You really can't make this stuff up.
Woody Harrelson, during an interview with Details magazine, admitted to being "an absolute moron" during his carefree Cheers days; this came after telling his questioner that Barack Obama is like Richard Nixon because Nixon escalated the Vietnam War:
DETAILS: You've said that playing a cop has made you more sympathetic toward the police. Did playing Steve Schmidt in Game Change make you sympathetic to Republicans?
Woody Harrelson: I like Steve Schmidt. But I tend to not like politicians, because it's a subtle form of prostitution. Or maybe not so subtle.DETAILS: So you dislike Democrats as much as you dislike the GOP?
Woody Harrelson: It's all synchronized swimming to me. They all kneel and kiss the ring. Who's going to take on the oil industry or the medical industry? People compare Obama to Lyndon Johnson, but I think a better comparison is between Obama and Nixon. Because Nixon came into office saying he was going to pull out of Vietnam, and then he escalated the war. A lot of us were led to believe that Obama was the peace president, but there are still, I think, 70,000 troops in Afghanistan.
I know. I know. He's just an actor. What should we expect?
However, this kind of stuff irks me because I quite imagine many liberals in the media believe the same thing and that's why so much of the public has a misinformed view of Nixon.
So let's set the record straight for the Woodman.
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Lyndon Baines Johnson took over as president, there were still no official American combat troops in Vietnam.
As HistoryPlace.com observes, at the end of 1963, there were "16,300 American military advisors in South Vietnam which received $500 million in U.S. aid during" the year.
On March 8, 1965, "[t]he first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam as 3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam."
At the end of 1968, "U.S. troop levels reached 495,000 with 30,000 American deaths to date. In 1968, over a thousand a month were killed."
Nixon was inaugurated on January 20, 1969. On April 30, "U.S. troop levels peak at 543,400."
As such, claiming Nixon escalated the Vietnam War - when in reality, he got us out! - is about as addle-minded as one can get.
Alas, what should we expect from an admitted "absolute moron?"
DETAILS: Okay. You were raised in a very religious family. What were your twenties like, after Cheers made you a star?
Woody Harrelson: It was the time I shook off the yoke of organized religion and became a hedonist. I won't paint a sensationalistic picture for you, but you can imagine. I was famous, I was wealthy. I was an idiot. An absolute moron.
We believe you, Woody. We sincerely believe you.
Where we differ is on the word "was."
