How Did Lyndon B Johnson Support The Vietnam War

The 1960s in the United States were a time of turmoil and revolution. Following President John F. Kennedy followed President Lyndon B. Johnson, who unfortunately inherited the burden of the Vietnam War. Though President Lyndon B. Johnson passed progressive legislature and engineered the Great Society programs, his international failures overshadowed his domestic successes. President Lyndon B. Johnson had some success in dealing with domestic and social problems he was unable to effectively navigate the Vietnam War and the political landscape of the 1960s.

After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson was immediately sworn in to take his place. Kennedy was killed at a crucial time in his presidency. Kennedy had recently killed off the Vietnam leader that the United States had put into power, Diem. Due to this and an overall increase in soldiers fighting, the combat in Vietnam was beginning to thicken more than it ever had. Lyndon B. Johnson was left with a lot on his plate, but he still maintained a strong belief to not “lose Vietnam.” Therefore, as the Viet Cong became more of a threat to our nation’s security, Johnson sent more troops to fight against the oppressive nature of communism.

Johnson’s relationship with congress was strong because he served in the house of representatives for 12 years. He passed many laws including the Civil Rights Act which played a role in stopping racial discrimination.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States. LBJ was very much involved in the political field as a Democrat, and he is one out of four people who served in all four elected federal offices of the United States (Representative, Senator, Vice President, and President). LBJ became president due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy as he was his running mate for the 1960 presidential election. He designed a piece of legislation called “Great Society” that included decrees that made a significant impact not only then, but today as well. These rights include Medicare, environmental protection, “War on Poverty”, etc.

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.

When Lyndon Baines Johnson was elected the United States President perhaps the biggest issue for him was that he inherited in office the Vietnam War. Around 1968 the United States of America had around 550,000 ground troops in Vietnam. South Vietnam was supported by the United States government at the time. North Vietnam was trying to take over South Vietnam and that's how the United States of America got involved in the Vietnam

Lyndon Johnson’s presidency was embroiled in foreign nations as was Madison’s. An advocator of the space program, Johnson and the leaders of Russia worked things out between their two nations. During Johnson’s presidency, Vietnam became his defining moment. Unfortunately, many people believe this to be his greatest failure.

President Lyndon B. Johnson Roselyn Meyer Streuter / Weinhold English and History 1 March 2024 Has one ever wondered about the impact of former President Lyndon B. Johnson's policy on our society? Usually, one would only hear about the greats like President Abraham Lincoln or President Washington, not about the lesser-known Presidents. Lyndon B. Johnson's efforts in the Vietnam War, as well as his ideals for a Great Society, still have an impact on us today. When Lyndon B. Johnson was young, he had a theory of a better society without poverty. As a child, his father struggled to make a living as a farmer, so they moved to Johnson City, to make a better living.

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.

He wanted to stop North Vietnamese Communists from taking over South Vietnam government in which the U.S. supported. Johnson believed that America’s national security depended on stopping the spread of communism around the world. American and Vietnamese causalities increased, and anti-war protests went on around college campuses and cities across the U.S. Johnson was no longer popular with his own Democratic Party. Johnson announced his decision to not run for reelection because it appeared that he might face a hard challenge for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Johnson decided he wanted to focus on issues without dealing with the stress of a political campaign. The issues with Vietnam brought him nothing but pain and frustration during his last months in office. For four more years, the U.S. military involvement continued in Vietnam even after Johnson left Washington in January 1969. Johnson moved to his ranch in Texas. Here he worked on establishing his presidential library and writing his memoirs. On January 22, 1973, he had a heart attack. He died at his ranch at the age of 64.

I Lyndon B. Johnson, commonly known as LBJ, am a man who was a cause of much change and debate in the United States. I was born on August 27, 1908 in the great state of Texas; a state that helped shaped me into who I am. I became involved with politics early on in my life and it seemed to be a natural progression towards presidency. In the year 1960 I started to campaign for the democratic presidential nomination. After this nomination was given to John F. Kennedy I ran for Vice President on the democratic ticket, and was sworn in to be the vice president on January 20, 1960. It was a little over two years later, on the 22nd of November in the year 1963, when the unfortunate assignation of my dear friends and leader John F. Kennedy occurred. It was because of this tragedy that I succeeded John F. Kennedy and became the 36th president of the United States of America.

President Lyndon Johnson attempted to do many great things in his presidency, yet not until the past ten years has he truly been talked about, and is done so in comparison to President Barack Obama, who has actually pulled off more great things than Johnson did. Some of these great things Lyndon tried to accomplish are eradicating poverty, supporting the African American right to vote, and participating in the Vietnam War. He accomplished the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which attempted to end racial discrimination in voting, but his attempts to end poverty are done the easy way rather than the better way, and the Vietnam War was a war no one wanted to fight besides the Republicans at that time. Johnson 's administration ignored many other problems in the nation, such as equality in the workplace for women, and police brutality against African Americans, and once a greater problem came by, attempts to fix the previous problem were abandoned by the Johnson administration.

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

What made this even more difficult was that he “had not given much attention to Vietnam or to foreign affairs in general” (Moise 30). For a nation like the United States in need of a decision on the fly, this was very troubling. Earlier “President Johnson felt that Harry Truman, in 1950, had erred by going into the Korean War without getting firm commitment of support from the congress” (Moise 226). In other words it appeared to be that Johnson would be careful about getting involved in a conflict like Vietnam. Being careful to say the least was not the case at all.

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.