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Yeah, LBJ had a legacy for sure. Forty seven thousand dead young men in a vain attempt to keep a shithole Asian country from adopting the stupidest economic system known to man. My one unrealized bucket list item is to go to Texas and piss on his fucking grave.

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I find Johnson fascinating because he was simultaneously one of the worst human beings to ever be president and one of the most successful at wielding the power of the office to get things done. It’s a lesson about where the lines are at getting things done and doing good. Why Robert Caro is so great!

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Vietnam wasn't about Vietnam it was about France. Keeping France in the European capitalist alignment.

Nobody gave a shit about protecting Vietnam. As was evidenced by waging a war to protect France’s colony there.

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Originally, yes in part. But pretty quickly it became about maintaining American prestige v. the Soviets. And people in American leadership did really believe the domino theory. They feared losing Vietnam of communism would lose all of Asia. That turned out to be very wrong.

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France threatened that if America didn't preserve their tyranny in Vietnam then Russia might.

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Right, the domino that concerned them was France.

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