George McGovern and LBJ at the LBJ Ranch in 1972

[book_worm]

It went well. He gave me some advice that I wish I had followed. He said, George, first of all, you think the war in Vietnam is a God damned disaster. I think you’re goofy on that —which he really didn’t, but he said that—so let’s not talk about it. Let’s just rule that out. Now, how are we going to win this campaign?

First I asked for his support, and he said, Look, I’m 100% for you. Did you get my telegram? I had to tell him I’d never seen it. To this day, I don’t know what happened to it, but I never saw it. Somebody must have it, or somebody must have opened it, but I never saw it. I didn’t answer directly. I said, I knew, Mr. President, that you were going to be for us if I won the nomination.

He said, You’re going to have some of my people telling you that they’re for Nixon. That’s a damn lie. I’m for you, and I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I said, What I’d like you to do is go to a rally with me in the Houston Astrodome. He said, I’ll do it if the doctors say it’s okay. I knew he had heart trouble. He said, Is there anything else I can do?

I said, Well, if you have any advice, Mr. President. He said, Yes. If I were you, I’d forget about that Vietnam deal, and I would just say to the people of America, ‘I want to thank you for keeping me in high office all these years. I owe this country so much. You educated me under the GI Bill of Rights. You provided good schools for my children. You have presided over a great civil rights movement that’s going to treat all Americans as equal in the eyes of the law. You’ve done so much for me. You’ve permitted me to serve in the United States Congress, the United States Senate. And now you’ve given me the Presidential nomination of the oldest political party in the history of this great country that we all love. So I just want to thank you, thank you, thank you, for what America has done for me.’

Now, why I didn’t say that, I cannot explain. That’s exactly what I should have said. He was right. I thought it sounded a little corny, so I just let it pass. But that’s one piece of advice I wish I had used over and over again.

Lady Bird [Johnson] was very friendly. I noticed that day we were sitting on the lawn outside his ranch house that he had let his hair grow clear down his back. You know, as long as the hair of those kids who had been taunting him. It was his way of showing, I’m not such a square. I think that’s what it was. And then another thing: he was smoking one cigarette after another, just chain smoking. His doctors had told him he was going to die if he didn’t give up smoking, which he did for several years.

https://www.emkinstitute.org/resources/george-mcgovern

[Brother Buzz]

1. I wonder if he gave McGovern a ride in his Amphicar

https://www.businessinsider.com/lyndon-johnson-played-terrifying-prank-with-his-amphicar-2014-8

[demosincebirth]

3. Good man. He did a lot for the workingman.

. Also signed the civil rights act knowing the dems would lose the south.

[Brother Buzz]

6. He was a complicated man, for sure

and he might have gone down as a 'Great' president if he didn't have the Vietnam thing hanging around his neck. His war on poverty was something I could wrap my head around, but as a dumb draftee, I could not hitch my wagon the the war in SE Asia.

[MontanaMama]

4. George McGovern was a patient

at the dental office where I worked for 21 years. Lovely man.

[UTUSN]

5. I love this post. Thanks.

[appalachiablue]

7. On day leaving work I walked right past McGovern downtown DC.

I'd heard his son was coming to my agency but I looked up, saw it was George and realized it was an error.

[kacekwl]

8. OMG I'd never seen LBJ with long hair.

Looks great and kinda covers those ears. Offfaahh.