Johnson, Lyndon -- Comment (1970) to Doris Kearns Goodwin

Dave — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:05:14 +0000

I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved — the Great Society — in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. All my dreams to provide education and medical care to the browns and the blacks and the lame and the poor. But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963–69)
Comment (1970) to Doris Kearns Goodwin

Quoted in Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 9 "Vietnam" (1976). Kearns was an intern and staff member in the Johnson White House, and worked with him on his memoirs.

WIST Quotations

Johnson, Lyndon -- Comment (1970) to Doris Kearns Goodwin