Nation: THE JOHNSON YEARS

NOTHING was beyond his desire.

He wanted to be unifier and savior, uplifter of the poor at home and father of democracy in Asia. He yearned to be a latter-day Lincoln to the blacks, to outshine F.D.R.'s memory among reformers, to surpass Truman's humane but hardheaded foreign-policy record, to evoke the affection accorded Eisenhower. Above all, Lyndon Johnson ached for the trust of today's voters and the respect of tomorrow's scholars.

Now, with so many of his glittering hopes broken, Johnson makes his farewells, grinds through the last budget, the final State of the Union...