LANDSLIDE LYNDON
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara frantically tells LBJ of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where American boats The Turner Joy and The Maddox have supposedly been attacked by the North Vietnamese without provocation. But RFK narrates the scene, pointing out the vast differences between McNamara’s descriptions and the truth. As McNamara attempts to use the incident to push LBJ towards a full-on invasion of Vietnam, Johnson is skeptical at first. However, predictions of Goldwater’s claims of Johnson’s weakness towards Communism persuade the President to ramp up the war and convince Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting him unprecedented wartime powers. RFK warns that past is prologue.
LYRICS​
NT. THE OVAL OFFICE. AUGUST 2 1964. DAY
LBJ sits behind the Resolute Desk. The TV is on. A map labeled THE GREAT SOCIETY is mounted on a large easel
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WALTER CRONKITE (TV)
It’s August 2nd, 1964 and here’s the news. President Johnson is fighting for his political future against conservative hero Barry Goldwater. Goldwater called Johnson, “Soft on Communism” today at his speech on the Great Lawn. For now, Johnson continues to keep America’s involvement in Vietnam as an advisory role.
SECRETARY (OFFSTAGE)
Mr. President? Martin Luther King, line one
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LBJ picks up the phone and cleans his nails with the blue folder
LBJ
Martin? Did they find the bodies of those three civil rights workers yet? You keep me posted the minute you -
McNamara ENTERS
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LBJ
Hold on a second. McNamara’s here
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MCNAMARA (out of breath)
Sir! Mr. President! We’ve gotta talk
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SECRETARY (OFFSTAGE)
Mr. President. It’s that tailor on line 2. You told me it wa-
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LBJ Oh. I’ll take that! Martin, putting you on hold. McNamara, just a minute!
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Slowly, like he has all the time in the world, LBJ swats a fly with the Red folder LBJ (into the phone)
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LBJ
Frank, I want six pairs of those slacks. Boy they are good. But you gotta open up the part around my nutsack, you hear me? The last pair was just about the best pair yet, but it’s tight around that whole area up to my bunghole.
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MCNAMARA
Sir, I’ve -
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LBJ picks up the phone. He uses the blue folder to hold the phone against his ear
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LBJ
McNamara, don't piss yourself. Martin? ... All three killed? Just tragic.
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LBJ sees Mcnamara and joint chiefs enter the room
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LBJ
McNamara, hold on. Frank, I’ll call you back.
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Everyone freezes as RFK enters
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SONG: “IMMINENT THREAT”
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RFK:
Here’s McNamara telling LBJ
About a “crisis” brewing in Nam that day
He sounds like he knows what
He’s talking about
I’ll stick around just in case he leaves anything out
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LBJ:
McNamara- why you lookin’ so dire?!
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McNamara:
Sir, the Gulf of Tonkin - it’s on fire!
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LBJ: What?
McNamara:
Be warned
It’s a tale of guns and slaughter
Regarding our destroyers in the Tonkin waters
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LBJ and staff all lean forward
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McNamara: (waging his hands in the air)
The Turner Joy and the Maddox
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RFK: Note McNamara's dramatics...
McNamara:
...having made no prior provocation -
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RFK:
In fact, there were several recent covert operations
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McNamara: (getting annoyed)
They were cruising the gulf
And nothing more
RFK:
We had bombed a radar station just the day before
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McNamara:
(Glares at RFK as if to say shut the F up!)
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Anyway...
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When suddenly several boats from Hanoi
Approached the Maddox and the Turner Joy
Our radar men picked up the 9 blips
of 9 torpedoes headed for our ships.
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RFK:
The captain of the Maddox
Thought it might’ve been less
Am
Or maybe none at all
It’s anyone guess
How the story got started
And with no confirmation
led us into war against another nation
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McNamara:
It was chaos
Our boats almost sunk in the bay!
We gotta get 'em back
We gotta do it today
What happens next
Is anyone’s bet
We got to hold them to the fire because...
This is an imminent threat
An imminent threat
If we don’t get them
They’ll get
Us with an imminent threat
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LBJ:
Well, my friends, I’m afraid
I’m really not sure
What happened in the gulf.
Could we wait and hear more?
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McNamara:
Or you could use it as a chance to wage your war
Not just on those ships, but on the land
Don’t you see that this is everything that we planned?
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LBJ: (spoken) Now maybe we should go on a few dates with Vietnam before we just stick our dick in?
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McNamara:
If you wait, Barry Goldwater would say that you’re a chicken!!
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LBJ: well...I admit that’s probably true
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McNamara: You would not just rule domestics
But foreign matters too!
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LBJ:
And If we talk about the soldiers that almost died
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McNamara:
Why, you’d have congress on your side
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Rusk:
Sir, we don’t have any solid details yet!!
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McNamara:
Exactly! All we need are pictures on your TV set
Of an imminent threat
An imminent threat
Those reds will get you while you’re lying in bed
(Just take my word this is)
An imminent threat
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LBJ: (turns to audience)
Well now congress what do you say?
We back down now
And those crazy commie Pinkos get away
I’m not asking for much, just a little resolution
In the name of our freedom and our constitution
That from now on when it comes to the Vietnamese -
I can do whatever the hell I please!!
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This is an imminent threat...
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RFK:
And it passed
That night
98 to 2.
A manufactured crisis
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LBJ: (turns to RFK)
Oh, fuck you!
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RFK:
It wouldn’t be the first time
Or the last
Past is prologue
And prologue is...
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Senator hits table with a gavel.
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SENATOR
Passed!
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