LAH 350 / HMN 350 The Johnson Years Unique # 30270 (HMN 40010) Tuesday, Thursday, 9:30-10:45 LBJ 10.150 (Brown Room)

Mark A. Lawrence GAR 3.220, 475-9304 [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesday, 2-3 p.m.; Thursday, 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.; and by appointment

Nearly 50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy. What sort of person was LBJ? What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and international arenas? How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights and other transformational initiatives with the disaster of the ? What is LBJ’s legacy? What importance does the Johnson presidency hold in the long flow of history? These are among the major questions at the heart of this seminar. In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on President Johnson and his times. We will also meet with various participants in – or close observers of – the Johnson administration.

Students will be evaluated largely on their preparation for, and participation in, seminar meetings. They will also be graded on the basis of three papers of varying lengths. The largest one – the course’s central writing requirement – will be a research paper of approximately 15 pages based on materials in the LBJ Library archive. This assignment challenges students to evaluate primary-source materials and arrive at their own conclusions about controversial aspects of the Johnson presidency. We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library’s reading room. Over the remainder of the semester, students will be expected to conduct research and produce a polished paper.

Course requirements 1. Attendance and active participation in class (25 percent of term grade) 2. 2-page paper due September 14 at class (10 percent) 3. Paper of 3-4 pages due October 24 at class (20 percent) 4. Brief statement of research topic due September 21 (5 percent) 5. Statement of research question due October 5 (5 percent) 6. Preliminary bibliography due October 12 (5 percent) 7. Draft introduction due November 28 (5 percent) 8. Research paper of 15 pages due December 11 (25 percent)

Required texts Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (5th ed., 2015) Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (2008) Charles Peters, Lyndon B. Johnson (2010) Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency (2014) Photocopied material on the course Canvas site

Additional notes § The instructor will routinely hand out short documents or other materials that should be treated as required reading. § The instructor reserves the right to adjust the readings in order to respond to student interests and unexpected lines of discussion in our class. § The required books are available for purchase at the University Coop. Photocopied materials are available on the course Canvas site. If students prefer, materials can also be made available as a packet for purchase at Jenn’s Copy & Binding at 2200 Guadalupe Street. § By UT-Austin policy, you must notify the instructor of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class or assignment in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. § Students should be fully aware of university rules regarding academic dishonesty. The instructors assume full compliance throughout the semester and will strictly observe all university procedures in cases of violations. (Link to University Honor Code: http://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/the-university/#universitycodeofconduct) § The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-6441. Students requiring special accommodations should raise this issue with the professor at the beginning of the term. § Late assignments will be penalized one-third of a grade (for example, from a B+ to a B or from a B- to a C+) for each day they are overdue. § Students will be evaluated on a grading scale that includes pluses and minuses (A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc.). § Unless they obtain permission from the instructor, students MUST ARRIVE ON TIME and stay for the entire class period. § Attendance is a requirement and is assumed. Each student may miss one class without explanation, but each unexcused absence thereafter will result in a three-point deduction from her/his term score. § Title IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender are Civil Rights offenses subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, etc. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can find the appropriate resources here: http://catalog.utexas.edu/general- information/appendices/appendix-h/ § All students should be aware of the Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL): 512- 232-5050. § Link to information regarding emergency evacuation routes and emergency procedures can be found at: utexas.edu/emergency.

SCHEDUE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

August 31 Introduction to the Course READING: Josh Zeitz, “The Real Legacy in Jeopardy Under the New Congress? LBJ’s,” Politico, November 23, 2017.

September 5 LBJ: Character and Controversy READING: Updegrove, introduction-ch. 1; Edward Rothstein, “Legacy Evolving at a Presidential Library,” New York Times, April 9, 2014; Charles Isherwood, “Washington Power Play,” New York Times, March 7, 2014; Michael Beschloss, “Kennedy, Johnson, and a Dispute after a Deer Hunt,” New York Times, August 15, 2014; Michael Ennis, “ with LBJ,” Texas Monthly, September 2015; Jan Jarboe Russell, “Alone Together,” Texas Monthly, August 1999

September 7 The Early Years READING: Peters, chapters 1-2

September 12 LBJ in Texas and the White House GUEST: Former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes READING: Peters, chapters 3-4

September 14 From Congress to the Vice Presidency READING: Peters, chapters 5-6 ASSIGNMENT: 2-page paper on impressions of LBJ

September 19 The Domestic and International Context READING: Isserman & Kazin, ch. 1

September 21 Introduction to the LBJ Archive GUESTS: Archivists Brian McNerney and Margaret Harman ASSIGNMENT: one-paragraph statement of research topic

September 26 Introduction to the Archive: Breakout Sessions GUESTS: LBJ Archive Staff ASSIGNMENT: prepare for meetings with archivists

September 28 Assuming the Presidency READING: Updegrove, chs. 2-3

October 3 The First Year: Challenges at Home and Abroad READING: Kazin & Isserman, ch. 3

October 5 The Great Society: The War on Poverty Guest: Michael Gillette, Director of Humanities Texas READING: Kazin & Isserman, ch. 6; Peters, ch. 7 ASSIGNMENT: statement of research question

October 10 Life in the Johnson White House GUEST: Luci Baines Johnson READING: Updegrove, chs. 4-5

October 12 Civil Rights READING: Kazin & Isserman, ch. 2; Updegrove, ch. 6 ASSIGNMENT: preliminary bibliography

October 17 Voting Rights and the “Selma” Controversy READING: Mark K. Updegrove, “What ‘Selma’ Gets Wrong,” Politico, December 22, 2014; Joseph A. Califano, “The Movie ‘Selma’ Has a Glaring Flaw,” Washington Post, December 26, 2014; Jennifer Schuessler, “Depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson in ‘Selma’ Raises Hackles,” New York Times, December 31, 2014; Peniel Joseph, “Selma” Backlash Misses the Point,” National Public Radio, January 10, 2015 (reader)

October 19 The Great Society at High Tide READING: Isserman & Kazin, ch. 7

October 24 The Cold War and the Vietnam Problem ASSIGNMENT: film review

October 26 Public Opinion and Protest at Home and Abroad Guest: Professor Jeremi Suri, LBJ School and History, UT READING: Jeremi Suri, “The Rise and Fall of an International Counterculture, 1960-1975,” American Historical Review, February 2009; Lawrence, chs. 1-3

October 31 LBJ and Vietnam READING: Lawrence, chs. 4-5

November 2 LBJ’s Problems at Home READING: Kazin & Isserman, chs. 8-9

November 7 The Midterm Elections and the Decline of the Great Society READING: Isserman & Kazin, ch. 10

November 9 LBJ as Commander in Chief READING: Updegrove, chs. 7-8

November 14 The Nightmare Year Guest: Larry Temple, Special Counsel to President Johnson READING: Updegrove, ch. 9

November 16 The Tet Offensive READING: Lawrence, ch. 6; Kazin & Isserman, ch. 12

November 21 The Republican Party in the LBJ Years READING: Kazin & Isserman, ch. 11

November 28 The Final Months READING: Updegrove, ch. 10 ASSIGNMENT: draft introduction

November 30 The Post-Presidency READING: Updegrove, chs. 11-12; Lawrence, ch. 7-8

December 5 Assessing LBJ READING: Isserman & Kazin, ch. 14

December 7 Assessing LBJ (continued)

ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS

Paper 1: 2 pages (approximately 500 words), due September 14 Interview a relative, friend, or other acquaintance with personal memories of LBJ. What memories stand out most strongly? How does your interviewee think about LBJ as a person, politician, and leader? Why do you think your interviewee remembers LBJ as s/he does? How accurate or reliable do you think this memory is?

Paper 2: 3-4 pages (approximate 900-1,200 words), due October 24 Based on your readings and your viewing of “Selma,” what is your opinion of the film’s portrayal of LBJ and the ensuing controversy? Do you think Johnson is fairly or unfairly depicted in the movie? State a clear argument and defend your position with evidence from the film, readings, and any other sources you find useful. You may wish to write your paper in the style of a newspaper op-ed.

Paper 3: 15 pages (roughly 4,500 words, including notes), due December 11 by midnight Each student must write a paper based largely on research in the LBJ archive. Although you are free to design your own topic, the instructor proposes the following ten questions to guide your thinking and suggests that you choose one of these. Half of the list is related to domestic policy, and half is related to foreign policy. Your final paper should include a title, properly formatted footnotes, bibliography, and a word count. If you choose one of the role-play papers, you are still responsible for these elements, even though they may seem artificial to the exercise. No matter what topic you choose, you should state a clear argument at the outset of your paper and defend your point with specific evidence. The books listed in the bibliography below may help you gain basic background on your topic and appreciate the basic contours of scholarly debates.

1. What were LBJ’s views on civil rights? Choose two or three moments from his long career (not necessarily from his time in the presidency) and compare the views he expressed. Depending on what moments you choose, you might end up writing about the evolution of LBJ’s thinking over time, the different ways in which he expressed himself to different interlocutors, or differences between public and private expressions.

2. How would you characterize the relationship between LBJ and Martin Luther King, Jr.? Choose a few moments when the two men interacted and analyze their views of one another.

3. Many historians of the Vietnam War have observed that numerous powerful figures (Hubert Humphrey, George Ball, Walter Lippmann, and Charles de Gaulle, for example) expressed deep misgivings about American escalation in Vietnam and urged LBJ to wind down the U.S. commitment rather than fight a major war. For your paper, choose one of the men who dissented from the drift of the administration’s policy. Why do you think the dissenter failed to influence LBJ’s decisions?

4. Historians and biographers have often pointed to LBJ's early life in explaining his passion for education reform and his desire to be the “education president.” Assess this generalization in light of the documentary record. To what extent did LBJ’s education agenda grow from his personal experiences?

5. The Great Society – and LBJ – have long been criticized by conservatives who believe that Great Society programs initiated by LBJ epitomize big government overreach and inefficiency. Choose one of LBJ’s signature Great Society initiatives (, VISTA, EEOC, etc.) and assess how LBJ and his advisers thought about long-term costs and coped with their critics. To what extent did they envision a major expansion of government spending, and how did they seek to assure cost-effectiveness and efficiency? You may, of course, wish to comment on whether their assessments were reasonable and whether later criticism of the Great Society is fair.

6. Critics of LBJ have long claimed that he was out of his depth in the realm of foreign policy and showed little creativity or subtlety in his thinking. Choose one of the following episodes from LBJ’s presidency and assess the extent to which this criticism is valid: the Panama “flag riots” in January 1964, the 1964 coup in Brazil, the 1965 U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Southern Rhodesia, and the 1965 India-Pakistan War.

7. Historians usually argue that détente – the easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union – occurred during the Nixon administration. Yet LBJ did much to ease Cold War hostility with Moscow and to design an arms-control agenda that would come to fruition later. Indeed, it is arguable that LBJ was a key architect of the most important arms-control agreement ever negotiated – the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which continues to play an important role in international relations today. Write an essay assessing the LBJ administration’s basic aims and performance in connection with any one of the following subjects: ABM (anti-ballistic missile) technology, MIRV (multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles) technology, nuclear non-proliferation, the status of Berlin, and U.S.-Soviet trade.

8. On March 31, 1968, LBJ gave a nationally televised speech best remembered for his announcement that he would not run for another term as president. But he also announced changes in the way the United States would conduct the war in Vietnam. Among other things, he declared that he would curtail the bombing of North Vietnam and would seek negotiations with Hanoi. The media naturally reported that LBJ had decided to alter course dramatically in Southeast Asia. But did he change course as sharply as his rhetoric suggested? In what ways and to what extent did U.S. conduct of the war change over the remainder of the LBJ term? Might LBJ reasonably be accused of clinging to an approach in Vietnam that he knew had not worked?

9. Imagine it is early December 1964, and you are LBJ’s Secretary of State. Drawing on research in the LBJ archive, write a memo to the president advising him about what to do in Vietnam. You are free to take any position you like so long as you take care to present an opinion that would have been plausible at the time.

10. Imagine it is January 1, 1966, and you are LBJ’s top domestic-policy adviser. Write a memo to the president advising him on how to pursue his Great Society agenda at a moment when the political winds were starting to turn against the administration. You may wish to address relations with Congress, shifts in public opinion, and the perils of pursuing the Civil Rights agenda in a way that bore more directly on race relations in the north.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BASIC MATERIAL ON LBJ

Bernstein, Irving. Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Beschloss, Michael R, ed. Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Brands, H.W. The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Brennan, Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, 3 vols. New York: Knopf, various years.

Cohen, Warren I., and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, eds., Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World: American Foreign Policy, 1963-1968. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Divine, Robert A. The Johnson Years, Volume 1: Foreign Policy, the Great Society, and the White House. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1987.

------. The Johnson Years, Volume 2: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1987.

Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Farber, David. The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s. New York: Hill and Wang, 1994.

Fursenko, Aleksandr, and Timothy Naftali. Khrushchev’s Cold War: The Inside Story of An American Adversary. New York: Norton, 2006.

Gavin, Francis J., and Mark Atwood Lawrence, eds. Beyond the Cold War: Lyndon Johnson and the New Global Challenges of the 1960s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976.

Jenkins, Philip. Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Johnson, Lyndon Baines. The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.

Johnson, Robert David. Congress and the Cold War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Kunz, Diane B., ed. The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign Relations during the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Leffler, Melvin P. For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Lerner, Mitchell B. Looking Back at LBJ: White House Politics in a New Light. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2005.

Little, Douglas. American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Logevall, Fredrik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Perlstein, Rick. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. New York: Scribner’s, 2008.

Porter, Gareth. Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Purdum, Todd. An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the . New York: Holt, 2014.

Risen, Clay. The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.

Schwartz, Thomas. Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Suri, Jeremi. Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Taubman, William. Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. New York: Norton, 2003.

Woods, Randall B. LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. New York: Free Press, 2006.

------. Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B. Johnson, the Great Society, and the Limits of American Liberalism. New York: Basic Books, 2016.

Zelizer, Julian. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. New York: Penguin, 2015.