Reply #6: Clearly, Johnson says he was involved. [View All]

[JackRiddler]

Johnson: (... snip ....)

But they started with me on Diem, you remember.

McCarthy: Yeah.

Johnson: (That) he was corrupt and he ought to be killed. So we killed him. We all got together and got a goddamn bunch of thugs and we went in and assassinated him. Now, we've really had no political stability since then.

McCarthy: Yeah.

The transcript leaves no doubt: "So we killed him... We went in and assassinated him."

This is contrary to what Naftali is implying in the radio show, that Kennedy did it and bequeathed it to an unwilling Johnson. The passage doesn't imply LBJ is blaming Kennedy, it sounds like LBJ himself was involved in the decision to kill Diem - what else does "we" mean?

But who are these "they" who "started with" LBJ "on Diem"? Again, that wouldn't be the singular Kennedy.

Regardless, for a start, Johnson is clearly saying: the US government made the decision to have Diem killed, period.

This is news.