The Other Sides of L.B.J.

Some of the revelations about Lyndon Baines Johnson in Robert Dallek’s “Lone Star Rising”:

1937: Johnson’s congressional campaign allegedly gives Elliot Roosevelt, son of the President, a $5,000 bribe to send Johnson a telegram saying his election to the House would make him an asset to his father’s Administration.

1939-40: Johnson helps get dozens of Jewish refugees out of Europe, securing false passports and one-way visas to Latin America for them, then transferring them to Texas.

1946: Johnson gets Tommy Corcoran, a Washington attorney, to steal the war records of his opponent in the Democratic congressional primary, Hardy Hollers, to be used against him in the campaign.

1948: Johnson supporters--either U.S. Atty. General Tom Clark or Corcoran--may have improperly lobbied U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to reject a legal challenge to the results of the “stolen” 1948 Senate election.

1954: Running for reelection to the Senate, Johnson gets the FBI to give him confidential information about opponent Dudley T. Dougherty.

1955: Joseph Kennedy Sr. urges Johnson to run for President against Dwight D. Eisenhower, promising to bankroll his campaign if he takes John F. Kennedy as a running mate.

1959: The feud between Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy heats up. On a hunting trip at the L.B.J. ranch, Bobby fires a shotgun, which kicks back and knocks him to the ground. Helping him up, Johnson says, “Son, you’ll have to learn to handle a gun like a man.”