When former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s daughters smashed champagne bottles against a metal star atop the bow of the ship named for him last month, the crowd roared, patriotic streamers shot skyward, and there were smiles all around.

No one was churlish enough to mar the christening ceremony in Bath, Maine, by noting that in naming the futuristic-looking stealth destroyer for the 36th president, the Navy was honoring a part-time officer who spent decades wearing a decoration for valor that he knew full well he didn’t rate.

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