3: RenewalFresh from landslide victory in the 1964 election, Lyndon and Lady Bird shuttle back and forth between Washington, DC and Texas as they make plans for their first full term in office. For the first time, the Pentagon began to privatize construction and logistics operations during wartime in the war zone. He exacted revenge with a bombshell memoir revealing the extent to which the White House schedule was dictated by astrology. Johnson also prevailed upon the Bell Helicopter Company, which would soon relocate to Texas, to loan him a chopper for his campaign. Similarly, Halliburton kept the Pentagon investigators in the dark about the prices it paid for purchasing fuel from Turkey and Jordan. The meeting was chaired by Lt. General Carl Strock, a ranking official at the US Army Corps of Engineers. Birds a true believer in progressive causes -- civil rights, environmentalism -- but shes also the product of her own generation and background. The situation had gotten so dire that the US Embassy in Baghdad, then under the command of John Negroponte, issued what is known as a Cure Notice, a stark warning to Halliburton executives that if the companys performance didnt improve the $1.2 billion contract would be terminated. In late 1940s, Halliburton began doing business in Bahrain, followed by an equally lucrative contract with the royal family of Kuwait to manage that kingdoms oil fields. I needed to take a look at the topic of women and power and the questions that are asked and answered in telling stories, writing about and making history. It cushioned the blow by awarding Halliburton a $405 million no bid deal to provide support for US troops in Bosnia. Apparently, Halliburton views these kickbacks and bribes as a kind of a priori cost of doing business across the globe. In the Democratic primary, Stevenson steamrollered Johnson by more than 70,000 votes; yet in a crowded field, the governor didnt top 50 per cent, forcing a run-off election in the fall. "Lady Bird" Johnson, the wife of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the nation's 36th president, died Wednesday at the age of 94. The steel pipe funneling the oil up from the Permian basin and other reservoirs of crude would sooner or later develop cracks, allowing groundwater to contaminate the crude. During the Vietnam War, Lady Bird woke to hear President Johnson talking to himself in the early-morning darkness. Claudia Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) was an American first lady (1963-69) and the wife of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. A strong believer in her husbands political talents, Lady Bird used her own inheritance to fund his early campaigns, and overcame her aversion to public speaking to become one United States in the Vietnam War - Wikipedia 5: This Is What We Do (July 1967-December 1967) President Johnson escalates the war while promising the public that victory is in sight. In a way, this meeting in the bowels of the Pentagon was all for show, a kind of mating ritual between the government and its favorite contractor. In the spring of 1949, only months after claiming his senate seat, LBJ, the former New Dealer, launched an assault on Leland Olds, the chairman of the Federal Power Commission. LBJs ambush of Olds was scripted by none other than Brown & Roots lawyer, Alvin Wirtz. Regan, it emerged, had been obliged to devise a color-coded calendar signaling good days (green) and bad ones (red) for trips and meetingsbased on consultations Nancy conducted with a San Francisco stargazer. A later probe found that the company had bought the plywood for $14 per sheet. He destroyed the man in a set of hearings that would lay the groundwork for the show trials of the McCarthy era. The civil rights movement is confronting a violent backlash, especially in the South, and despite LBJs public stance, Lady Bird knows they have a small war on our hands in Vietnam. But the unpaid behind-the-scenes partner has been with us a long time, and the deal has never been straightforwardly feminist, as two new biographies of first ladies reveal. I always wanted someone to take care of me, someone I could take care of, she said, a yearning fulfilled when she met Ronnie, in 1949. He also was able to increase his wealth through various business deals and investments. In an otherwise scripted and sober ceremony, the shuffle injected a spontaneous note as the second gentleman sought his placenot sure quite what that place was. WebAnswer (1 of 10): Lyndon Baines Johnson was arguably the most corrupt President in the history of this country. The Clinton years were very good to Halliburton right to the final days. The brief meeting took place a few weeks after John, Jr. had completed basic training in the Army and a few weeks before his departure for Vietnam. Halliburtons big innovation was something called the Cement Jet Mixer. Yet, none of these firms were invited to submit a bid or a plan of action. The justice issued an order overturning the state judges injunction and also put the brakes on a parallel investigation into vote fraud in Jim Wells County. Over the course of the Vietnam war, Halliburtons annual revenues nearly tripled and it emerged from the war as the worlds second largest construction firm, trailing only Bechtel. Right before our eyes. As for Dillon Anderson, Ike soon elevated the Yale-trained lawyer from Texas to the position of National Security Adviser, where he served until 1957. She shored up his self-doubt and rallied his spiritsand her own. Nancys mother, Edie Davis, was a stage actor whose glamorous social life included Spencer Tracy and Mary Martin. LBJ also enjoyed free access to a DC3, courtesy of Brown & Root, which would rush him across the vast Texan plains for as many as 10 appearances in a single day. In the fall of 2000, Halliburton won a $300 million contract to build a massive prison at Guatanamo Bay in Cuba. But despite all that public support, its clear theres trouble ahead. Unlike her conflict-averse husband, she played the ruthless enforcer, conducting feuds and engineering firings. But Johnsons Vietnam War forever changed the role of Pentagon contractors, and Halliburtons Brown & Root subsidiary lead the way. La Nouvelle billed $108 for each 15-pound bag of laundry at this base, $80 a bag more than the very same company charged at another base. I think a womans real happiness and fulfillment is found in her home., Read: Nancy Reagans real role in the AIDS crisis. Bell set-up a design shop in Garden Park, NY where the first Bell Helicopter was built. Under the initial contract, Halliburton established a plan for housing and feeding 20,000 troops in various hot spots around the globe. In a way then, its not surprising that Cheneys official biography, posted on the White Houses website, forsakes all mention of his career as the commander-in-chief of Halliburton. She listened, and she empathized with his agonized decisions. Buchanan departed the living with some unfinished business of extreme importance to his political cronies. Drawn from over 123 hours of the former first ladys mostly unheard daily audio diaries, the podcast presents a surprising and original portrait of Claudia Alta Lady Bird Johnson, told in her own words. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? After this grilling, Olds was rejected by the senate on a vote of 53-15 and left the government a broken man. In her East Wing policy shop, Lady Bird began to build a portfolio of environmental policies, working with Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. Return the national parks to the tribes, how well remember the pandemic, a kidnapping gone wrong, and the women reinventing the Western. A few months after La Nouvelle took over, the tab soared to $1.2 million a month. Indeed, its fair to say that the only life-support for the company during those five years was the nearly inexhaustible tide of cash coming from Halliburtons Pentagon contracts. WebEartha Kitt confronts President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon. Brown & Root decided there was no turning back. Over the next five years, the contracts would fatten to more than $2 billion. The Pentagon rejected 12 separate requests from Congressman Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who has spearheaded the ad hoc congressional inquiry into Halliburtons contract abuse, seeking to examine the internal audits of Halliburtons $2.5 billion contract for fuel supplies and other services to the US military and occupation government in Iraq. Of course, Cheney didnt wrest these deals from the feds alone. Johnsons tapes also capture affectionate moments between him and his wife, Lady Bird. 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. Only six months into the occupation of Iraq, Halliburtons fleets of trucks began to breakdown due to lack of spare parts and shoddy upkeep. She also used her inheritance to finance Lyndons successful bid for a House seat in 1937 and, in the years following, helped cultivate what she termed our political machine. During World War II, when LBJ was on active duty in the Pacific, she ran his congressional office. For Nancy Reagan, we meant a combative us-against-them partnership that betrayed a different kind of insecurity, Tumultys biography suggests. Tumulty credits her with appreciating the full potential of his powers of persuasion, and pushing him to negotiate with Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War. Soon the Johnsons were rich. Of course, the deal had sublime benefits for the Clinton administration as well. 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. Not to worry. A parallel probe was launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission into an admission by Halliburton that one of its managers slipped $2.4 million into the pockets of another Nigerian official in order to secure illegal tax-breaks for its business in the impoverished African nation. By the end of March 2005, more than 65 Halliburton employees had been killed in Iraq and more than 200 injuredthe most of any private contractor in the war zone. And to purchase an Austin radio station that she probably had a big hand in growing into a very successful media company. Julia Sweig is an award-winning author, scholar and entrepreneur. The adventurous and well-read Minnie Taylor died after a fall while pregnant. The most peculiar billing found in this limited series of transactions was a $27.5 million charge for shipping cooking gas and heating fuel that the Pentagon auditors valued at $82,000. Lady Bird was a major stock holder of Brown &Root which was bought out by and became Haliburton in which Lady Bird held major interest to this day in. Shes a first lady -- with never a hair out of place on her petite frame. In 1962, Herman Brown died and his brother, George, began searching for possible corporate suitors who might take over the company. Of course, the acquisition of Brown & Root had another great advantage for Halliburton. How Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan advanced their husbands ambitionsand their own. With a key difference: For wives, the choices have almost always elicited harrumphing from some quarter or anotheras the ruckus over Dr. Jill Bidens use of her well-earned honorific served to remind us. ABC News will kick off Womens History Month with its new podcast "In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson," co-produced with Best Case Studios and hosted by author Julia Sweig. Jeffrey St. Clairis editor of CounterPunch. In fact, at that precise moment Cheney enjoyed options on 43,300 shares of Halliburton stock and was pocketing $162,392 a year in deferred compensation from the company. The result was not just a slow down in the delivery of fuel and military supplies, but a greatly enhanced risk to the lives of Halliburtons drivers, who were becoming easily identifiable targets for the growing insurgency in Iraq. For Johnson, the decision to continue the Vietnam commitment followed the path of his predecessors. He was committed to maintaining an independent South Vietnam and to achieving success in Southeast Asia. Because the offshore terminals were such easy targets for Iranian gunboats, in 1981 Saddam signed a $2.5 million contract with Halliburton to build a feeder pipeline from the terminals out into the Gulf where the crude oil could be safely sluiced into wary tankers. But even the Clinton administration showed mercy to the Republican firm. Nearly 40 years ago, Halliburton faced almost identical charges over its work for the U.S. government in Vietnam -- allegations of overcharging, sweetheart contracts How fat? Speaking of Halliburtons logistics work for the Pentagon in the Balkans, Cheney said, the first person to greet our soldiers as they arrive and the last one to wave good-bye is one our employees. Halliburton: the Alpha and Omega of Pentagon contractors. Thats real money, even by Pentagon standards. Both Johnsons knew they had to seize the momentum of the national tragedy and rapidly push through a progressive agenda, which soon became known as the Great Society. Before La Nouvelle picked up the subcontract to do the laundry at a US military base near Basra, the monthly cleaning bill had averaged around $62,000. Never say that Brown & Root wasnt grateful. While Defense Secretary, Cheney defended this kind of military outsourcing as an efficient way to control spiraling costs. They were quite literally laundering money. At the time of the takeover, Dresser was facing more than 66,000 claims for asbestos-related health problems from its subsidiary Harrison-Walker. Brown & Root harbored similar ambitions for their man. Brown & Root also understood that government contracts are a lot easier to get if you have a politician on retainer. Of that LBJ was pronounced the winner of the primary by 87 votes and then went on to crush his Republican opponent in November. And then there was NR v Donald Regan, the White House chief of staff she managed to oust after much mutual combat. And so it came to pass. Amid this turmoil, Lady Birds ideas about her own work are changing -- what started as planting flowers in underserved DC neighborhoods is growing into an agenda that brings environmentalism and social justice together in Americas cities. WebLyndon and Lady Bird Johnson and their connections to Bell Helicopter? All of this got LBJ close, but quite not close enough, to assure him of an outright victory. 2: Thank You, Mrs. Vice PresidentThere are moments in Lady Birds audio diaries that truly re-write the known history of LBJ's presidency. Once again, Johnson faced a popular and reactionary governor for the Texas senate seat, vacated when Pappy ODaniel (grew bored of living in DC. But what I am certain no one knows is that she was arguably the most influential member of the Johnson administration. LBJ did more than that. For example, the auditors allege that Halliburton simply refused to hand over any information on its subcontractors in Kuwait. Sweigs writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, the Nation, the National Interest and in Brazils Folha de So Paulo. Bush administration to a develop a scheme for outsourcing to private corporations much of the logistics and construction work previously handled by the US Army Corps of Engineers. This thread is archived New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast 24K 675 comments Its just so cute! exclaimed Jessica Jones, a viewer who entertainingly narrated the viral moment on TikTok. The initial price-tag was pegged at $23.5 million, with Brown & Root guaranteed a profit of $1.2 million. Halliburton failed to demonstrate its prices for Kuwait fuel were fair and reasonable', the auditors wrote in their report. The Army didnt consider it necessary to reveal the terms of the deal, a Pentagon spokesman explained to Reuters. Fifty-two years later, Halliburton offered its corporate jets for use by George Bush and his campaign team during the 2000 campaign and subsequent tumultuous Florida recount. She recalled his sleepless musings in her diary: I dont want to get in a war and I dont see any way out of it. Over the next few days, precincts across the vast state counted and recounted their votes. I cringe every time we step out of a car. The irony, as Tumulty points out, is that in allowing the presidents schedule to be determined by an unseen stranger who would know his movements, she left him more exposed, not less. In the spring of that year, young LBJ met several times with Herman Brown, vowing to make congressional approval of the dam project his top priority. Halliburton charged the US Army $85.98 for each sheet of plywood it used in construction projects during Clintons war on Serbia and its aftermath. Hunt and Sid Richardson. Tumulty calls theirs an epic love story, an observation confirmed by the eyewitness accounts of many. Halliburton, the signature corporation of the Bush-Cheney onslaught on Iraq, didnt start its corporate life on the government dole. From this position, he launched into an onslaught on Olds, smearing the former supporter of Herbert Hoover as a communist who travels with those who proposed the Marxian answer. LBJ, who only a few years earlier had used his political muscle to secure the vast public hydropower projects on the Little Colorado with the goal of providing cheap power to the citizens of the Hill Country, now accused Olds of plotting a course toward confiscation and public ownership. Lynda was born on March 19, 1944 in Washington, D.C. They knew that their fortunes rode on the backs of their political benefactors and they did their best to keep them happy. This time his opponent was Coke Stevenson, rancher, bigot and anti-communist. Far from being the path toward a leaner military, the General Accounting Office pegged the LOGCAP program as an adventure in high risk government spending..
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