The War: Pulling Together

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Lyndon Johnson reiterated his own determination to do so the night before the Guam conference broke up. Hosting a shrimp-creole dinner at Nimitz House, he told the story of a Vietnamese emissary who was dispatched to Washington in 1873 to seek help from President Grant against the invading French. Grant said no, and the agent sadly headed home. En route, he stopped in Yokohama to visit the U.S. consul, an old friend, and to exchange poems, as was the custom in those parts and times. The final line of the Vietnamese emissary's poem read: "Spiritual companion, in what year will we be together in the same sampan?" Said President Johnson: "Today we know the answer. We are together. And we know our destination."