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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 8. April 30 1968

Mitchell goes all the way with L.B.J

page 5

Mitchell goes all the way with L.B.J

Photo : M. Vickers.

Writer of this article, James Mitchell, in Parliament grounds demonstrating in favour of New Zealand troops in Vietnam.

Lyndon Baines Johnson appears to be cast as a "might have been" President. To many of his enemies, even that is too much praise.

The revolting spectacle provided by of his critics, heaping abuse on him in a manner that recalls that McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950's, has sickened many erstwhile opponents. It also appears to have focused the resentment and harnessed the mob-fury of the American left. The liberals who suffered under McCerthyism are showing that they can be no less cruel, no less unreasoning, and just as unforgiving.

It would have been amusing, had it not been so unpleasant an exhibition of malignity, to have analysed the attitudes of such people as Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien and Mr. Felix Greene. O'Brien and Greene, two of Johnson's most incessant critics, were in New Zealand for the recent Peace, Power and Politics in Asia Conference, which they followed by a lecture tour in other main cities.

When the news came through, that ''I shall not seek—and will not accept—the nomination of my party as your President", many were stunned. Not so the critics.

In unison, they brayed their hymn of hate. "Liar" and "rat" were among the least of the epithets hurled at the President. Was it because he had cheated them of their prey?

L.B.J. was often heard to refer to "a consensus of opinion". How he must have Wished that he could have marshalled that consensus as swiftly as did the left. Once the leading critics had laid down the line to be followed, the rest added their shrill cries to the tumult.

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.

moderate

Unlike Kennedy, Johnson has been reluctant to follow in the Dulles tradition of "brinkmanship". In all his actions as President, it has been clear that a heightening of tension to the Bay of Pigs level has not been his chosen means of diplomacy.

Johnston's determination has not been to take the easy way out. No shameful withdrawal to fortified enclaves, leaving the villagers and farmers of South Vietnam to the butchery of the Viet Cong, and equally no escalation to the nuclear limit—the avoidance of both these alternatives has always been his policy.

As a policy, it has been moderate. Not, the policy of a brilliant commander, gambling to win or lose all in one throw. But possibly, considering just how much there was to lose, the policy of a stateman.

attraction

The most humiliating failure for Johnson Seems to have been the way implementation of his foreign policy has hindered the Creative social legislation that he so much depends upon. "Burn, baby, burn" may be the chant of a Rap Brown or a Stokely Carmichael as Newark smoulders: it has never been Johnson's vision of America.

Eugene McCarthy, the crusader Senator, is following in the path of the "America Firsters" who opposed Roosevelt at the start of World War II. The same people fought to keep Wilson out of Europe, and destroyed the League of Nations after World War I.

As a concept, "Fortress America—and to hell with the world", has attraction. But it is the attraction of the attitudes within the man who watches a policeman being assaulted, and refuses to help. Such a man is Eugene McCarthy.

If Johnson has really lost to McCarthy, the free world may have lost its defence. How many Czechoslovakias will in future be allowed to feel their way to gradual freedom? A Hungary-type repression is not so far back in history that it should be forgotten.

he tried

As a "might have been", Lyndon Johnson, the man from Texas, may go down in history. He will be remembered because he tried, and failed, to better his country, but not at the expense of South-East Asia. Perhaps it is better to be remembered as an honest man who has tried, rather than as a dubious intellectual justifying his moral cowardice on the grounds of self-interest?