SAN ANTONIO – Pick up one of the phones in the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum, and you will hear the recorded words of the former president.
“It’s a mess.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson knew the Vietnam situation was trouble when he inherited it following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that superior American firepower and troops wouldn’t win.
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Mark Lawrence is the former director of the library. As a history professor at the University of Texas, he has studied why the Vietnam War came to dominate the LBJ presidency.
He talked to KSAT about the “double-edged sword” that was Johnson’s Vietnam.
Johnson once referred to Vietnam as being like a hitchhiker in a Texas hailstorm: “You can’t run from it, you can’t get out of it.”
A large topographical map of a battlefield is also part of the library’s Vietnam display.
The display also includes messages highlighting LBJ’s concern about “America’s Youth” being killed in Vietnam, despite his decision to implement a military draft and escalate U.S. involvement in the region.
Lawrence concedes Vietnam played a role in Johnson’s decision not to run for re-election. His choices also shaped the lives of future generations, and even how the United States military would proceed going forward.
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