Lyndon B Johnson And The Vietnam War

In this essay, the author will examine the position of the Kennedy Administration with regard to its ability to respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially to guerrilla warfare. Historians generally think of John F. Kennedy's policies with regard to Vietnam. However, Vietnam was a secondary issue for Kennedy, at least in the public eye. The administration’s prestige was riding on success or failure in Cuba. Unfortunately for Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs incident turned out to be a disaster, leaving Fidel Castro firmly ensconced in power. In its wake, the administration maintained its anti-Castro options by continuing undeclared guerrilla war against Castro. While the administration refused to go ahead with more aggressive plans

“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous

1. Alfred Smith was attacked/smeared in the 1928 election because of religious differences (Catholic) and the prosperity of the ‘20s the Republicans took credit of.

LBJ’s decision to Americanize the war was not wise and well-informed, an accurate answer for U.S. defeat in Vietnam was the decision to Americanize the war. Influencing the belief that Johnson’ decision to escalate appeared to have been predetermined; Johnson consistently appeared to be in favor of increasing military in South Vietnam, and he only needed something to happen in order to validate his reasoning for the increase of U.S. involvement. This something was the Tonkin Gulf incident and this event became Johnson’s basis “to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States…” (Young, 119); that this was a declaration of war (Hunt, 67). However, this incident, as Nicholas Katzenbach said, “was

America has gone through high and lows as a country, but overall we overcome and grow and use our history to shape out future. When John F. Kennedy died, Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president and was at first liked and favored that he came back for a real term after the term he took over after JFK died. He then changed, and brought many Americans to fight in Vietnam and sacrifice their lives for a Vietnamese war, and was greatly looked down upon for this. Lyndon B. Johnson politically and socially with his Great Society and changed during his time as President of the United States of America.

Social and economic tensions were not the only things strained because of the war, political activities were on the brink as well. The Domino Theory, speculation that if one country takes another to communism, the surrounding countries will fall to it as well, was one of the main reasons for starting the war. If the Domino Theory had occurred, the United States would suffer a horrible loss to foreign affairs, something they were not able to handle at that time. When the affair in the Gulf of Tonkin happened in 1964, the U.S. government jumped on the idea to stop Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin, a ship, the U.S.S. Maddox, was attacked by Vietnam patrol boats. Even though the Maddox was unhurt, the LBJ jumped on the opportunity to squash the Domino Effect before it started. Soon after the attack, Lyndon B Johnson got the ‘stamp of approval’ from Congress to counter attack. He was allowed to “Take all necessary measure to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” (Doc A) Little did they know that their

In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since

Throughout history, there is a common trend that can be seen: political figures can “change” to gain more political control. Lyndon Baines Johnson (L.B.J.) was a man hailing from Stonewall, Texas, a hardcore Texan who went on to be a senator with his southern political bonds. Integration was highly opposed in the South, and the question remains: Why did L.B.J. sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, eliminating segregation nationally? Political decisions often benefits those who have or want high power, and so the Public Opinion Polls, the Sincerity Question, and the 1957 Stumbling Block depiction, believably, influenced to L.B.J. to sign the Civil Rights Act for his own political gain.

Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam was a defining moment of his presidency. Many things influenced him to escalate, including the cold war context, the advice from the working group, the weakness of the South Vietnamese Government, and protecting the US bases. I think that the main factor which influenced Johnson to escalate US Involvement was the advice given to him by the Working group because these were his closest and most trusted advisors.

Johnson had opened peace talks with the Vietnamese, and it was providing his candidate with a popularity boost. Nixon, recalling a similar situation at the previous midterm elections, believed this to be a political ploy. One of the men in the Johnson administration had warned him that Johnson intended to pause the bombing of North Vietnam, a major step in the negotiations, so Nixon decided to

On May 13 the US started its negotiations to end the war but North Vietnam wouldn't officially negotiate with the US unless they stopped bombing the rest of North Vietnam. When President Johnson told the military to stop the bombing, it did nothing but create problems with their South Vietnamese allies. The US did not think they would win the war, with their military. The United States thought it would end by peaceful negotiations with north Vietnam and would still give a chance for South Vietnam to

The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.

The Vietnam War was a very long war, which when on for 20 years. This war went on to go on for such a long time it made it through four presidential terms which were, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. These presidents had to give speeches to the people of The United States to inform them about what was going on in Vietnam and explain how it's getting closer to the end of the war Although all the presidents had to give speeches their speeches were talking about the same thing which was the war, but their concepts were different. The first speech is from President Eisenhower, he explains his "Domino Theory". The second speech was given by John F. Kennedy regarding the conflict in Vietnam.