LBJ Library and Museum

This weekend we visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum here in Austin. At the time of our visit, they seemed to be redecorating the outside if the museum, so it wasn't that impressive to look at from the outside (see picture above.)

Inside was pretty nice, with lots of exhibits covering the entire life of LBJ. Pictures, news articles, books, letters, paintings, sculptures, videos, etc. There's even a talking LBJ wax figure on the fourth floor (see picture).

Much like the Nixon museum in California, the LBJ museum glosses over the most controversial part of his life, the Kennedy assassination. There are about 3 or 4 exhibits covering the assassination, but (naturally) it's all related to LBJ's ascension to the presidency.

LBJ's involvement in the assassination of Kennedy has been suspected by many. E. Howard Hunt (who worked in the CIA and also in Nixon's administration), on his deathbed, wrote down the names of the top people involved in Kennedy's assassination. The top name on his list was Lyndon Johnson, and underneath him were Cord Meyer, Bill Harvey, and David Morales (all CIA.) Was he lying? Who knows, but it does seem to make sense.

Here's just a small portion from the article "The Last Confession of E. Howard Hunt" by Erik Hedegaard, and published in Rolling Stone in 2007:

"E. Howard scribbled the initials "LBJ," standing for Kennedy's ambitious vice president, Lyndon Johnson. Under "LBJ," connected by a line, he wrote the name Cord Meyer. Meyer was a CIA agent whose wife had an affair with JFK; later she was murdered, a case that's never been solved. Next his father connected to Meyer's name the name Bill Harvey, another CIA agent; also connected to Meyer's name was the name David Morales, yet another CIA man and a well-known, particularly vicious black-op specialist. And then his father connected to Morales' name, with a line, the framed words "French Gunman Grassy Knoll."

Later that week, E. Howard also gave Saint two sheets of paper that contained a fuller narrative. It starts out with LBJ again, connecting him to Cord Meyer, then goes on: "Cord Meyer discusses a plot with [David Atlee] Phillips who brings in Wm. Harvey and Antonio Veciana. He meets with Oswald in Mexico City. . . . Then Veciana meets w/ Frank Sturgis in Miami and enlists David Morales in anticipation of killing JFK there. But LBJ changes itinerary to Dallas, citing personal reasons."

David Atlee Phillips, the CIA's Cuban operations chief in Miami at the time of JFK's death, knew E. Howard from the Guatemala-coup days. Veciana is a member of the Cuban exile community. Sturgis, like Saint's father, is supposed to have been one of the three tramps photographed in Dealey Plaza. Sturgis was also one of the Watergate plotters, and he is a man whom E. Howard, under oath, has repeatedly sworn to have not met until Watergate, so to Saint the mention of his name was big news.

In the next few paragraphs, E. Howard goes on to describe the extent of his own involvement. It revolves around a meeting he claims he attended, in 1963, with Morales and Sturgis. It takes place in a Miami hotel room. Here's what happens:
Morales leaves the room, at which point Sturgis makes reference to a "Big Event" and asks E. Howard, "Are you with us?"

E. Howard asks Sturgis what he's talking about.
Sturgis says, "Killing JFK."


So there you have it. Either Hunt is a complete liar, or LBJ could actually have been even more evil than Dubya.

To his credit, however, Johnson did sign the Medicare and Medicaid legislation, giving healthcare to millions of people in 1965. Perhaps he felt he had to do something good after what had happened just two years prior.

(Pictures: 1. The outside of the museum, still under construction. 2. The archives. 3. Sara poses in front of a painting of LBJ. 4. The talking wax figure of LBJ. 5. Portraits of other presidents. 6. The exhibit on the Kennedy assassination. 7. A painting depicting Kennedy's funeral)