McCarthy, not Kennedy, prompted LBJ’s exit
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Re “The man who really brought down LBJ,” Opinion, Dec. 22
Max Holland’s claim that it was the entrance of Sen. Robert Kennedy into the 1968 presidential primary race that propelled President Johnson to withdraw from the fray on March 31, 1968, does not ring true. When Johnson withdrew, he was facing a Wisconsin primary defeat by a 2-1 margin, polls that showed he would be defeated in every subsequent primary over a three-month period, and that the only way he could salvage his self-respect and policy of escalating engagement in Vietnam was to extricate himself from the forefront of public ire.
History will, I believe, show that it was the courageous action of Sen. Eugene McCarthy that caused that to happen.
CURTIS GANS
Lovettsville, Va.
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Gans was staff director of Sen. Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign.
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