LBJ was bullied into VietNam war same way they are bullying Obama now...

[freshwest]

36. So much trauma. LBJ was sworn into office with Jackie Kennedy in her bloody dress by his side:

Just hours after her husband's assassination, widow Jackie Kennedy stands next to Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One as he is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Although her personal assistant laid out a fresh change of clothes on her bed aboard the plane, Jackie refused to change out of her blood-spattered clothing. Also aboard Air Force One was the casket carrying the body of President John F. Kennedy, age 46.

In her bedroom on board the plane, Jackie’s personal assistant had laid out a fresh outfit for the First Lady. Despite urging from staffers and handlers to “clean up her appearance,” Jackie refused to get out of her bloodied clothes. She shook her head hard:

"No, let them see what they’ve done.”

Somehow, that was one of the most poignant sights,” Mrs. Johnson later wrote, “that immaculate woman exquisitely dressed, and caked in blood.”

https://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/tag/lyndon-johnsons-swearing-in-as-president/

The GOP tried to unseat Johnson less than a year later by running:

Barry Goldwater (January 2, 1909[1] – May 29, 1998) was a businessman and five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–65, 1969–87) and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr. Conservative".

Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.[2]

Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition. He mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican primaries. Goldwater's conservative campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate[3] and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson by one of the largest landslides in history, bringing down many Republican candidates as well. The Johnson campaign and other critics painted him as a reactionary, while supporters praised his crusades against the Soviet Union, labor unions, and the welfare state.

His defeat allowed Johnson and the Democrats in Congress to pass the Great Society programs, but the defeat of so many older Republicans in 1964 also cleared the way for a younger generation of American conservatives to mobilize. Goldwater was much less active as a national leader of conservatives after 1964; his supporters mostly rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who became governor of California in 1967 and the 40th President of the United States in 1981.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

About the same time was Curtis LeMay saying we could bomb North Vietnam to the Stone Age. The slogan of 'Nuke 'em' or 'Bomb 'em back to the Stone Age' was popular with conservatives.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay

Curtis LeMay was a friend of Goldwater, and he also ran for public office:

Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay

Those of us against Goldwater in 1964 countered their campaign slogan of 'In your heart, you know he's right' with 'In your heart, you know he's nuts.'

We know who walked into Goldwater's seat in the Senate. 'Bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb Iran' John Mc Cain. It just goes on and on. There were millions who wanted the Cold War and the Vietnam war to keep on going.

We'd already lost both Kennedys and MLK by that time. If Goldwater had won, the New Deal would have been gone before Carter. LBJ was aware of political reality and just how far these guys would go and I don't know how much of this was about his own ideas.

These guys were not about to give up, big money never does, it can wait out activists, in fact they count on our growing old and getting out of their way.

There is a solid line connecting the groups then, and those now. The Tea Party and Libertarians are closer to achieving their goals, but the agenda has never changed.

JMHO.