okay over the over the course the last couple weeks
we've we've we've covered a lot of territory in wandered around a whole lot
of things
one of them though has had to do with
the the Gulf of Tonkin we talked you know where to get the LBJ tapes are out
now the LBJ Library is released a whole buncha tapes and justina last
for five years six years including
as I played you for you aren't many many times in this program the tapes
I love a LBJ talking with every dirksen
and with mcnamara and with george bundy and with others
actually measure was mcnamara but in any case way with a bunch of his people
and and a direction actually was the Senate Republican leader
you know the the opposition about the fact that richard nixon was committing
treason
in August and September 1968 by encouraging the South Vietnamese
to not take the deal that LBJ had already worked out with them to end the
Vietnam War 1968
in the nixon said we'll give you a better deal if you just don't take this
deal so that I can get elected
so nixon stole the election by
a interfering in the actions a foreign government
it while we're at war mysteries are you could argue if it's true what was being
reported in the Atlantic yesterday the John McCain
and Lindsey Graham did something similar by going to prince bandar insane
you know are the foreign policy the United States which is established
a broadly by congress and but but negotiated and executed by the president
is not to our liking
and we are not giving enough money enough weapons to the SUNY
killers im Syria and so would you please raise about your money from a buncha
study billionaires to give to them
and prince bandar did so according to the
the article in the Atlantic and a now
many of those people who we armed and we paid for a jog requests not we
the saudis did at the request to John McCain
are in Iraq a in the process of taking down the Maui government that we put in
place
they are known now as ice so
you know is John McCain guilty of treason I E
that's a little more arguable but arm
it certainly problematic
shall we say I'm in the Constitution does not envision individual senators
running US foreign policy it's very clear the US foreign policy is run by
the
article to party the government the executive branch
so McCain is doing something i mean you know he didn't he
he didn't win the presidency but he's acting like he did and there's something
wrong with this but back LBJ in the Gulf of Tonkin
here's where I think this is really really interesting
and and
and where I think history is repeating itself
in really scary ways we constantly see these guys on the right
doing their fear mongering
crap and then
people in power whether they be on the left or the the right
in quotes you know institutional people in power having to react
to them and so for example I would submit to you that if it wasn't for Fox
News
and John McCain that Obama would not have just sent over 300 soldiers in Iraq
but he just was said you know
we're done but they were calling him a war some addicts genie is running around
on this guy's gotten
you know he's the worst president ever know foreign policy bloody body blah
fackler square quack quack and so
what what does what is
Obama deweese's okay %um will do the same thing LBJ did at the
started Vietnam War will send in a couple hundred advisers some
some green berets
we've seen this movie before it doesn't turn out well
when you can argue that when joe mccarthy started screaming about
communists in the state department
that that led to the radicalization are the cold war
and then led to to are spending
in today's dollars trillions of dollars on
coming up with you know ten twelve fifteen thousand nuclear weapons
after wipe our tears four times and then the Soviet Union feeling they had to cut
your
I mean there's I a lot of heart
its that we can identify over the recent past
but have been the consequence of fear-mongering
so I wanna play I was listening these clips last night I was up until two
o'clock in the parking
and I shaded found a page over the LBJ library with the budget LBJ clips in a
is telephone conversations mostly with mcnamara who is a secretary defence
and mcnamara and because what we were trying to figure out is did LBJ know
that the golfer talking thing was a sham or not
and II from everything I've heard the jury is still out for me it sounds to me
like mcnamara knew it
and McNamara was pushing really really hard to have a war mcnamara had
just you know a real crisis of conscience toward the end of his life in
basically apologize for vietnam but here is LBJ talking a macular on the phone
pointing out that the reason they have to intervene in vietnam
is because barry goldwater
the number two Republican in the united states senate the guy that had run for
president against
LBJ in sixty four and LBJ beat him
that barry goldwater was given time hell calling them week on communism
and so we've got to stand up to these guys here's the clip
our leave an impression on the background and the people we talked to
over here
when her beeper mikhail without saying something else bank
out what do you think the people are calling me up but I just talk today or
tomorrow after a gorgeous all insect
is I wanna be I want I wanna say that we're going to be
burma spell without saying something this dangerous
in my opinion this is LBJ say mcnamara
we wanna talk tough but we don't want to explicitly say something that's going to
start a war
it II listed a whole bunch these clubs and everytime mcnamara would come to him
an aspirin escalation
LBJ would say give me the reason why we shouldn't what it what are the people
who disagree with you sane
and the world problems is that LBJ was in asking those people
he was just asking mcnamara but it seemed to be pretty clear that
LBJ was not enthusiastic about this being out in
with that mindless in the clip again about what do you think
people are calling me up by Igor Sutyagin York bike
out leave an impression on the background in the people we talked a lil
here
when her beeper mikhail without saying something spanker
about what do you think people are calling me up but I just talked to New
York by actor I just talk to protect
way of going ok a baby responded want to play that's good
but not be damn sure don't follow my heart that they won't be damn sure that
we're par
that's what all the country lost because Broadwater raised so much a lot about
how are you problem of proper
and I say week partly to read it back good bagpipers that require
but we sure are always leave the impression
at issue there should get hip so there you go
I mean you know barry goldwater was saying that LBJ want to cut and run
when we had a few hundred advisors in vietnam
and you know my question is how long's it gonna be before we hear cut and run
coming out a dick cheney's bomb
prime mean that literally was my goal I was saying which drove LBJ to go along
with mcnamara an Escalade the Vietnam War
that moment just before that awful of talking leverage listening to the Thom
Hartmann program
visit Thom Hartmann dot com for audio and video archive
highnesses evil this is just plain or flat-out evil
Russell Brand has some thoughts on this too will get to those as we go through
the program today
will be there