Helen Thomas

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has a lot of similarities with another president from Texas, the late Lyndon B. Johnson.

Both presidents conducted disastrous wars -- Johnson in Vietnam and Bush in Iraq. Both created huge credibility gaps between reality and their rhetoric. Both were obsessed with secrecy. Both were wary of the news media. Both leaders demanded total loyalty from their aides. Neither Bush nor Johnson had shown any strong interest in foreign policy before becoming president. And both presidents failed to understand that military superiority doesn't mean easy victory over an insurgency fueled by nationalism.

But there are huge differences between Johnson and Bush when it comes to domestic affairs.

Johnson -- coming from a hard-scrabble Depression-era background -- worked ardently during his first two years in office to continue the caring society launched during the New Deal by his hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Johnson strongly believed that government has a role to play in the security and well being of its citizens.

The nation would not have had a Medicare program or a host of other social programs without Johnson's legislative prowess that he acquired during his years in the Senate.

Bush, on the other hand, clearly believes that government is an impediment that blocks the aspirations of individuals to join an "ownership" society, whatever that is. In his view, everyone can make it on his own.

This perspective has led to Bush's assault on one of the oldest and most successful government programs -- Social Security -- which provides insurance for the elderly and the disabled.

If he gets his way, there will be a chipping away of the present system with private investment accounts that rely on the stock market. To improve chances that Congress would go along, Bush has been trying to persuade Americans that Social Security is in a "crisis."

The president appears impressed by his success in persuading the American public two years ago that we faced a "crisis" from Iraq and, therefore, had to invade. Opinion polls now show that growing numbers of Americans see through that scare tactic and think the Iraq invasion was a mistake.

Johnson led the nation deeper into the Vietnam quagmire, a move that stands as a monument to bad judgment and tragedy, costing thousands of American and Vietnamese lives.

Even though he had pledged during his 1964 presidential campaign that he would not become bogged down in a war in Asia, Johnson began to escalate U.S. involvement after his election. At first, he had strong public support for the war in Vietnam. But enthusiasm for the conflict thousands of miles away began to wane as the casualty toll mounted and a relentless anti-war movement sprang up across the country. Johnson was stubbornly determined to "stay the course" and not lose a war. But in 1968 he saw the handwriting on the wall and renounced reelection.

The war had dissipated his political standing -- but not before he had achieved many of his cherished "Great Society" goals. Before the war engulfed his administration, Johnson made his mark on history for working to wipe out the glaring injustices in our society.

A wonderful new book titled "Judgment Days" by former Washington Post reporter Nick Kotz relates the epic relationship between Johnson and the Rev. Martin Luther King to achieve breakthroughs in civil rights. The book also recounts the big political break between the two giants over the Vietnam War when King decided that the war was immoral and that he could "no longer stand on the sidelines."

In an anti-war speech that caused a firestorm, King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world."

Unfortunately, there are no Martin Luther Kings -- and no vocal statesmen -- today to challenge Bush's recent contention in a Washington Post interview that the public ratified his decision to invade Iraq by reelecting him. Bush also said the elections wiped out any necessity for him to be accountable for the tall tales that he and other administration officials purveyed to bolster their case for war. His reelection settled all questions on Iraq for the American people because "they chose me," he said.

Nor does he intend to set any timetable for extracting the thousands of troops from Iraq. Shades of Johnsonian early stubbornness. On war, these two Texans march together.

But when one compares Johnson's record of helping the disadvantaged with Bush's, there's no contest.

(Helen Thomas can be reached at 202-263-6400 or at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com)

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