Lyndon Johnson was a fascinating personality. He was a consummate politician, was adept at wheedling other politicians from diverse points of view, knew how to talk their language. The Vietnam war sort of ruined him. He was a close ally of Dr. King on Civil Rights, and even when they seemed to be at opposite ends (in negotiations), they were generally in collusion, privately. He joked with King about his wheeling and dealing with die-hard southerners (using the n-word) but Dr. King was a Southerner himself, and knew the way the South was, in those days. Lyndon told Martin that he almost went into the ministry himself, and joked that he was half-cowboy and half Baptist preacher. But physically, Lyndon Johnson was a giant of a man, and he often used his size, and his amiable joshing personality, combined with physical proximity (he tended to get overly close) to PERSUADE reluctant senators with his good-natured southern country-boy humor. Both LBJ and MLK well understood the milieu of southern Baptist thinking and mentality. In fact, both were fluent in the idiom.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 19:33:41 +0000
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