Transcript: Chapter 17

President Johnson: I have had but one objective -- to be the president of all the people; not just the rich, not just the well fed, not just the fortunate, but president of all of America.

John Connally: He was inordinately proud of all this legislation he passed. Well, I mean, he kept a scorecard in his pocket -- had a sheet of paper and he listed all the legislation he'd passed. He was extremely proud of it.

S. Douglass Cater, Special Assistant to the President: He wanted to do good things, he wanted to do great things, and he had grown up in a system of government which was the American system, in which you did things by wheeling and dealing and trading. This was the way you did it.

Jack Valenti: Well, I'm not sure that the government works this way anymore, but when I was in the White House, the president assigned me certain senators and congressmen "to handle."

And every now and then, Everett Dirksen would call -- he was the Republican leader -- and he said, "Jack," you know, he had a voice that was like honey dripping over metal tiles; he'd say, "Jack, I want to see the boss later on today, and maybe we could have a drink and talk about a few things." And I'd say, "Yes, sir, Senator. The president will see you at six o'clock. How's that?" "Yes, that'd be fine."

And then he'd rise in the Senate at about three o'clock in the afternoon and accuse Johnson of every crime that the most depraved mind could be capable of committing, and then at six o'clock he'd show up, and I'd go up with him to the second floor of the mansion, and we'd sit and talk. And the president would say, "Everett, I wouldn't talk about a cur dog the way you did me in the Senate." "Well," he said, "Mr. President, you know I vow to tell the truth, so I had no choice." And then they would laugh, and then they would recount some old, long-fought battles.

And then, finally, the president would say, "Now, Everett, I've got to have three Republican votes, and you know who they are. I got to have those votes, Everett, and I don't want any beating around the bush about it." And Dirksen would say, "Well, Mr. President," he said, "I happen to have here some names of some likely nominees to the Federal Power Commission and the Federal Communications Commission and a few other commissions." And the president would say, "Well, give their names to Valenti here. We'll check them out with the FBI, see if they're fit to serve their country." And they'd have another drink. And there was no summary of the meeting given. Each of them knew that Johnson was going to get three Republican votes, and Dirksen knew that he was going to get three nominees to commissions. I don't know if they teach that in Government 101 in any of the schools, but it worked. The president got done what he needed to have done, but the telephone was his Excalibur, it was his sword, and no congressman was too much of a rookie to be called, nor too powerful a one to be importuned.

S. Douglass Cater: One morning at five a.m., he woke up a senator and said, "Hi! What are you doing?" And he said, "Oh, nothing, Mr. President, just lying here, hoping you'd call."

Richard Goodwin, Presidential Speechwriter: If a congressman wasn't home, he'd talk to the wife, and if the wife wasn't home, he'd talk to the children and tell them to tell their daddy to support the president.

John Connally: Part of his demeanor, part of his whole life was that he felt he could convert anybody, that he could convert an enemy into a friend, that he was -- he would work at it assiduously, to court, and to convert, someone who disliked him into being a friend and a disciple. And many times, it worked.

Narrator: But Johnson couldn't use those same tactics with Ho Chi Minh. Johnson thought the war would be like a filibuster, as he said -- enormous resistance at first, then a steady whittling away, then Ho hurrying to get it over with.

Larry Berman: Ho Chi Minh was a revolutionary. Johnson didn't understand that. He didn't understand revolutionaries. A revolutionary in the United States Senate is very different than someone like Ho Chi Minh. He didn't understand the history of the Vietnamese people, the Vietnamese culture.

Narrator: Johnson thought he could force Ho Chi Minh to bargain. "I saw our bombs as political resources for negotiating peace," he said. But Ho couldn't be pushed. Their positions were irreconcilable. He called the Americans "invaders." Johnson called North Vietnam the aggressor, waging war on a peaceful neighbor. Johnson wanted two countries, a North and a South Vietnam. Ho wanted one.

Larry Berman: Ho Chi Minh and the Communists had no intention whatsoever of ever allowing a peace treaty to separate their country. Time was on their side. They could certainly wait out Lyndon Johnson. He understood Ho Chi Minh to be like any other political adversary who he could broker with, he could deal with, that Ho Chi Minh had a price and he would find that price.

President Johnson: Well, what do the people of North Vietnam want? Food for their hunger, health for their bodies. I will ask the Congress to join in a billion-dollar American investment to replace despair with hope, and terror with progress.

Narrator: Johnson would bully and bargain. On April 7, he offered Ho what sounded like a Great Society program.

President Johnson: The vast Mekong River can provide food and water and power on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA. The wonders of modern medicine can be spread through villages where thousands die every year. Schools can be established to train people with skills ...

Jack Valenti: I remember one time I trailed him into his office, and he leaned back in his chair and put his hand on his head like this, and he said, "Oh, God, how can we get out of this war?" He said, "If I could just sit in a room with Ho Chi Minh and talk to him, I think we could cut a deal."