ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702170091
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
Johnson made the complaint in a May 27, 1964, phone conversation with his national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy. Tapes of the conversation, and another the same day with his close friend and political mentor, Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, were released Friday by the LBJ Presidential Library.
They show that six months after he became president, Johnson agonized over what to do about Vietnam and was tormented by the prospect of sacrificing U.S. soldiers to a war he considered pointless.
Although he believed public opinion was already against the war, Johnson also worried that Congress might run him out of office if he tried to withdraw.
``They'd impeach a president, though, that would run out, wouldn't they?'' he asked.
He also spoke movingly of not wanting to endanger U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.
``I've got a little old sergeant that works for me over there at the house, and he's got six children, and I just put him up as the United States Army and Air Force and Navy every time I think about making this decision,'' he told Russell.
``Thinking about sending that father of those six kids in there ... and what the hell we're going to get out of his doing it? It just makes the chills run up my back.''
At the time, the government's stated Vietnam strategy involved sending a few thousand U.S. advisers to help train the South Vietnamese to fight the North. The first U.S. soldiers sent officially for combat arrived March 8, 1965, and their numbers swelled to more than 500,000, of whom 58,000 died.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB