Thomas P. O'Neill

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came of age in the Great Depression, arrived in congress from
Massachusetts in 1952 and "came to power amid the plenty of the '60s and '70s."
(Woodlief 4) He was a rampant liberal who "would usually vote yes on any bill
that helped people (he once voted to put money into an appropriations bill to
study knock knees)." (Gelzinas 6) When Reagan came into office in 1980 big
government began to feel the pinch and O'Neill's big hearted liberalism was on
the way out. In 1980, O'Neill was a target of a clever Republican ad campaign
that pictured him in a limo as a symbol of a bloated out of control congress.
The advertisement backfired and it sent O'Neill into folk hero status. Tip even
"made an appearance on "Cheers" as an effect of the advertisement." (Time 18)
Tip said that he "only made one vote that he regretted." (O'Neill 218)
It was a yes vote on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that gave Lyndon Johnson
full control over all military intervention in Vietnam. He did ...

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later Tip started to ask questions. He found that all these pentagon
officials felt that we should not send troops to Vietnam unless we plan to win.
Johnson didn't want the soldiers to take the offensive.

They were not the only ones. Most CIA officials and members of the
defense department who openly supported Johnson's stance were "saying the
opposite after a few beers." (O'Neill 233) Tip was invited to a private dinner
of CIA officials and there everyone he met was openly against the war because
they felt it was unwinnable, but the all pledged publicly with Johnson. These
CIA officers said all foreign officials were against the war as well as the
American public. They ...

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