President Lyndon B. Johnson

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

The Vietnam War loomed predominantly over three U.S. presidencies. When John F. Kennedy came to the presidency, he immediately inherited Dwight Eisenhower’s commitment to assist Saigon in its struggle

In reality, his main concern as president was to ‘provide education and medical care to the browns and the blacks and the lame and the poor’ (Hunt 72). He wanted to focus on social reforms but with Vietnam looming, he had no choice but to try to handle that situation and to end the wishy – washy debates on the war that occurred in the homes of Americans. Johnson wanted ground troops; all he needed was a reason to send them there. The sooner he sent troops to crush communism, the sooner he’ll be working on his domestic programs (Hunt 79). President Johnson first started by launching sorties against the North Vietnamese, then when that wasn’t working as fast, wanted ground troops to do the dirty work. The only thing this president needed was a reason to send combat troops. Obviously, he completely disregarded the lessons from the past and so after the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident, proclaimed that ‘he didn’t just screw Ho Chi Minh, he cut his pecker off,’ (Hunt 85). This, of course, was said after he destroyed a few Northern Vietnamese facilities. As the years worn on, public support for the war decreased and, different advisors brought up the thought of that this was a place that a ground war should not be found, “They would go into Vietnam as foreigners lacking local cooperation’s and good intelligence and fighting in unfavorable jungle terrain, “ warned Secretary of State George Ball (Hunt 103). Nevertheless, President Johnson did not want to hear anything about it and declared war against

As the country was reeling from the loss of such a legendary president, the country was in a state of disarray. Rights as a whole were virtually non-existent. The country was extremely lacking in the health department. As a whole, the United States was losing people to poverty, it seemed, by the minute. Most importantly, however,

The writing that I will be analyzing is the Third Annual Message from President Andrew Johnson written on December 3, 1867. Andrew Johnson was a white male that was the vice president and then becomes president after the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln after civil war had ended. Johnson was born into poverty in North Carolina and he did not attend school. He became a tailor and his wife taught how to read. He had the reputation of being self-made men. He was a Democrat and believed in slavery; Johnson was responsible for the amnesty and reconstruction of May 1865 that forgives southerners from any prosecutions or consequences of their

Having been instituted on July of 1965 by President Lyndon, Johnson, for 50 years now, Medicare has served as a means of of health insurance for individuals 65 and above. This program has served as a means of getting healthcare to the elderly despite their financial situation. Going back as far as 1912, America had long been aspiring to establish a health insurance policy for Americans, but alas, none of these projects ever got real momentum. That was until 1945 when Harry Truman was elected into office. Truman believed health care for every American was an urgent matter so he requested that congress create a National Health Insurance Policy, which would help every American pay for meticulous things such as routine doctor visits, dental care, and other necessities. Despite his dedication, Truman’s plan deteriorated and nothing was accomplished. Finally, in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed for legislation to establish what we all know today as Medicare.Since then, the program has experienced countless changes coming to cover far more Americans. At the time, it only consisted of Part A and B, but over the years, but has come to include C and D as well. Despite having been created in order to help a wider population, the program has been proven to have aspects of it that ultimately harm consumers.

I believe that Lyndon Johnson was focused more on the domestic picture of the United States and was very unhappy to be involved in Vietnam in any form. Lyndon Johnson wanted to be more focused on making our country than focusing on others.

Many people dream of becoming the President of the United States, but few realize the difficulties that a country’s leader must face: tough decisions, public scrutiny, and more. Because of this, the role of president can be considered one of the most difficult jobs in America. It is no wonder why individuals who attain the prestigious position will sometimes decide not to run for reelection. For President Lyndon B. Johnson, it was circumstance that led to his decision to refrain from being president for another four years. By 1968, America’s effort to secure a genuine victory in Vietnam was severely hindered by the Tet Offensive. This critical turning point had a tremendous impact on the public’s support for the war and the way the media reported the war to the American people. As a result, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for reelection, seeing that he would struggle to even keep his party’s nomination.

He and the group had 3 options to deal with the pressing Vietnam Issues. The first option was to continue with the current approach of soldiers and methods in Vietnam. The second option was to escalate the war entirely and direct bombs to North Vietnam. Alternatively, the third option was to follow a series of graduated response in the area to efficiently sustain resources. After discussion between Johnson and the ITF, they fell on the option of a series of graduated response in Vietnam. The first phase in their approach was named “Operation Barrel Roll” and in this phase they decided to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a supply route running through Laos and Cambodia controlled by the North Vietnamese (Campbell, n.pag.). Johnson’s next move was named “Rolling Thunder” where Aircraft Carriers were put into the South China Sea to expand their influence in the area and start to put pressure onto the North Vietnamese with airstrikes and bombings. This operation was escalated as a retaliatory fight due to the Viet Cong’s attack on the U.S. base named Pleiku (History.com, n.pag.). Johnson had to deal with how he would go about fighting communism in Vietnam and trying to keep both his people happy and being efficient at stopping

With the free hand recently provided by Congress, Johnson presumed that escalation would help to protect his soldiers. He ordered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to begin an intense series of air strikes called “Operation Rolling Thunder”. He hoped that the bombing campaign would demonstrate to the South Vietnamese the U.S. commitment to their cause, and its resolve to halt the spread of Communism. Ironically, the air raids seemed only to increase the number of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army attacks.

In other side, Johnson’s personality also played an important role during his presidency. American Diplomatic Historian Lloyd Gardner pointed the validation of his beliefs was a very important part to know Johnson’s politic. Like mentioned in previous part, he stated he can not be the president that lost Vietnam and would continue Kennedy’s policies. Also, he feared the criticism about his inability on Vietnam War. The persistence of Johnson led he continued and maintained Vietnam’s policy after he became president. Despite rising costs and more concerns raised in later periods, he still took several military actions and wanted to use his way to end the war “as efficiently as possible” .

When he first was appointed president, he continued with the commitment that the presidents had made before him which was that they will fight to see South Vietnam stay independent. Johnson believed in the containment theory which stated that if South Vietnam fell

The objective was in part an attempt to prevent the Cold War from escalating. However, achieving this objective was unclear and was being fought in extreme conditions. According to Herring, Vietnam was, “a formless war against a formless enemy”. The US had never fought a war on such rough terrain like Vietnam. According to Herring, the war was, “It was an extremely difficult war for the United States to fight, waged in a climate and on terrain that were singularly inhospitable to outsiders” (410). According to the West article, “Vietnam was fought in thick underbrush and steep jungles. It was a grunt war far from roads.” (2) The Vietnamese were patient and resilient under the harshest of elements. These miscalculations provided a lesson for the US and thus, Vietnam continues to linger in the back of every American’s mind when deciding to engage in future

The war of attrition waged by William Westmoreland from 1965-1968 was not the most effective way to defeat the Vietcong insurgents. The policy of the “war of attrition” was supposed to be counterinsurgency and pacification, but it was truly a “search and destroy” (Class notes, March 1st). The “search and destroy” started with STARLIGHT and the results would end in many destroyed villages, simply since the goals were to fight the Vietcong. The operations were “designed to find, fix in place, fight and destroy…enemy forces and their base areas and supply caches” (Young 162-163). Westmoreland led himself to believe this was the most effective way to defeat the Vietcong and all the destruction that came along with the operations were seen as brilliant victories; the Vietcong did not back down. However, McNamara recognized the issue of Westmoreland’s “war of attrition”, McNamara realized the lack of support and the absence of permanent security. Even though, McNamara encouraged compromise with decreased deployment or the increased bombing of the North, he appeared to recognize the success rate of U.S. victory as low (Hunt, 91).

Furthermore, President Kennedy 's vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was sworn in as president aboard. Bring many domestic changes to domestic and foreign policies in response to the worsening situation in Vietnam. Kennedy was more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policy. Kennedy and Johnson, as a result, turned out to be a great team for the development of social programs for the youth. Johnson was unable to devote more time to America 's domestic