did lady bird johnson profit from the vietnam war

Im sort of an archive geek, so when I heard that Lady Bird had recorded her own White House tapes, the idea of getting to know her and her story didnt sound so far-fetched. Shes from Texas. Tumulty makes the case that over the course of Ronalds political career, Nancy grew to understand her power. Wielding their clout, the two first ladies could hardly be a greater study in contrastseven as they shared a priority: vigilantly protecting their spouse above all, but also their own access and influence. LBJ, serving out All of this got LBJ close, but quite not close enough, to assure him of an outright victory. In Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, Julia Sweig argues that for all her mid-century Betty Crocker flip curls, Bird (as her husband called her) had a disarmingly modern partnership with the president. The final fix may have been made by a cabal of Texas oil men and ranchers who wanted ODaniel out of Austin. She came into office in the wake of the JFK assassination. Like any number of female Kennedys, like Coretta Scott King, like the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, and like others then (and since), Lady Bird suffered the humiliation of her husbands flagrant infidelity. In her East Wing policy shop, Lady Bird began to build a portfolio of environmental policies, working with Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. During World War II and Korea, Brown & Root made billions No, and he even lost his job because of the Vietnam War. The congress granted to the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson for 1965 $700 million for the expected ramping up of a direct American military role. TSHA | Taylor, Thomas Jefferson II With her familys money as a seed investment, she helped build an empire of Texas media and business holdings. The Corpus Christi deal initiated Brown & Root into the risk-free fraternity of favored Pentagon contractors. (You had to be wary of her, Ron said.) But it was politically expedient since it allowed civilian officials in the Pentagon to steer billions into the coffers of favored contractors, such as Halliburton, Lockheed and DynCorp. In a scenario that would be reprised in the Iraq war, Halliburton soon won the contract to implement the LOGCAP plan that it had devised. I am not sure that the above answer is accurate but I can't prove it. How fat? Stevenson was a wildly popular figure in Texas, but LBJ had an equalizer: a nearly bottomless reservoir of campaign money provided by Brown & Root and Wirtzs client list of oil barons, including H.L. By outsourcing most of the logistics work in Kosovo, the Pentagon was able to reduce its deployment by around 8,000 troops, helping Clinton and Albright to sell an unpopular war at home. A Department of Justice investigation charged that Halliburton bribed the Nigerian officials in order to win a billion-dollar construction contract. This episode includes one of the most consequential. War Profiteering from Vietnam to Iraq - CounterPunch.org So she swam laps and hiked.) On August 19, 1953, the CIA launched its coup. His distaste for Uncle Sam was matched only by his ferocious hatred of Mexicans, blacks and labor unionists. Once again, Johnson faced a popular and reactionary governor for the Texas senate seat, vacated when Pappy ODaniel (grew bored of living in DC. When the price gouging by Altanmia began to draw the attention of Pentagon auditors, the US Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the contracts, came up with an elegant solution. Emhoffs little side step of uncertainty got raves. Old hands at Halliburton remember Cheney as arrogant and inept, a clumsy autocrat. Needless to say, this prospect didnt sit well with Halliburton and the consortium of British and American oil companies exploiting Irans petroleum wealth. The plan came to be known as LOGCAP and Halliburton soon got an additional $5 million to flesh out the details. Dave Gribbin, one of Cheneys closest aides, left his position as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs for a slot as one of Halliburtons top lobbyists. How Lady Bird and Lyndon Baines Johnson came by their millions. These scams didnt lead to an indictment of Halliburton executives, but the SEC did ding the company with a $7.5 million fine for its deviant accounting practicesa slap on the wrist, to be sure, but a black eye for the moral hypocrite Dick Cheney. Not my thing. In late 1963 the North Vietnamese greatly increased supplies of weapons and equipment to the Vietcong and infiltrated regular army units into the South. And there it sat. His term expired in 1948, and Harry Truman had just announced his intention to reappoint him to the position, enraging the oil and gas industry. Olds, a former muckraking reporter, was appointed by FDR to head the commission, which set power rates and regulated natural gas prices. The Army didnt consider it necessary to reveal the terms of the deal, a Pentagon spokesman explained to Reuters. In fact, the company patriarch, Erle P. Red Halliburton, despised the federal government. In this busy milieu, Lady Bird was, she said, so happy being the wife of the senator from Texas., Julia E. Sweig: The lost story of Lady Bird, So happy was sheand so aware of how her husband would chafe at a subordinate rolethat when John F. Kennedy drafted LBJ as his running mate in 1960, she made the case for not accepting. Call it the Oil-for-Contracts scandal. Both had lively, unconventional mothers who supported womens suffrageand yet both girls grew up during a time when second billing (or none) was a wifes lot, even in the most collaborative marital enterprises. Birds a true believer in progressive causes -- civil rights, environmentalism -- but shes also the product of her own generation and background. Of course, Cheney did deliver some morsels for the shareholders. While Defense Secretary, Cheney defended this kind of military outsourcing as an efficient way to control spiraling costs. During World War II, Halliburton was called upon to help build the infrastructure for the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, launching a profitable relationship with the petro-kingdom that persists to this day. Lady Birdthe youngest child and only daughter of a wealthy East Texas businessmantook refuge, Sweig writes, in a rich inner life that taught her how to take emotional sustenance from nature and books. An excellent student, she earned a history degree in 1933 from the University of Texas at Austin, in an era when only a small percentage of women graduated from college; she then spent a year completing a journalism degree. It was courtesy of LBJ, and his privileged position in the congress, that Brown & Root got into the Pentagon contracting business in a big way. and in my book "Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight,", Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Even here Halliburton benefited. And she finds inspiration and an unlikely collaborator in San Francisco. Each haul would net between $40,000and $50,000 for the Johnson campaign. So little doubt, in fact, that a Halliburton executive had been invited to attend the secret conclave. In 1995, Halliburton hired Dick Cheney as its CEO. First ladies? In 2003, he was asked about his financial ties to Halliburton. The city was well stocked with influential women. And shes rightit was. They witnessed the mortal pressures on what Nancy called the flesh-and-blood person. Both kept close watch on sleep, diet, and mental and emotional statesa wifely role, you could say, but is it? Black was a New Dealer elevated to the high bench by FDR. Stevenson rushed to the courts for relief. In the end, Dressers workers paid the price. The Defense Contract Audit Agency report comes on top of previous investigations tagging Halliburton, and its Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary, for more than $442 million in unsupported billings for its work in Iraq, including charges for meals that were never served, $45 cases of pop, unnecessary heavy equipment, tailoring fees and $152,000 for movie screenings. Soon after Eisenhowers election, Anderson, who had funneled more than $200,000 into the Eisenhower-Nixon campaign, was invited to join the administration as a consultant to the National Security Council. She wrapped a towel around herself and got Ronnie out of the shower; dripping, they both stood watching TV as the news sank in that he had won in a landslide. At a time when the National Press Club barred female reporters, the Womens National Press Club provided a home for the citys contingent. Then an unexpected thing happened. This prison, which serves as the torture and interrogation center for Bushs wars, was originally designed to hold Haitians and, according to some sources, Cubans, in the event of the collapse of the Castro government. There was little doubt about who was going to land the deal. And then the company and the Pentagon sought to hide the evidence of these overchages from the international auditors.. Shes a presidents wife. For example, Halliburton sent the Pentagon a bill for $240 million in dining hall charges for feeding 4,700 troops each day. But then dissent comes to lunch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when singer, actor and activist Eartha Kitt participates in one of Lady Birds Doers Luncheons, and delivers a fierce critique of the war and its effect on young Black men. In May 1967, she testified before Congress, along with Washington D.C. youth group Rebels With a Cause, on behalf of President Lyndon B. Johnson's juvenile delinquency bill. Lady Bird Johnson subsequently invited Kitt to her Women Doers' Luncheon on Jan. 18, 1968, for a discussion of what women could do to help eradicate crime on the streets. The purpose of this conclave was to devise a project that would come to be known as RIO or Restore Iraq Oil. (There was also yellow, for iffy ones.) The money was delivered in $100 bills stuffed into grocery bags. This single invoice amounted to an overcharge of more than 335 times the value of the liquified natural gas delivered by Halliburtons subcontractors. Two years later, Halliburton won the 5-year renewal of this deal, valued at $180 million. WebEartha Kitt confronts President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon. Im so scared, she said. Cheney pursued a company that no one else really wanted and to compound his blunder he paid an outrageous price for it. On February 26, 2003, less than a month before the invasion of Iraq, a meeting was convened in the inner sanctum of the Pentagon. But over the next five years, Brown Shipbuilding, a huge operation on the Houston Ship Channel, would build 355 ships for the Navy, specializing in sub chasers and escorts for destroyers. A pungent example: A team of French investigators unearthed a robust Swiss bank account harboring $5 million, which reportedly derived from bribes involving Halliburton contracts in Nigeria. A little more than a week after having arrived in DC, the freshly hatched congressman had engineered congressional approval for both the appropriation and the land purchase.
J Roget Champagne Case, Julia Morgan House Marysville, Cpt Code Rapid Covid Test, Los Garcia Brothers Net Worth, Ar500 Mandalorian Armor For Sale, Articles D