28-01-2014, 06:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 28-01-2014, 09:17 PM by Joseph McBride.)
I hoped against hope long ago that Caro might rise to this
occasion. In a lecture delivered as part of a series at the New York Public Library, cosponsored
by the Book-of-the-Month Club (and printed in EXTRAORDINARY
LIVES: THE ART AND CRAFT OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, ed. William
Zinsser, 1986), Caro referred to Johnson's "blood feud with the Kennedys,
which is a drama of Shakespearean vividness" (p. 223). I perhaps naively hoped Caro literally
meant what he said by the strong language "blood feud" and would follow
the implications of that insight. But despite his brilliant earlier work (including
his great biography of Robert Moses and three superb and revealing earlier volumes on Johnson), Caro copped out on the assassination. It's not hard to figure out why.
He even buys the lie Johnson told that Rufus Youngblood vaulted
over the seat to protect him when the shots were fired. Senator Ralph Yarborough (who was
riding in the back seat of that convertible with the Johnsons) told
me the true story in my book INTO THE NIGHTMARE and
called Johnson's account "a cock-and-bull tale." And yet though Caro
should have known better, he goes on and on about this fairy tale
for phony dramatic effect. As if the event needed hyping -- unless
the historian figuratively wanted to throw his own body over Johnson.
Such factual details, as important as they are, pale
before Caro's wholesale buying-into the account of
the President's Commission on the Assassination
of President Kennedy, as the "Warren Commission"
was actually called.
occasion. In a lecture delivered as part of a series at the New York Public Library, cosponsored
by the Book-of-the-Month Club (and printed in EXTRAORDINARY
LIVES: THE ART AND CRAFT OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, ed. William
Zinsser, 1986), Caro referred to Johnson's "blood feud with the Kennedys,
which is a drama of Shakespearean vividness" (p. 223). I perhaps naively hoped Caro literally
meant what he said by the strong language "blood feud" and would follow
the implications of that insight. But despite his brilliant earlier work (including
his great biography of Robert Moses and three superb and revealing earlier volumes on Johnson), Caro copped out on the assassination. It's not hard to figure out why.
He even buys the lie Johnson told that Rufus Youngblood vaulted
over the seat to protect him when the shots were fired. Senator Ralph Yarborough (who was
riding in the back seat of that convertible with the Johnsons) told
me the true story in my book INTO THE NIGHTMARE and
called Johnson's account "a cock-and-bull tale." And yet though Caro
should have known better, he goes on and on about this fairy tale
for phony dramatic effect. As if the event needed hyping -- unless
the historian figuratively wanted to throw his own body over Johnson.
Such factual details, as important as they are, pale
before Caro's wholesale buying-into the account of
the President's Commission on the Assassination
of President Kennedy, as the "Warren Commission"
was actually called.