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Posted on 06/26/2008 3:56:20 PM PDT by jazusamo
Austin, TX — Our FOX News "War Stories" team came here to the capital of the Lone Star State to work on a documentary about America's 36th president to coincide with the 100th anniversary of his birth on August 27. Full disclosure here: Lyndon Baines Johnson was the commander-in-chief who sent me and one of my brothers to war in Vietnam.
Because of the way he handled the war in Vietnam, LBJ has never been at the top of my list of favorite presidents. Apparently I'm not alone. Despite his sweeping civil rights reforms and far-reaching "Great Society" domestic programs, his name has not been mentioned at a Democratic Party Convention for three decades. But this week President Johnson moved up a notch on my empathy scale.
While we were "shooting" at the LBJ Ranch and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, it was announced that this weekend the U.S. military is transferring control of security in Al Anbar Province — the country's largest — to Iraqi forces. It's a remarkable victory for American force of arms, the Maliki government and the Bush administration — and the kind of moment U.S. troops, our allies in the Republic of Vietnam and Lyndon Johnson never had.
In fact, the greatest military triumph of LBJ's tenure — Tet 1968 — was depicted by the American media as a defeat. On February 27, while the battle was still raging, Walter Cronkite, just back from Vietnam, broadcast on CBS News that we were heading "closer to the brink of cosmic disaster" and proclaimed that "we are mired in stalemate." A month later, President Johnson announced that he would not seek, nor would he accept, the nomination of his party for another term as president.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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Too bad he wouldn’t go toe to toe with the DEMONS on the war. I wish just once he would get on the air and NOT be presidential about telling the public how it really is and what the DEMONS are doing to are lives just so they can be in control again. Just once!
Reporting success in Iraq might cost the Establishment Press’ Party the election.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Exactly, and it was evident at the time. The way he and McNamara micro managed the war was pathetic.
Of course after our victory with Tet, Cronkite and his ilk convinced a large portion of our people it was a disaster for us.
Bump to that!
If Walter Cronkite had been reporting in January of 1945, after the German Ardennes Winter Offensive, he would have been wailing "We have been misled! The Germans are nowhere near defeated! They are as strong as they were in the Summer of 1940! The war is lost!".
I’m sure you’re right, he gets a bloody nose and throws in the towel. Sheesh!
Ping for fabulous news!
P.S. JustAmy and I sent out care packages this week, but haven't posted them yet.
It was three years ago to the day when I arrived in theater, and spent a year in that forsaken place.
It always amazes me how things have transformed.
Thank you, Pat, for all you and yours did for me and mine.
Thank you! Love it!
“General Kelly went on to observe that U.S. forces in the region [Anbar]could be reduced and “move into an over-watch posture, away from population centers.”
great news.
Traitorous media that the best we can hope for when we are winning is that they keep their mouths shut.
We have the best military in the world and the worst people representing us in DC.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks dervish.
Demons?
LBJ thought his job was to finish “the work FDR began”; Johnson never understood as did JFK that a president should not spend his time wondering about the minimum wage.
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