RIP Claudia Taylor Johnson, aka Lady Bird
Lady Bird Johnson has died at the age of 94. I’ve referred to her by her given name in the title of this post, not just because I always thought her nickname silly, but because she did:
Lady Bird Johnson received her nickname in infancy from a caretaker nurse who said she was as “pretty as a lady bird.” It was the name by which the world would come to know her. She disliked it, but said later, “I made my peace with it.”
Lady Bird met her fate in the titanic Lyndon and embarked on a wild roller coaster ride. I’ve written before about some of the more difficult aspects of their marriage. And take a look here for a fascinating description of their courtship.
It couldn’t have been easy, but I doubt she regretted it. By all accounts, the lady was a real class act.
Drives across the country are easier on the eyes now, thanks to her. The Highway Beautification Act was her idea. Her and Helen Hayes started the National Wildflower Research Center, which now bears her name. I will miss her. She was my first “first lady” in memory growing up.(Jackie was technically first, but my memories don’t go back to infancy)
As the owner of Bell Helicopters, she also made a lot of $$$ when LBJ escalated the Vietnam War.
I “cut my teeth” as an aircraft mechanic on “Hueys”, but still believe that profit had a lot to do with that. We lost a lot of good men for nothing in that conflict…
Such a classy lady, and married to such a jerk. Life isn’t fair- but at least she understood that.
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camojack Says:
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I “cut my teeth” as an aircraft mechanic on “Hueys”, but still believe that profit had a lot to do with that. We lost a lot of good men for nothing in [Viet Nam] …
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Lee Kuan Yew, regarded as the founding father of the Republic of Singapore, disagrees with you. In his view, by tying the communists up in Vietnam for a decade, we gave time for Singapore, Malaysia, and several other countries to establish stable governments. He has thanked the USA, plainly and often, for saving his country.
So even though Congress threw your sacrifice away, be comforted that it did help someome.
You might also read Philip Bobbitt’s The Shield of Achilles. It’s his view that the Viet Nam war hurt Russia more in the long run than it hurt the USA. (The Shield of Achilles is IMO a Great Book, but it’s at least a week of evenings to read. The introduction and the first chapter or two are genuinely difficult because Bobbitt’s thesis is so sweeping.)