Hal K. Rothman
LBJ’s Texas White House
The author is a western historian.
One time at UNLV.
The author tells the Lyndon Johnson story in the context of the development of what came to be known as the Texas White House from the time the Johnsons purchased the original house in 1951 thru his presidency.
The Edwards Plateau. P. 9
At least he wouldn't end up an elevator operator. P. 36
Chester A. Nimitz was from nearby Fredericksburg. P. 62
Recovering from his heart attack in 1955 at the ranch he became a dieting fanatic and a family man for the first time. P. 72
He used the ranch as a strategic asset. P. 73
Even as early as 1955 when he spent extensive time in Texas after his heart attack he had many officials from DC visiting him at his ranch. It seems like LBJ was always in process.
Students of Lyndon Johnson will always wonder why he didn’t try for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 until it was too late, only declaring his candidacy three days before the convention began in Los Angles. He thought the party would and should come to him. He miscalculated. P. 91
The author talks about JFK’s visit to the ranch after the November victory. They went deer hunting. It must have been psychologically difficult for LBJ.
Though frustrated as VP and left out of JFK’s inner circle, Johnson was a loyal vice-president unlike fellow Texan John Nance Garner. P. 97
The author mentions Texas with large German population. This fact is new to me. P. 100
The German chancellor visited in 1961. Germans related to western mythology. Johnson masterfully converted himself from Southerner to Westerner. P. 102
The stream of visitors to Texas did not abate during the VP years. P. 107
The author chronicles the growth of the house over the years, its status as a symbol in the country and the world beyond, and the function of the house for LBJ mixing business and pleasure. I wonder if the author doesn’t exaggerate just a little bit on the significance of the house beyond what it meant to the Johnson family. P. 110
Johnson’s presidency created the first remote White House. P. 126
LBJ was ahead of the curve in utilizing technology both before after setting up the Western White House. He had a rare care phone in 1958. When he became President, the Texas property was updated with the latest technology. He might 18 hours a day on the telephone. P. 127
LBJ was notorious for having three TVs for each of the three networks. Trump needs only one. P. 129
A big part of this book is the unending improvements in the ranch house, its environs, and the communication needs for the Johnsons as he moved to the VP and President over the years. P. 136
Lyndon Johnson was a perpetual motion machine. P. 146
He tried to run the national government from his ranch. P. 148
It is as if Johnson made Texas the West and removed the state from the South. P. 170
LBJ saw the Texas Hill Country as a reflection of himself, of the place where he was born and where he would return. He found great power in this roots and sought to convey this through his Great Society roots. Life was what an individual made of it. The struggle to overcome contained vast power that could be translated into any area of life. Agriculture and ranching led to a strong healthy national character. P. 190
The national press became inquisitive and adverbial during Johnson’s presidency. He struggled to deal with it. He didn’t get the free ride that FDR benefitted from. P. 191
Johnson fashioned himself into an American myth of the West with his Stetson hat, BBQ, and the hills of Texas that made him proud and strong. P. 192
He believed that anything could be accomplished in this country. His personality and the ranch were linked. He felt that the civil rights issues were close to being solved. Such innocence, no so long ago. P. 192
The story of the Johnson ranch, it seems to me, is its isolation. This is what struck me the most when I visited Johnson Country. It is amazing that this place became so big given its location out in the middle of nowhere. P. 199
Even as President LBJ did not change his rural, Texas way of talking. P. 200
Johnson’s pleasure at the ranch was a mystery to Eastern-based reporters, and in Carpenter’s view, they did not show sufficient respect for the president’s values. She remained certain that reporters behaved differently when they visited the Kennedy and Harriman estates or other properties. P. 204
Cousin Oriole was a shy, hard-of-hearing woman who was a practicing Christadelphian and an avid reader of the Bible, who was both a relic and a source of wisdom. P. 206
LBJ was very sensitive about how the press treated his people of the Hill Country.
Lyndon Johnson could judge people by how they got along with the outdoors from his Texas perspective. He and I would not have gotten along. P. 209
I may not have agreed with what the ranch and the Hill Country meant to LBJ, but I think I can understand it. P. 211
At his ranch, Lyndon Johnson felt secure in a way he did not elsewhere. P. 215
He was at his best on his property. P. 215
So many constant guests at the ranch. Church in Fredericksburg. P. 219
Every man needs a place where he can let his guard down. P. 227
Passage of the housing act in 1968. P. 231
Johnson and MKL, Jr. had a volatile relationship that must have been strained by King’s increasing opposition to the Viet Nam War. P. 231
Too bad he didn’t have more time to enjoy his Hill Country after he retired. P. 232
A positive view of his retirement:
-he did not seek to fight the public image of a defeated old man who betrayed the country into the quagmire of Viet Nam
-he cultivated the small pleasures of life
-did not interfere into national politics except for offering strategic advice to McGovern in 1972
-lived on personal rather than public terms
-time for fatherly instincts
-home at last.
P. 234
In retirement he let his hair to grow to almost shoulder length. Is there a picture of this? P. 235
In retirement he was no longer publicly oriented but private oriented. P. 236
But he still received a foreign policy brief each Friday from Henry Kissinger. P. 236
This conflicting picture, of a man at peace with self and place who could not resisting keeping a hand in national affairs, defined defined the post-presidential years for Johnson. On his ranch in Texas he could do both. P. 236
I read these words and I still think about how isolated that ranch was/is.
So I assume Johnson went to his grave believing he did the right thing on Viet Nam.
What would he think if he were alive today?
Lo and behold this author quotes Conkin as saying that LBJ knew he had failed on Viet Nam. There was a tone of defensiveness and apology in his final presidential remarks.
In retirement:
Doted on his grandkids.
Went to Mexico every February.
Became a devoted UT football fanatic.
Showed a renewed sense of humor.
Darrell Royal was a frequent guest at the ranch.
Perhaps there was some apologia on Viet Nam to local Hill dwellers as opposed to his national silence.
He invited Longhorn football recruits to the ranch!!!
Pleasure and status melded in retirement.
Golf in the spring and fall. (I did not realize he played golf).
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