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I'm recommending as often as I can that people read Briody: The Halliburton Agenda, The Politics of Oil and Money. It tells the whole story. Johnson started the entire Brown & Root, Halliburton takeover of the U.S. government. Johnson was a close friend of Alvin Wirtz partner in Powell, Wirtz, Rauhut & Gideon and counsel to Brown & Root. Brown & Root started doing government projects during the Roosevelt era -- with Johnson's help. The first was the Marshall Ford Dam. It went on until Halliburton which had been bought by or somehow merged with Brown & Root had paved everything pavable in Vietnam and it was time to find some other empty space to pave -- for fun and profit.
How about this for a taste:
"I have some money that I want to know what to do with . . . I was wondering . . . just who should be getting it, and I will be collecting more from time to time." This generous offer was made by George Brown to Lyndon Johnson in January 1960. this transcript of a phone call, placed after more than two decades of what ultimately amounted to illegal campaign contributions to Johnson and his colleagues, demonstrates just how committed the Browns were to their favorite politician. Even after millions of dollars had been raised on Johnson's behalf, the Browns were still willing and able to give.
The Browns understood something about the politics of their day that few of their competitors recognized. To really get your money's worth out of a politician, you have to go all out. Lumping money into a crowded pot gets you nowhere. To really get things done in Washington, you can't just support your politician -- you have to own your politician. "They would contribute substantially as hell if their friend, somebody who had helped them, had a political campaign," recalled Ed Clark, longtime Brown & Root attorney. Johnson knew that without Herman Brown's money, he would never achieve the one thing he had always dreamed of: becoming president of the United States. Johnson knew this because Brown continually reminded him of the power of his money by meeting Johnson's every financial need. And Brown insisted that Johnson provide a return on his investment by keeping the contracts coming. In fact, taking one look at his voting record on issues like labor laws, corporate taxes, and government regulation made it relatively easy to see that Johnson was working for Brown & Root, not the people of his district or state. Another indicator was the history of giant and costly public works programs that Johnson had fought to bring to Texas, which inevitably included Brown & Root as the contractor.
Though the world could see what Johnson was doing for Brown & Root, it was considerably more difficult to see what Brown & Root was doing for Johnson. People familiar with the relationship suspected that money must be changing hands. But few in the laissez-faire political environment of Texas cared enough to follow up on it. It was accepted as the way business was done. Mostly though, Texans just wanted to get in on the action. Other politicians in the state came to know that Lyndon Johnson was the man to see to get some of Herman Brown's money. Businessmen in the state knew that the way to get political influence was through Herman Brown. If anything was getting done in 1940s Texas, it was going to have to go through either Johnson or Brown, the most powerful team in the state.
pages 115-116 of Briody's book. I can't recommend the book highly enough. Please, please read it.
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