Old News: LBJ defends Vietnam War in Indy

Driving the (old) news: Johnson spoke at noon on July 23, 1966 at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument for Indiana's statehood anniversary.

• Other stops for LBJ that day included delivering remarks in Vincennes while signing a bill establishing the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park and speaking at a post office in Jeffersonville.
• "Someone pointed out that the English language has 400,000 words in it. And by the end of today I think I shall have been using all of them," Johnson said in the early portion of his Indianapolis address. "You can be sure that I am not going to use all of them here at noon, though. I am just going to use about 10% of them."

Between the lines: Pivoting to Vietnam, Johnson said the U.S. would stay true to its word and vowed to "persist until the Communists end the fighting or until we negotiate an honorable peace."

• When explaining why the U.S. should defend South Vietnam, he argued the country's people "may not look like we do" and "may not even think like we do," but insisted "they are human beings" the U.S. had promised to protect by treaty.

Johnson also jabbed at war critics, saying those who denounced U.S. air strikes on North Vietnam remained silent when Viet Cong forces attacked civilians or hospitals in the south.

• He closed by telling the crowd that Americans were "enjoying a liberty and a freedom and a prosperity never enjoyed by any people in history."
• "We have built it, we have developed it ourselves, and we are going to keep it," he said. "So to you good people of Indiana, we say thank you for this warm welcome. It is as warm as the day itself."