inherited

Three years ago Lyndon Johnson was elected President of all Americans—not just "hawks", and certainly not just "Democrats",

He was also elected by the largest popular majority ever accorded to a candidate in American history.

As President after the assassination of John Kennedy, it was obvious that Johnson was heir to the wills of others. When he took office in his own right, rather than as former Vice-President, it became easy to forget that the inherited policies and attitudes of former administrations were still in force.

A new President does not mean a complete realignment. Even in a fully totalitarian dictatorship—Russia during the war years— Stalin was to some extent restricted in power by history itself. The patterns of history are even less subject to speedy change in a democracy as much influenced by public opinion as the U.S.A.

It is easy to speak to the "New Frontier" days of the Kennedy brothers: it is equally easy to forget Eisenhower at Little Rock, Arkansas. Fans of Bobby Kennedy would do well to remember that J.F.K., now receding into sainthood, never claimed of the civil rights legislation, "Alone I did it!"

So did Johnson inherit Vietnam.