LYNDON B JOHNSON ON WATSON
Marvin Watson, a Second World War combat veteran who ran Lyndon B Johnson’s White House with the protective instincts of a loyalist, the privileged power of a confidant and the efficiency of a drill sergeant, died on Sunday at his home in The Woodlands, Texas, near Houston. He was 93.
Lyndon Johnson did not want to give any staff member the title of chief of staff, but he eventually made Watson his in all but name.
When he arrived at the White House in early 1965, Watson – a fellow Texan – had been a political ally of the president’s since Lyndon Johnson’s successful run for the US Senate in 1948. In 1964, Watson had smoothed the way for Johnson’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, nine months after the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
But for years he had turned down entreaties to work for Johnson, even after Johnson became president. Asked early on by Johnson to join his staff, Watson declined, saying he was happy living in a small Texas town as a steel company executive.
Then, in November 1964, shortly after he won the presidency, Johnson surprised Watson by showing up at a dinner being held in Watson’s honour. In his remarks, Johnson ladled out his famously effusive flattery. “Marvin is as wise as my father, as gentle as my mother, as loyal and dedicated and as close to my side as Lady Bird,” Johnson said, referring to the first lady.
Weeks earlier, Johnson’s most trusted senior aide and longtime friend from Texas, Walter Jenkins, had resigned after being arrested on a morals charge, accused of engaging in homosexual behavior in a Washington YMCA. Courted by Johnson, Watson finally agreed to take the job Jenkins had vacated – with the nominal title of special assistant to the president – but only on certain conditions: that he would have unfettered access to Johnson, an adjacent office and the privilege of disagreeing with him frankly in meetings. As Johnson’s most trusted confidant, Watson would ultimately replace Bill Moyers when Moyers, the president’s press secretary, left in 1967 to be publisher of the Long Island newspaper Newsday.
Watson “now sits nearer the centre of American political power than anyone except the president himself,” reporter Roy Reed wrote in a profile of him in the New York Times in 1967, though he added, “He is practically unknown.” Watson proved to be a tough, exacting gatekeeper. He fired or forced the resignation of staff members whom he believed were more loyal to Senator Robert F Kennedy, Johnson’s arch-rival, than the president.
In his most controversial move, Watson ordered that White House telephone operators record the names, business affiliations and office phone numbers of all callers.
He said the purpose was to gather information to make the phone system more efficient, but his critics said he was trying to find out if staff members were leaking information to reporters.
The columnist Joseph Alsop denounced what he called a “curious espionage system to which members of the White House staff are subjected”.
William Marvin Watson, a fourth-generation Texan, was born in the small East Texas town of Oakhurst. He won a music scholarship to Baylor University but joined the Marines in April of his second year and fought in the Pacific in the Second World War.
After returning to Baylor, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in business administration.
He failed at his first job, selling hearing aids, but was hired to manage the Chamber of Commerce in the East Texas town of Daingerfield. That led to a job with Lone Star Steel, where he became assistant to the president.
He also became involved in Texas Democratic politics, forming one of the nation’s first Johnson for President clubs. At the Atlantic City convention in 1964, he helped squelch a movement to nominate Robert Kennedy for president. Afterward he became chairman of the Texas state Democratic Party.
His duties as a chief of staff ended in 1968, when Johnson named him postmaster general, then a Cabinet-level position. Watson helped pave the way for the Post Office, to become an independent agency. He also strengthened regulations governing the mailing of guns. Though he was no longer directly at Johnson’s side, he remained a confidant to the president. After Johnson left office, there was a movement for Watson to run for the Senate from Texas. Instead, he went to work for Occidental Petroleum as executive vice president, the first of several high-level corporate positions he held.
Watson, who was active in the Baptist Church and other religious groups, is survived by his wife, Marion; his daughter, Kim; his sons, William III and Winston, and other family members. © New York Times 2017. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service The Scotsman welcomes obituaries and appreciations from contributors as well as suggestions of possible obituary subjects. Please contact: Gazette Editor n The Scotsman, Level 7, Orchard Brae House, 30 Queensferry Road, Edinburgh EH4 2HS; n gazette@scotsman.com
“Marvin is as wise as my father, as gentle as my mother, as loyal and dedicated and asclosetomysideas Lady Bird”