LBJ Goes Down (Under)
Although LBJ doubtless had few illusions about Australia's real contribution that in his eyes and those of his key military advisors would have been minimal in the overall scheme of things, nonetheless the political import of our on-going commitment in Vietnam was considerable. LBJ knew pressure would be on the Australian Government to justify with its own people its ongoing role in the war, as even by 1965, the year of Clarke's appointment, he needed to ensure that commitment remained strong.
LBJ's subsequent visit to Australia in 1966 -- the very first by a sitting US president, which for some may be instructive in and of itself -- sparked demonstrations of the like never before seen in our country, as even by this time, the war was decidedly on the nose. By 1972 though, with a new government in power in Canberra, Australia was out of 'Nam finally, much to the chagrin of the later Nixon administration.
Yet what my fellow Australians themselves -- young and old -- would make of all this, again, is uncertain. And what our Vietnam vets would think is even more interesting. "What are we fighting for?" may have been the $64 Q way back then. "What were we fighting for?" may be the more appropriate inquiry now. Or who? It was after all LBJ and his "b*tch of a War" we were all fighting for then! And we might argue that it is at least in part because of his legacy we are still fighting the (not so) good fight back now in Iraq (again), and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
And beyond the above, what can we all make of the following?
The prospect of contemplating that a former US Ambassador to Australia -- himself the holder of the most important diplomatic post in the country, and representing the international bastion of liberty, democracy, freedom, and the rule of law -- may have been, at the instigation of, and in collaboration with, the president who appointed him to the role, complicit not just in the perpetration of the Crime of the Century, but in the treasonous removal of the Leader of the Free World from his duly elected office so as to enable the president to whom he now reported -- previously the U.S. vice president -- to take forceful, violent control of the highest political office in the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free!
And from there, set both countries on the path to a monumentally destructive war that neither country should ever have been involved in from the off.
Whilst a story for another time, this is without mentioning the well documented -- but not widely known or understood -- U.S. interference in the political affairs of Australia, one of its staunchest allies, a covert gambit that provided in part the catalyst for an unprecedented Constitutional crisis and the subsequent removal from office in 1975 of our own duly elected Prime Minister and our whole government!
There can be little doubt that this "covert gambit" was at least an indirect result of the political milieu and emblematic of the 'us and them' mindset of the U.S. National Security State, one that elevated Johnson to power in the first instance and which characterised and sustained his tenure.
As well, it may have provided his successor Richard Nixon the idea that "when the president does it", (whatever "it" might be), "it's not illegal!" Or to extrapolate beyond Nixon and indeed the presidency itself, and go one step further: "When America does it, it is not a crime!"
What does it all mean I hear you ask? How's all that for starters? Do any of us -- Americans and non-Americans alike -- really want to continue down this path any longer?.....Which is blindly acquiescing to the imperial minded psychopathology of a nation that is to all intents and purposes both a law unto itself and a danger to itself and everyone else?
Uncle Sam, it's not all just about you 'old son'. Maybe it's time you just started getting used to it!
Postscript - A Way Forward
With or without any involvement by Lyndon Johnson then, yet taking for granted there was indeed a conspiracy perpetrated by rogue elements of the U.S. Deep State, as with the best of the writers on the subject of the JFK assassination, taken together, what Nelson's work demonstrates is the following:
the undeniable impact of LBJ's ascension to power and the treasonous methods by which it was achieved; the ongoing and profound legacy of his malevolent and disastrous tenure; and the critical need for resolution and closure on this lamentable chapter in the history of this Sometimes Great Nation.
That these "methods" were totally at odds with everything that America ostensibly stands for -- and purportedly continues to fight for on its own behalf and that of the rest of the "free world" -- makes this an existential imperative for all stakeholders if the frequently undervalued principles and ideals of the republic are to triumph over the destructive ambitions and self-serving perversions of empire.
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