Reality Check, Part I

In 1964 the Democrat Lyndon Johnson ran against Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Johnson was the incumbent, having assumed the office at the time of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

In one particularly effective television ad, Johnson strongly implied that Goldwater was a war lover who might foolishly and recklessly involve the nation in a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

Following the election, in 1965, Johnson plunged the country into the Vietnam War, a stupid and pointless conflict for which a rational explanation has never been given. During the Vietnam War's first four years most of the country's gold reserves were spent, forcing President Richard Nixon to take the U.S. dollar off the gold standard in 1969.

For today's extended reality check, see Dennisperrin.blogspot.com.