Is anyone watching The Vietnam War series on PBS?. This film is why America should never,

[politicaljunkie41910]

never, EVER, tolerate another lying President like LBJ (Trump) and his likewise lying Sec of Defense McNamara.

[Upthevibe]

1. Yes. I'm watching. It's in a league of its own....

Of course it's beyond disturbing....

[brooklynite]

2. I visited the LBJ library last week...

...he was, by modern standards, one of the most flaming liberals the Democratic Party could ever hope to elect. Left-wing purists threw that away and gave us Richard Nixon and the "southern strategy".

[shanny]

4. Oh bullcrap

Quit blaming lefties for the crap righties do. Nixon gave us the southern strategy.

[VOX]

9. Actually, brooklynite is partially correct.

And I say "partially" because Sirhan Sirhan literally killed the Democratic Party's liberal hope-- someone who would likely have put an end to the Vietnam mess and all the civil unrest here at home.

In early '68, Johnson declines to run. In the primaries, Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy are winning the primaries, with Hubert Humphrey (a solid Democrat, but more centrist) running behind. Then, in the last primary, RFK wins California and is assassinated the same night.

That summer, the GOP had a quiet convention in Miami. But the Democrats were targeted by the so-called Yippies, who came to Chicago to put on a confrontational show, and then came the police riot. Hubert Humphrey was labeled "establishment," "not RFK," "more of the same," and therefore not worth voting for (voting age was 21 then, BTW). And so, in a fairly close election, Nixon won.

Which gave us the biggest shitload of malfeasance in U.S. presidential history-- until the current asshole, who takes the entire fucking cake.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. The Democratic Party establishment at the time bears none of the blame?

the war was wrong. Everyone running the thing KNEW it was wrong, and had known it for years- that's what the Pentagon Papers were all about.

Framing this as just "annoying leftist hippies and purists who wanted a pony gave the white house to nixon" is bullshit revisionism. The shitshow on the streets of chicago never would have taken place if the party leaders weren't shilling for an immoral war.

[shanny]

13. Amen.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. LBJ knew the war couldn't be won, but he couldn't or wouldn't stop it, either.

That more than anything else is why he didn't run.

So LBJ gave us Nixon. He could have ended the war and he could have won in 68, too. And he would be remembered as a great man instead of a great, but also deeply flawed, one.

[Warpy]

11. Yeah, ensuring black folks had the rights to vote, to hold jobs, to live where they wanted,

and to get educated was SUCH a terrible thing to do! How dare he?

Where the fuck do you think Nixon got his southern strategy? LBJ wasn't stupid, he knew all the bigots in Dixie would turn Republican and he was right.

And that's who gave us Nixon, not the lefties you so love to demonize.

So knock it off, already.

[BigmanPigman]

3. Study the history of war, all wars. This is another example of why human civilization is endangered

We do it to ourselves and have been throughout all cultures and societies in one form or another for thousands of years. Power, possessions, testosterone, etc. humans destroy humans. Genocide. Now we are destroying the planet and animals and plants through climate change. People are not very intelligent since we never learn from history or our mistakes. To believe otherwise is foolish. I do believe that if women were able to be dominant it wouldn't be AS bad, but we will never know.

[shanny]

5. Some biologist has called intelligence

a "lethal mutation." I fear he is right.

[Make7]

7. I'm still waiting for them to find the WMDs in Iraq. ( n/t )

[VigilantG]

8. Yes. So disturbing!

[JI7]

12. whatever happened to Trump's secret plan to defeat ISIS and how he knew more than generals and all

the other shit.

what i fucking hate is how they never call him out with his own fucking words.

[Javaman]

14. just started watching it. watched the first episode last night.

the encapsulated history of the hows and why's it started and how we gone involved was very well done.

for a very complex topic, Burns laid it out very clearly and was very easy to follow.

as I said to my girlfriend, regarding the run up to Viet Nam; it's a classic example of "anything that could go wrong, went very wrong".