‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro’s New L.B.J. Book - reviewed by Bill Clinton

‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro’s New L.B.J. Book - reviewed by Bill Clinton

I have not read this book, but I have read the others in the brilliant series. I find LBJ fascinating because he was an amoral, manipulative, egotistical man who accomplished good things in his life. In fact, because he was a larger-than-life character who performed on a large stage, some of his accomplishments could fairly be called "great" rather than merely "good." To know him was to despise him, but when he turned all of his wiles, bullying and cajolery to worthwhile ends, he could railroad compassionate legislation through Congress, much of that essential to the progress of civil rights in our society. Because he accomplished good things, his story raises one of the oldest of human ethical questions: to what extent do the ends ultimately justify the means?

Unfortunately, because Lyndon's simple sense of right and wrong consisted of a belief that what he wanted was right and anyone who opposed it was wrong, he could also finesse the entire country into fighting a war that he wanted to fight, by by-passing all those messy and annoying procedures specifically assigned to the Congress in the Constitution. In doing so, he established a precedent for the executive usurpation of power that would prove deleterious to the conduct of American foreign policy for generations to follow.