"Michael" wrote in message
...
LBJ took the information sent to him from the Turner Joy and used it as a
pretext to start a war.

As did we all. Again, Ike's plan was to make N/S Vietnam like E/W Germany
so that capitalism would win the scheduled reunification election but the
Diems had diverted the aid intended to achieve that and we had Buddists
torching themselves in protest. The CIA, et al warned JFK he'd have to
whack Diem quickly for Ike's plan to succeed but. as always, he wavered and
did nothing til it was too late and polls were showing commies by a
landslide. Then he went to Dallas leaving McNamara, Bunker and other Whiz
Kids to contrive the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

JFK had ordered a complete troop and adviser withdrawal. LBJ reversed
that.
JFK did not rule out the use of the National Guard, that was LBJ once
again.
That war was Lyndon's War pure and simple. All those names on that
monument
in Washington? Because of one meglomaniac.

I have a saying: "Never attribute to malace that which can be explained by
stupidity." I believe that applies to LBJ in this case. Yes, he did start
the war but, as you say, based on reports from Turner Joy, an incident
contrived by McNamara and Bunker to get presidential, congressional and
public support for an adventure doomed to fail from its inception. Then he
escalated it - again based on reports (disinformation) given him via
McNamara and Bunker from their hand-picked yes-men. JFK's whiz kids duped
us into that war. Do we blame JFK for hiring them or LBJ for keeping them?


LBJ is not someone the Democrat party should point to with pride.

You're right! He was almost as bad as Reagan.