From: Monte Davis 

Richard B.  wrote:

>>He took his own sweet time, didn't he?
>
>Sure, blame him for getting us out.

Nope... I don't blame him, but neither do I see your justification for
crediting him. Once we were in, Johnson and Nixon were both constrained by
"we can't just cut and run"... so Nixon spent 50 months cutting
and running with honor.

Johnson had seen Democrats battered in 1950-1952 by "who lost
China?" and said repeatedly he wouldn't let Vietnam turn into a repeat
of that. Nixon, feeling less pressure from his right, could pull us out of
Vietnam -- just as he could renew relations with mainland China, which
would have been suicide for a Democrat.

Remember that the Republican candidate in 1964 attacked Johnson for not
being aggressive *enough* in Vietnam. I'm not attacking or defending either
president, simply challenging your too-neat frame of "Johnson got us
in, Nixon got us out."

-Monte

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