Newly Released LBJ Tapes Shows Support Of Workers

President Lyndon Baines Johnson taped many of his telephone conversations on a dictabelt recorder. The LBJ Library has just released some of those tapes. The tapes released cover the period of August through December of 1966.

Much of the newly released material covers conversations about what was happening in Vietnam. Just like our current president, LBJ was trying to win a war that for practical purposes was unwinnable. He is heard telling former-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, "I'm trying to win it just as fast as I can in every way that I know how. I need all the help I can get."

Also remniscent of Bush's current situation, in which he blames the "liberal media" for the poor showing in Iraq, is LBJ's statement about the New York Times. LBJ is heard to say, "The Times is run by a bunch of commies, and they want to get out of Vietnam and yield it to them, and I don't think I can quite do that."

But as interesting and valid as the comparisons between LBJ's Vietnam War and Bush's Iraq War are, I find even more interesting the tape that shows the vast difference between the two men.

Bush was born into a wealthy family. As Ann Richards said, Bush was born "with a silver foot in his mouth". On the other hand, LBJ was born into a working class family. After getting his college degree, LBJ taught poor and working class students.

While Bush has spent his presidency making sure his rich buddies pay less taxes and reap ever larger windfall profits, LBJ spent his presidency helping workers, minorities and the poor. He supported workers and unions, eliminated segregation, extended voting rights and access, and launched a war on poverty.

This is spotlighted in LBJ's 1966 conversation with White House aide Liz Carpenter. LBJ's daughter was getting married at the time, and the church where the wedding was to take place was not air conditioned. United Airlines, which was in the middle of a worker's strike at the time, offered the loan of some airline air conditioners for the wedding.

LBJ made sure that Carpenter understood that the offered air conditioners could not be used. He told her, "They're on strike, honey. They're on strike. You can't have strike-breakers out putting air conditioning....Let them sweat if they need to."

If it had been Bush's daughter, you can bet that church would have been air conditioned, no matter how many "scabs" it took to install it. But not LBJ, because he never forgot the working men and women.

This is why, in spite of the Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson's presidency will be viewed kindly by history, while Bush's presidency will not. Bush will be remembered as one of the worst presidents our country has ever had.