JFK and LBJ

As a young White House correspondent and Washington reporter during the Kennedy and Johnson years, Godfrey Hodgson covered two presidents who could hardly have been more different. John Kennedy's wit and dashing style, his war-hero status, and his Ivy League/Boston background stood in sharp contrast to Lyndon Johnson's provincial origins in Texas and his forceful manner, questionable service as a naval officer, and populist instincts. Hodgson, a close-up witness throughout the tumultuous 1960s, now draws on the insights of subsequent decades to strip away myths and assess the two presidents' real achievements. The seed that grew into this book was the author's early perception that JFK's performance in office was largely overrated while LBJ's was consistently underrated. Hodgson asks key questions: If Kennedy had lived, would he have matched Johnson's ambitious Great Society achievements? Would he have avoided Johnson's disastrous commitment in Vietnam? Would Nixon have been elected his successor, and if not, how would American politics and parties look today? Hodgson combines lively anecdotes with sober analyses to arrive at new conclusions about the U.S. presidency and two of the most charismatic figures ever to govern from the Oval Office.