"History with the bark off"
I learn a lot by walking with the presidents.
Years of reading presidential biographies have yielded insights into the men who have held the office, but more importantly for me these leaders have become historical mentors in matters of my own life and leadership.
There is nothing quite like “watching” how individuals in our nation’s highest office navigate the complexities of their times. Whether it is Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelts (TR or FDR), Wilson, or Obama . . . there are insights to be gleaned and lessons to be learned and applied.
Lyndon Baines Johnson: The Enigma
Of all the Presidents I have read, none capture my attention like Lyndon Baines Johnson. About LBJ, Texas Governor John Connally (Johnson’s friend and political colleague) said:
There is no adjective in the dictionary to describe Johnson. He was cruel and kind, generous and greedy, sensitive and insensitive, crafty and naive, ruthless and thoughtful, simple in many ways and yet extremely complex, caring and totally not caring; he could overwhelm people with kindness and turn around and be cruel and petty toward those same people. He knew how to use people in politics in the way nobody else could that I know of. As a matter of fact, it would take every adjective in the dictionary to describe him” (Updegrove, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, 3).
Johnson is an enigma. He’s the best of us — and the worst of us. A twenty-year opponent of civil rights, it was Johnson as Senate Majority Leader who would pass the first Civil Rights legislation in 87 years. About this, Robert Caro said:
Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans, but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into the voting booths, closed democracy’s sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands on the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life. (Caro, Means of Ascent, xxi).
As President, Johnson inherited the Civil Rights cause from John F. Kennedy and accomplished what Kennedy could not — the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965. At the same time, he inherited Vietnam and it would become his undoing. Study his life; it is a roller-coaster of humanity — and leadership — at its best and worst.
When Johnson dedicated the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin on May 22, 1971, he promised openness and transparency. He described it as “History with the bark off.”
“There is no record of a mistake, or an unpleasantness, or a criticism that is not included in the files here. We have papers from 40, some very turbulent, years of public service, and we put them all here in one place, for friends and foes to judge.”
Biographies can scrape off some of the historical bark, but Johnson knew the president’s own papers, speeches, and especially recordings provide a better sense of “leadership in the raw.”
The LBJ Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President
Michael Beschloss’ Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964 is “history with the bark off.” He gives us Johnson’s White House conversations (with editorial historical context) from the day LBJ took office after President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, until two months before Johnson’s landslide election in 1964. This is a herculean effort on the part of the author. To prepare, Beschloss “listened to virtually every Johnson White House tape for the period from November 1963 through August 1964—often many times—and … personally transcribed most of the conversations . . . .” What we get is the day, the event, and the conversation. This is fascinating stuff made even better if you hear Johnson in his own voice, which the Audible version gives you (sadly in only an abridged format).
How the bark came off
To appreciate how the bark came off, one needs to understand presidents and recorded conversations. FDR began the practice, Truman would have nothing to do with it, but President Dwight Eisenhower saw some benefits. Ike installed a Dictaphone recording device in the White House though he used it sparingly.
Kennedy increased the practice. Our thirty-fifth president recorded some 250 hours of meetings and about 12 hours of telephone conversations. But when Johnson became President in November ’63, he not only kept the recording practice, he expanded it!
Beschloss tells us, “Johnson thus became the only President to record himself from his first month in office to the last. Between November 1963 and January 1969, LBJ taped about 9,500 conversations, totaling about 643 hours” (548). Johnson ordered these tapes sealed until 2023, but The John F. Kennedy Assassination Record Collection Act of 1992 . . . required the Johnson library to release the tapes, which the library began doing (551).
My Interest in LBJ
I have been a transitionary leader for more than thirty years of my leadership journey. Each of my last four leadership posts have been callings to transition something or someone. In one of those assignments, I was following a founding leader who had been at the helm for 42-years. Can someone say, “Sacrificial Lamb!” In the providence of God, at that time I was reading The Passage of Power, volume four of Robert Caro’s majestic series on the years of Lyndon Johnson. As I read how LBJ navigated the challenges of being the powerful “Master of the Senate” to the obscure Vice President (what John Adams called “the most insignificant office that ever the Invention of man contrived or his Imagination conceived") to the unlikely, unappreciated, and suspect President of the United States, I marveled at both Johnson’s leadership prowess and human weakness.
I kept coming back to the word “enigma” and I kept coming back to Johnson. Today, I have some 40 volumes on this President in my library and continue to add to that number.
I dug into Taking Charge back in 2017. Since that time, I have invested hour upon hour working my way through the almost 600 pages of this book. Recently, I wrote a review of Taking Charge for OnMyWalk.com, my website devoted to my reading and the Aha! Moments I capture from that reading.
Note: I strive to read 50-100 books a year and write a review of every book I read. You can find my reviews, arranged by year, by clicking here.
For my review of Taking Charge, I identified thirteen quotes from this period in the Lyndon Johnson presidency that captured my attention, gave me a picture of presidential leadership, and from which I gleaned a lesson I can apply to my life and leadership. I want to share them with you in the next few weeks. Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect:
This day in the life of LBJ:
1. The honeymoon is over . . . (Understanding the leadership cycle)
2. I was just thinking of you. (How to nurture relationships)
3. A blur of fatigue is rather settling in with me . . . (The importance of managing your energy)
4. John, I’ve got a little problem. (Communication makes you or breaks you)
5. I’m just catching hell every day. (What to do with criticism)
6. You don’t ever participate in anything that is anti-Kennedy. (What loyalty looks like — and doesn’t)
7. She’s always got the most discerning observations. (Leveraging the strengths of your team)
8. I’ve counted up . . . (Leadership and the absolute necessity of accurate metrics)
9. I got too many damn serious problems. (Understanding the cost of leadership)
10. Lyndon played golf! (Rest: It is a matter of life and death)
11. I’m just a trustee that’s trying to carry on the best that I can. (Leadership is stewardship)
12. I shudder at getting too deeply involved there . . . (What fear can do)
13. Get me out of this, won’t you? (The “leadership burden” and what to do with it)
How to follow along
I begin this foray into a year in the life of LBJ and what we can learn from on Tuesday, January 17, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. By the way, LBJ and MLK had a very unique relationship. More on that at another time. I will share my work on social media, but If you would like the posts from this series, “LBJ: Leadership With The Bark Off” to come directly to your inbox, just click here. I do not share, sell, or give away any email addresses; and of course, you may unsubscribe at any time with no questions asked.
This is going to be an adventure in leadership learning. I hope you will come along!
Notes:
“There is no adjective in the dictionary to describe Johnson. . . .” from Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012. p 3)
“Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans . . .” from Robert Caro, Means of Ascent, New York: Knopf, 1990. p xxi
“There is no record of mistake . . .” from “'History With The Bark Off': LBJ Presidential Library Celebrates 50 Years” by Shelly Brisbin, May 24, 2021. www.kut.org. Accessed January 11, 2023.
The author “listened to virtually every Johnson White House from the “Editor’s Note” in Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964, p. 551.
“One needs to understand presidents and recorded conversations. . . I am indebted to the “Editor’s Note” in Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964, pp. 547-553 for the brief history of Presidents and their recording practices.