The First Negative TV ad ?

[Dale]

I mean the first negative campaign ad on TV. I'm given to understand that it was the work of LBJ - as I recall, it had to do with a little girl fondling a daisy ... and then there is a nuclear explosion.

Can anyone confirm this ?

[monsoon]

[Dale]

Were Ronald McDonald and company in the LBJ commercial ? Then it really was a low blow !

[monsoon]

[Dale]

No they were not in that commercial. The above means we fight wars today to protect corporate interests, not little girls in parks.

Oh, then you think that the old LBJ ad was aimed to justify nuclear war ? Hey, if you can believe that, then I guess you can believe that Iraq was all about, what, Halliburton ?

Nah, you wouldn't believe that.

Would you ?

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[Dale]

No you have it wrong. The LBJ ad did not propose to fight a nuclear war. Instead it suggested that if a Republican took office, we would be fighting a nuclear war. A very chilling thought for a population terrorized by the very very cold war at the time.

People these days it seems don't seem to be bothered as much as then by leaders that are so quick to get us into wars when diplomacy would serve the purpose. That is because most people now alive have not experienced the horrors of war as they had in the early 1960s.

Oh, I quite understand that the LBJ ad was crass fearmongering, especially in light of LBJ's escalating the Vietnam War.

And your point about American naivete might hold water were it not for the fact that so many Americans who *have* experienced the horror of war supported the overthrow of Hussein.

[monsoon]

[Dale]

Arguably, it was LBJ who was the hysteria mongerer. And I was underscoring his hypocrisy in that the same man who suggested that Goldwater would pull the trigger, himself escalated what was arguably an ill-advised war.

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[BrandonTO416]

I didn't know most casualties happened under Nixon.. Republicans love to tell it the other way.

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[Dale]

Indeed. Vietnam was LBJ's biggest mistake. Interestingly enough, most of the war was fought during Nixon's term in which most of the casualities occured. And he expanded the war further to include Laos and Cambodia.

Yes, Nixon intervened in Laos and Cambodia as these involved major supply routes. And while it's true that most of the casualties occured during his watch, it is also true that the war ended under his watch.

Beyond that, I don't know that I feel so compelled to defend Nixon, other than to say (against the popular myth), that in the famous Kennedy-Nixon debate, Nixon apppeared the more comfortable and confident, by a wide margin.

[monsoon]