LBJ: From Mastermind to "The Colossus" - Hardcover

Nelson, Phillip F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1628736925 ISBN 13: 9781628736922

Publisher: Skyhorse, 2014

Synopsis

Phillip F. Nelson’s new book begins where LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination left off. Now president, Johnson begins to push Congress to enact long-dormant legislation that he had previously impeded, always insisting that the timing wasn't right. Nelson argues that the passage of Johnson’s Great Society” legislation was designed to take the focus of the nation off the assassination as well as lay the groundwork for building his own legacy.

Nelson also examines Johnson’s plan to redirect US foreign policy within days of becoming president, as he maneuvered to insert the US military into the civil war being fought in Vietnam. This, he thought, would provide another means to achieve his goal of becoming a great wartime president. In addition, Nelson presents evidence to show that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 was arguably directed by Johnson against his own ship and the 294 sailors on board as a way to insert the US military into the Six-Day War. It only failed because the Liberty refused to sink.

Finally, Nelson presents newly discovered documents from the files of Texas Ranger Clint Peoples that prove Johnson was closely involved with Billie Sol Estes and had made millions from Estes’s frauds against taxpayers. These papers show linkages to Johnson’s criminal behavior, the very point that his other biographers ignore.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

About this title

From the Author:

[From the Introduction]
 
This book begins where my first book, LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination left off. Within the pages of that book, certain truths were revealed about Lyndon Johnson's persona; they were characteristics that are only briefly acknowledged and forgotten, if noted at all, in other biographies of him. The conclusions reached in that book become the premise upon which this one is based. Although it does contain certain brief observations about his years as president, the focus of the earlier book was the assassination of President Kennedy; now the focus shifts, and we turn our attention to how Johnson's personal conduct became the imprint of his administration as he propelled the country, through pure mania, through five of the most turbulent years ever experienced by the United States.
 
[From the Epilogue]
[W]e are now left to ponder how the course of history and the evolution of the American culture might have progressed had we been spared the trauma of the Vietnam War and the other bizarre, bewildering, and inexplicable actions taken during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson that led to the most divisive and tumultuous period--one induced intentionally, and primarily to bolster the president's own narrow political and financial interests--in American history. While there is no way of knowing precisely how the United States "might have been" had Lyndon Johnson never become president, it is clear that his known "drunken driving" habit deeply affected the country and
its direction over the last fifty years. Because of the swerving five-year test drive, as the drunken President Lyndon Johnson figuratively drove the country into the ditch--just as he had literally done with a number of government-owned automobiles at his ranch--it has taken decades for his successors to try to restore the nation's confidence and conscience, made all the more difficult because of their own secrets that had to be hidden
 

From the Inside Flap:

 How Lyndon B. Johnson's Personal Conduct Became the Imprint of His Adminis­tration as He Propelled the United States through Five of Its Most Turbulent Years

Phillip F. Nelson's groundbreaking new book begins where LBJ: The Master­mind of the JFK Assassination left off. Now president, Johnson begins to push Congress to enact long-dormant legis­lation that he had previously impeded, always insisting that the timing wasn't right. Nelson argues that the passage of Johnson's "Great Society" legisla­tion was designed to take the focus of the nation off the assassination as well as lay the groundwork for building his own legacy.
Nelson also examines Johnson's plan to redirect US foreign policy within days of becoming president, as he maneu­vered to insert the US military into the civil war being fought in Vietnam. This, he thought, would provide another means to achieve his goal of becoming a great wartime president. In addition, Nelson presents evidence to show that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 was arguably directed by Johnson against his own ship and the 294 sail­ors

About this edition

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1628736925
• ISBN 13: 9781628736922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 640