Beans in my ears

Stephen Spender was conscious always of being a foreigner in Washington, with the guest's obligations. He none the less picked up some good insider LBJ stories. One of his favourites was from Abba Eban. The urbane Israeli ambassador recalled 'that when he visited the President on a mission for his country, Johnson greeted him with the words, "Ah was just scratchin' mah ass this mornin' when ah started thinkin' of your little country."'
From Stephen Spender - the authorized biography by John Sutherland. Another LBJ gem here.

Beans in My Ears is the title of a children's song that was reworked by Pete Seeger in 1966 as a satire on Lyndon B. Johnson. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Email received:There are stunning stories about LBJ, the Texan, in the memoirs of Willy Brandt.

BT
9:38 am
Pliable said…
Thx Bernard, Willy Brandt's memoir Begegnungen und Einsichten: Die Jahre 1960-1975. (Hamburg, 1976) is actually the source of the story which my final link leads to -

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2007/01/us-vice-presidents-berlin-shopping.html
9:41 am
Pliable said…
A reader points out this LBJ related video -

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=84111&title=doris-kearns-goodwin
6:33 am
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