Faustian Bargains

January 30, 2017
Mellen (The Great Game in Cuba), professor of English at Temple University, takes a vicious swing at President Lyndon Johnson, positing—with limited evidence—that there is no perfidy to which Johnson did not succumb. Mellen suggests that Johnson gave orders to a shady Texas figure, Mac Wallace, to murder an individual whose knowledge of Johnson’s misdeeds would be damaging. She insinuates that Johnson was involved in seven more murders, including that of President Kennedy, and that Johnson was guilty of war crimes for abandoning U.S. Naval personnel during a 1967 incident in which USS Liberty was “mistakenly” torpedoed by Israeli forces. Mellen also claims that, while president, Johnson planned the assassination of Cambodian Prince Sihanouk to facilitate bringing U.S. troops to Cambodia to further the Vietnam War effort. There is much more here for readers interested in Mellen’s relentless attacks on Johnson’s legacy. She indicts Johnson and an advisor for “having brokered the unforgivable, the killing of least two million Vietnamese,” and reduces Johnson’s Great Society accomplishments to a “cynical ploy designed to provide him a fresh persona.” Mellen may be right about Johnson, but much of her case is based on speculation, circumstantial evidence, or testimony of dubious reliability.

July 1, 2016
Linking LBJ to blackmail, intimidation, and even murder.Mellen (English/Temple Univ.; The Great Game in Cuba: How the CIA Sabotaged its Own Plot to Unseat Fidel Castro, 2013, etc.) chronicles "the dark side of Lyndon Johnson" by investigating two men whom she finds surprisingly absent from Robert A. Caro's acclaimed four-volume Johnson biography: financier and con man Billie Sol Estes, who accused Johnson of orchestrating multiple murders, and Malcolm Everett "Mac" Wallace, a fellow Texan who the author claims was Johnson's acolyte. Estes' scandalous machinations made national news, but Wallace's service as Johnson's "hatchet man" is little known. "Wallace's story is so intriguing," writes the author, "because, unlike other of Johnson's acolytes, it is difficult to prove what he did for [LBJ], and what [LBJ], in turn, did for him." Mellen's handling of evidence makes her argument disturbing and, in parts, confusing. In mounting her indictment of Johnson as a manipulative, power-hungry politician who considered himself above the law (a portrait that Caro endorses), the author assumes that where there's smoke, there's fire. "Circumstantial evidence...is most certainly evidence," she asserts, and hearsay provokes her interest. Her sources include research into Johnson's life and politics conducted by reporter Holland McCombs, on assignment for Life; and the files of John Fraser Harrison, a former Dallas reserve police officer obsessed with finding "the Texas roots of the Kennedy assassination." Besides damning Johnson, Mellen aims to counter Estes' accusation that Wallace served as Johnson's hit man and, on Johnson's orders, was at the Texas School Book Depository when Kennedy was shot. Although she finds "no credible evidence" for either claim, Mellen blows plenty of smoke toward Johnson: "Loose ends, contradictory facts suggesting Lyndon Johnson's complicity, remain." She also accuses Johnson of racism (admittedly, not a new claim) and, for reasons of international intrigue, of refusing to rescue sailors on the USS Liberty after it was bombed in 1967. A book that will fuel conspiracy theorists and further blacken Johnson's legacy.

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August 1, 2016

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) was the dark prince of politics whose career and personal affairs were a series of Faustian bargains that enriched him while destroying the lives and reputations of those who got in his way, claims Mellen (English, Temple Univ.; The Great Game in Cuba). This volume highlights one such relationship between Johnson and Mac Wallace, LBJ's onetime protege and crony. In an example of 1951 Texas justice, Wallace received a suspended sentence for a first-degree murder conviction, likely influenced by Johnson's pressuring the judge. The author's deep research makes for a fascinating portrayal of Wallace as a complex and conflicted figure. Readers will likely find the murder and the ensuing trial engrossing. When not discussing Wallace, the narrative at times unravels, becoming bogged down in detail. The author has written about President John F. Kennedy's assassination, but here she does not link either Johnson or Wallace to the killing, as have some zealous assassination researchers. VERDICT Although readers will not necessarily agree with Mellen's controversial, one-dimensional study of Johnson, they will appreciate her generally fine writing and tenacious research. Major Johnson biographies, notably Robert A. Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson and Robert Dallek's Flawed Giant offer more balanced assessments of the former president.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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