Hayden unfair.

• Author: Stephen, Robert
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

In his review of Robert Caro's Passage of Power, Tom Hayden unfairly takes Caro to task, accusing him of "Stockholm Syndrome" for neglecting to discuss the 1964 Democratic Convention and the escalation of the Vietnam War ("Giving LBJ a Pass," July issue). But both those events are outside the scope of the book, which covers the time period from the 1960 Presidential campaign, through Johnson's term as Vice President, to his masterful consolidation of power after Kennedy's assassination, culminating in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The events of whose omission Hayden complains are only foreshadowed in the present volume, and he would have done better to hold his horses until after he has seen the next book in the series, which Caro has hinted will be very harsh.

Robert Stephen

Via e-mail

This morning, I finished reading Robert Caro's The Passage of Power, the fourth installment of the author's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson. So when the July issue of The Progressive arrived in the day's mail, I turned at once to Tom Hayden's review of the book. I was startled to find the reviewer taking issue with Caro's failure to treat the "crises" of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 convention and LBJ's escalation of the Vietnam War following the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

Both of these events took place in August of 1964, beyond the scope of this volume. We will all have to wait until the fifth and final volume comes out to find out how Caro treats the events mentioned by Hayden.

I was really hoping to read a review of what was actually contained in the book just published. Alas, that was not to be found.

Bill Sheehan

Williamstown, New Jersey

Tom Hayden responds:

Expecting such...