Historian Jon Meacham on Friday likened the chaos in Afghanistan to President Lyndon B. Johnson's experience in Vietnam.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian is also a friend and advisor to President Joe Biden, The New York Times reported in November. The newspaper reported "Meacham has had a hand in crafting many of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s biggest rhetorical moments, according to multiple sources, including helping to write the acceptance speech that Mr. Biden delivered on Saturday night from Wilmington, Del., his first remarks as the president-elect."
Meacham was interviewed Friday by MSNBC's Brian Williams.
"History is complicated immensely as we know, reality is immensely complicated. I think this was a week of powerful contrasts that represent the tasks that we face. We think about it, the got a bipartisan deal at 69 votes," he explained. "It's a with big deal."
"At the same time, what is unfolding in Afghanistan is tragic and painful and feels elementally upsetting to those who have served, those who know people who have served," he explained. "And looking forward you know, this was — it began kind of as a counter terror operation, it became a nation building one, and one of the options we have to face is we are leaving a part of the world that has done us harm, did irreparable harm, in many ways."
"And so, the precedent I have been thinking about all day — as I suspect you have — is President Johnson, LBJ, who could make the domestic achievements and confronted a Cold War conflict, led a Cold War conflict that was a hot war that ended up being a kind of American tragedy," Meacham said.
Watch:
Jon Meachamyoutu.be
