Hubris and the Presidency: The Abuse of Power by Johnson and Nixon

It was the worst of that dismal decade from 1964 to 1974 – when America’s honor was squandered first in Vietnam, then in the White House itself . . . Lyndon Johnson seemed to always get his way – by doing whatever it took. He entered politics through the expediency of buying votes, and he remained in politics through “the Johnson treatment”: an extraordinary mix of charm, craftiness, and cruelty. By the time LBJ became Senate majority leader, he was considered the second-most powerful man in Washington. Serving as vice-president under John F. Kennedy was a humbling experience for this man of Texas-sized ego, but those three years would be only a temporary glitch in his political career. When JFK was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson claimed the Oval Office with brash confidence that he would become the most illustrious president of the twentieth century. LBJ had a a program of sweeping social reform that he called “the Great Society.” Whatever Americans wanted or needed, Johnson believed, his administration could provide – and his government could pay for. But LBJ’s audacious concepts didn’t stop with domestic revolution. He also envisioned a foreign-policy triumph in Vietnam, where vastly superior U.S. forces would defeat the communist insurgency. Lyndon Johnson had miscalculated as few presidents before him. The Vietnam War proved to be unnecessary, unwinnable, unpopular, and unaffordable. With protesters dividing the nation, with the cost of the war skyrocketing, with more and more body bags being shipped home, and with Robert Kennedy deciding to run for the 1968 presidential nomination, Lyndon Johnson fell on his political sword and announced he would not seek reelection. In the end, America’s thirty-sixth president, who had promised something for everyone, proved to be not larger than life – but all too human. His successor, Richard Nixon, was at the other extreme. His promises were for himself and a few wealthy cronies, and his personality seemed to be that of someone who was only imitating human behavior. Yet Nixon’s early political career flourished because he had no qualms about accusing his opponents of harboring communist sympathies. As vice-president under Dwight Eisenhower, he became Ike’s hatchet using whatever slash-and-smear attack worked in that Cold War era. Moderates were jubilant when Nixon first lost a presidential race against JFK, then two years later when he failed in his bid to become governor of California. But Nixon was a phoenix, rising from the political ashes to win the White House in 1968 – by vowing that he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. Instead, his “secret plan” was a scheme to undermine the rights of U.S. citizens. Nixon staffed the White House with a group of quasi-fascists who were intoxicated by power and disdainful of the law. Under the convenient guise of national security, the Nixon administration used illegal slush funds to place wire-taps and electronic surveillance on journalists; attempted to sabotage the campaigns of Democratic candidates; and ordered the intelligence agencies to investigate the private lives of those considered the President’s enemies. But finally Nixon’s inner circle made a disastrous to break into Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate office complex. When the burglars were caught, the truth about years of presidential excesses gradually began to be revealed – until Richard Nixon, faced with certain impeachment and criminal charges, resigned from office. This fascinating study portrays two men who might have been among America’s greatest presidents – but who instead became victims of their own hubris. Follow the remarkable lives of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon as they begin their political ascendancy through ingratiation and deference; as they use opportunism to climb ever-higher on the political ladder; as they exploit those who can better their careers; as their successes breed arrogance. And follow an inevitable downward spiral, as their mounting political problems trigger paranoia, then isolation, and finally self-destruction.