American Experience: LBJ
by David Grubin
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Actor: David McCullough, Homer Dean, Joe Cervetto, John Connally, Robert DallekDirector: David Grubin
Brand: Paramount
Producer: David Grubin
Producer: Bob M. McCausland
Producer: Chana Gazit
Producer: Chas Norton
Producer: Hillary Dann
Producer: Larry LeCain
Producer: Laura Jean Ozment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 235 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
DVD Reviews of American Experience: LBJ
DVD Review: A splendid documentary on one of our most complex presidents
Summary: 5 Stars
LBJ evokes strong reactions among Americans. On the one hand, he helped remake America by passing some of the most important domestic legislation in the nation's history. Although the documentary doesn't state this explicitly, LBJ pushed through more legislation than any president in American history except for FDR. It wasn't just quantity, it was quality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the perhaps even more important Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as the creation of Medicare and Headstart and a host of other superb programs that have helped remake America. On the other hand, there was Vietnam. What is even more heartbreaking about the tragedy of that stupid little war was that LBJ felt pretty much like the war protesters did. If you listen to the Johnson White House tapes he says all the things about the war that we now understand about the war. He knew that losing there would not lead to Communist victories elsewhere. He didn't see that we could win there or how we could win. But he also felt that political exigencies made it impossible not to prosecute the war there. And to be honest, given the political climate of the time, it is hard to see how he could have done other than what he did. The overwhelming belief at the time was that you had to meet perceived Communist aggressive wherever possible with complete opposition. Nevermind that the Vietnamese people overwhelmingly wanted to be a unified nation under Ho Chi Minh, who was the most popular person in the southern part of the nation as well as the North. The brute fact is that the only way we could have "won" the war would have been to kill off about 80% of the population. You simply never, ever can win a war where most of the population favors the other side. And LBJ eventually came to realize this, even while he couldn't figure out a way of extricating the U.S. from the war.
LBJ was fascinating for the strength of his personality and his skills as a political operative. His abilities to persuade others is legendary. Like Nixon he lived constantly with an inferiority complex and sought affirmation from others, interpreting political victories as love for him as a person. The documentary does a decent but not complete job at getting at the complexities of Johnson's personality. It also fails to do justice to some of his personal convictions. For instance, he had long worked for the rights of non-Anglos in Texas, working hard for Hispanics. He did play along with many of the racist Southern senators, but this was political expediency rather than personal conviction.
LBJ's legacy is a strange one. He is usually ranked just below the group of the greatest American presidents at the top. Despite Vietnam he is easily, with no serious competition, ranked as the greatest American president since Truman, being ranked just below people like Wilson and Jefferson, at about the same place as Polk. Where would he have been ranked without Vietnam? I suspect he would be up there with Teddy Roosevelt, just behind the Big Three of Lincoln, FDR, and Washington. As it is, there is Vietnam. Never in American history did one particular event so devastate and nearly negate all the other amazing things that any American president achieved. A great documentary, even though it barely scratches the surface of the enigma that was LBJ.
Description of American Experience: LBJ
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/14/2006Bestsellers in DVD
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