The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Book 4

"It was Abraham Lincoln who `struck off the chains of black Americans, but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy's sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands upon the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life."The Passage of Power, the fourth volume in Caro's projected five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, covers from the 1960 presidential primaries through the first seven weeks of Johnson's presidency. It covers the shortest, but also the most interesting, period of time of any of the books yet. The Passage of Power is divided into five parts: Johnson v. Kennedy 1960 (the 1960 democratic nomination fight), "Rufus Cornpone" (Johnson's vice presidency), Dallas (the assassination of Kennedy), Taking Command (Johnson's actions in the days immediately following the assassination), and To Become a President (the rest of the first seven weeks of Johnson's presidency).The Years of Lyndon Johnson has always been thematically about power. The period covered by The Passage of Power is particularly appropriate for a study of power. Johnson went from perhaps the second most powerful man in America to a figure of ridicule at Georgetown dinner parties to the most powerful man in the world in just a few years. Caro has always had a flair for the dramatic, and he fully employs it to demonstrate just how jarring the shifts of Johnson's power were.A powerful Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Johnson perhaps had reason to be confident about his chances at the 1960 democratic nomination. But he was quickly outmaneuvered by Kennedy (Caro also asserts Johnson was almost paralyzed by fear of failure), and the vice presidential nomination was soon all he had left to hope for. Serving as Majority Leader with a president of the same party in the White House was much less enticing, and Johnson was fully aware that the vice presidency had served as a gateway to the presidency for many men. And after all, "power is where power goes." But it was not to be. Whether due to Johnson's uncharacteristic ineptness at grasping for power, a lack of respect in the administration from the Kennedy men, or fear of Johnson as a political rival (the views of the most important actor, John F. Kennedy, will never be fully known), Johnson quickly became a weak Vice President even by historical standards, kept out of the loop on major crises like the Bay of Pigs and James Meredith incidents (Johnson was kept completely in the dark) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (firmly on the side of the hawks, Johnson was not privy to the smaller meetings that actually determined Kennedy's response).Johnson's attempts at retaining relevance were also thwarted by the hatred of Kennedy's closest advisor, his brother Bobby. Caro paints a portrait of two men were both very different (Bobby patrician and principled, Johnson plebeian and pragmatic) and very much alike (both combining political ruthlessness with genuine compassion for the downtrodden). Bobby Kennedy comes away looking the worse in Caro's telling; for example, he torpedoed promising efforts by Johnson to get more involved in civil rights.The public view of Kennedy's assassination has always been firmly focused on Kennedy. Caro takes great pains to show just how precarious a position Johnson was thrust into. In the midst of the Cold War (and shortly after it almost got very hot), the American president was killed by a man with questionable ties to our enemies. Thrust into the presidency was a man hated by Kennedy's closest advisor, openly mocked by members of his administration, and consciously kept in the dark about matters of vital import (which is I think really a rather significant black mark against Kennedy). It is taken as a matter of course that presidential transitions occur without a hitch in this country because they always have, but never has that been put to a greater test than when Kennedy was killed. And on top of all the above, it all played out on television in front of an entire nation. (It should be noted that Caro explicitly states that in interviewing dozens of key figures and reading thousands of source documents he found no hint that Johnson had any foreknowledge of the assassination or was in any way involved.)But Johnson was, as his wife described him, "a good man in a tight spot," and despite being shut out of power for three years, was not stranger to its use. He calmed the nation in a public address (even though big speeches had always been his greatest weakness as a politician), convinced key aides and cabinet members from Kennedy's administration to stay for the near future, and began moving forward with Kennedy's legislative agenda. And moving forward how. The Kennedy faction has always maintained that Kennedy's agenda would have inevitably been passed had he not been killed, but Caro thoroughly dismantles their arguments as only Caro can. Not only had Kennedy been unable to make any progress on his agenda in three years, he had firmly positioned it for failure by putting the Southern senators in a position to hold key bills hostage to his civil rights bill. His key economic advisors foolishly thought Senator Byrd's requirement of a federal budget under $100MM was a "nice to have." But Johnson knew the Southern senators and knew Senator Byrd in particular. The federal budget was reduced to well under $100MM (actually reducing both federal spending and employee headcount), the held-up appropriation bills were passed, and Kennedy's marquee tax bill was passed. Juggling those with the civil rights bill, Johnson shepherded it through the Senate as perhaps only that old master of the Senate could.Johnson's first order of business was continuity, but it didn't take him long to put his stamp on his presidency. A state visit by the German Chancellor was held in rural Texas with a brisket and spare rib buffet line. Reporters visiting Johnson's ranch were treated to horseback rides. And Johnson declared a War on Poverty. Not in the tones of a Boston aristocrat, but as only a man who had really lived poverty could.The source material of The Passage of Power has been picked over at an order of magnitude far beyond that of the first three volumes. That presents Caro with certain difficulties he had not earlier had, as he more often relies on quotes. Because this is so much a story of Kennedy v. Johnson, the two warring camps have tended to give their conflicting versions and stuck to them, leaving no real way to nail down the truth. Many more call-backs to the previous books are also made. Caro's trademark style is left somewhat hobbled (and having recently read The Power Broker, it seems that Caro's style has become muted over the years). But Caro is still Caro, and his prose should remain the envy of his fellow popular historians.Caro's feelings toward Johnson are understandably complex, and his treatment of Johnson has vacillated from volume to volume based on how he feels about Johnson's actions during that period. To Caro, the Johnson of The Passage of Power was Johnson at his best; it was "a moment not only masterful but, in its way, heroic." His leadership and liberal principles were on full display, and his abusiveness and deceit were (temporarily) held in check. Johnson comes off very well here, particularly to a reader who hasn't read the first three volumes. The great divide between the Kennedy and Johnson factions leaves a historian with little choice but to pick between the two, and Caro usually comes down on the side of the Johnson men. But he by no means gives Johnson a pass. He shows Johnson's nastier strong-arm tactics and makes a convincing case that Illinois wasn't the only state stolen in the 1960 election--Johnson helped Kennedy steal Texas too.Reference material takes up 32% of the Kindle version. They include Debts (acknowledgements), a very extensive Note on Sources (including five and a half pages just listing people Caro interviewed), a bibliography of Books Cited in Notes, Notes, an Index (linked back to the main text), Illustration Credits (linked back), Illustrations, a Note About the Author, and a list of books Also by Robert A. Caro. Caro doesn't use endnotes for his Notes (instead using a few per chapter for parentheticals and supras to his earlier books), but they are linked back to the main text from the Notes. The illustrations show up clearly in black and white and include the iconic photo of Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One.

For those of us who have read the previous volumes of Robert Caro's portrait of the life of Lyndon Johnson, we have all eagerly awaited this the latest installment. When the author first began writing what has become the definitive biography of the 36th President, he was basically vilified by scholars as getting it wrong. With each passing year, and volume, historians have come over to Caro's side of the story in troves. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power can either be read as part of the anthology or as a standalone story of Johnson's years during the Vice Presidency, and his ascension to the oval office upon the tragic death of John Kennedy.Either way, you are in for a real treat. Many readers agree that writing doesn't get any better than this, and the proof is that Caro's writings have stood the test of time, and his reputation has simply gotten bigger. This is 605 pages (736 with footnotes) of detailed writing that any student of that period will cherish. The first half of the book, over 300 pages is dedicated to the last two Senate years, and the Vice Presidential years when LBJ lived the most down in the valley depressing type experience. He was ignored by the President, and castigated by young Robert Kennedy. Between the two of them Johnson's power had been castrated, and he was boxed into a small office. In a city where power was everything, Johnson now had none.This is especially interesting in light of the heights from which he the former Senate Majority leader had fallen. Johnson as leader was considered the most powerful man in the Congress, with the White House held by the popular Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. Ike could get nothing done in the Democratic Congress without LBJ's help. Now with a potential Democratic President coming into office, he Johnson would be virtually unimportant as the new President would grasp power from both Ike, and Johnson. LBJ therefore knew that the Vice Presidency was where he wanted to be, or so he thought at the time.As the book so poignantly points out however, Johnson also knew that seven other men had become president by simply being Vice President, and that is why he wanted the job so badly. Absolutely competent, understanding power, and desperately ambitious, Johnson would relegate himself to the job that former Vice President John Nance Gardner had described as not worth a bucket of warm spit.For the first 300 thoroughly documented pages we feel Lyndon Johnson's pain as Vice President. It is both intense and unrelenting. The author has interviewed scores of the President's contemporaries who poured themselves into the story in order that Caro could get it right. Thousands of documents were studied as Caro once again lives in Washington DC for weeks and months at a time trying to get inside the head of his subject, moving down the same corridors that Johnson himself walked. As in previous volumes, the reader can just sense that the author has penetrated to the heart and soul of this most interesting of Presidents, and one who still remains bigger than life.More than 60 pages of the book are devoted to the day John Kennedy dies, and then LBJ's successful attempt to reframe the nation's collective pain and use it to galvanize the Congress in coming months to pass his predecessor's agenda, something the late President was not able to get done himself. Caro and Kennedy Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. go head to head in the narrative as Caro rips to shreds Schlesinger's previously accepted belief that JFK would have passed his own agenda had he lived.The book also deals with the hotly debated topic of whether JFK expected LBJ to accept the Vice Presidency when the offer was made. The story of Bobby Kennedy attempting to talk his brother out of it, and even telling Johnson he should withdraw his name is covered in detail. Interviews were conducted, documents studied and tape recordings of Lyndon Johnson's discussion of the matter are all covered in detail. Once again, Caro has rewritten conventional wisdom.Readers on both sides of the discussion as to who killed JFK will be sorely disappointed if they expect Caro to shed new light on this hotly contested topic which still remains red hot some 50 years after the assassination. The author is of the opinion that the Warren Commission got it right, and he spares no attempt in his praise of the commission and its conclusions.CONCLUSIONThis latest installment of Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson is once again a first rate biography of a President that had tremendous impact on our country, our history, and what we have become. It covers a short period in the President's life, his ascension to the Vice Presidency and his coming into the Presidency itself. Basically nothing of the wrenching Viet Nam experience is covered. That will probably be left to the next installment. In the meantime we have enough to chew on in this volume to keep any fan of Caro's going until years from now, the author may shed new light on the American experience in Viet Nam. This reader urges all readers of politics, history, and fascinating biography to pick up a copy of this book and read it cover to cover.Richard Stoyeck

It’s definitely a tome but really interesting. I read it with a lighter book off and on. It was very readable though.

Uma colecção gloriosa sobre Lyndon Johnson e a história dos EUA. Recomendo vivamente!

Pode parecer um pouco específico demais para um leitor brasileiro, procurar a biografia de LBJ. Mas a abrangência com q R.Caro aborda aquela época tão efervescente nos leva a um verdadeiro mergulho no mundo dos anos 60, sem desfocar das (muitas) especificidades da política dos EUA e de seus protagonistas. Quantos livros, por exemplo, já lemos sobre o assassinato de JFK, mas revisitá-lo pelos olhos do Vice-Presidente, passageiro dois carros atrás nos dá outra perspectiva, notadamente ao detalhar o dilema em que ele se encontrava naquela manhã em Dalas, percebendo que o time do presidente já preparava sua substituição na chapa da reeleição......

Master of the Senate is the Best one of the four, but this is a close second. Just like all the other books by Caro, a must read. And it still feels like you're reading a fictional story.

Like the preceding book, it is long and detailed and gives a clear picture of the brutal politics of Washington from the time when Lyndon Johnson stood for nomination as the Democratic party candidate for the presidency till the first few weeks after he actually became president (after JFK's assassination). Discusses the working and politics of the Kennedy white house (not necessarily complimentary), and the achievements of the first few weeks of the Johnson presidency.