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All US presidents are controversial characters. Some of my subscribers comment very positively and others very negatively about each one of them. And the Vietnam war is a major subject for viewers on my channel.
Back at 1989 I was making a six part television series on the 1960s called “Making Sense of the Sixties." It was intended to reach high school and college students who at that time were the children of the baby boomer Vietnam war generation. Almost 200 video interviews were conducted with ordinary citizens, historian experts, first hand witnesses, and a few famous folks (not too many of those). George Reedy, the person speaking in this interview about President Lyndon Johnson, was his press for part of his administration and witnessed firsthand much of what went on behind the scenes in Washington regarding the Vietnam war. He wrote a book “Twilight Of The Presidency" that angered President Johnson and Johnson never spoke with him again. He was known as a blunt and direct speaker who said what he thought and that's what he does here.
Many Americans blame President Kennedy for starting the Vietnam war and President Johnson increasing the effort to win it and for committing a huge number of American troops to the battle. George Reedy feels that based on what he saw, it was right-wing Republican senators and congressman who pushed Johnson toward some of the decisions he made regarding the war including the Gulf of Tonkin reaction. I post his comments here without judgment although in my experience regarding this issue, I did not find any other expert presenting his point of view.