WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2008
LBJ Tapes Show Frustration Over Vietnam
CBS Evening News: Final Phone Recordings Show Johnson's Anger As Vietnam Spun Out Of Control
-
Play CBS Video Video Inside LBJ's Private Calls The final series of recordings of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson's telephone conversations have been released to the public. CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.
-
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson on the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall, Texas. (AP/LBJ Library/Yolchi Okamoto)
-
Interactive LBJ Centennial The 36th president, born 100 years ago, championed the space program, civil rights and Medicare, but also faced Vietnam crisis.
-
Interactive LBJ: The 36th President Lyndon Johnson championed U.S. space program, civil rights and Medicare but also faced Vietnam crisis.
Forty years before Democrats nominated their first candidate of color, President Lyndon Johnson told 1968 presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey that he should pick a Japanese-American as his running mate.
It was Sen. Daniel Inouye, who was awarded a silver star in World War II, and who lost an arm in battle.
"He answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face," Johnson said.
Humphrey, though he was one of the Senate's foremost liberals, balked.
"I guess maybe, it's just taking me a little too far, too fast," Humphrey said. "Old, conservative Humphrey."
The Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. Democrats wanted their convention platform to call for a halt to U.S. bombing.
From his Texas ranch, Johnson - whose son-in-law was serving in Vietnam - told an aide "no way."
"I'm telling 'em what our position is as Commander-in-Chief that I'm not about to stop this bombing unless they arrest me and take my power away from me," he said. "Because I've got some of my own right there and I'm not gonna shoot 'em in the heart. Not for a bunch of goddamn draft dodgers."
Johnson got his way, but the convention in Chicago was a disaster. He listened without comment as his attorney general, Ramsey Clark, blamed the police.
"It was a very disgusting moment in my judgment, Mr. President," Clark said. "I think it was caused by law enforcement."
But Johnson, who sympathized with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, was having problems with his attorney general.
"Well, he doesn't see this as you and I see it," Johnson said
Daley argued that his police had been provoked.
"What are you gonna do if someone hits you with human manure in the face, are you gonna stand there?" Daley said.
Johnson did halt the bombing just before the election, which was extremely close. The morning after, Humphrey called to apologize for losing.
"I'm sorry I let you down a little," he said.
Johnson replied: "No you didn't, no you didn't, it's on a lot of other folks but not you. It's our own people in the party that created all the problems."
Today's tapes were the final release of Lyndon Johnson's phone calls - recordings that have provided an extraordinary insight into his presidency. Since LBJ, no politician has controlled the party so completely - and none is likely to do it ever again.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Add a Comment See all 17 Comments
- I''''m ready to take my crybaby a$$ to the streets to protest Iraq. I love the propaganda that it''''s being waged to keep America free. Does this mean I wasn''''t free before the Iraq War started?
Posted by DaGrandma at 09:49 AM : Dec 05, 2008 ya kind of missed the boat on that one , you could have joined us in 2002 and 2003 before the war started to say what a crock it is . a trillion dollars later and 4000 American lives , over 30,000 wounded , a 100,000 civilian casualties , you are just a tad late ..but that''s just me - Reply to this comment
- The pola-***** have controlled every war we fought sense WW II and we lost thge all. Put the military in charge of winning and they will
- Reply to this comment
- I''m ready to take my crybaby a$$ to the streets to protest Iraq. I love the propaganda that it''s being waged to keep America free. Does this mean I wasn''t free before the Iraq War started?
- Reply to this comment
- The US could have bombed Vietnam back to the stone age and still we wouldnt have won.
North Vietnmese leader Ho Chi Minh was a one very smart man.He knew his enemy better than we knew him. He told his followers that they can bomb us and bomb us and we will never ever stop fighting even if we have to fight another 20 years.The Americans dont have the will power to stay and fight for eventually they will grow tired and leave,just as the France did before them.
Ho knew his enemy,face it people.he beat us,he won. - Reply to this comment
- Frankly, all the nuts live on this web site to spew out their hatred. Like they know sh|t from shinola more than anyone else - but hey - just try to tell them that.
---------------------------------
----------------------------------------
-------
Posted by Speakinup21 at 02:19 AM : Dec 05, 2008
Are you talkin'''' about yourself or what!?!?
He must be. - Reply to this comment
- HOGWASH.. HE COULD HAVE WON THE WAR IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE CRY-BABY MEDIA AND THE SUPER-LIBERALS IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY BEAT US IN THE STREETS OF AMERICA NOT IN VIETNAM.
Hogwash. They beat us in VIETNAM too. You must not have been there , are you are lying to yourself, to make your cry baby assssssssss feel good. - Reply to this comment
- HOGWASH.. HE COULD HAVE WON THE WAR IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE CRY-BABY MEDIA AND THE SUPER-LIBERALS IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY BEAT US IN THE STREETS OF AMERICA NOT IN VIETNAM.
Posted by hbevis at 01:26 AM : Dec 05, 2008
Weren''t there were you? (Vietnam) It was a no win situation, don''t think so? Ask the French, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon.
Stop blaming the press or people who might have a different view and labeling them, start looking at American adventureisim and lack of true leadership. - Reply to this comment
- Frankly, all the nuts live on this web site to spew out their hatred. Like they know sh|t from shinola more than anyone else - but hey - just try to tell them that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by Speakinup21 at 02:19 AM : Dec 05, 2008
Are you talkin'' about yourself or what!?!? - Reply to this comment
- "Sure, sure, LBJ manufactured the gulf of tonkin incident." Posted by Speakinup21
In 2005, an official NSA declassified report revealed that there may not have been any North Vietnamese vessels present during the engagement of 4 August. The report stated
"It is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened; it is that no attack happened that night... In truth, Hanoi''s navy was engaged in nothing that night but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on 2 August."
"And we all know Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened." Posted by Speakinup21
"The McCollum memo outlined eight different steps the United States could do that he predicted would lead to an attack by Japan on the United States. The day after this memo was giving to Franklin D. Roosevelt, he began to implement these steps. By the time that Japan finally attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, all eight steps had occurred (Willy 1). The eight steps consisted of two main subject areas; the first being a sign of United States military preparedness and threat of attack, the second being a forceful control on Japans trade and economy..."
"And of COURSE Bush knew there were now weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." Posted by Speakinup21
Colin Powell, February 2001: "[Saddam] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors..."
Well?
- Reply to this comment
- Johnson WANTED to get out of Vietnam. His own belief was that the world of that time would not have understood an American withdrawl. And it would have played into the hands of Soviet propaganda.
Posted by brundage3 at 10:47 PM : Dec 04, 2008
what a bag of dog *** that is!! one Johnson''''s first moves as President was to escalate the "conflict" in Viet Nam.
Posted by lucasnico at 12:24 AM : Dec 05, 2008
HOGWASH.. HE COULD HAVE WON THE WAR IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE CRY-BABY MEDIA AND THE SUPER-LIBERALS IN THIS COUNTRY. THEY BEAT US IN THE STREETS OF AMERICA NOT IN VIETNAM.
JUST LIKE THE WAR WE ARE IN NOW. THE MEDIA IS NOT GOING TO PRINT OR SAY ANYTHING ON THE AIR THAT REALLY TELLS WHAT IS GOING ON OVERSEAS. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON THEN TALK TO SOME OF OUR PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN OVER THERE OR THAT ARE STILL OVER THERE. - Reply to this comment
Johnson WANTED to get out of Vietnam. His own belief was that the world of that time would not have understood an American withdrawl. And it would have played into the hands of Soviet propaganda.
Posted by brundage3 at 10:47 PM : Dec 04, 2008
what a bag of dog *** that is!! one Johnson''s first moves as President was to escalate the "conflict" in Viet Nam.- Reply to this comment
- RE LBJ was another stuibborn Texan- " CONTINUED
In considering history, we who lived it need to see it not through the lenses we had "back then" but through the lense of the present day. We have wider sources of information now than we did then.
And time gives wisdom to those who will be open to it.
Few men in the highest places have had more human feeling than Johnson had. Unfortunate but he also had a strong stubborn streak that served him poorly in the case of Vietnam. The same trait that made him one of the most effective legislators in our country when it could be called "persistance" or "consistency" in the good cases was plain "stubborness"when things turned out badly.
But the man was ready to have introduced and passed as JFK legislation, Medicare, VISTA (domestic peace corps) Civil rights act, and many other measures. Only after a couple of Kennedy advisors had told him HE needed to take credit for the bills because he would need a record to run on in the very next year, did he let his stamp be placed on some of them.
He cared about people as human beings BEFORE he cared about himself or his own political future.
He succeeded far more often than he failed.
And yet,,,, I wish SO hard that he had made different decisions in 1964 and 1965 on Vietnam. - Reply to this comment
- RE - "LBJ was another stubborn texan..."
Lyndon Johnson was a President who was placed in a crossroads no other President had to figure out. He realized HIS own "public persona" was so solid n the minds of both those who liked him and those who did not, that he could not be the most effective choice for the next 4 years as President.
In 1968, I was for Hubert Humphrey after Robert Kennedy was killed. And in 1969 I spoke privatly with Humphrey for 3 solid hours AFTER a one hour interview. He believed Kennedy would have been a "terrific" President. He believed he himself would have done well in the job. He believed Johnson was the most mis-understood President we have had and would be one of the most under-rated.
Johnson WANTED to get out of Vietnam. His own belief was that the world of that time would not have understood an American withdrawl. And it would have played into the hands of Soviet propaganda.
Humphrey disagreed but respected Johnson. He said he hard seen the man with tears in his eyes and wishing he had made different decisions 2 and 3 years before 1965.
I was mad at LBJ back then. I have a mush higher opinion now of his Presidency despite the huge erros of Vietnam. - Reply to this comment
- Hmmm...
It is time to reread: "The LBJ Brigade" http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/lbj_brigade.html - Reply to this comment
- walt1944 at 09:02 PM : Dec 04, 2008
WE HAD THE WAR WON AND JUST DID NOT KNOW IT. INSTEAD WASHINGTON LISTENED TO THE CRY-BABIES IN THIS COUNTRY CARRY ON ABOUT THE WAR. EVERY MAN THAT SKIPPED OUT OF THE COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN PURE H.E.L.L. STARTING WITH OUR CURRENT VICE-PRESIDENT.
THEY SURE HAVE NEVER BEEN LET OFF SCOTT FREE AFTER THE FACT. - Reply to this comment
- LBJ should have DOUBLED the bombing in Vietnam and thrown in jail all the fruit cake protesters over here. Lousy, ignorant draft dodgers and trouble makers.
- Reply to this comment
- LBJ was ANOTHER stubborn Texan who didn''t know when to quit, or even want to quit.
US soldiers were fighting and dying in a country that was chewing up our finest, turning them into psychotics and druggies while Johnson kept the war going and let military contractors get rich off of it.
He said we were fighting for freedom in Vietnam, but he ruined both their country and ours in a war that he kept going for 5 years, not counting the 4 additional that Richard "The Trickster" Nixon added on, cost tens of thousands of lives both US and Vietnamese, and billions of dollars. He listened to the military who kept telling him they would win the war when they really did''t know how to win it, instead of listening to the people whose lives he was supposed to protect instead of ruining them.
That''s the LBJ I remember. An awful lot like another stubborn Texan that''s hopefully leaving the White House in January!
SIG HEIL, IF LBJ COULD DO IT, SO CAN I!!!, BUSH!!! - Reply to this comment
