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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Flashback

Lyndon Baines Johnson - Speech at Johns Hopkins on Vietnam
(April 7, 1965)
We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe, from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. To leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people in the value of an American commitment and in the value of America's word. The result would be increased unrest and instability, and even wider war.

We are also there because there are great stakes in the balance. Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Vietnam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country and then another. The central lesson of our time is that the appetite of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the next.

2 Comments:

  • Another President who lied to get us into "his" war.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 10:51 PM  

  • I thought the concepts sounded eerily similar to the justifications being offered up today.

    Can't allow Iraq to fall or we'll be emboldening the terrorists. Can't pull out because it would send the wrong message. Can't pull out because it would show reformers that we're not there.

    Domino. Domino. Domino.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:46 AM  

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