Lyndon Baines Johnson, 3/31/68: I shall not seek, nor shall I accept ....
Lyndon Baines Johnson was a very successful politician from Texas, well-known for his ability to be able to get things done. Among the things he wanted done were a war on poverty, a nationwide effort to finally lift up the poor people of this country and give them a chance to have a decent life.
But his presidency, his legacy, his name and his reputation were destroyed by his decision to continue and to escalate the disastrous U.S. War Against Vietnam.
I have puzzled over LBJ a number of times. From a modest background as a school teacher to President, the man is a cypher. On the one hand, he wanted to be remembered as the greatest President since FDR, on some level, I believe his war on poverty was sincere. To rise to the Senate , he had to get in bed with the likes of Brown and Root Construction, later to be one of the largest contractors in Viet-Nam. He deffered to the Eastern brain trust left to him by Kennedy, hoping, I suppose, that all these really smart guys would come up with policies which would fulfill his dreams of glory. How much he knew about the murder of JFK will probably never be known, I have read that he was in it up to his eyeballs, while others claim that he was duped by a slow motion coup, which remains in power today. There is no powerful oppostion to the warfare state which is now in place, unlike 1968. The liberals are now a rubber stamp for the corporations, and this does not seem likely to change.
I have puzzled over LBJ a number of times.
ReplyDeleteFrom a modest background as a school teacher to President, the man is a cypher.
On the one hand, he wanted to be remembered as the greatest President since FDR, on some level, I believe his war on poverty was sincere.
To rise to the Senate , he had to get in bed with the likes of Brown and Root Construction, later to be one of the largest contractors in Viet-Nam.
He deffered to the Eastern brain trust left to him by Kennedy, hoping, I suppose, that all these really smart guys would come up with policies which would fulfill his dreams of glory.
How much he knew about the murder of JFK will probably never be known, I have read that he was in it up to his eyeballs, while others claim that he was duped by a slow motion coup, which remains in power today.
There is no powerful oppostion to the warfare state which is now in place, unlike 1968.
The liberals are now a rubber stamp for the corporations, and this does not seem likely to change.