Price of Loyalty - (Vietnam: America in the War Years) by Andrew L Johns (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores how and why Vietnam loomed so large for Humphrey as vice president from 1964 through the 1968 election campaign against Nixon, assessing the disconnect between Humphrey's principles and the intricate politics of his convoluted relationship with the president...

Book Synopsis

This book explores how and why Vietnam loomed so large for Humphrey as vice president from 1964 through the 1968 election campaign against Nixon, assessing the disconnect between Humphrey's principles and the intricate politics of his convoluted relationship with the president and his unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Review Quotes

Andy Johns' The Price of Loyalty is a significant addition to the historiography of the 1960s and in particular, the Vietnam War. It is well researched and persuasively argued and will be the standard for many years on the topic of Hubert Humphrey and his tortuous relationship to the conflict.

Johns explores how Hubert Humphrey's (1911-78) hopes of making a difference as vice president (1965-69) went wrong, and how his hawkish support of Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam policy fatally damaged his run for the presidency against Richard Nixon in 1968. The author shows how Johnson persistently ignored the vice president's recommendations and kept him out of policy discussions on Vietnam. He didn't support Humphrey in his run for president, going so far as to hold backdoor discussions with Nixon while hiding information from his own party's candidate. Meanwhile, Humphrey enthusiastically supported the administration's war policy, only distancing himself when it was too late to make a difference. The book starts with a summation of Humphrey's career in the Senate (1949-64), but the primary focus is on his relationship with Johnson, which the describes as merely transactional. Johns ends with a brief account of Humphrey's return to the Senate in 1971, where he served until his death in 1978. For scholars of both the period and the career of Humphrey.

Johns' work is an overdue, a significant addition to the historiography of the Vietnam War, and one that elucidates a relevant lesson for contemporary politics on the struggle over virtue and loyalty. Only someone as skilled as Andrew Johns could have written such an accessible and compelling book in such a succinct manner.

A wonderful work. The Price of Loyalty not only offers insights into Humphrey, LBJ, and the Vietnam War, but it also opens a window into American politics in the 1960s overall.

Hubert Humphrey was one of the most influential and tragic politicians in postwar America. This compelling book brings Humphrey to life, and it captures how he was whipsawed between the progressive dreams of civil rights and the nightmarish realities of communist containment, especially in Vietnam. Humphrey's loyalties to a titanic president and a bottomless war brought a great career to a very disappointing end. The Price of Loyalty is an eye-opening history with many echoes for our current moment.

Impressively researched and persuasively argued, Andrew L. Johns' excellent book skillfully analyzes the agonizing choices Vice President Hubert Humphrey had to make between his loyalty to President Lyndon B. Johnson and his own grave concern about Americanization of the Vietnam War, choices that would have tragic consequences for him--and perhaps for the nation.

The Price of Loyalty is that rare historical book that speaks directly to our contemporary political situation. In his careful and insightful examination of the demands placed on Hubert Humphrey by Lyndon B. Johnson and the war in Vietnam, Andrew L. Johns has reminded us that there are virtues more important than personal loyalty to a President, and that the true test of political courage requires placing principle and patriotism above politics and ambition. Humphrey's tragic story should serve as a harsh lesson to today's political leaders.

About the Author

Andrew L. Johns is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University and the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies.