Former US President Lyndon Johnson was considered involved in the assassination of his predecessor and the prevention of a nuclear attack on Vietnam. Political scientist at the MGIMO Institute for International Studies Viktor Zimin, in a conversation with Lenta.ru, assessed the reality of the stories that the media published about Johnson with reference to declassified documents.
At the peak of his political career, Lyndon Johnson became the 37th Vice President of the United States under President John F. Kennedy, and after the latter’s assassination, he took over his post, becoming the 36th Democratic President of the United States. He ruled the country from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969. Saturday, January 22, is the anniversary of his death – he died in 1973.
The American media, referring to declassified documents, linked his name to two theories – about involvement in the Kennedy assassination and a possible nuclear strike during the Vietnam War.
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Involvement in the Kennedy assassination
According to a declassified FBI document from 1966, the USSR considered Johnson a conspirator responsible for the assassination of the 35th US President John F. Kennedy, the publication reported in 2017. The Times.
According to Zimin, this is a typical conspiracy theory, and Johnson himself was surprised by the fact that he got such a post, and was not capable of such a conspiracy. “He was a cunning enough politician, but he did not reach such a monster as President Underwood, the hero of the House of Cards series,” he said.
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The political scientist was not surprised by this point of view of the USSR, since the Soviet people loved conspiracy theories. Among these, he named, for example, the opinion that the Americans were not on the moon, despite the fact that this was recorded by Soviet means of controlling outer space.
Zimin considers the version of the Kennedy assassination put forward by columnist Valentin Zorin to be more wealthy. According to his theory, the president was killed by the mafia, Sam Giancan, for failing to secure their interests in Cuba.
This is most likely because there is such a terrible thing in America as the establishment. Kennedy did not accept this establishment, he was still an Irish Catholic, in many ways, at least for me, he was a stellar, unusual politician, like our beloved [45-й президент США Дональд] Trump, and, for the most part, the very conservative establishment didn’t like it. He made some decisions on his own, sometimes consulting only with his narrow circle and his brother Robert, who, by the way, was also not accidentally killed.
Viktor Ziminpolitical scientist at the Institute of International Studies, MGIMO
In addition, Zorin expressed the theory that the CIA was involved in the assassination of Kennedy, as the president was trying to improve relations with the Soviet Union. But Zimin also considers this version untenable.
Nuclear attack on Vietnam
Newspaper New York Times referring to declassified archival documents, she reported that the US military in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, planned to attack North Vietnamese forces with nuclear weapons, but Johnson learned about the impending operation in time and ordered it to be curtailed.
The military could not, without the knowledge of the president, prepare, let alone carry out a nuclear strike, the political scientist noted. In his opinion, the military are people who are subordinate to political leadership and often act as a deterrent when politicians or their advisers advocate some kind of provocative military move.
I would say it’s some kind of nonsense. Under Trump, they tried to deprive him of the button, but this is a glaring case. Always the president stayed in full control, well maybe [первый директор ФБР]Edgar Hoover did not report everything to him, believing himself to be a little king in his FBI, but not the military and not in regard to nuclear weapons
Viktor Ziminpolitical scientist at the Institute of International Studies, MGIMO
Relations between the USA and the USSR at that time
Johnson played a positive role in Soviet-American relations, Zimin believes. Despite the Cold War, attempts at rapprochement began under him, when the leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, and part of the Soviet leadership wanted to improve relations with America.
Unlike what we see now, there were certain frames that did not go over, as we like to say now, red lines. There were some limits of decency, delimitation of spheres of influence, certain economic projects began, which then [40-й президент США Рональд] Reagan tried to stop it, but it was a relatively stable period in Soviet-American relations, thanks in part to our great diplomat, Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin
Viktor Ziminpolitical scientist at the Institute of International Studies, MGIMO
Role of Johnson
Zimin described Johnson as a smiling southern president who did not expect such a fate. “He was pretty lucky in many ways. This man was rather mediocre, who, in general, was remembered, probably, in America by some memorial libraries and his idea of building a “Great Society”. This is not some political star, an average person who fell into a period of relative prosperity, despite racial problems and the Vietnam War, and, in general, he calmly emerged from it. At least he didn’t stumble and talk like the current president,” he concluded.
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