"If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it." - Lyndon B. Johnson
I consider Johnson one of the great figures of the 20th century. Bookended by Kennedy and Nixon, it was an era of Shakespearean sweep, and tragedy. Of the three, it was Johnson who accomplished the most. He was one of the truly transformational figures in American history, but he remains overshadowed by the men who came before and after him, neither of whom could match his record of accomplishment, or his character. Most of all, however, he remains defined by a war that he neither started, nor finished, and certainly did not want. In the long run of history, however, after Vietnam recedes from memory, I am convinced that Johnson's vision of the Great Society is what will endure.
Paul Kimball
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