"When I was a boy we didn't wake up with Vietnam and have Cyprus for lunch and the Congo for dinner"
- Lyndon B. Johnson
About this Quote
Lyndon B. Johnson made this quote in a speech in 1965, resolving the rapid pace of international events happening at the time. He was referencing the propensity of information media to report on worldwide problems in a sensationalized and also immediate fashion, causing visitors to feel overloaded and also pestered with details.
Johnson's point was that in his young people, information from all over the world was not as immediately available or as rapidly communicated as it was in the 1960s. The instances he gave (Vietnam, Cyprus, Congo) were all disputes or situations that were ongoing throughout his presidency, as well as which received extensive media insurance coverage.
Overall, Johnson's quote talks to the complicated connection in between media, politics, as well as popular opinion. It suggests that the rate and also intensity of information coverage can shape public understandings of world events, and that this can have substantial impacts on diplomacy choices and results.
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