McNAMARA’S WAR?….JOHNSON’S WAR?….NIXON’S WAR?….Sometimes the Cornerites get so weird I don’t even know how to react. Here is John Derbyshire today:
An excellent point from a reader: “All of the Dems’ words about Vietnam, Kissinger, Nixon etc. have one purpose: to Republicanize the war. Keep howling about Nixon and Kissinger and there is no space to write the word: Johnson. Most young people never hear the name Johnson in connection with that war, yet he signed my draft notice. In fact I call Johnson the invisible president. Every hear his name mentioned? Ever? The Dems’ record on Vietnam is not in the consciousness of today’s young people. The war as taught in schools today is strictly a Nixon/Republican war.”
OK, it’s not really Derbyshire, it’s Derbyshire quoting some reader. But still. Even granted that I haven’t been in school for over two decades, the idea that LBJ is never mentioned in connection with Vietnam still strikes me as a bit….um, eccentric.
Are they drinking an ever weirder brand of Kool-Aid than usual in The Corner these days, or is the history of Vietnam really taught sans Johnson in modern classrooms? Anybody with recent schooling care to chime in?
