Today in history 50 years ago, LBJ elected to send troops to South Viet Nam. When I saw this it reminded me of hearing some excerpts from the Johnson Tapes (below), where he had some serious reservations about taking such action(s.) It made me wonder what happened to LBJ’s thinking that led him to ultimately decide to send in troops, 58,000 of whom never returned home.
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| http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-sends-first-combat-troops-to-south-vietnam |
In 1964 LBJ had this phone conversation (video below) with Senator Richard Russell. It is apparent that LBJ had a lot of problems with sending in troops and Russell agreed with him that it wasn’t a good idea.
I also found another conversation that LBJ had with his National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy (click here) where he (LBJ) expressed very serious doubts about sending troops into Viet Nam.
As you listen to these two conversations, substitute Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, or Syria in place of Viet Nam. Listen to the reasons given why all 3 men were hesitant to send in troops. Bottom line and lessons that seem to be learned very well, we accomplish very little when we go meddling in other areas of the world. James McMurty’s video below says it best.
