>>I can say that LBJ (IMO) was the worse President this nation has had!

>What about Buchanan? or Fillmore? or some of the other absolute non-entities in the past?

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Tamar;

I would add Calvin Coolege to your list. Professor S. I. Hiwakawa told us during one of his Semantic classes at San Francisco State University , the word iconoclast (one who does nothing) was created to define President Coolege.

Yes, there have been many non-entities that have served as President of the United States. However, I would suggest LBJ was not one of them. When it came to exaggeration, lying and responsibility for carnage I give LBJ top honors.

One example of exaggeration occurred while he was talking from the Oval Office with several cabinet members present, to the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The conversation went something like this: LBJ – “What’s this Mr. Ambassador, the American Embassy is being fired upon and you have taken cover under your desk for protection”? American Ambassador – “No Mr. President, there is no shooting and the Embassy is in no danger”! LBJ – “Mr. Ambassador, we will immediately send in the United States Marines to crush this attack on an American Embassy”. Within a few hours the United States Marines landed in the Dominican Republic. Anything for an excuse Mr. LBJ, so you could get your way. Truth and reality do not stand in the way of a man who wants to create history.

I better not start with the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” or I will piss off the “Real Americans” but now I am pissed off. I was in the Crypto Room (where Air Force Top Secret messages were sent and read the details of the August 2 and August 4 1964 activities, among others. When President Johnson announced American Navel Vessels have been fired upon on the high seas - and went so far as to list causalities and other details, it did not agree with what I had read.

When I was transferred to Air Force Security Service, we had to go to Commanders Call each month and view the latest “movies of Air Force action in Viet Nam”. Close ups of air strikes were favorites with Napalm dropped on villages and villagers running in all directions covered with liquid fire from head to foot. We called them “crispy critters”. Gattling guns which fired 6000 rounds a minute would then open up and kill anything moving. Johnson, Rusk and Macnamera would then give us a few words about "why we are in Viet Nam". After Commanders Call, officers would stand on the stage and ask: “Is there anyone who questions why we are in Viet Nam”? No one answered or even spoke of it. Somehow I felt you would disappear if you dared to open your mouth. Years later the ships log of the navel vessel involved was made public in Time magazine, on the last page of the magazine of all places and the log agreed with what I had red over the "wire". No one in the media said a word about the ships log outside of Time magazine.

It took me ten years before I stopped having daily nightmares about Viet Nam. Waking up in a cold sweat is not fun. Now, something will trigger my thought process like a fighter jet flying over my house. There are things you would rather forget but cannot. So when I speak of LBJ I have my reasons why I dislike him and his actions and put him at the top of the Worst American Presidents List or the bottom of the Best American Presidents List. It is just a matter of perspective and that is mine.

Tom