Lyndon Johnson, the great society, and the "twilight" of the modern presidency

The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages 1-49

  Milkis, Sidney M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84886136622     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (135)

1. Lyndon Johnson, "Eight in the Dark", radio address over KNOW, March 18, 1937, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (hereafter Johnson Library).
2. Richard A. Rovere, "A Man for This Age Too", New York Times Magazine, April 11, 1965, 118.
3. LBJ's role as a "faithful son" of FDR and the New Deal is explored by Stephen Skowronek in his seminal work on presidential leadership and American political development The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).
4. Anthony King, ed., The New American Political System (Washington, D. C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978)
5. Richard A. Harris and Sidney M. Milkis, eds., Remaking American Politics (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1989).
6. Hugh Heclo, "The Sixties' False Dawn: Awakenings, Movements, and Postmodern Policy-Making", Journal of Policy History 8, no. 1(1996):41.
7. Remarks of the President and Mrs. Johnson to Fund-Raising Dinner of the Democratic Club of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois, April 23, 1964, White House Central Files, SP (SP 3-20), Johnson Library. Johnson's remarks at this dinner marked his first use of the term "Great Society"
8. Paul Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon B. Johnson (Boston: Twayne, 1986), 74-79;
9. Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 123-44;
10. Robert A. Caro, The Ye ars of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 1, The Path to Power (New York: Vintage Books, 1983), chap. 19.
11. Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales, 76.
12. Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency, 1963-1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 73.
13. Richard Goodwin, Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 275.
14. Harrington, cited in Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), "The Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson: November 1963-January 1969", 1:5, Special Files: Administrative History, OEO, Johnson Library.
15. I develop this point more fully in The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System since the New Deal (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
16. David Broder, "Consensus Politics: End of an Experiment", Atlantic Monthly, October 1966, 62.
17. George Reedy, The Twilight of the Presidency (New York: New American Library, 1970), xv.
18. Harry McPherson, interview with the author, Washington, D. C., July 30, 1985.
19. (Master of the Senate [New York: Knopf, 2002]).
20. ("Fatal Attraction", Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2002).
21. Juanita Roberts to Dorothy Territo, January 14, 1964, Diary Backup, Johnson Library;
22. Frank Dobie to LBJ, December 29, 1963, ibid.
23. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-64, 2 vols. (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1965), 1:704.
24. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1966, 2 vols. (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1967), 1:3.
25. Memorandum, Jack Valenti to LBJ, and attached draft speech by John Kenneth Galbraith, December 9, 1965, Statements, Johnson Library.
26. Richard Goodwin, Draft Speech, January 12, 1966, ibid.
27. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, 1:3.
28. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, 1:5-6.
29. Horace Busby to LBJ, July 13, 1964
30. and attached memorandum, "The Democratic Party and the Presidency in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1960", Office Files of Horace Busby, Johnson Library.
31. Students for a Democratic Society, "Port Huron Statement", printed in The New Left: A Documentary History, ed. Missimo Teodori (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969), 165.
32. National Resources Development Report for 1943, pt. 2, "Security, Work, and Relief Policies" (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1943), 486.
33. John Dewey, "The Future of Liberalism", Journal of Philosophy 32, no. 9(1935):230.
34. National Resources Development Report for 1943, pt. 1, "Post-War Plan and Program", 3.
35. Schlesinger to Goodwin, March 2, 1965
36. attached article from The Reporter (May 3, 1956), Office Files of Richard Goodwin, Johnson Library. Schlesinger, of course, worked in the Kennedy White House, where some notions of a "qualitative liberalism" informed JFK's New Frontier. But Kennedy's rhetoric and policies were never as bold as Johnson's on this score.
37. Memorandum, the Vice President to Marvin Watson, White House Central Files, Aides, Watson, Johnson Library.
38. "Remarks in Franklin D. Roosevelt Square, Gainesville, Georgia", May 8, 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, 1:653.
39. Gareth Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement: The Transformation and Decline of Great Society Liberalism (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996), 34.
40. "Remarks in Cleveland at the Convention of the Communications Workers in America", June 17, 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, 1:778-79.
41. Memorandum, Rowan to the President, May 16, 1964
42. attached article, "Mr. Johnson's Chance of Greatness", by a Special Correspondent, London Times, May 11, 1964, White House Central Files, FG1, Johnson Library.
43. Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement, 35.
44. OEO, "Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson", 1:157.
45. Guian McKee, "Prelude to Faith-Based Initiatives?" Miller Center Report, Winter 2003, 21-27.
46. Lyndon Johnson, "Remarks at Southwest Texas State College, San Marcos, Texas", November 20, 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, 1:168-69.
47. Memorandum, Hayes Redmon to Bill Moyers, June 9, 1966, Office Files of Bill Moyers, Johnson Library. Fred Dutton's view of LBJ reflected the deep antipathy between Johnson and Robert Kennedy.
48. Jeffrey Tulis, The Rhetorical Presidency (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).
49. "Why I Chose Not to Run", transcript of CBS Cronkite interview with Lyndon Johnson, tape 1, December 27, 1969, p. 5, Johnson Library.
50. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Public Papers and Addresses, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman, 13 vols. (New York: Random House, 1938-50), 1:752.
51. Milkis, The President and the Parties, chap. 8.
52. Bruce Miroff, "Presidential Leverage over Social Movements: The Johnson White House and Civil Rights", Journal of Politics 43 (February 1981):1-23.
53. Miroff, "Presidential Leverage over Social Movements", 11.
54. Horace Busby, interview with the author, June 25, 1987.
55. FDR dedicated the Robert E. Lee Memorial Statue in Dallas, Texas, on June 12, 1936, offering the following words to the occasion
56. Roosevelt, Public Papers and Addresses, 5:214.
57. Transcript of telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Ted Sorenson, June 3, 1963, pp. 6, 10, George Reedy Office Files, box 1, Johnson Library.
58. Lyndon B. Johnson, "Remarks at a Breakfast of the Georgia Legislature", May 8, 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, 1:648.
59. "LBJ's Challenge", editorial, Washington Post, May 9, 1964, A8.
60. Washington Post, May 9, 1964, A1.
61. Richmond Times Dispatch, May 9, 1964, 1, 11.
62. "With South in His Tongue and Heart, LBJ Sounds Call for Justice for All", editorial, Atlanta Constitution, May 9, 1964, 4.
63. Byron Hulsey, Everett Dirksen and His Presidents: How a Senate Giant Shaped American Politics (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000), 196.
64. Lyndon B. Johnson, "Special Message to Congress: The American Promise", March 15, 1965, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965 (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1966), 1:284.
65. Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales, 334.
66. McPherson interview.
67. Goodwin, Remembering America, 316.
68. Memorandum, Ervin Duggan to Douglas Cater, November 9, 1966, Henry Wilson Papers, Johnson Library.
69. McPherson interview.
70. Memoranda, Hayes Redmon to Bill Moyers, November 27, 1965, and November 30, 1965, Office Files of Bill Moyers.
71. Johnson telephone conversation with Martin Luther King, August 20, 1965, Johnson Tapes.
72. Oral History of Lee White, transcript of taped interview by Joe B. Frantz, March 2, 1971, p. 20, Johnson Library.
73. Lyndon Johnson, "Commencement Address at Howard University: 'To Fulfill These Rights, '" June 4, 1965, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965, 2:636.
74. David Charles Carter, "Two Nations: Social Insurgency and National Civil Rights Policymaking in the Johnson Administration, 1965-1968" (Ph. D. diss., Duke University, 2001), 320.
75. New York Times, July 30, 1964, 12
76. Miroff, "Presidential Leverage over Social Movements", 10-11.
77. Memorandum, Lee C. White to the President, August 13, 1964, White House Central Files, Ex & Gen PL, Johnson Library.
78. E-mail to author from Sherwin J. Markman, a Johnson White House aide, who was heavily involved in the resolving the MFDP controversy, January 13, 2004.
79. "Text of Statement by Negro Leaders", printed in the New York Times, July 30, 1964, 12.
80. White to Johnson memorandum, August 13, 1964.
81. Johnson telephone conversation with Walter Reuther, August 9, 1964, Johnson Tapes.
82. Johnson telephone conversation with Hubert Humphrey and Walter Reuther, August 25, 1964
83. Mark Stern, "Lyndon Johnson and the Democratization of the Democratic National Delegate Selection Process" (paper delivered at the 1990 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, California, August 29-September 1, 1990).
84. Memorandum, Marvin Watson to LBJ, April 19, 1967, Marvin Watson Files, Johnson Library.
85. Milkis, The President and the Parties, 210-16.
86. Memorandum, Harry McPherson to Lyndon Johnson, September 12, 1966, Office Files of Harry McPherson, Johnson Library.
87. Memorandum, Nicholas de B. Katzenbach to Harry McPherson, September 17, 1966, ibid.
88. James R. Jones to Marvin Watson, September 15, 1967, Marvin Watson Files, Johnson Library. But Johnson's aspiration to be a civil rights leader somewhat compromised his relationship with the Chicago mayor.
89. Memorandum, Bill Graham to the President, May 18, 1967, White House Central Files, We9, Johnson Library (emphasis in original).
90. Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1908), 69.
91. Markman written communication.
92. the Oral History of Sherwin J. Markman, transcript of interview by Dorothy Pierce McSweeney, May 21, 1969, tape 1, pp. 24-36, Johnson Library.
93. Carter, "Two Nations", chap. 5.
94. Sherwin J. Markman, "American Ghettos: Our Challenge and Response", April 5, 1967
95. Memorandum, Markman to the President, February 1, 1967, both in White House Central Files, We9, Johnson Library.
96. Memorandum, Markman to the President, February 17, 1968, ibid.;
97. White House fellow Thomas E. Cronin, who visited Baltimore, spoke of the "absence of proud men"
98. Memorandum, Cronin to LBJ, May 11, 1967, ibid. (emphasis in original).
99. Oral History of Sherwin J. Markman, 28;
100. Notes of a Meeting with Peter Lisigor, of the Chicago Daily News, August 4, 1967, Tom Johnson's Notes of Meetings, box 1, folder: July 1967-May 1968, Meetings with Correspondents, Johnson Library;
101. Memorandum, Tom Johnson to the President, August 10, 1967, with attached notes of meeting with labor leaders, folder: August 9, 1967, ibid.
102. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967, 2 vols. (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1968), 1:721, 723.
103. Memorandum, James Rowe to the President, June 29, 1965, White House Central Files, Aides, Moyers, Johnson Library.
104. Shriver "started a damn revolution", LBJ complained to Richard Daley a few months later. Telephone conversation with Richard Daley, December 24, 1965, Johnson Tapes.
105. Memorandum, Sherwin Markman to the President, March 14, 1967, White House Central Files, We9, Johnson Library.
106. OEO, "Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson", 1:35-36.
107. Milkis, The President and the Parties, chaps. 5-6.
108. Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, title 2, pt. A, sec. 202 (a), in U. S. Statutes at Large (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1965), 78:508-16.
109. Samuel Beer, "In Search of a New Public Philosophy", in King, New American Political System, 16.
110. OEO, "Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson", vol. 1, chap. 1.
111. Glazer cited in OEO, "Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson", 1:18.
112. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding: Community Action in the War on Poverty (New York: Free Press, 1970), 139.
113. Moynihan, Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding, 139.
114. James Morone, The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits of American Government, rev. ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 226.
115. Johnson, Vantage Point, 74.
116. National Resources Development Report for 1943, 394-95.
117. "Task Force Report on Intergovernmental Program Coordination", December 22, 1965, i, Outside Task Forces, Johnson Library.
118. (Vantage Point, 81).
119. their Intergovernmental Relations in the Administrative State (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 56-76.
120. Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement, 194-97.
121. (OEO, "Office of Economic Opportunity during the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1:190).
122. Lillian B. Rubin, "Maximum Feasible Participation: The Origins, Implications, and Present Status", Annals 385 (September 1969):17.
123. Examination of the War on Poverty, prepared for the Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower and Poverty of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1967), 5:1238, 1241-42.
124. Morone, Democratic Wish, chap. 6; the quotation is on p. 247.
125. Herbert S. Parmet, The Democrats: The Years after FDR (New York: Macmillan, 1976), 248.
126. Jack Newfield, "A Man for This Season", Commonweal, December 29, 1967, 400-401.
127. W. W. Rostow, Memorandum of Conversation, Participants: The President; the Vice President; Charles Murphy; W. W. Rostow, April 5, 1968, White House Famous Names, box 6, folder: Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 Campaign, Johnson Library.
128. Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales, 239.
129. James Ceaser, Presidential Selection: Theory and Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 283.
130. Jeffrey Berry, The Interest Group Society (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984), 28.
131. Samuel Beer, "In Search of a New Public Philosophy", 27-28.
132. Sidney M. Milkis, "Remaking Government Institutions in the 1970s: Participatory Democracy and the Triumph of Administrative Politics", Journal of Policy History 10, no. 1(1998):51-74.
133. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1969), 263.
134. Memorandum, Harry McPherson to the President, March 12, 1965, White House Diary Backup, Johnson Library.
135. Memorandum, Fred Panzer to Harry McPherson, February 21, 1968, White House Central Files, EX-SP, Johnson Library.