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.Johnson s paranoia raises questions about hisjudgment and capacity to make rational life and death decisions.I do notraise this matter casually.It is a frighteningly difficult issue, which the coun­try has never seriously addressed.And for good reason.It is one thing if aPresident is seriously incapacitated by some physical malady that bars himfrom performing his duties.And even then, as in the case of Woodrow Wil­son, few, if any, were ready to demand that the Vice President assume theresponsibilities of office.Determining psychological incapacity may be impossible.We havenever had a President who was so demonstrably depressed or unstable thatAfter the Fall :: 377he had to temporarily or permanently give up governing.Richard Nixon sdecision to resign was a rational response to legal and political circum­stances beyond his control.Who then is to say when a President has passed the bounds of rationalgood sense? Certainly in Johnson s case, for all the cranky nonsense heespoused about his enemies, he remained largely in control of his facultiesand more than capable of functioning as President.Still, no one shouldmake light of how much his suspicions and anger toward his domestic crit­ics distorted his judgments in dealing with Vietnam.It may be that hewould have pursued the war as avidly even without his personal antago­nisms.But it is clear that his personal quirks in dealing with war opponentscontributed nothing constructive to the national dialogue on a failing war.How then to sum up Johnson s nearly four decades in politics? He standsin the front ranks of those who served as congressional aides, NYA direc­tors, congressmen, and senators.His vice presidency was no more nor lessthan what others had suffered through in that office.His presidency was a story of great achievement and painful failure, oflasting gains and unforgettable losses.Whatever impulse future historiansmay have to pigeonhole Johnson as a near great, average, or failed Presi­dent, I am confident that a close review of his time in office will leave themreluctant to put any single stamp on his term.Some people loved the manand some despised him.Some remember him for great works and othersfor a legacy of excessive governance at home and defeat abroad.In a not sodistant future, when coming generations have no direct experience of theman and the passions of the sixties are muted, Johnson will probably beremembered as a President who faithfully reflected the country s greatnessand limitations a man notable for his successes and failures, for his tri­umphs and tragedy.Only one thing seems certain: Lyndon Johnson will not join the manyobscure almost nameless, faceless Presidents whose terms of office reg­ister on most Americans as blank slates.He will not be forgotten.This page intentionally left blankSuggestions for::Further ReadingAs I stated in the Preface, this volume is an abridg­ment of Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908 1960 (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1991) and Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnsonand His Times, 1961 1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).Thesestudies rest on fourteen years of research and writing.The Sources sectionof each volume lists the vast array of manuscripts and oral histories under­pinning it.Most of these materials are in the Lyndon B.Johnson Libraryin Austin, Texas, but a number of other archives contain important mate­rials relating to Johnson s life and political career.For additional biographies and monographs on specific subjects relat­ing to Johnson s political actions, see Craig H.Roell et al., Lyndon B.John­son: A Bibliography (2 vols.: 1984 and 1988).A good general starting pointfor the study of Lyndon B.Johnson s personality and public life is DorisKearns, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1976); other generalstudies are Paul K.Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon BainesJohnson (1986), and Bruce J.Schulman, Lyndon B.Johnson and AmericanLiberalism (1995).pre-presidential yearsChapter 1: Origins.See Part One (chapters 1 5) of Lone Star Rising.Alsosee Robert Caro, The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol.1(1982).Chapter 2: The Congressman.See Part Two (chapters 6 10) of Lone StarRising.Also see Robert Caro, Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon John­son, Vol.2 (1990); both Caro volumes include discussions of Johnson s con­troversial 1948 election to the United States Senate.Chapter 3: The Senator.See Part Three (chapters 11 15) of Lone Star Ris­ing and Caro s Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol.3(2002).An older but still valuable book on the Senate years is RowlandEvans and Robert Novak, Lyndon B.Johnson: The Exercise of Power (1968).380 :: Suggestions for Further ReadingChapter 4: The Vice President.See Lone Star Rising, chapter 16, on thenomination, and Flawed Giant, chapter 1, on the vice presidency.the presidencyFor good overviews of Johnson s presidency, see the essays in the threevolumes edited by Robert A.Divine: Exploring the Johnson Years (1981);The Johnson Years: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science (1987); and TheJohnson Years: LBJ at Home and Abroad (1994).Vaughn Davis Bornet s ThePresidency of Lyndon Johnson (1983) is another good study [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]