CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

January 17, 1969

Page 1216

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I should like to join in the tributes to President Johnson, an unusual and complex man, a compassionate and warmhearted human being.

This marks, I think the 10th anniversary of my personal association with Lyndon Johnson.

Looking back upon that association, I recognize now as much as I did at the time that the beginning of that association was not auspicious from my point of view. But I recognize that since that time our relationship has developed in ways which have been most reassuring to me, which have produced some of my most cherished memories during my 10 years in the Senate, and which have contributed something to some of the policies which have marked his administration.

Not many Presidents have had the responsibility of presiding over so traumatic a period of transition in our country's history as has President Johnson. I think that the hallmark of his administration has been his willingness to come to grips with the difficult, complex, and frustrating problems of this period of transition in a way which has been a tribute to his courage and his understanding of what is at stake, and to his willingness to make personal sacrifices in the interests of the country, notwithstanding its effect upon his political fortunes.

We have reached a point in our country's history when our domestic and foreign priorities must be reexamined. We have reached this point at a time when the pressures on our society never seem to be relaxed; and when none of us can see clearly the goals or the milestones toward which we are moving in our society, nor what they may mean for individuals or for our relationships to one another as Americans. So we are all under pressure to see our country as it is, to understand the meaning of what is going on, and to make some decision and judgments about what we must do.

But the man who has really been the focal point of that pressure in the past 5 years is the President of the United States. He has not run away from it. He has recognized it. He has listened to the challenge, and in the words of his state of the Union message this year, he has tried. He has been willing to try, willing to take the criticism which was a response to his efforts, willing to risk the failures of which he has been accused, and willing to meet the test of history and the judgment of history upon his efforts. It has been our privilege in Congress to participate in those efforts.

The President's effort to build a Great Society has been referred to in many quarters as just another political label assumed by an administration for the purpose of identifying its goals and for the purpose of justifying its efforts. But the basic characteristic of the label "Great Society" is that it has meant more than that. We have really been working in this country toward a great society since the beginning, a great society which is based upon the concept that a society achieves its fulfillment as each of its members achieves fulfillment.

I think this is really what the President had in mind when he set this objective. I think he understood that he was not beginning something new but, rather, that he was continuing a 180-year-old American experiment to create that kind of country and that kind of society for average citizens. This is why he has, with courage and determination, initiated legislation which has provided for better health care, more adequate housing, a more livable environment, more jobs at better wages, and greater educational opportunities for all our citizens. He understood and still understands that the fulfillment of individuals depends upon the extent to which we can break down the barriers which inhibit the full flowering of the potential of every individual citizen.

To make these kinds of demands on the American people is to risk criticism, is to risk failure, is to risk the harsh judgment of one's contemporaries. The President has been willing to take those risks. He has taken them. He has paid out his political capital. I believe history will give him a high place for his willingness to do so.

His great problem has been the Vietnam war, a problem which he has not been able to resolve within the period of his administration, a problem which has frustrated him, which has divided his countrymen, and which has cost him the highest price of all in terms of his political capital. I am convinced that at the root of his efforts to deal with this problem, to come to grips with it, and to solve it has been a great inner drive, the urge for peace. If he has not been given the wisdom to do it as he would have liked, neither have the rest of us been given that wisdom. The problem has been ours as well as his. And if he has failed to come up with the answer to it, so has his country.

So he leaves office with the problem unresolved, and we continue in office, with the problem still at the top of our agenda for effective action.

I should like to add a personal note, Mr. President. From that inauspicious beginning, I have found our relationship always a two-way relationship, a cooperative relationship, a relationship in

which he listened as well as talked. I have found him always sensitive to my views and to my problems. He has been generous and warm in all these 10 years toward me personally. I appreciate it. I shall never forget it. It is one of the cherished memories of these 10 years.

Several Senators have spoken of Mrs. Johnson. I have regarded her always as a great lady, motivated by the finest of instincts, contributing in the most admirable way to the discharge of her husband's responsibilities and his office, while still maintaining a warm family life in the White House. I cannot find the words to speak highly enough of my regard for her, my appreciation of her as a human being, and my appreciation of the contribution she has made to our country and to our country's sense of values.

I have spoken too long, which has not been my custom in the Senate, but I suppose as the years go on I gradually acquire some of those well-known habits of Senators. I am sure I have not stated as well or as precisely as I would like this tribute to President Johnson.