L.B.J.'s Young Man "In Charge of Everything"

(10 of 10)

"America is a political nation," says Moyers, "and Lyndon Johnson is the man who has mastered the engine that drives America." He is quick to concede that "like all of us, the President has his faults," but reasons: "This country needs a strong, vigorous President, unaccustomed to living tamely. There is some misconception that power is evil. If one pursues power as an end in itself, that is bad, yes. But little progress can come without power, political or spiritual."

At the Fountainhead. Moyers has been long enough at the fountainhead of power to feel almost certain that he will remain in public life. Few Texans see a bright future for him as an elected representative of their state; his views on civil rights and economics are too liberal. Lately he has grown more interested in foreign relations, and may some day head in that direction. In any case, he is unlikely to abandon the seminary-bred notion of service. "Do you know that the word 'idiot' comes from the Greek?" asks Moyers, who studied the language in order to read the New Testament firsthand. "It means a man who did not participate in society." He adds: "This is a participant's generation, not a spectator generation." But he still expresses wonder at the exalted role he has come to play in Lyndon Johnson's Administration.

It was another President Johnson—Andrew—who, nearly a century ago, described the relationship between a President and an adviser as "a plant of slow growth." Where Bill Moyers and Lyndon Johnson are concerned, the plant has been maturing for eleven years now. Moyers needs Johnson and knows it. But Johnson also needs Bill Moyers: not as a son-figure, not as a no man—least of all as a yes man—but as a quick, incisive analyst and brilliant administrator. In all probability, as long as Lyndon Johnson remains in the White House, Bill Don Moyers will be in charge of anything—and everything.