Cold Warriors – All About the Presidents

Republican Polarities: ‘The Bush Years’ and ‘Tricky Dick’

Paul Clinton — Wed, 01 May 2019 05:06:12 +0000

CNN seems like an unlikely venue for a gauzy tribute to two recent Republican presidents, but that was exactly what “The Bush Years: Family, Duty, Power” delivered.

The six-part documentary, which aired in March, provided a very different view of its presidential subjects than “Tricky Dick,” a four-part exploration of Richard Nixon’s destruction that aired on many of the same Sundays and bled into April.

In the first CNN Original Series, George H.W. Bush is an easy figure to like. He’s a doting family man, war hero, and diligent politician whose work brings him into a position of prominence despite his privileged upbringing as the son of a U.S. senator and Wall Street banker.

The “Fathers and Sons” episode tracks Bush’s early years. Bush’s rise is interspersed with plenty of archival photos and videos that color in the portrait of this Greatest Generation hero, especially the episode’s archival footage that shows him being rescued at sea from his downed U.S. Navy aircraft.

In “The Price of Loyalty,” the subjects intersect with Nixon’s appointment of Bush as ambassador to the United Nations in 1971. About two years later, Bush took the somewhat thankless job of chairman of the Republican National Committee. This episode could have been called “Bush: The Functionary Years.”

The series hits its stride in “A Family Triumph,” which recounts his ascension to vice president after Ronald Reagan outmaneuvered him at a 1980 New Hampshire debate. Episode Four, “First Family,” fills the time until “Sibling Rivalry,” which explores the early lives and political rise of Jeb and George W. Bush. The family expects more-accomplished Jeb to take the mantle, but George W. overcomes his dissolute lifestyle to purchase the Texas Rangers and eventually win an unlikely election against popular Democrat Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

George W. eventually follows his father into the White House. The series takes a softer approach in dealing with the still-controversial Bush 43 presidency, but interviews with other family members and V.P Dick Cheney add welcome context. Neither of the former presidents are interviewed for the series.

While the Bush series treats its subjects as American political royalty, “Tricky Dick” approaches the presidency and life of Richard M. Nixon as a study of self-destruction.

Promotional materials for the show have drawn parallels with the Donald Trump presidency. While this is still debatable, Nixon remains a fascinating, if infuriating, leader whose presidency ultimately fell victim to his own shortcomings. The series, which presents new footage of Nixon, casts an appealing spell with its heavy reliance on archival film to recount Nixon’s rise and fall.

In “Will to Win,” we learn that the young Nixon was an opportunist, but the series takes off with “Nixon’s the One.” We see Nixon struggle as Eisenhower’s barely-acknowledged vice president, and later fall short during the run against JFK in 1960, largely in part to a disastrous TV debate performance. A failed run for California governor in 1962 leaves Nixon fuming at his media enemies, as he scolds the press with, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

“Storm Clouds” begins with Nixon’s presidency after a stunning 1968 comeback and tightly-managed campaign that included a promise to end the Vietnam War.

One of Nixon’s own quotes provides the backdrop for “And Then You Destroy Yourself” – the crescendo of anti-war protests, the Watergate scandal, resignation, and life after the presidency. Throughout the series, we hear Nixon intone, “But those who hate you don’t win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself.”

While “Tricky Dick” may not provide many new insights, it sums up Nixon’s journey into the dark as well as any other documentary out there.

Lyndon Johnson’s Election and His Daisy Girl

Paul Clinton — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 07:19:32 +0000

Lyndon Johnson's Election and His Daisy Girl

Lyndon Johnson’s election victory in 1964 over Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater shattered the Republican party and ushered in a darker time of presidential leadership.

Johnson must have known the old political adage. Above all, you have to give people something to vote for rather than asking them to vote against.

On the campaign trail, Johnson talked about his “Great Society,” which at the time must have seemed like an aspirational extension of John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier.”

Johnson declared war on poverty and ignorance as he ran against Goldwater, whose ideas about the tactical use of nuclear weapons in Europe and reforming Social Security created fear and confusion.

As the ultimate political animal, Johnson also ran attack ads against his opponent, which highlighted Goldwater’s extremism. The most notable one, known as “Daisy Girl,” has served as a template for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and other presidential aspirants.

As a result, the year 1964 was a watershed in presidential politics. Moving against his Southern brethren in the U.S. Senate, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, which prohibited racial discrimination at polls, schools, offices, and restaurants.

The act was a major step toward reversing the “separate but equal” doctrine that reinforced racial segregation. And it gave LBJ a new voting block: African Americans.

Picking a Vice President

Johnson picked the more liberal Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey as his vice presidential running mate. This helped shore up support in the Northeast.

Humphrey was also a good choice, because he was Johnson’s bridge to the more liberal wing of his party.

After LBJ’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in late August in Atlantic City, he headed into September, and unleashed the dogs.

Johnson hired the Manhattan advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) – a “mad men” firm known for their successful campaigns for Volkswagen, Avis Rent a Car, and El Al Airlines.

To accomplish the attack mission, DDB produced three TV ads, including the 60-second “Peace, Little Girl,” which aired Sept. 7 during NBC’s Monday night movie, “David and Bathsheba.”

In the ad, a child with a daisy in her right hand counts toward 10 as she picks the white petals. Birds chirp, as the camera pulls the viewer closer. She reaches four. When she reaches 10, a mission control announcer breaks in to begin a countdown.

As he nears the end, the camera zooms into her face and freezes on her eyeball. At that moment, a nuclear explosion shatters the scene with a mushroom cloud accompanied by Johnson’s Texas drawl, “we must love each other, or we must die.”

The ad retains its power when watched today; even though the Cold War’s ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation has receded.

The Fruits of Victory

Johnson’s Nov. 3 election victory was supreme. His 486 electoral votes (of 538) gave him 44 states and 61.1% of the popular vote (43.1 million). It was the largest share of the popular vote since James Monroe’s 1820 victory.

The election also blew apart a Republican Party that had been divided into factions unsupported by Dwight Eisenhower, such as the Eastern establishment’s Nelson Rockefeller, Goldwater, and Richard Nixon, a stalking horse in 1964 who hadn’t quite recovered from his 1960 defeat to JFK.

Why does it all still matter? Goldwater’s campaign, from the lens of today, can be seen as a spiritual predecessor of the Reagan Revolution, even though Goldwater’s legacy remains murky. He turned more liberal in later years, even giving interviews from his retirement in Arizona in which he supported gays in the military and abortion rights.

And Johnson’s presidential term turned darker with his escalation of the Vietnam War following several other legislative accomplishments, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start.

JFK’s Boyhood Home

Paul Clinton — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 04:46:50 +0000

JFK's Boyhood Home

Forty-one years before John F. Kennedy inspired a generation with his “ask not” call to service, he was a 3-year-old boy living in a cramped second-floor bedroom in Brookline, Mass. JFK’s boyhood home provided a modest start on the road to greatness.

It’s doubtful that JFK remembered much about the nine-room Colonial Revival-style house at 83 Beals St. It was here that his parents began to shape his early life.

You can visit JFK’s boyhood home, which is now managed by the National Park Service. Rangers field questions in a basement gift shop. And you can take a tour of most of the house that includes recorded memories from Rose Kennedy.

Rose and Joseph Kennedy moved into the home in 1914, shortly after Joe married Rose Fitzgerald. Joe insisted on owning a home rather than living with either of the couple’s prominent parents partly. This was a signal of his ambition for what was to come. He “had a strong need for privacy, for independence, for being able to choose the people he wanted to be with in close association,” Rose said later.

The home was the birthplace of the first four of nine Kennedy children. JFK arrived on May 29, 1917 as the second child after Joseph, Jr. and before Rosemary and Kathleen. Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted would come later.

Kennedy Loyalty Learned in Brookline

The tightly knit Kennedy family forged its early bonds in Brookline. Joe and Rose taught their children about filial loyalty, love of knowledge, Irish Catholic pride, and social rank.

Family loyalty became a hallmark of the Kennedys, especially with Robert Kennedy, who idolized his older brother. Especially after an assassin’s bullet ended the JFK presidency on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

In his chronicle of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign, Theodore White writes this family bond.

“Robert F. Kennedy, who loved his brother more than he loved himself, saw John F. Kennedy, even while alive, as more than a person—as the flag of a cause. His brother was for him not only the occasion of brotherly love but a new departure in American purpose.”

JFK remembered his childhood fondly, later writing about “a very special affection” for the place of his birth.

The Kennedys left the home in 1920 with a growing family. They moved into a larger home at 51 Abbotsford Road, also in Brookline due to Joe’s business success.

They would leave that home in 1927 for the Bronx, New York, and a Riverdale mansion with views of the Hudson River.

In 1969, Rose Kennedy remembered the years on Beals Street.

“We were happy here and although we did not know about the days ahead, we were enthusiastic and optimistic about the future,” Rose remembers in a recording that you hear at the last stop on the tour in the kitchen.