. He got special permission to address the Senate sitting on the arm of his chair rather than standing (30).

Kennedy seemed weak but had unrecognized grit. He was born in May 1917 – the same month as my Grandpa Howard. Went to school at Choate (I worked on an app for them once as a side project!). “Guts is the word.” (35) Intense back pain didn’t stop him playing football for Harvard. He wrote a bestselling book as his honors thesis. (36)

In the Navy, he patroled on torpedo boats, which was very hard on his back. (36) On August 1, 1943, his boat was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy swam with a group of men for five hours, pulling another man tied to a rope in his teeth, until they reached a small island. Taking a lantern, he swam back out into a nearby passage, trying to signal ships. The next day, he led all the men to another island, where they met natives. He scratched a message into a coconut shell. The natives delivered the message, it reached his squadron, and Kennedy and the men were rescued.

RFK got into senseless fights. He once hit a guy over the head with a beer bottle because the guy’s friends sang Happy Birthday to him at a bar where RFK was already celebrating his own birthday with friends. (63) He hated LBJ, who was a Roosevelt protege when Roosevelt fired his father from his position as ambassador to the UK.

RFK worked for McCarthy on his anti-Communist campaign in 1953 (64). Saw everything as black and white. Moralistic. A liberal journalist called him “a fascist at work” (65) when he was conducting hearings against organized crime figures. He became A.G. in 1961 (66).

LBJ wanted the presidency, but he didn’t want to be seen as wanting it. (68) Kennedy was testing whether a Catholic could be president; LBJ’s supporters wanted to test whether a southerner could. But he simply refused to campaign or to announce himself as a candidate. Not until the DNC was only two months away did he begin to try to win the nomination (87). Too late! JFK had long ago tied up delegates who LBJ could have gotten had he not waited.

After consideration, LBJ did not think he could refuse the offer to be VP. (123) It was a very weak position, but the VP was statistically likely to become president. Bobby K said the offer was “pro forma” – they were shocked when he wanted it, and they tried to get him off the ticket! (But later, Caro makes the case that the offer was not pro forma. There are many pages on whether JFK wanted LBJ on the ticket, with RFK seeming to fight it, etc. Very high school drama.)

JFK assures: “I’m not going to die in office, so the Vice Presidency doesn’t mean anything.” (126) Poignant.

A believable answer to whether JFK wanted LBJ on the ticket comes on p. 138: JFK didn’t tell RFK his plans, because RFK would have fought them, since he hated LBJ. And JFK’s comments about it being pro forma were political – to assuage the liberal and labor leaders, to whom he’d made promises that LBJ wouldn’t be on the ticket.

After failing to expand his powers as VP, failing to steamroll Kennedy, LBJ no longer misread him as weak. Kennedy was “a lot smarter” than he’d thought. He was always a gentleman, gracious – but unyielding. LBJ described how “he looks you straight in the eye and puts that knife into you without flinching.” (175)

Already uncomfortable at Kennedy’s society events, LBJ made things worse when he attempted to do the twist and fell on his dancing partner (and one of his mistresses), Helen Chavchavadze, in front of everyone (197).

The Cuban Missile Crisis began on Oct. 16, 1962. CIA photos showed Russian missile sites in Cuba, capable of reaching most of the US.

ExComm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) included LBJ. Many wanted a surprise bombing. RFK thought this was not in the moral character of the US and would be no better than Pearl Harbor. (211) Eventually, they recommended a naval blockade and demanding Kruschchev remove the missiles. LBJ wanted, still, an unannounced air strike. (212) Russian work increased. JFK kept his head and eventually ended the crisis (12 days after it started) without attacking.

Civil rights. Negroes “couldn’t get a cup of coffee [at a southern restaurant] while… on their way [to war] to die for the flag.” (262)

The story of how Bobby Baker handled money for LBJ, and how LBJ sold political influence, was known and being investigated by Life magazine in November 1963. (p. 275ff)

Evelyn Lincoln wrote that JFK was definitely planning to drop LBJ from the ticket in ‘64. This is believable. It was firmly denied by RFK, but there may have been political reasons for this (like RFK wanting LBJ to support his own campaign for the presidency). (295)

Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas flew to San Antonio with JFK and others, but he was snubbed – got no seat at the Austin dinner and no invitation to a reception for JFK at the Governor’s mansion. This was because Yarborough hadn’t supported Connally for governor in 1962, so Connally and LBJ wanted to sideline him.

Why does this matter? In San Antonio, Yarborough would not sit in LBJ’s car. This became a headline: JOHNSON SNUBBED. So JFK convinced Yarborough to sit with LBJ in Dallas to show they had made up. Thus, Yarborough was not in JFK’s car and was not shot at in Dallas.

11/22/63. JFK was pronounced dead around 1:30pm central. Meanwhile in DC, proof of LBJ’s graft was being given by Don Reynolds (318) to the Rules Committee.

LBJ called RFK within an hour, got the wording of the oath of office. Arranged to be sworn in with Kennedy people (especially Jackie) in the photo, on Air Force One, on the ground in Dallas. He asked Kennedy’s aids to stay on for continuity. He knew he needed to pass JFK’s agenda if he wanted the party’s nomination in 1964. That meant Civil Rights legislation.

This was a tightrope. He needed to assume power quickly, for the public, but doing so too quickly would offend the Kennedys. After years of idling, he was back in charge, himself again. (372)

He wrote letters that evening to John and Caroline. “He would never be a simple man. He was capable of tactlessness and tenderness, cunning and passion.” (This is quoting Wm. Manchester, 369.)

To his staff after keeping them up until 3am talking about plans after JFK was shot: “Well, good night, boys. Get a lot of sleep fast. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.” (372)

McGeorge Bundy. This is an actual person’s name. (374)

LBJ immediately began looking ahead to 1964, the election less than a year away. To become the nominee, he needed to accomplish things and prove he could be president. He took up JFK’s program and endeavored to pass a civil rights bill. People told him this would be too hard, to which he replied, “Well then, what’s a Presidency for?” (487)

He leveraged the situation to change votes. E.g., “Do you want the first action of the Senate to be a posthumous repudiation of JFK and a slap in the face of LBJ?” (425) Very effective.

Gearing up for the State of the Union, time to make the presidency his own. An economist, Walter Heller, suggested fighting poverty. LBJ’s reaction was immediate, instinctual: “That’s my kind of program.” (540)

The book ends once LBJ has made the presidency his own. There were many ways the transition could have gone wrong, and they are often overlooked, with all credit going to the constitution for the orderly passage of power. LBJ worked very hard to use the political moment, the crest of Kennedy sympathy, to pass a budget and then the civil rights bill that no other president had been able to pass.

This period of his life stands out as the finest. (605) Masterful. Heroic.

From the section at the end of the book on Sources:

Before he started taping his calls, LBJ had Walter Jenkins listen on an extension, with the mouthpiece unscrewed so his breathing couldn’t be heard. All 2400 pages of his transcripts were kept. LBJ wanted to be able to refer to them, to remind people when he had done them a favor. (613)

About George Reedy, LBJ said, “When you ask George the time, he tells you how to make a watch.” (614)

John Connaly wouldn’t talk to Caro. Then he read book 1 and agreed to answer any question Caro asked. The sources all spent lots of time talking to Caro. People want to share their lives and memories, but often no one asks. (615)