Vietnam's Tragic Leader

Lyndon Baines Johnson, who once said of Vietnam, "Peace has cluded me," died Monday--only hours before the cease-fire agreement was initialed.

The President who reluctantly "inherited" the Vietnam war and left a legacy of massive military involvement was buried yesterday afternoon at a family cemetery in Johnson City--Texas.

Already, scholars and members of Johnson's Administration have begun to assess the paradox of his double role--the man who made war on poverty at home while calling for full-scale bombing in Vietnam.

Doris Kearns, associate professor of Government, who helped Johnson compile his memoirs, said that the "two Johnson" reflect the same "American tyranny of benevolence."

"He embodied a set of values that led inexorably to Vietnam as well as to the Great Society." Kearns said. "He believed that he knew how to make the world better for other people.

Several scholars and statesmen have interpreted Johnson as a tragic figure whose good intentions were foiled by historical forces. Others have portrayed him as "the prarie boy from Texas who realized the American crisis better than urbanologists."

Kearns and others concurred, however, that Vietnam was "never at the center" of the 36th President, and that history will probably praise his blueprint for the Great Society, despite recent cutbacks in the domestic programs he designed.

"The Great Society will surely take off again four or eight years from now," said Adam Yarmolinsky, a member of the Institute of Politics, who served on Johnson's anti-poverty task force. "He was the heir of the New Deal with a populist twist."

Most spokesmen have also stressed Johnson's "gigantic force" and his unprecedented mastery of power mechanisms in Washington. "You knew you were in the presence of a primeval force," Kearns said. "You had to hate what the force could produce, but you remained in awe of its motion."