Now, about President Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was a complex politician who had an social agenda to implement, the War on Poverty and the Great Society. Unfortunately, this was not to be, because events were occurring that occupied his time while in office. I honestly feel very sorry for this man. History has completely done a disservice to him. He could have been very well been one of the best American Presidents of the 20th century, right next to FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton. The national idolization of his predecessor and other events that he inherited when he took over the presidency were occupying his time. He had the ability to persuade politicians to pass whatever legislation he wanted to by way of using The Treatment gesture, which was figuratively arm-twisting in order to get what he wanted, through intimidation. He was in full agreement with Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. as far as passing legislation for civil rights, unlike it was portrayed in the 2014 movie Selma. While both men had a few disagreements, LBJ was not visceral like he was portrayed in the film. In actuality, his passages of the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts were very well in line with the Civil Rights Movement that was led by Doctor King, because after all, both legislations significantly promoted his Great Society agenda. Unfortunately, what distracted him from retaining his legacy was the constant demand from Secretary of State Robert McNamara and General William Westmoreland (both idiots by the way) about demanding thousands of troops every month in order to contain South Vietnam from the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and the Vietcong (VC). In essence, LBJ inherited a shit sandwich from his predecessor. The Pentagon were in essence aching to implement military force in Southeast Asia in order to contain the perceived domino theory of communism being spread. The Vietnam War proved unpopular for our country, and American bodies being returned in flag-covered caskets caused the nations citizenry to be angry at LBJ for implementing the draft and not leaving Vietnam. In other words, he bought into the Pentagons demands without a collective exit strategy, and he paid dearly for it, to the point that he declined to run for re-election in 1969. And finally, he WAS NOT, as portrayed in Selma, aware or ordered that Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. be wiretapped during the Movement. It was actually ordered by Robert Kennedy, who was Attorney General at the time (he later apologized for it, since FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover convinced him to approve it). In conclusion, he was a great president, but circumstances caused his legacy to be destroyed no matter what political decisions he made for the Vietnam War. He died a broken man, in 1973, never having completed or fulfilled his dream of what this country was meant to be. #politicalstatementoftheday
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:20:17 +0000
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