Docudrama: PATH TO WAR (2002) AA+

Super excellent HBO Special of how President Johnson wandered into the Vietnam War and the pain that he went through during his decision making processes. If you are interested in History, DO NOT miss this movie!!

It clearly showed the flawed and conflicting advice he received from his advisers, (which changed over time).  What it doesn't included is how our entry into that debacle changed the history and the path of United States foreign and domestic policy.  The story unfolds as almost a Shakespearean tragedy, with Johnson as a modern-day Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear rolled into one. 

We entered this unwinable war against a people who had been successfully fighting foes since Genghis Khan invaded in the 12th century . . . just at the same time Johnson was creating and passing "The Great Society" bills through Congress . . . which included Medicare and Medicaid.

Others' Comments: John Frankenheimer's searing and insightful film tells the inside story of how "the best and the brightest" advisors in the Lyndon Johnson  administration counseled him in the decisions that led to America's deeper engagement in Vietnam. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara is portrayed by Alec Baldwin and Golden Globe-winning Donald Sutherland plays special advisor Clark Clifford. Inspired by author Robert A. Caro's massive biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the made-for-cable Path To War retraces the world-shaking events occurring between LBJ's jubilant inaugural in 1965 and his tired, dispirited decision not to seek another presidential term in 1968. At the crux of these tumultuous three years is the war in Vietnam, which forces Johnson  to shunt his proposed "Great Society" to the back burner. Though famous in political circles as a wrangler and compromiser, LBJ cannot seem to do anything right in pursuing the war; nor are his chief advisors, the hawkish Robert McNamara and the dove-ish Clark Clifford, able to forge a permanent policy agreement. As Clifford warns Johnson that "escalation will ruin you, and all the great good you want to do," McNamara presses for a continuation of the war lest America lose face and Vietnam fall to the Communists.