Opinion
                                                                        
                                                                        
                    
Discovering Greatness in Lyndon Johnson
Like
 many Americans, I was deeply opposed to Lyndon Johnson's pursuit of the
 Vietnam War. My views on the war have not changed, but my opinion of 
Johnson has. I believe now that with the exceptions of Woodrow Wilson 
and Franklin Roosevelt -- and perhaps Theodore Roosevelt -- Lyndon 
Johnson was the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.
John
 Kenneth Galbraith called recently for a reassessment of Johnson, 
arguing that history was unfair in identifying his presidency primarily 
with the war. Professor Galbraith is on the mark.
The
 Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations were all wrong in Vietnam. 
This issue was central to my 1972 presidential run against Richard 
Nixon. But despite his involvement with the war, Johnson used his 
remarkable political skills to build the most far-reaching progressive 
domestic program since the New Deal. Johnson's opponents like to 
ridicule the Great Society, but what is wrong with an American president
 who envisions his nation as a great society? Johnson did more than any 
other president to advance civil rights, education and housing, to name 
just three of his concerns, through enactment of laws.
I
 now regret not devoting more time to praising the Johnson record at 
home. And I wish I had known earlier what the Johnson White House tapes,
 published two years ago, show: Johnson was agonizing over Vietnam 
policy from his first day as president until his last.
Johnson
 shared his doubts and fears about Vietnam primarily with Senator 
Richard Russell of Georgia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. I 
knew that both Johnson and Russell opposed American involvement in 
Vietnam when it was proposed to them as senators by the Eisenhower 
administration. The tapes show that they continued to have terrible 
doubts and regrets,  even while publicly supporting the war.
On
 May 27, 1964, six months into his presidency, Johnson asks Russell on 
one tape, ''What do you think of this Vietnam thing?'' Russell answers: 
''It's the damn worst mess I ever saw, and I don't like to brag. I never
 have been right many times in my life. But I knew that we were going to
 get into this sort of mess when we went in there.'' To which Johnson 
replies: ''That's the way that I've been feeling for six months.''
Russell
 answers: ''If I was going to get out, I'd get the same crowd that got 
rid of old Diem to get rid of these people and get some fellow in there 
that said he wished to hell we would get out. That would give us a good 
excuse for getting out . . . .''
''How important is it to us?'' Johnson asks.
''It isn't important a damn bit, with all these new missile systems,'' Russell replies.
Later,
 Johnson tells Russell: ''I've got a little old sergeant that works for 
me over at the house, and he's got six children, and I just put him up 
there as the United States Army, Air Force and Navy every time I think 
about making this decision, and think about sending that father of those
 six kids in there. And what the hell are we going to get out of his 
doing it? And it just makes the chills run up my back.'' To which 
Russell replies: ''It does me. I just can't see it.''
Later
 that day Johnson tells his national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy: 
''I don't think it's worth fighting for, and I don't think that we can 
get out. It just the biggest damn mess I ever saw.'' To which Bundy 
replies: ''It is. It's an awful mess.'' Johnson makes a final 
observation to Bundy: ''It's damned easy to get in a war, but it's gonna
 be awfully hard to extricate yourself if you get in.''
I
 assumed in those years that Johnson was fully convinced of the 
soundness of his policy and not eager to consider other alternatives. I 
assumed the same was true of Senator Russell and his powerful allies in 
the Senate. If I had been privy to the mind of either Johnson or 
Russell, I would have assembled a group of a dozen senators and asked 
for a no-holds-barred meeting on Vietnam policy. 
Such a group could have
 included J. William Fulbright, Mike Mansfield, Frank Church, Eugene 
McCarthy, Joseph Clark, George Aiken, John Sherman Cooper, Mark 
Hatfield, Robert and Edward Kennedy, Gaylord Nelson and Albert Gore Sr. 
Whether we could have made a difference, knowing that we were talking to
 a president tortured by his policy and looking for a way out, I do not 
know. I do know that I wish we had tried.
If
 it had been up to Lyndon Johnson, we would not have gone into Vietnam 
in the first place. It would be a historic tragedy if his outstanding 
domestic record remained forever obscured by his involvement in a war he
 did not begin and did not know how to stop.
George McGovern
A note:
It is interesting to note that the details of the meeting which took place at Johnson's ranch in Texas Hill Country between LBJ and George McGovern are still being with-held from the American people.
It is time to make all notes, audio and video recordings of this meeting available to the public.
LBJ endorsed McGovern for president at this meeting.
Apparently LBJ understood in endorsing McGovern 
we can't have both guns and butter as advised by liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith.
It is time for the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas to stop concealing these materials and release all of the materials relating to the Johnson-McGovern meeting.