Lyndon Johnson - Remarks on Decision to not seek Reelection

You can view the full speech here:
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archi...

Johnson restates his offer to the North Vietnamese to begin talks for making peace, and he discusses the economic problems and solutions in the United States. After urging both Congress and Americans to end their divisions, the President announces his decision not to seek reelection so that he may focus on executing his presidential duties instead of partisan politics.

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  News & Politics

[lynch5552933]

Yeah, it actually WAS a bitch that he killed 75,000 Americans through a forced draft and sent them to a hell hole of a jungle where 300,000 were wounded, millions killed themselves from PTSD, and millions of Vietnese were killed by LBJ's bombing raids.... he was THE WORST.

[hellomoto moto]

"if we get this bill signed(civil rights) ill have those ni****s voting democrat for the next 200 years" LBJ,

[Jimmy Rink]

Wow, this brings back memories..I was 18 in my last semester of high school..we were watching on my family's new (we got in 67) color TV..after he said he wouldn;t run I turned to my Dad and said....What did he say???. I graduated from school in may 1968, went to Nam..came back...his efforts to stop communism were worthy....his attempts to impose socialism and the welfare state were disastrous

[ebone1988]

The thing I dislike most is that the war overshadows all of the good things he did for the country. It is his legacy, and as a defender of him I wish people would loo beyond Vietnam, but most will not.

[matt2fresh84]

valid points you made, however with that being said LBJ was already popular in washington and with the american people because of his domestic policies & the way he ran the show. im sure now in hindsight he perhaps would been one of the best ever to be president had he NOT gone to war. That war was defining in terms of the number of overall deaths and drugs being introduced & etc.

[ebone1988]

See, but it's all hindsight now. He wanted to get out of Vietnam, but didn't want to look soft on communism or be the first president to "lose" a war. His advisers were telling him how it would compromise the US position in southeast Asia if we left. So he trusted his advisers against his better judgment, and it got him where he is now in history.

[matt2fresh84]

yeah there was a way to pull out. there were only advisers in vietnam during that particular time in which in 63 kennedy was still president had decided he wanted no parts of there war. LBJ could have pulled out instead of executing a pointless war.

[AlekWheeler]

if I may be so bold..

i think both johnson and nixon are underrated as presidents. they are both people who had good intentions who let other things get in the way of what they wanted. if vietnam had been handled better, both men would have faired better in history.

again this is just my viewpoint, please dont yell at me because it isn't yours

[Californiano1861]

I watched this as it happened; when he said he wouldn't seek another term I remember my mom & dad being in absolute shock.

Those were insane years...

[ebone1988]

Thank you. He would have been attacked if he pulled out of Vietnam for not standing up to communism. There was no getting out of it.

[ayesha36]

Once people get over Vietnam, they'll realize his good intentions. Vietnam was an inescapable rut that he fell in... if he didn't send any troops, he would have been attacked. If he did, which he had, he would still be attacked. There's no escaping it.

[Eighty8percent]

he was following JFK's foreign policy. stop being so fucking retarded