I have heard that Lyndon Johnson, upon retiring, grew his hair out quite long. Supposedly after a time out of the limelight he appeared on TV in a denim jacket and jeans with hair down to his shoulders, looking like the world’s oldest hippy. Is this true? It would be sort of funny to see, though I suspect his “hippy” appearance was probably exagerrated.
Hmmm. Maybe.
I have a book called If Elected: Presidential Campaigns from Lincoln to Ford as Reported by the New York Times. It includes the front page of August 23, 1972, on which day George McGovern happened to pay a visit to the LBJ ranch. The photo of McGovern and LBJ makes for an amusing reversal of stereotypes. McGovern is buttoned down in a business suit and neatly trimmed hair, whereas LBJ is wearing a denim shirt and jeans and shoulder-length hair and looking like . . . well, like the “world’s oldest hippy”.
I remember when this was in the news, arch-conservative Barry Goldwater was asked what he thought of LBJ’s new hairstyle and he replied, “I think it’s great; when I retire, I’m gonna grow my hair down to my ass.” Can’t find a cite, but it was widely quoted at the time. Anybody else recall this?
Heh. Nope.
(This thread reminds me of the pictures of Tony Blair when he was the manager of a rock band.)
You could argue the “down to his shoulders” part, but it’s true LBJ did let his hair grow longer. But remember, this was 1963-1972 and even straightlaced suit-wearing businessmen often had hair that was longer than what we now consider customary.
As for the denim jacket and jeans, remember that LBJ was living on his ranch by then. Wearing denim would be no more unusual than the photos of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush wearing denim when they went riding or cleared brush on their ranches.
LBJ was a complicated man, and no one understood him but his woman.
Yeah, I remember that, and I always wondered why he let his hari grow so long. It bothered me, and I didnt like it, since for so long he seemed to speak out against the long haired kids. I have found no record of him changing his mind on anything else. So, why would he have done that?
Did Johnson ever object to long hair on kids (i.e., actually, younger people)? Sure, he may have been bothered because many of the people protesting his policies had long hair, but that’s not the same thing. I don’t remember him ever speaking on the subject of long hair.
Don’t you mean, "his women?"
LBJ may not have screwed around as much as JFK did, but he wasn’t what anyone could call faithful to Lady Bird.
Are saying Shaft had just the one woman? Shut your mouth!
This was the opinion of most people. However recently some recordings of LBJ’s phone calls were released. In one of those phone conversations made soon after the Vietnam War began, LBJ talked about knowing there was no way we could win the war. His statement was something like “A Vietcong soldier will sit in a cold, wet hole for three days waiting quietly for an opportunity. An American soldier will sit for 20 minutes until he needs a cigarette.” The Vietnam War was all about a holding action against the “Domino Effect.”
If you’ve ever visited the area of LBJ’s ranch, you would understand how ridiculous it is to equate wearing denim to being hippie. The long hair was probably a rebellion against the years his hair had to be neatly trimmed. Hippies were rebelling against the same idea but not the years of having to do it (there is a difference).
All/most of the white house tapes have been released, and there have been 2 books of white house transcripts have been published and are widely avaialble to the public(see below) from any book store:
Johnson kept information away from the generals and the joint cheifs, NOT the other way around.
Johnson deliberately withheld information, and the truth about vietnam, from the generals, the congress, and the public. It was a purposeful effort that took much time and planning so that no one would know what the situation in vietnam was really about.
Neither Johnson nor MacNamarrah believed in the domino theory(at least by 1965), it was a lie to the american people, pure untrue propoganda.
The clearest statement, the defining statement of Johnson on vietnam, was in a telephone call to Senator Russell in 1965, when Johnson said vietnam was not worth one american boys life, that we could not win the war, that vietnam was “a pissant country”, (whatever that means), and that johnson told Russell that if he left vietnam, and did not fight a vietnam war, that he would be the first president to lose a war, and that he would not be re-elected. Johnson did not want to win the vietnam war, never thought we could win it , and he had no plan to win it.
All of the johnsons secret white hose tapes are available at the Johnson library, they were released early, and against johnsons wishes. There is no doubt whatsoever what Johnson thought about vietnam, that we attacked vietnam first(not the other way around), that we were secretly bombing and conducting raids in vietnam in 1964-65 as an agressor, that the Tonkin bay was phoney, and the Maddox was not attacked, Johnson did not believe the Warren report nor that Oswaldt was a lone assassin, etc. etc.
These are not my opinions, this is exactly what johnson, dirkson, mcnarrah, bundy, and everybody else in the white house said about vietnam, etc.
read these books if you want to really know about vietnam, why we were fighting , why the tonkin bay resolution was deceit and a lie, the warren report, etc, :
Reaching for Glory: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1964-1965
Michael R. Beschloss
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House
Michael R. Beschloss
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House
Michael R. Beschloss
From the Publisher
Taking Charge, the first volume of the Johnson White House Tapes, is filled with revelations about the full-blooded Texan behind the public image. We hear LBJ telling who he thinks really killed JFK, creating the Warren Commission, staking his Presidency on a revolutionary civil rights bill, scuttling Robert Kennedy’s drive to be his Vice President, using the Gulf of Tonkin attack to expand the American beachhead in Southeast Asia, and unveiling his private, tortured early doubts that we could ever win a war in Vietnam. By allowing us to hear LBJ as he applies the ‘Johnson treatment’ to foes and friends, Taking Charge offers spellbinding insight into how the 36th President used power. Johnson flatters, provokes, and twists the arms of some of the dominant personalities of the times, including Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., J. Edgar Hoover, Robert McNamara, Katharine Graham and other leading media figures, members of Congress, and many others. We come to understand Johnson’s complex, changing relationships with Lady Bird and the rest of his family, Jacqueline Kennedy, ex-Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and members of his Cabinet and White House staff.
He tried real hard to get into Jackie’s knickers, didn’t he?
[ul]:o [sup]So what does the book say about the outcome? Inquiring minds want to know.[/sup][/ul]
I dont know what you mean by that.
Johnson tried real hard to be very friendly with Jackie, because he thought that by being friends with her, he could keep the Kennedy family off his back. johnson constantly called jackie to find out if she ever needed anything, and to express his friendship with her. Johnson was always a gentleman with jackie.
Johnson had no sexual interest in jackie at all, from what anyone knows, or from listening to all of his tapes.
What outcome? outcome of what? If you mean vietnam, we lost. what book? If you mean the white house transcripts, read the 2 complete books yourself, and then listen to the tapes for more info if you want it.
By the way, I am not suggesting Johnson ever became sympathetic to the “hippies”. I was just wondering if he really did look so unconventional - and yes, wearing denim on a Texas ranch was hardly a political statement.