Why did Johnson escalate key involvement in Vietnam Essay

Johnson had handled many responsibilities when it came down to the Vietnam War and he had also handled the situation fairly. Johnson had the support from Congress to a forceful approach to the Vietnam disagreement. When Johnson had sworn in the presidency he had begun to change the military. Johnson had many hopes

In 1965, he “ordered an increase in U.S. military forces in Vietnam, from the present 75,000 to 125,000”(History). Immediate reaction followed from this, and communist leader attacked him for this decision. This became “a major turning point, as it effectively guaranteed U.S. military leaders a blank check to pursue the war”(History). Johnson's future tactics included more men and many bombings and plans such as operation rolling thunder. These failed due to the fact that the Vietcong was not defeated stepping down from war. The more men he sent overseas just generated more chaos in America and deaths in Vietnam. In addition to this, North Vietnam had significantly less troops than we did in the South, they had about “10,000 troops...meanwhile we have an occupation force of 500,000 ground troops”, this doesn't include the naval and air command(Doc G). Lastly, the biggest shock for not only the President but the citizens lied in the fact that everyone believed it wasn't “possible for us to lose the war. We are too strong…”(Doc F). Johnson along with the generals aimed to “fight it with the least cost to ourselves and the greatest cost to our enemy”(Doc F). Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite with the failure through the President's failed military tactics and policies.

The amount of bad press and criticism received from the whole country showed how poorly the conflict was being handled. Citizens of the United States became peace protesters and would cause massive scenes and rally against the war in public. This gave the public a negative view towards Johnson because a majority of Americans wanted out of Vietnam completely. Cohen quotes Todd Gitlin who states “Imagine the sixties without . . . the Vietnam War, and you can imagine an enduring era of reform . . . a reasonably successful wave of racial integration, a modestly successful War on Poverty, a weakened black power strain.” Gitlin is completely correct if Johnson had been able to end the war in Vietnam his presidency would’ve been completely spectacular. Johnson would have been able to end the war, grant more rights to all Americans regardless of race, and have an era of reform on his

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.

Johnsons act, as president had been nothing but smooth riding in the passing of many reforms that benefited the population of the United States. He won passage of the War on Poverty, and signed into law bills establishing environmental protections. Johnson, however like any Shakespearean hero, is a good character to the eyes of the people and American society, but it is he who was destroyed by his own ego and desire for self-advancement. Johnson was consumed by the lust for power for presidency not just for the position but because he wanted to get things done for the people. It was Vietnam, however, that brought Johnson’s presidency to an end. Rather than resolving a war that had been passed onto him by his predecessor he escalated the war in Vietnam. Johnson was relatively successful in domestic challenges, but the tornado of Vietnam sunk his re-election bid in 1968. Johnson had abandoned his pursuit for greatness and was perceived as a defeated

For this reason the United States became involved in Vietnam because it believed that if all of the country fell under a Communist

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

The war in Asia did more damage than people thought then just the dysfunction of the liberal politics. It also damage the national life and authority of the President. This led to the belief that supporters of Johnson were better off being away from him than being right on his side.

US policy during the war was weak and not nearly aggressive enough to beat the North Vietnamese. For example, President Johnson was unwilling to order a full scale invasion of North Vietnam. His reason for this was it passed through the territory of countries not involved in the war This was due to fears that it would also provoke China into entering the war directly. Another example would be Johnson’s refusal to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a result, supplies would continue to flow uninterrupted. The reasons for not cutting off the trail were mainly political. These political reasons include not wanting to breach Laotian neutrality, especially since the North Vietnamese had no qualms about breaching, and that US

American Public Opinion of the Vietnam War At the beginning of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, in 1965, the American Public favored the idea of war because they feared the threat of communism. Polls conducted in 1965, showed 80 percent of the population agreed with President Johnson and were for the war (Rousseau 11). The U.S. got involved with the war to stop communism from spreading throughout South Asia. Americans were afraid if one country on South Asia turned to communism, it would extend to other countries, which is known as the "Domino Theory".

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.

President Kennedy saw the Vietnam situation as America’s fight to stop the spread of communism. Kennedy, who was young and well liked by the American people, did not really see much protest from the American people. He wanted equality in America, and supported open-mindedness in his country; at his assassination in 1963 only 15,000 troops were in Vietnam. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson greatly increased the number of troops that went to Vietnam, reaching 500,000 in 1966. Television allowed the American public to see what these soldiers were facing and that this was a senseless war. Too many men were coming home in American flag draped coffins, causing many Americans to rebel and move to the new hippie counterculture.

Many of the military there were bad and close to collapsing and such. Behind the scenes though the US diplomats and the CIA operatives were there trying to hold things together. Johnson was getting impatient so he took matters into his own hands and ordered a heavy bombing campaign against north vietnam. He also had ordered the relocation of US planes from Okinawa, Japan to Da Nan. The military planners had also made up a list of what were the north vietnamese targets: military bases, munitions dumps, fuel storage depots and roads and bridges.

United States Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy had spent millions of dollars to aid the non-communist South Vietnamese. Before 1964 thousands of American military advisers were training and assisting the South Vietnamese army. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision to bomb North Vietnam put the United States in the center of the longest war in the nations history. The Vietcong (North Vietnamese) grew more aggressive after the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin. On November 1964, they attacked the American base at Bien Hoa and destroyed five B-57 jets while damaging twenty more. Since the increase of tension with the Vietcong continued, draft calls had increased substantially in the United States and American casualties were being felt across the country.

This reason is linked to the Domino Theory as Truman supported the French in the hope that communism would not spread into Vietnam and hence preventing it from spreading to the rest of the world. Furthermore, this is a long term cause as containment was introduced even before the Domino Theory. A third reason why the USAbecame involved in Vietnam was when Eisenhower supported Diem's corrupt government in the South. Until this point it was a civil war between the communist north and the capitalist south.