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About this quote

What does it mean?
Generals are confident about foreign conflicts but often wrong about domestic wars.
In plain terms
Military leaders know a lot about other people's wars but less about their own.
What can you take from it?
Military advisors may lack insight into domestic conflicts.

Where it applies

  • analyzing military advice
  • discussing policy
  • evaluating leadership

Putting it to work

  • verify military claims
  • assess strategy independently

Questions to consider

  • Why do experts fail in their own field?
  • How do we evaluate military advice?

Another view

Some generals have accurate domestic assessments.

More from Lyndon Johnson

  1. If you let a bully come into your garden one day, the next day he'll be up on your porch, and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.

    Permalink to quote #22
  2. We have just lost the South for a generation.

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. If you have had your foot on the neck of a man for three hundred years, and then take it off, do you expect him to get up and thank you?

    Permalink to quote #21

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