欧宝娱乐

I admit it. I am and have been an admirer of LBJ's for decades, and this biography is one of the most even-handed books on this giant of a man that I have read. Of course, it reveals his flaws, which were notorious. More importantly it reveals his surpassing compassion for the old, the weak, the oppressed, the poor. Hillary's right - without LBJ there would have been no Civil Rights Act of 1964, to which the Kennedy's lent only half-hearted support - because they had no feeling, besides contempt, for anyone except perhaps for other Kennedys. They had no ambition that didn't arise from family pride. All else was merely manipulation of perceptions for political gain, which served no higher purpose than to satiate personal vanity. (See my review of "The Bystander.")
Woods' "LBJ" also delves into the quagmire of Vietnam, and the delusions of arrogance that captivated old, white men who easily sacrificed the lives of 50,000 GIs and the bodies of hundreds of thousands of others, not to mention the 4 million Vietnamese dead, whose sacrifices make American loses appear vanishingly trival. In this context, LBJ stood absolutely alone, entirely abandoned with his fear and delusions, a pitiable figure. My sense is that Robert Dalleck is better on Vietnam than Woods, but marginally so. In any case, a spot-on portrait of a man the likes of whom we're not likely to see again in this age of pitiably small politicans.