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Similarities Between Truman And Lyndon B. Johnson

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Harry Truman 1945-1953 and Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-68 are two of the most memorable presidents in American History. Truman came into power post World War II, a very controversial time in America and the wider world and Johnson came into power after the assination of one of the most famous United States president in American History, John F.Kennedy. Truman and Johnson have many similarities and many differences. They are similar in the way they were both viewed very negatively coming into their presidency. Johnson ws depicted by his towering ego and he was ditrusted by many people especially Liberals, indeed few presidents recieved as much abuse as Johnson. Truman also recieved the same negativity, he was Roosevelt’s successor who was the longest …show more content…

Franklin Roosevelt’s successor after his death, some might say it was quite unfortunate for Truman at the begining of his presidency as Franklin D. Roosevelt was the longest serving president in American history at the time and many Americans could actually not remember who sat in the presidents Office before Roosevelt, they assumed he would be there forever . Trumans main focus in his presidency was foreign policy. Foreign policy was the hallmark of Turman’s presidency even though he was just following Roosevelt’s policies as he did not have a great knowledge in military issues and the outside world. Having just come out of the second World War, America was now the ‘most powerful nation in the world both politically and economically’ . There was massive post war issues that needed to be resolved not just in America but in Europe and the …show more content…

Johnson was John F.Kennedy’s successor after Kennedy was assinated on 23 November 1963 which was a major shock to the public. However Johnson’s critiscm arose from not only the American public but also from his staff, by the late 1960’s stories circulated about his towering ego, his crudity, to the public ‘he was not a very likable man’ . Johnsons main focus was domestic affairs, he could not accept the urgent need for provisions in Foreign Policy. The issues that were on Johnson’s mind were bills such as foreign aid, civil rights, tax reduction, higher minium wage and Medicare . As you can see military and foreign policies were not high up on his list, this was more than likely because of his lack of knowledge of the outside world. The failure of the Vietnam War is what made Johnson one of the most unknowledged presidents in American history in my opinion. In 1965 two years after Johnson’s inaugration America entered a large scale war in Vietnam. Johnson established a bombing progam ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’ against North Vietnam in 1965 that continued to 1968. Johnson just kept sending American troops into North Vietnam by late july 1965 Johnson had agreed ón another deployment of an additional deployment of 50,000 troops to Vietnam and he made all these massive military decisions without having any real military experince himself. Many people

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