Rafael Mendez Rubel

ENG 105-H1
November 4th, 2020
Essay III, First Draft
Between the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon in the decades of 1960’s and the
beginning of 1970’s the United States experimented many controversial problems and crises as the
bombing in Vietnam. In the political environment this situation made the leaders of the time and the
aspiring leaders determine that those issues were a reason to stay in the power and made part of their
responsibility as the leaders of the nation. The problems and crises were the things that made Johnson and
Nixon have a purpose on their administration.
They gave way to conflicts and crises turning a blind eye during their administrations. The presence of
conflict and crisis was what made both, President Johnson and Nixon to reach their positions as President
of the United States, and the development of more issues or those that were happening at the time
continued to be beneficial for them. Elizabeth Drew commented about the Nixon’s farewell discourse on
her writing Summer 1974, time after the Vietnam bombing ceased, she flashed back to 1970 when the
president simply ignored the demonstrations against a military invasion of Cambodia by discussing
football with protesters. In an inappropriate way he implied that his motives for avoiding a problem of
this nature were null. Johnson had a similar behavior, During the massive violent revolts after Dr. Luther
King was assassinated, Joe Califano, a Johnson aide at the time, gave him a report of the events and
described his reaction, the president reading it and smiling, and then looking up to said, “Goddamn, I’ve
waited thirty-five years for this day,” by his behavior we can deduce that this conflict was something that
he wanted to happen.
The end of the political career and in the presidency of Nixon and Johnson was linked to the end of the
conflicts that they could handle with. Henry Kissinger was very close to President Nixon and he was able
to record his reactions in the most important moments of his career, as the cease of fire of the Vietnam
war. According to Kissinger writing Peace at Last, where he also talked about President Johnson’s
political career end because it was a result of the decisions that Nixon took about the biggest issue that
made them work with purpose and it ended with said that he was motivated by the conflict to continue on
his political career. The farewell of Nixon from the administration expressed from the point of view of
Drew by saying that his Character was his fate, she states President Nixon situation in that moment as a
product of all his decisions. Without a problem that he could handle, as the international conflicts like the
war, President Nixon had to resign to the presidency and leave the administration because of the
Watergate scandal.
Nixon and Johnson place their responsibility as head of state to keep representing the country with pride
as excuses to maintain conflicts and generate crises. The conceptions of responsibilities as president of
the United States was to keep the country strong as a leader around the world, and if this was necessary,
they allowed conflicts and crises to keep with power. After signing the ceasefire against Vietnam, based
on a private phone call, Kissinger explains how concerned Nixon felt by saying that he had defrauded his
honor and responsibility to prove that America was the strongest country that had no right to abdicate.
This was a conception that came from other administrations as well. When Kissinger talked about
Johnson’s death on his writing, he states that his conception and effort in his duty towards the nation was
inherited from his predecessor and it was totally linked to the conflicts that caused the war.
These administrations gave the country most of the worsts and embarrass moments to the country. All the
decisions taken and reactions expressed towards this crises and problems were an engine to feed their
prides and bring benefits to themselves. The worst result that these circumstances had brought with them
was not the end of their political careers in power, but the suffering of thousands of people due to a
distorted concept of their duty as presidents of the United States.