Itâ??s been 45 years since George Romney committed one of the greatest gaffes in American political history â?? a misstep that supposedly inspired one of the most devastating putdowns in American political history.
Interestingly, though, crucial details about the devastating putdown remain rather murky.
Romneyâ??s gaffe, which effectively destroyed his run for the presidency before it officially began, came in an interview taped on August 31, 1967, and aired September 4, 1967, on a Detroit television station.
In the interview, Romney, then governor of Michigan and a presumptive Republican candidate for president, referred to his visit to South Vietnam in 1965 and declared:
â??You know, when I came back from Vietnam, Iâ??d just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody could get. â?¦ Well, not only by the generals but by the diplomatic corps over there. They do a very thorough job.â?
The assertion that he had been duped into supporting Americaâ??s war effort in Vietnam revealed Romneyâ??s muddled thinking and an uncertain command of foreign policy. (â??Could the country afford a President who was so easily deceived?â? the New York Times wondered.)
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