Excerpts From Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times: pp. 222-223
Excerpts From Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times: pp. 224-225
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Contradictions Within Robert Caro’s Works: Exposing a Legacy Built on Mythology?
Excerpts From Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times: pp. 222-223
Excerpts From Arthur Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times: pp. 224-225
LBJ: Master of Deceit 
Just absolutely spot on Phil! It is definitely something that needs to be brought to light. Amazing work.
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Sometimes, an author will purposefully misinterpret a word or phrase because the misinterpretation helps fit their view of a subject. This does a disservice to readers.
Such does this author misinterpret the phrase “in action” regarding Lyndon Johnson and Robert Caro. The author is correct, of course, that it would be very unusual for a war plane to take off, be attacked by numerous enemy planes, and then return to base all in 13 minutes. In that kind of instance, one would certainly expect the base itself to fall under attack. That of course is not what happened, even in Johnson’s exaggerated storytelling. What Johnson did claim is still complete nonsense, but the claim was that the attack by Japanese “Zeros” went on for 13 minutes. That is what any soldier, sailor or airman will tell you is meant by “in action.” You’re not “in action” when traveling to a battlefield or eating in the Mess, and no veteran would say they were.
Only a person with their mouth on Jumbo would believe anything that came out of Pres. Johnson’s mouth or any other orifice. It’s not necessary to stretch in this way to find things to criticize him about.
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Not sure what this particular “quibble” is about, but what was more interesting is that you evidently found nothing more consequential than that to criticize. Which proves one thing: You had decided long before reading that post that your sole intent was to do a “drive-by shootdown’ with whatever you could find to attack the article which documents a number of Mr. Caro’s errors and omissions, as I’ve cited. Instead, you set out to find a misstatement (that incorrectly framed the “13 minute action within a longer flight” a sentence admittedly not very artfully worded) and VIOLA!, you found one.
Evidently, only one. If not, then please fill me in on all the others.
That you noticed this rather benign “error” — in the face of a virtual mountain of substantive misstatements by Mr. Caro, of which you overlooked — is telling. But thanks for calling me out on it, I will make the needed adjustment.
[Reedited/revised 8/5/2022 6:55 PM EDT]
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Informative article, thank you.
What Mr. Fairweather said makes perfect sense to me: the 13 minute flight you describe as impossible was only 13 minutes “in action.” It should be corrected Here:
“The incoherence of the phrase ‘if you accept everything that he said, he was still in action for no more than thirteen minutes and only as an observer’ is obvious: How can one believe that that airplane was able to take-off, experience a mechanical issue and return to the airbase within 20 minutes, obviously not getting anywhere near the target, yet still accept ‘everything he said’ as the predicate for further analysis?”
– you assert the 13 minutes includes arrival and departure
-The phrase “If you accept everything he said” is not incoherent: if you believed LBJ’s bs story, “he was still in action for no more than thirteen minutes and only as an observer.” Caro says the story wouldn’t warrant a Silver Star even if it really happened, which he seems to doubt. That’s not incoherent, and saying it is makes your other points less credible. But this was a worthy read.
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