Lyndon Johnson for 2024

[Jon Banks]

Sorry, there was no Gulf of Tonkin hoax. Hoax as in deliberate deception. Are you talking about the second attack? No, there was no second attack by the North Vietnamese; that was based on faulty information. But it wasn't a hoax. It was the fog of war. And there was a first attack. And LBJ had to rely on information given to him by his people. He didn't make this up.

In my view, even if there was no attack at all at that time the US and Hanoi were headed for a direct confrontation. At some point, at some time. The North wanted to take over the South and after Diem's removal they stepped up their attacks. The US decided that that was a threat to our security (it wasn't but that's how they - JFK and then LBJ - saw it). It was inevitable that the two sides were going to clash given the nature of the situation. Unless we were to simply leave.

As to the assassination: We had the WC, the HSCA and numerous investigations by the news media. CBS news, ABC news, the Washington Post, the NY Times.

You believe all of these investigations were obstructed by the government?

Look, I know I'm defending in LBJ a horrible guy. Clearly, he was corrupt, he lied and he personally was in some ways worse than Trump. I said some <g>. But I think he was sincere in going after racism, in dismantling segregation, and in trying to help poor people. And I think he truly hated the war. He didn't want it but felt trapped. That doesn't excuse the duplicity, the incompetency; but it does go to his motives which I don't think were pure evil.

Gulf of Tonkin aside, my view that most, if not all wars, are based on lies or misleading information still stands. And yes, sometimes it's just the Fog of War, not an intentional attempt to mislead people about the causes of the conflict.