War divides

Christian Century, Jan 9, 2007

WAR DIVIDES: Aaron Asher, who edited President Lyndon Johnson's memoirs, said that on his last visit to the Johnsons' Texas ranch the former president scoffed at President Nixon's plans to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese. He said they'd lose Vietnam to the communists, who would then take over the Philippines and invade Hawaii.

He morosely predicted that his grandson would end up needing to fight the communists. After a period of silence Lady Bird Johnson spoke up, suggesting that the Vietnamese would have so much on their plates that they would turn inward. In effect, she was challenging the domino theory on which all of Johnson's decisions about the Vietnam War rested. Asher wondered later whether the Johnsons had been divided over the war for some time--like many other American families (American Heritage, December).