On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Within hours of the assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn into office as the 36th President of the United States. Thus began a presidency that was to bring about two seismic ruptures in U. S. culture. Johnson's promotion of civil rights and his aggressive pursuit of war in Vietnam split the nation along political lines that are evident even today. Without the cultural and political demarcation of the Johnson years, it is likely Trumpism would never have arisen.
Four U.S. Airforce Ships Spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam, 1960s
Image credit: USAF Public domain
All the Way is a Lyndon Johnson biopic, an HBO Original Movie. The title is taken from Johnson's 1964 campaign slogan, All the Way with LBJ. The movie focuses on the first year of Johnson's presidency. It was during this year, when Johnson was not an elected president but one who came to office by succession, that the push for civil rights legislation gained traction in the U. S. Without Johnson's wily political machinations, the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 would never have passed.
The passage of that act created a realignment of political loyalties. The South, which had been staunchly Democratic, became solidly Republican. Johnson's election in 1964 depended on his creating a new political dynamic, one in which the significant African American minority voted in solidarity with the Democratic party. A look at the electoral map of 2016 and 2020 shows this dynamic essentially holding true fifty years later.
1964 Democratic National Convention
Image credit: Warren K. Leffler. Public domain.
However, though Johnson's civil rights advocacy may have cost him a wide swath of Southern voters, it was his aggressive pursuit of war in Vietnam which was to become the defining theme of his presidency. The movie barely touches on this. That is understandable because the Vietnam War did not gain momentum until after Johnson's 1964 election. However, once the public became aware of the magnitude of the war, and once the war started to touch homes across the U. S., an abysmal cultural and political chasm opened.
Boulevard Gardens Apartment Complex, Woodside NY
Image credit: Ichwan Palongengi. Used under a CC 1.0 license
Within feet of the Boulevard Gardens complex in Woodside, New York, there stands a monument to a Woodside native son: Joseph Pat Strippoli, Jr. Joseph Strippoli was drafted into the army in the summer of 1967. He was sent to Vietnam in December of that year. And, on March 17, 1968, he was killed by a landmine while on active duty near the Cambodia border. According to New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, Woodside lost more of its children to the Vietnam War than did any other zip code in the United States.
On a personal note, when Joseph Strippoli rode the train to Fort Jackson, South Carolina to report to duty, my husband sat next to him (we were not to meet for another five years). Random decisions led my husband to go to Vietnam in January, rather than in December.
Australian Living Quarters, Fire Support Base, Vietnam. 1965-1972
Image credit: U. S. Military Personnel. Public domain.
When my husband talks of the war in Vietnam, the randomness of death comes through, along with cold, jungle rot and the indifference of the command that sent him to war. Lyndon Johnson sent Joseph Strippoli, my husband, and hundreds of thousands of others to war. The Woodside conscripts were largely the children of blue collar workers, people who did not have a gimmick, or know anyone of influence who could keep them out of harm's way.
These four U. S. presidents managed to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.
Vietnamese Girl Collects Ammunition Tubes in Quang Nam Province
Image credit: National Archives 26408059 official USMC photo A374173 by SGT Wiegand. November 1, 1970 Public domain.
But it wasn't just the U. S. that lost its children in that war. Australians, Canadians, Koreans and other nations sent their children also. And what of the Vietnamese? According to a 1995 article published in Population Council, "approximately one million (plus or minus 175,000) Vietnamese died either as military or civilian casualties, on both sides, from 1965 to 1975". Obviously it is impossible to arrive at a true number of lives lost.
The anti-war movement cemented differences that had become glaring in the U. S. racial divide. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, and a host of civil rights advocates aligned themselves with the anti-war movement. Here is a Youtube video of Muhammad Ali defying the U. S. government when he was conscripted into the army.
People who were pro-war considered themselves patriots and defenders of traditional U. S. values. They became entrenched in a position of moral rectitude. The cultural and political chasm in the U. S. became so wide that it was impossible even to shout across it, though there was a lot of shouting.
Vietnam War Protest, Washington D.C. 1967
Image credit: Frank Wolfe. Used under a CC 2.0 license.
So, when All the Way first aired on HBO, I had little interest in watching it. There wasn't much a movie maker could tell me about those years. If I want to learn more, there are plenty of well-researched books available.
However, one night while I was exercising, I stumbled on the show, mid point. I watched for a while. I saw what I expected.
There was of course media's fascination with Johnson's crude manner. Back in the 60s Northern media outlets were obsessed with Johnson's unpolished ways. And then there's Lady Bird, always popular with the media for her unfailing support of her husband, and gracious manner. Most conspicuously, Johnson's political chops were on display. And there was a lot of screen time devoted to Martin Luther King, Jr., as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made its way through Congress.
All the characters I had come to know in my youth were swimming before my eyes, incarnations of a playwright's rendering.
No thank you. I turned it off. That doesn't mean you should turn it off. You might enjoy watching the actors go through their well-scripted paces. Good performances on display by some of my favorite actors--Bryan Cranston, Melissa Leo and Frank Langella, for example.
So, if you're not busy one night, give All the Way a whirl. Then go read a couple of books to get a true perspective on those years. They were important. They changed the course of history.
