Opinion of Lyndon Johnson

[Landslide Lyndon]

For me, the most fascinating presidential personality.
 
Epic FF for the passing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act. He did what was right, even though he was fully aware it would harm irreparably his party. And I agree with Hillary on that: it's because of him, more than anybody else, that Barack Obama sits in the Oval Office as we speak.

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

P.S. Forgot to add the poll.

[Franzl]

this is a truly hard question....

but I'm going to say....... net FF, despite everything.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

He was a huge (literally) FF.  He messed up on Vietnam, but his positives far outweigh any negatives.

[Torie]

I rank LBJ as the worst president in history, using the metric as to who did the most damage.  He believed the Vietnam War was doomed to fail, but still carried on for about another 20,000 American troop corpses, plus of course all the "collateral damage," unleashed inflation with guns and butter that was a bitch to get back in the bottle (it took about 15 years plus), the War on Poverty was largely a flop and poorly executed, and unleashed AFDC and welfare dependency that haunted us until welfare reform, he was a liar and corrupt and abused his power and unleashed the IRS on his political enemies (a lesson Nixon unfortunately took to heart), and was personally repugnant to boot.

End of rant.

PS: Ya I know LBJ did some good things in the Civil Rights field. He still sucks big time.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Extremely negative. The Vietnam War as well as The Great Society were two of the greatest blights ever suffered by the United States.

[Nym90]

Poverty was far lower than it was when he first came to office. Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, the Civil Rights Act, etc. Major FF.

Vietnam was bad, of course, but it's hard to point to anyone who could realistically have been President at the time who would've done better, quite frankly.

[Brandon H]

One of the worst.

[Psychic Octopus]

HP. I can't believe sometimes he ranks in the top ten presidents.

[Landslide Lyndon]

From what I see conservatives hate him even more than Bill Clinton.
Now that's something that I never expected to see.

[Lief 🗽]

Top 5 President

[Mint]

On the whole, not a good president. That's not to say everything he did I disagree with, his stance on civil rights while probably cynical is still commendable. And it's hard for me to object to providing the poorest people with healthcare. But pretty much everything else in his administration from the War on Poverty to Vietnam could fit in a textbook chapter on 'unintended consequences.'

On the plus side, he was one of our funniest...

[opebo]

Our best president, though that isn't saying much.  His only serious competition is FDR.

[dead0man]

Everybody that hates Bush for Iraq and loves LBJ for anything is a joke.  You can place the death of millions at the feet of LBJ.  His list of "scandals" at wiki seems like it was hijacked from Nixon's page.

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But, but, but his civil rights record makes up for his racism, the millions of dead and the over throwing of democratically elected leaders in S.America.

One of the worst Presidents of all time....and an asshole to boot.

[opebo]

Everybody that hates Bush for Iraq and loves LBJ for anything is a joke.  You can place the death of millions at the feet of LBJ. 

But, but, but his civil rights record makes up for his racism, the millions of dead and the over throwing of democratically elected leaders in S.America.

Dude, he was an american president, so by definition he was a brutal fascist thug.  But he was the least bad of all of them.

[Boris]

Top 5 President

58,159

(303,635)

[justfollowingtheelections]

For me, the most fascinating presidential personality.
 
Epic FF for the passing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act. He did what was right, even though he was fully aware it would harm irreparably his party. And I agree with Hillary on that: it's because of him, more than anybody else, that Barack Obama sits in the Oval Office as we speak.

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

P.S. Forgot to add the poll.

This I totally agree with.

Regardless of what you think of Johnson, whether he was a good or a bad president that made good or bad decisions, the question is was he a freedom fighter or not?  And one thing no one can accuse Johnson of is that he didn't fight for people's freedoms.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Everybody that hates Bush for Iraq and loves LBJ for anything is a joke.  You can place the death of millions at the feet of LBJ.  His list of "scandals" at wiki seems like it was hijacked from Nixon's page.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

But, but, but his civil rights record makes up for his racism, the millions of dead and the over throwing of democratically elected leaders in S.America.

One of the worst Presidents of all time....and an asshole to boot.

I wasn't aware of all this but it certainly doesn't sound good.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Net-FF

[??????????]

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

So was Iraq a big mistake or little mistake?

[Landslide Lyndon]

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

So was Iraq a big mistake or little mistake?

An idiotic one.

[??????????]

Thanks for answering the question.

[dead0man]

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

So was Iraq a big mistake or little mistake?

An idiotic one.

Which was a bigger mistake, Vietnam or Iraq?

[Landslide Lyndon]

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

So was Iraq a big mistake or little mistake?

An idiotic one.

Which was a bigger mistake, Vietnam or Iraq?

They were equally bad.

The problem is that Johnson didn't start the war, he escalated it. And he could at least invoke the real communist threat for doing it. Unlike W.'s imaginary WMDs and link with 9/11.

[dead0man]

Correct, it was started by the French and JFK (and to a lesser extent, Ike).  How do you feel about those entities?  LBJ just took the ball and ran with it.

Also, wasn't the Communist threat, at least in the case of Vietnam, imaginary as well?

And then there is this:
South Vietnamese civilian dead: 1,581,000*
Cambodian civilian dead: ~700,000*
North Vietnamese civilian dead: ~3,000,000*
Laotian civilian dead: ~50,000*

Iraq War ~1,000,000 (total)

[Landslide Lyndon]

Correct, it was started by the French and JFK (and to a lesser extent, Ike).  How do you feel about those entities?  LBJ just took the ball and ran with it.

Extremely negative opinion about French colonialism. They should have had the good sense to leave peacefully after WWII, like the British did from India and Burma. Instead they created a mess that resulted eventually in a Holocaust-like genocide and spanned over 40 years.

I don't know what to think about Kennedy. There are all kind of conspiracy theories that one of the reasons for his demise was his decision to disengage from Vietnam. Of course he is guilty of supporting a corrupt dictatorship until then.

Also, wasn't the Communist threat, at least in the case of Vietnam, imaginary as well?

And then there is this:
South Vietnamese civilian dead: 1,581,000*
Cambodian civilian dead: ~700,000*
North Vietnamese civilian dead: ~3,000,000*
Laotian civilian dead: ~50,000*

Iraq War ~1,000,000 (total)

   

The Viet Cong were very much real, as was their support by the North Vietnamese regime and it's allies. You can argue that they weren't particularly threatening to the US and it's interests, but they didn't exist only in Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld's wild imagination like Saddam's WMDs, neither were they manufactured by the CIA, like the Prague meeting.

And the numbers would be equally horrifying even if they were a fraction of what you mention. After all the Indochina conflict took place over several devades and involved at least four countries.