During World War II, Harry Truman rose to prominence providing oversight for the War effort, attacking corruption and wasteful spending. In one of his bids to increase his stature, Lyndon Johnson tried the same in Korea. It was less successful.
But during the Cuban War he decides another go is in order. He’s not expecting much, to be honest. But he has his eyes on the prize in 1964, and he can’t just let Nixon reap a perfect little war. Oh his hands can’t be openly on it, besides what sort of majority leader has the time for that? But Congress should be doing something. Cynically there has to be some shit to stir up in the war effort.
But even in all his cynicism and ruthless Washington insiderdom, Johnson does not initially guess the terrible truth. And by the time he does, not even the master of the Senate can stop the avalanche.
But he can guide it. Every Senator wants a piece of the action, looking for some way that Northwoods fell under their committee's purview. And Johnson can play favorites. Southerners get their section, while Northern Liberals are allowed free reign in other areas.
But certain Senators are boxed out of the glory. Kennedy and Humphrey and other men who might be angling for the nomination are much less likely to see their desired thrusts of investigation embraced by the Senate.
Meanwhile Johnson seeks to correct his mistakes from 1960. Better organization in state primaries, closer ties with local powers. He boosts his Civil Rights credentials as much as he can without burning his bridges with the south. The time has not yet come for that.
When the question of impeachment is raised, many naturally rush to the Senate Majority Leader. He drawls that this is really a matter for the House to decide. The Senate merely provides justice.
The convention in New York is not quite a coronation, but nor does the Johnson steamroller feel much of a bump. Johnson’s Vice Presidential nomination raises some eyebrows, the man is a little odd. But then, it is an unusual moment, and perhaps that calls for an unusual man.
Johnson is a man for all seasons. When needed he gladhands across the South, just as he did for Kennedy. But he also plays the somber, almost already Presidential, man, ready to heal the nation. He keeps his ad men at arm’s length, everyone already knows the issue of this election, but neither does he allow himself to become a Dewey. Ask about the war and he spouts “peace with honor.”
The result is never in doubt, and indeed the fact that it was not a 50 state landslide is somewhat disappointing for Johnson. But the unapologetic liberalism of the ticket cost just enough voters to let Lodge keep some western states.
Accompanying Johnson is a wave of New Democrats in both the House and Senate, the largest majority since the golden days of FDR. And these are not all Dixiecrats either. There is an opportunity here and Johnson does not want to miss it.
But first there are houses to put in order, things to be set right. Or at least addressed. There is the Warren Commission, which aims to pull together the various threads being unraveled by various investigators to get a coherent picture of this entire Northwoods fiasco. Then there is a Douglas Commission, looking at the broader security state. Johnson selects Douglas more because of their friendship as young New Dealers than because of his Civil Libertarian nature, which many note.
Then, there is the matter of Cuba. The Free Cuban Government installed by Nixon is the poisoned fruit of a poisoned tree, but that tree is watered with American blood, and so cannot be easily chopped down. The UN brokers talks, hosted graciously by the Swiss in Bern. The results are a classic compromise that pleases no one. Indian peacekeepers are to help disarmament, while American forces begin a slow withdrawal. A new government is installed with Ramón Barquín, a military man who tried to coup Batista, being President to Prime Minister Carlos Franqui, a revolutionary who had drifted away from Castro. The Cuban Army is to be abolished, with the new Civic Guard balanced between Reds and Capitalists. Finally, despite a General amnesty, key leaders on both sides are to be exiled until 1972. It is an ugly peace, and Cuba will call the next decade ‘the quiet war’ in contrast to the loud American invasion.
The ‘abandonment’ of Cuba also provides the first opportunity for the red baiters to poke their heads back up and scream betrayal. It is a little too soon for their cries to be heeded, but still they shout.
As the nation grapples with Nixon’s trial, Johnson must grapple with the nested layers of government that led to this point. He takes some of Douglas’ ideas, but leaves plenty out as well. The current Joint Chiefs of Staff have the good sense to resign, while the institution is to be neutered, command now will flow from the Secretary of Defense to the leaders in the field. A provision is added forbidding the Joint Chiefs to advise the President on matters unrelated to already existing deployments of troops. Policy must be made before plans.
A new cabinet post is created, Secretary of Intelligence, to place everything under one roof. The CIA gets a hatchet taken to it. The director is subordinated to the Secretary and it now is not allowed to actually do anything but compile and analyze the data given to it, still powerful, but in a different way. Other Intelligence Department sections include an Intelligence Gathering Wing, a Support Wing for funding unsavory characters, and an Operations Wing that, while on a tight leash, will continue to, well, operate.
Johnson is still, deep down, a believer in the Cold War. And he very quietly declines to declassify anything about non-Northwoods prior operations. No need to inflame things further with Iran, for example. The American leadership is shaken, not spilled But it will take time for the players to learn the new balance of power.
J. Edgar Hoover, of course, has some very bad files on some very important people. But Johnson points out, rightly, that at this point not doing something would very much do more damage to him than any leaks. Hoover sees the point. So while counterintelligence does get spun off into the Department of Intelligence, Hoover keeps the rest. And what would you know? Turns out all these Civil Rights leaders weren’t closet Communists, they just have secret ties with organized crime, which Hoover has definitely never denied existed.
All of this action takes place in the public eye, and while Johnson does his level best to keep anything too bad from leaking, there is certainly a renewed cynicism about Washington. But Johnson has a plan for that.
The Roosevelts had their Square and New Deals, and Truman had his Fair one. Johnson will try his luck with a Just Deal.
Many project that, following his October 1965 speech in St. Paul, he will start small. An arts program or something nice like that. But that is not Lyndon Johnson.
The Civil Rights Act of 1965 is two things. Firstly it is a ban on discrimination from government and private businesses. Secondly it is a voting rights bill. Johnson is swinging hard at the Solid South. And the Solid South howls. They howl and they howl. They howl in the streets and the schoolhouse doors. They howl in the papers and on the television. And they howl in the Senate, as long as they can. But Johnson presses himself. Religious leaders descend onto the Capitol. Black leaders join the fray. White Northerners chew their nails on occasion, they do not like the look of these Black people demanding things. But neither do they like the images of the firehoses and the dogs and the beatings on the steps of the South Carolina State House.
The 1966 midterms cut into Johnson’s majority. Some in the Republican Party see white backlash against Civil Rights as the only way to sail back into power, and they do see gains along with “Independent Conservatives.” But not enough to knock the Johnson administration off balance.
Johnson also pulls out the stops to pass Healthcare reform. Medicaid to help the nation’s elderly, while those who cannot afford insurance are to be aided by Medicare. Conservatives and the AMA decry the spending and the government overreach, but many appreciate the helping hand.
Johnson has, after so many years, managed to convince Democrats that he is in fact a liberal enough man for them. Unions and Minorities and City dwellers and certain farmers stampede the convention in Chicago. Johnson is renominated to thundering applause. The South, however, demurs.
The Republican Convention, however, is a nightmare. Barry Goldwater has won a fair number of primaries with his no holds barred conservatism. But the party leadership is looking at him with panic, and they throw their weight behind the titular Rockefeller Republican, warts and all. What follows is a riot in Cleveland as the party finds itself deeply torn. Nelson Rockefeller takes a conservative running mate, but the stony silence of Goldwater speaks volumes.
Into the race steps George Wallace. Segregationist hero. He attacks Johnson for the Civil and Voting Rights Laws. He attacks Rockefeller for his Northeastern rich man ways. He attacks them both for their liberalism and blames men like them for the rising crime rate. He even attacks the reforms to the intelligence community, saying they have left America vulnerable to Communism. He’s not quite saying Northwoods was ok, but a hawk in a dovish environment is eye-catching to say the least.
Johnson plays the solemn, successful President, while letting his ad men take free reign. Rockefeller’s deal with Nixon in 1960 is bandied about. Rockefeller may be a liberal Republican but he’s also a Rockefeller and is it really that hard to imagine a Rockefeller wanting to steal from the poor to give from the rich? And Wallace? Wallace and this ‘Independent Conservative Party’ are a dangerous lot who will just drag America into some damned fool war in the jungle again.
Rockefeller tries to find a ground between Wallace and Johnson. Better administration, business involvement, lower crime and less drugs. But the convention is a bloody wound in his side that hobbles him for the rest of the campaign.
Wallace sweeps the Old Confederacy aside from Texas and a Florida still jumpy about cold warriors. Rockefeller regains the west and parts of New England for the GOP. But the rest, the rest goes to Johnson. Along with renewed majorities in Congress.
The Just Deal continues.
The War on Poverty emerges as the next great front. Anti-poverty initiatives large and small speed through Congress. The Office of Economic Opportunity emerges as a major player on the scene. Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA. Major expansions in education and welfare, including food stamps.
Immigration rules are loosened. Arts funding is increased. The National Cultural Center becomes a touchstone of American life. Same with the National Public Broadcasting Network. Fair Housing becomes a major fault line as well, although Johnson manages to get it through.
Environmental legislation is passed, Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Land. Consumer safety, in particular car safety, became an issue addressed by the Federal Government as well. Efforts at gun control foundered however.
And, in 1970, Johnson gets to see a personal triumph. American and Soviets working together to land on the moon. A clever bit of post-Northwoods damage control, although he ensures an American steps out first.
And yet, cracks begin to show as well.
In 1969, race riots hit several major cities. Indianapolis, New York, Boston. Police brutality is the immediate cause, as well as a long term one. So are continuing poverty and a lack of economic opportunity. Yet many whites are shocked. They assumed that the Civil Rights Act would be the end of this. But the stain of racism is not so easily removed.
Inflation is also running hot at this point, and while the economy is still growing many are beginning to frown when they look at prices and then at their checkbook.
Abroad Johnson continues a cautious approach, the Northwoods backlash still strong. Support for other countries in the Cold War yes, direct military intervention, no. So when Mobutu falls to Communists, that is too bad. As South Vietnam finds itself surrounded by a new People’s Confederation of Indochina, Saigon gets guns and tanks and planes. They even get advisors. But these advisors are to be actual advisors not ‘advisors’ with a nod and a wink. Broadly popular still, but there is a sense America is on the backfoot. Events like the Prague Spring have reminded Americans that they really, really, don’t like Communism.
The 1970 midterms are not great for Johnson. But not disastrous either. They slow but do not stop progress on the Just Society. Yet there comes to be a sense that he is a lame duck.
Puerto Rico gets a Compact of Free Association deal, giving it official independence although it remains joined at the hip to the United States. But that is hardly noteworthy to many.
Then there is the matter of the President himself. Northwoods has engendered a greater scrutiny of the President. His seeming openness and popular programs, not to mention connections, spared Johnson some of it for some time, but some are looking closer. And not every American likes what they see. A crude man, rude to his staff and a bully to others. And then there is the scandals. The Bobby Baker business that he squashed after his failed Vice Presidential bid. His closest aid is Homosexual. Attorney General Fortas is caught up in an ethics issue Contractor kickbacks and radio and television millions. The crime of Northwoods is that the American people were lied to, some conservatives parrot, ignoring the dead bodies, and what else has Lyndon Johnson been lying about?
Regardless, it is difficult to get too worked up over the matter. The 22nd Amendment exists and Johnson will soon enough be leaving the White House. In fact he begins to cut loose a bit in his final days. Starting to smoke again. Enjoying some good meat at his home in Texas.
In fact he is leaving a little sooner than expected. He dies of a heart attack less than a month before Inauguration Day 1973. Leaving the lamest of the lame ducks to putter around.