This is not Johnson's war. This is America's war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the collective responsibility of a nation in times of conflict, beyond individual involvement.
Lyndon B. Johnson's quote illustrates the concept that war is not merely the burden of a single individual, but rather a national issue that affects everyone. It highlights the enduring nature of warβs consequences and responsibilities, suggesting that no matter who is in leadership or command, the impact of the war will persist and demand attention from all citizens.
In practice
During a speech about national unity in times of crisis.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam-and all who seek to share their conquest-of a simple fact: We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.
So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but along train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life.
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.
The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.
It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.
If you want to reach the top, don't run over others. Likely, the only way you'll reach the top is to be carried there by others.
Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have undertaken this government.
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