Lyndon B Johnson and the Kennedy Doctrine

Both JFK and Johnson were highly famous, yet controversial presidents. Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the US, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy was the youngest man to run in office. As president, Kennedy endured to tense Cold War strains in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He additionally drove a reestablished drive for an open administration and in the long run gave government support to the developing social equality development. On November 22, 1963 JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. His successor, Johnson, took over as president for a brief period of time. In spite of his noteworthy accomplishments in mainland US, Johnson's legacy was characterized by his inability to lead

Each timeline shared several commonalities regarding the socio-cultural, economic and political occurrences during the reign of President Kennedy and President Johnson. Such similarities include the overall flow of each group’s paper, which for the most part either introduced Kennedy’s assassination followed by Johnson’s presidential accession or the Civil Right’s movement. In my opinion, the former and the latter were significant ingredients to the Great Society Program’s magnitude because out of “respect for the slain president,” ambitions, new legislation was created to equalize the playing for the poor (who where mainly minorities) (U.S. Department of State, n.d.). Hence, the beginning of Johnson’s notable proclamation for a “war on poverty”

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

During the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential administration, both those policy makers who supported America’s involvement in Vietnam and those who opposed the war were part of the “containment generation.” They had reached political maturity during World War II and the early years of the Cold War and had experienced the intense anticommunism of the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. These leaders understood and applied the lessons of American nationalism, which had the primary message that the U.S. was the dominating nation that had to embrace its responsibility to aid and improve nations in America’s image. Therefore, when they saw that there was a threat of the spread of communism to areas of Southeast Asia, a majority of the

It was the early 1960’s and civil rights was a big argument. John F. Kennedy had just been elected president and his vice-president was Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy did a lot for civil rights, but was sadly assassinated three years after his election. Lyndon Johnson then became the president of the United States. Johnson had been born on a farm to a poor family, but slowly made his way up into congress. Johnson was a US Representative and a US Senate for Texas. In 1960 he decided to take a step up, and run for president of the United States. Johnson lost to Kennedy, but became his vice-president. Little did he know that he would soon become the president of the United States. When Johnson did become the president of the

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

In the first essay Fear, Ambition, and Politics by Robert Dallek, he talks about the way that the United States started to really conflict with Vietnam and how some of Lyndon Johnson’s issues led the U.S. into it. One thing was clear and it was that Lyndon Johnson did not want communism to spread. Johnson’s advisors would continuously report to him that things were starting to become more serious in Saigon. Johnson did not want to send troops though, saying the he would “not permit the independent nations of the East to be swallowed up by Communist conquest, and it would not mean sending American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing themselves.” Clearly his word did not last though. Dallek seems to have a rather negative view of Johnson because he wasn’t taking the precautionary steps to prevent certain events, and he could not keep his word. Johnson seemed to disagree with his own actions about what we should do in Vietnam because it was so unpredictable. He did not want American involvement, but the pressure ended up getting the best of him. He sent one of his advisors, McGeorge Bundy, to Vietnam to talk about what we should do to help alleviate South Vietnam. Bundy thought that U.S. action was a must or “defeat would be inevitable and there is still time to turn it around.” Johnson then decided to start bombing the North on February 8th, but he was not pleased with having to make this decision. This is known as the Rolling

President Kennedy and President Johnson had policies that lead America to the nation it is today. Although many policies were successful, both Johnson and Kennedy had committed some errors. This didn't stop the evolution of America or either of the hard working presidents on accomplishing what they both intended to do while in their time of presidency.

January 1969, Richard Nixon entered the executive office picking up the pieces Lyndon Johnson who had left while the Vietnam War was still in effect. Many Americans had the expectation that Nixon would be the “peaceful president”, visualizing he would put an end to this war in Southeast Asian and bring back home our troops. A policy Nixon redefined was the American role in the world by suggesting to limit the U.S resources and commitments. Therefore, Nixon’s set his efforts to end the war since the withdrawal from Vietnam was not an immediate option. Also, Nixon had his radar on Moscow and China because according to George C. Herring, they felt that they must release the United States from the war in a way that would uphold United States credibility with their friends and foes alike. During Nixon’s term in office, he tries a number of different strategies in his effort to end the war, but to this day, one can see that Nixon only prolonged the war when it could have ended earlier.

John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, the second of nine children. He was a US statesman and our 35th president. He came from a family with a history of good politics. As an infant he lived in a comfortable but modest frame house in that suburb of Boston. As the family got larger and the father's income and fortune increased, the Kennedys moved to larger, more impressive homes. Their first home was in Brookline, followed by the suburbs of New York City. John F. Kennedy had a happy childhood that was full of family games and sports. He attended many different private elementary schools, which were all non parochial. He later spent a year at Canterbury School in New Milford,

The 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson, has been seen through many perspectives, and those opinions have shaped how we view his role in history. The president was crucial to the outcome of the Vietnam War, and greatly impacted the lives and deaths of thousands of American soldiers. He has sometimes been criticized by politicians, years after his death. Some agree with his opinions and look up to him as one of the greatest figures in the past. Here are two outlooks on his life and career- how Lyndon B. Johnson is portrayed throughout history and how he is written in the novel The Wednesday Wars.

The late president John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said, “Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can” (“John F. Kennedy” BrainyQuote.com). Kennedy was a young and fresh political figure at the time of his election in 1960. The thirty-fifth president of the United States was born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the youngest president ever, as well as the first and only Roman Catholic president (Bass, et al.). His presidency was shortened by an assassin on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy preceded his presidency with a term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1947-1953) and a term in the U.S. Senate (1953-1961) (“John F. Kennedy” History.com). Kennedy, a

Kennedy learned various lessons from Cuba and Berlin such as: looking for diplomatic solutions, being skeptical of his advisors, and to not act without plausible deniability. Kennedy would carry over those lessons for the rest of his term as President. Had Kennedy remained President from 1964-1968, the lessons acquired from Cuba and Berlin would have prevented an escalation in Vietnam. Kennedy viewed getting involved in Vietnam as a disruption to his foreign policy goals. One of Kennedy’s primary concerns during the Cold War was preventing escalation with the Soviet Union, it was a larger concern to him than to his advisors. The United States lacked support from other major countries and by interfering in Vietnam, the relationship with China that Kennedy wanted would have been negatively impacted. Kennedy’s priority during the Cold War was to defuse conflicts in Europe, and Vietnam would have been a secondary struggle with no real benefit. Kennedy demonstrated his skepticism to his advisor’s proposals by rejecting Rostow’s Berlin proposals. As a second term President, Kennedy would only have more freedoms when making foreign policy decisions. Kennedy did not want militaristic escalation in Vietnam, and would ensure that escalation would not take place. Although Kennedy did want to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, sending ground troops was not the way he wanted to accomplish his goals. Kennedy would carry over his diplomatic intentions or quick action

When discussing Eisenhower, Gaddis details the massive retaliation policy adopted by Eisenhower and John Dulles. “The New Look’ as it is referred to, was instead of building up the military by providing more men, instead it would be cost effective to build up arms, and threaten nuclear attacks if the Soviets attempted to influence other areas across the globe and spread communism. With Kennedy and Johnson both, the return to NSC-68 and Vietnam are covered by Gaddis. With more military and economic support for preventing communism, troops were spread to places in Vietnam specifically and across the globe attempting to resist communist forces in many places. This ‘flexible response’ was in essence reducing the power of the army as a whole. The defeat in Vietnam and the flexible response method used by Kennedy and Johnson was judged harshly by Gaddis. The final administration covered by Gaddis was the Nixon presidency. This period, known as Détente, signals a return to Kennan’s approach to an extent while combining policies from the Kennedy and Johnson diplomacy. Nixon and Kissinger worked towards establishing international rules of conduct in which the Soviets and China would soon follow promptly and the balance of powers in the world would provide for stability.

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (1961-1963). He was born