Excuses, Excuses

The LBJ Museum announced its prominence before I ever entered the building simply because of its massive size. I assumed the inside of the building would not be much different and would build LBJ up as a remarkable president. This was actually far from the case. As I walked through the main level from right to left (chronological order), I felt like the museum was making excuses as to why LBJ’s presidency, especially the Vietnam aspect, was not extremely successful rather than putting him above everyone else.
I noticed this trend when I stepped inside a small room with solid black walls. Lady Bird Johnson’s quotes from the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated stood out against the wall. The font was fairly small, finally leading to a large quotation reading: “The President is dead.” Directly opposite of that quote was a picture of LBJ taking the Oath of Office in Air Force One just hours after JFK was announced dead. Finally, I turned to a painting of the Kennedy family over John’s casket. All of these images combined to make me think to myself: “Damn, LBJ became president by default in the midst of a pretty shitty situation.” It got worse. The next phase of the museum highlighted nationwide problems LBJ faced in the 1960s such as poverty and racism.When I finally reached the 1964 portion, I was blown away by the Gulf of Tonkin exhibit. Not only was there a small model of a ship in a huge glass case, but the description of the event was far from thorough. After discussing the attacks of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the description reads: “Later there was some debate over whether the second attack actually occurred.” Yeah, no shit. It fails to explain why this led to the expansion of the war. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was not given the proper display to show its importance to the Vietnam War. The boat was too small, the text was too small, and the description was too short. This is quite the contrast from the bold letters “The President is Dead” that I saw at the beginning of my viewing. The museum does not highlight the Gulf of Tonkin resolution as it does the death of JFK because it was a huge blemish on President Johnson’s record. After all, museums are built to honor a particular thing, not bash it.
As I moved along to the portion solely dedicated to Vietnam, I noticed that the museum heavily emphasized how concerned LBJ was with the war. There were pictures of him watching the news from the oval office and personal quotes that showed his sympathy towards the soldiers…especially those who were drafted. This display does a decent job of displaying how destructive the war was, but it did not exactly hit my emotions hard. Burning buildings, soldier statues, I’ve seen those images plenty of times. What the museum lacked was the sense of agony and brutality that came with the war. There was one big picture of a dead soldier on a dirt road, but otherwise nothing jumped out and said “Look how awful the Vietnam War was for everyone involved.” Instead we are just told how hard it was on Johnson. Yeah he was concerned, yeah he felt bad for all the soldiers and their families, so why not get them out of there?
I found a quote by LBJ on the wall that quite interesting, it read: I can’t get out. I can’t finish with what I have. So what the hell can I do?” LBJ said this to his wife, and it reemphasizes the theme of excuses. It is as if to say he does not have the correct tools to end the war in Vietnam. This is why events like the Civil Rights movement and Cold War are found throughout the display. The museum provides the idea that LBJ simply had too much on his plate. I am not saying ending the war would have been easy because it obviously was not. However, LBJ just seemed to quit in my opinion. The exhibit continued by showing how shocked the nation was when President Johnson announced in 1968 that he would not seek reelection. The next thing I saw when I turned was the words “I tried” in bold letters. This was Johnson’s theme during his farewell address. Yeah, he tried hard, but what was the outcome? The outcome was a war that lasted far too long and a big stain on America in general. However, the museum never shows this. Instead, LBJ is displayed as a hardworking President who truly cared for his country. I am not saying this is incorrect. His accomplishments in fields like the Cold War and Civil Rights prove that he was an effective president, and these are highlighted throughout the museum. However, the LBJ museum did not choose to portray the former president as a national hero when it comes to Vietnam. That is because they have no argument, they only have excuses.