Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 43 Seduction and Betrayal

1. 1. LBJ secretly planned to expand the Vietnam War by bombing North Vietnam while publicly assuring Americans he would not send their boys to do the job of South Vietnamese boys.
2. 2. Lippmann initially supported the retaliatory bombing after Pleiku, believing it would put the US in a better bargaining position for negotiations.
3. 3. Lippmann argued that the US should seek a cease-fire and an international conference, warning that an Asian land war would be a 'supreme folly.'
4. 4. Bundy misled Lippmann by telling him the President truly sought a negotiated settlement, while the administration was secretly launching 'Rolling Thunder' against North Vietnam.
5. 5. Lippmann naively believed Johnson's bombing was strictly controlled and confined to empty areas, echoing Bundy's assurances that the attacks were 'public relations jobs' that killed nobody.
6. 6. Lippmann was shocked by the apocryphal story that LBJ threatened Senator Church by saying 'the next time you want a dam in Idaho, you just go to Walter Lippmann for it.'
7. 7. Lippmann criticized Johnson for demanding conformity and evoking visceral feelings that would make the war unmanageable, warning against the illusion that Americans are always right.
8. 8. Lippmann argued that the Vietnam War was not a decisive test for the future of 'wars of liberation,' calling that notion profoundly false and based on ignorance of revolutionary upheavals.
9. 9. Bundy advised Johnson to show Lippmann an advance draft of the Baltimore speech to 'plug his guns,' and to make clear that military action would continue unless the situation in the South improved.
10. 10. At the April 6, 1965 White House meeting, Johnson ranted about four doors: bombing Hanoi, turning Vietnam over to communists, negotiating with nobody, or just hanging on.
11. 11. Lippmann argued that US security and well-being were not involved in Southeast Asia, and that the US should adopt isolationism in the sense of limiting its power to vital interests.
12. 12. Lippmann refuted the administration's claim that North Vietnam committed aggression, maintaining that the two Vietnams were never separate countries but two zones of one nation.
13. 13. Lippmann replied to a Washington Post editorial arguing great nations must live in anguish by saying a mature great power makes measured use of power and eschews global crusading.
14. 14. Lippmann initially supported the US intervention in the Dominican Republic in April 1965 on the grounds of spheres of influence, but later expressed dismay when it restored a reactionary dictatorship.
15. 15. As early as 1954, Lippmann argued that the US could not win a land war in Asia and should not intervene in Indochina without full allied support.
16. 16. By mid-1965, Lippmann saw no hope for victory and urged the US to withdraw to fortified enclaves along the coast, practicing 'benevolent neutrality' while the Vietnamese negotiated a deal.
17. 17. After returning from Europe in June 1965, Lippmann reported that Europeans were shocked by the expansion of the Vietnam War, the invasion of Santo Domingo, and the administration's 'unlimited globalism.'
18. 18. Lippmann suggested that Vietnamese 'do not value their material possessions, which are few, nor even their lives, which are short and unhappy, as do the people of a country who have much to lose,' revealing a hint of racism in his argument.
19. 19. Lippmann persuaded Katharine Graham to change the Washington Post's editorial page from pro-war to anti-war, leading to the hiring of Philip Geyelin as deputy to Russell Wiggins.
20. 20. Lippmann felt betrayed by Johnson, saying 'He misled me' — the President lied about his intentions in Vietnam, telling Lippmann the war had to be won on the non-military side while telling others otherwise.