The Presidency: Health: Normal Range

Immediately after the conspiracy convictions in Alabama, Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach telephoned the news to Lyndon Johnson at his Texas ranch. The President had taken a special interest in the case and had even announced on television the trio’s arrest the day after Mrs. Liuzzo died. He warned the Ku Klux Klan then that he would bring it to heel. After talking to Katzenbach, Johnson said: “The whole nation can take heart from the fact that there are those in the South who believe in justice in racial matters and are determined not to stand for acts of violence and terror.”

There was more good news for Johnson. That scar, his doctor reported last week, is in “excellent condition.” Vice Admiral George Burkley, the White House physician, added that in every other respect as well, Lyndon Johnson’s recovery is in the “normal range.” Last week was the sixth since Johnson left the hospital after his gall-bladder operation. It marked the end of the period mentioned by his doctors as the time it would take the President to resume full “physical activity.”

The fact that he was still recuperating at his Texas ranch with no definite date for the return to Washington inevitably stirred speculation that Johnson was not recovering as rapidly as he should. Apprehension over his condition quickened after Lyndon flew to Houston to hear Old Friend Billy Graham preach at a mammoth revival meeting. Next day reporters learned that the President was tired and had some muscular pain in his right side.

Actually, doctors explained by way of quashing the rumors, the President was undergoing a normal convalescence. Many Americans—including Johnson-expected that he would return sooner to his hyperactive ways. Yet most gall-bladder patients take about three months to regain their strength completely, as distinct from the ability to walk normally, climb stairs, and take routine exercise—all of which Johnson has been doing.