Back in the Oval Office: President Johnson is in conversation with his former mentor, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He’s a tall, almost bald man of sixty-seven, his back ramrod-straight, courtly and formal in manner (he was often compared to Robert E. Lee) and at the moment recuperating from an emergency operation brought on by his emphysema (which he always pronounces ‘em-fy-see-muh’), which has left on his throat the fresh scar of a tracheotomy. He’s nursing a Jack Daniel’s, while Johnson is treating himself to a Cutty Sark and soda (the bottles stand on his desk). It’s about noon.
Johnson What did I tell you? I told you not to go convalesce in Puerto Rico, it’s so damp down there, rains every blessed afternoon. You need dry heat– what are those goddamn doctors thinking? I told you, you need to go to Palm Springs, I’ll get you a nice house out there.
Russell I never will forget your thoughtfulness, I just wanted to tell you that.
Johnson Don’t say that, Dick: since my momma and poppa got away from me, you’re all I got left. I said more prayers about you than I have since Lady Bird threatened to divorce me …
Russell That’s mighty sweet of you, Mr President.
Johnson Call me Lyndon, like you always used to.
Russell That was before you were the President.
Johnson Oh, come on! How’s your nephew, how’s poor little Bobby?
Russell He’s bad; I don’t think he’s long for this world.
Johnson Don’t say that, he’s no more’n a boy!
Russell Yes, he’s only forty, but that cancer, you know … Makes my emphysema look like a sore throat.
Johnson Where is he now?
Russell They got him up here in that National Institute of …
Johnson Health.
Russell Health, yes. Such a socialistic institution, they don’t even let him buy an aspirin tablet.
Johnson We got the best doctors in the United States in Houston, you know. And we got a brand new plane parked in our barn up at the ranch, it’s a honey, it can pick him up here and fly him right to Houston, there’s a big bed on it, flies above the clouds and everything …
Russell says nothing. Silence. Johnson gets up and pours him another Jack Daniel’s.
Did I break your heart?
Russell What do you mean?
Johnson With my Voting Rights Bill.
Russell Oh, no, I knew it was coming, sooner or later.
Johnson I heard tell you said I was a turncoat.
Russell We all say things in the heat of the moment.
Johnson Yes.
Russell Just I couldn’t help remembering your maiden speech on the Senate floor. It was the backbone of our filibuster. I remember how you said you detested lynching, it was a shameful crime, but for the Federal Government to intervene and legislate directly against it would be an intolerable violation of the rights of the States, in favour of a wholly unnecessary law. You said the chasm of our differences would be irreparably widened. It was one of the ablest speeches I’d ever heard on the subject.
Russell Did you believe any of it?
Johnson I knew I needed to get on and move up and I believed that was the only way to do it.
Russell How right you were.
Johnson But I guess what I really believed was what I said the other night in Congress.
Russell These bills you’re going to pass, Kennedy would never have got them through. We could have beaten John Kennedy on civil rights, but not you. You’ll twist a man’s arm off and beat his head in with it. You don’t mind breaking all your old promises and antagonising all your old allies in the South, do you?
He sips his bourbon, watching Johnson consider his question.
Johnson I figured as long as I have the power, I should use it to do what I think is right. Otherwise what the hell’s the presidency for?
Russell The chasm of our differences is vast, Mr President. But I don’t see why that should affect our personal relationship.
Johnson Of course it shouldn’t. I need you and I love you and there’s lots of things I want you in besides civil rights. You made me and I know it and I don’t ever forget. Matter of fact, if I had it my way, you’d be in my place.
Russell No, no, that would never do.
Johnson It would too. The country would be in a hell of a lot better shape.
Russell You’re going to run it the next eight years. My emphysema’s going to carry me off in two or three.
Johnson Now, don’t you say that. Nobody ever has been more to me than you have, Dick, except my mother.
Russell gives a little snort of derisive laughter.
No, no, that’s true. I just want to counsel with you and I want your judgement and your wisdom. And I’m going to have it.
Silence. Russell nods vestigially. Johnson looks away for a moment, then back to him.
What do you think of this Vietnam thing?
Russell raises his head and looks him straight in the eye.
Russell Frankly, Mr President, it’s the damn worst mess I ever saw; and I don’t like to brag. I never have been right many times in my life, but I knew we were going to get into this sort of mess when we went in there. You were there that last meeting we had with Eisenhower before we went in: I tried my best to stop them then, said we’d never get out, we’d still be there in fifty years’ time.
Johnson I remember.
Russell And the position is deteriorating, isn’t it? Looks like the more we try to do for them, the less they’re willing to do for themselves. And now you’ve sent in the Marines.
Johnson Didn’t have any choice. Sent in two battalions.
Russell Won’t make a damn bit of difference. I tell you it’s going to take a half-million men. And they’ll be bogged down in there for ten years. And those Marines’ll be killing a whole lot of friendly Vietnamese. We’re going to wind up with the people we’re trying to save being mad as hell with us. We’re just like the damn cow over a fence out there. Course, if we’d had them hold free elections when we were getting into all this, they’d have voted for Ho Chi Minh and we wouldn’t have a problem. What we need now is to get some fellow in there who wants us to get out. Then we’d have to abide by our theory of self-determination and go. But that’s not going to happen.
Johnson No; in the meantime all anyone wants me to do is drop bombs. And that ain’t worth a damn, Dick! I sent a hundred and sixty planes over to bomb a barracks: twenty-seven buildings and they set two of them on fire.
Russell Yeah, we tried it in Korea. We got a lot of B-29s and sent ’em over there and dropped millions and millions of bombs, they would knock out the road at night and in the morning, the damn people would be back travelling down it. And you ain’t going to stop these people, either. Bombing them ain’t worth a hoot.
Johnson I had McNamara on this morning recommending more strikes.
Russell McNamara’s the smartest fellow that any of us know, but I’m not too sure he understands the history and the background of those people out there as fully as he should. He’s got so damn opinionated, he’s just plain made his mind up on all this.
Johnson I don’t know what we can do; I don’t see how we could move out.
Russell You could make a tremendous case for moving out.
Johnson But you got all the Senators, you got Nixon and Rockefeller and Goldwater all saying let’s escalate the war, let’s hit the North …
Russell Nixon, ha!
Johnson Now Nixon’s a very capable guy: he’s capable of ruining this entire country in eight years.
A wintry chuckle from Russell.
Thing is, if I walked out, they’d take Thailand and Cambodia and Burma, maybe even Indonesia and India, then I’d be another Chamberlain …
Russell Ah, the domino theory.
Johnson Well, yes.
Russell I think the domino theory’s a lot of bull.
Johnson But a President who just ran out of there, they’d impeach him, wouldn’t they?
Russell I doubt it.
Johnson I just don’t see any way out of it.
Russell looks at him for a moment; then he speaks very quietly.
Russell Then what the hell’s the presidency for?
Silence. Johnson’s head sinks, he looks very shaken.
I’m sorry, Mr President. You couldn’t have inherited a worse mess.
Johnson Well, if they say I inherited it, I’ll be lucky. But they’re all going to say I created it.
A light tap on the door and Jack Valenti shows in Lady Bird Johnson, but not before Johnson has swept the bottle of Cutty Sark and the glass into a drawer of his desk with practised skill and closed the drawer. Russell rises to his feet and Lady Bird hurries over to him and kisses him.
Lady Bird Oh, Senator …
Russell Hello, honey, how are you doing?
Lady Bird You just look a picture!
Russell A very dusty Old Master, maybe.
Lady Bird No, you look wonderful. I’ve come to bring you over to lunch.
Johnson We got a good hamburger for you, the way you like it.
Lady Bird You’re like us, Senator, you got a-plenty ahead of you, so you’re just going to have to recuperate your strength and get back at it!
Russell Whatever you say, ma’am.
Lady Bird Let’s go, shall we?
Johnson Take Dick, will you, Bird, I just need a few minutes with Jack.
Lady Bird You make sure it is a few minutes, we’re not waiting on you …
Johnson Sure, sure, two minutes, darlin’.
Lady Bird leads Russell out of the room. Valenti waits. Eventually Johnson turns to him, frowning.
Valenti What can I do for you, Mr President?
Johnson Damn if I haven’t forgotten what I wanted to say to you.
He concentrates vainly for a moment.
Fuck!
Valenti Are you all right, Mr President?
Johnson I’ve had a little bit of a shock, Jack. Man I respect most in the world telling me I ought to get out of Vietnam. What do you think of that?
Valenti Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, sir, but from my perspective, you’re handling the Vietnam problem just brilliantly.
Johnson He said it was going to take a half-million men and ten years.
Valenti Well, that’s ridiculous. He’s been ill, hasn’t he?
Johnson Yeah, he’s ill.
Valenti Has he never married?
Johnson He had a sweetheart once, long time ago, but she was a Catholic and he thought it would be wrong to marry her. But he kept the flame burning and never thought of marrying anyone else. That’s the kind of man he is.
Valenti Belongs to a vanished world, Mr President. I’m sure that’s why he doesn’t have any idea what the right way forward might be in Vietnam.
Johnson ignores this completely. He turns to Valenti, his expression fierce.
Johnson Want to know why we’re in Vietnam?
Valenti Ah, why, Mr President?
Johnson unzips his fly and brings out what is evidently a substantial member.
Johnson This.
Valenti, alarmed, has taken an involuntary step back.
This is why.
He tucks himself away.
We got it all the way in and now we don’t have the heart to take it out.
I got to speak to that tailor. He never makes the crotch deep enough, so it cuts under my nuts all the way to my bumhole.
He shakes his head, pensive.
I tell you, Jack, that Vietnam’s going to be the death of me.