LBJ's Legacy

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Vietnam War or the Great Society? Which event looms larger in the history of the United States?

The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, is often weighed up in these terms - the balance between domestic and foreign policy. But what is his legacy? Could he be called the first President of our modern era?

In this episode, Don is joined by Mark Lawrence, Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas.

Produced and mixed by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Sunday the 31st of March 1968.
0:05.0	Sitting on the dock of the bay by Otis Redding is on the radio.
0:10.0	Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey is set for release next week.
0:14.4	The year has begun with news stories of war abroad and civil unrest at home.
0:19.6	Just three days ago, sanitation workers on strike for their pay marched in Memphis with thousands of supporters.
0:26.4	The march ended in violence and the city was put under curfew.
0:30.5	A month ago Walter Cronkite wrote of Vietnam that it is increasingly clear to this reporter
0:36.4	that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend
0:44.8	democracy and did the best they could.
0:48.2	And your leader in all of this, Linden B Johnson, is on the TV. He's been on for the past half an hour,
0:54.9	talking about the war in Vietnam, but now he seems to have switched to a different subject.
1:01.0	With American's sons in the field far away. with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's
1:07.0	future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace and the balance every day. I do not believe
1:20.4	that I should devote an hour or day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any
1:28.4	duties other than the awesome of your country.
1:37.0	Accordingly, I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
1:53.0	So LBBB.J. isn't going to be president anymore.
1:57.0	But you wonder, how will he be remembered? The Hi everyone this is American History hit and I'm Don Wildman. Thanks for listening
2:15.1	Linden Baines Johnson our 36th president served from 1963 to 1969
2:21.2	five years and two months.
2:23.0	First as Vice President, assuming office for the remainder of Kennedy's term after the assassination,
2:28.0	then elected by a landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964.
	...

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