Nation: L.B.J.: LENGTHENING SHADOWS

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Had Lyndon Johnson thumbed through his Father's Day gift from Daughter Lynda Bird last week—F.D.R.'s old copy of Aesop's Fables—he might have come upon the tale about the dying lion. As the King of Beasts declined in strength, the story goes, the lesser animals trooped up to his cave, no longer subservient. The boar attacked him with his tusks; the bull gored him; even the ass, feeling quite safe, kicked up his heels and brayed. "Ah," sighed the failing King, "thus dies majesty." In the waning months of the Johnson Administration, TIME White House Correspondent Hugh Sidey reported on how the President is coping with the assorted denizens of Washington and the world:

THERE were, to be sure, flickers of the old vigor. The President reorganized U.S. health services to ensure better care. When signing the anti-crime bill, he attached some strongly worded reservations. Before an audience of educators, he defended his Viet Nam policies, and goaded his listeners with a taunt about their own troubles. "I'd be interested to know," said he, "how the pacification program is doing, how much progress you are making in reform, how things are doing in the outlying buildings, and whether you still hold the central administration offices.''

There were disappointments. The Russians again snubbed his bid for friendlier relations. Congress threatened to cut his modest $2.9 billion foreign aid program by one-third. Though Administration officials noted "some movement" in the Paris peace talks, it still seemed too slight to justify his March 31 renunciation of a second term.

The future blots out the past, and Lyndon Johnson has placed himself in the past tense. His Government juggernaut is grinding perceptibly to a halt. In one department after another, planning for the future has all but stopped, and underlings are busying themselves with housekeeping chores while they await Johnson's successor. "We are," said a sub-Cabinet man, "looking after personnel matters." Personal matters, too. The best Johnson men are being lured away by industry and academe. Of 14 young lawyers in one group, five have already made plans to leave. Somnolent is the word for the State Department, where one official declared: "This simply isn't a time for action."

When the President fills vacant posts, appointments have an odor of the payoff. James McCrocklin, new Under Secretary of HEW, is a former president of Southwest Texas State College, which boasts one really distinguished alumnus, named Johnson. The new Ambassador to Australia, Bill Crook, is known as a "good guy," but he is also a Texan. The fact is, not many Washingtonians—or Americans—really care now who gets the Johnson nod.

Final Fling. Nonetheless, the old showman is not giving up. There are schemes to make L.B.J.'s last days in office soar. Aides are studying history to gain insights from predecessors, but the findings are disappointing. Eisenhower traveled widely and issued a warning against the military-industrial complex. But Kennedy was murdered, Truman disdained, Roosevelt died in office, and Hoover was in discredit.