SCENE 11: A SURPRISE VISIT INT. OVAL OFFICE. MARCH 1968. DAY

 

LBJ:

Gotta get Cronkite back on my side.   I can’t lose one more soldier.

Maybe it’s time to run and hide. Time to pick the blue folder.

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Lyndon lifts up the blue folder and stares at it. While he completes his thoughts, Herman and George Brown emerge from a trap door in the floor of the oval office.

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LBJ:

Herman? George? I told you to let me know when you’re gonna use the “special door.”

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George and Herman stare at him menacingly.

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Herman:

Sit down.

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LBJ:

Or not.  Yeah, you know, just stop in when you feel like it. (nervously) Uh...So I hear you guys changed your name.

 

HERMAN

That’s right. Haliburton.

 

GEORGE BROWN

It was my idea.

 

HERMAN AND GEORGE BROWN

The Brown and Brown stock price was hurtin’

So we merged with Haliburton

Our military contracts made certain

We preserve the red, white and blue.

 

Think of all those workers left out in the cold or

Worse if you pick that cursed blue folder

We don’t think that you could shoulder

All the pain we’d rain down on you.

So pick the red or you’re dead.

 

And no more dark money

You’ll never win again

We’ll give our dark money

to Dick Nixon and his men.

We’ll go on without you

And what’s more, this war will too.

 

Herman Brown hands Johnson the red folder and George takes the Blue folder and throws it in the trash, then puts a cigar in Johnson’s shirt pocket.  They leave through the floor again, leaving LBJ staring ahead with the folder in his arms, with a look that says he has no choice.