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How Did President Johnson Influence The Vietnam War

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President Johnson made the Vietnam War his own by manipulating information, and the media to get congress to help support him in fighting the war. He didn’t want to go to war with Vietnam, but he felt that if the U.S. did not help South Vietnam, it would be a failure on him to have let Vietnam become a communist country. He was determined to keep the North Vietnamese communists from taking control over the government of South Vietnam. He feared that if America did not do anything to help contain communism, that it would spread throughout the world. This was also known as the “Domino Theory,” in which President Johnson strongly believed in. This prompted President Johnson to bump up military involvement in Vietnam, hoping to ensure U.S. victory.
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Lyndon Baines Johnson, who reigned as president from 1963 to 1968 in the US, sparked a profound impact on the Vietnam War by escalating the involvement of the United States through The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and implementing the controversial strategy of Operation Ranch Hand. As a result of the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Johnson obtained the authority to utilise a range of defensive measures that he considered essential in promoting international peace and securing Southeast Asia. This discussion will encompass how the interaction between the measures that Johnson enforced and the logic surrounding them ultimately transformed the Vietnam War in 1955. Lyndon Baines Johnson significantly impacted the Vietnam War by utilising the Gulf of Tonkin

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Lyndon B. Johnson made the Vietnam War his own by using manipulating. He used the media to get the support of the Congress. Media helped him manipulate Congress into coming on President Johnson side, so they could continue the war. The misinformation leads Congress to believe anything President told them. He informed them that the United States were the victims.

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Before the start of the Vietnam War, Johnson was in a difficult position in regards to Vietnam. He knew that increased aid for South Vietnam would decrease funding for his domestic programs, which were among his top priorities. He also knew that if he decreased support, that the nation would most likely fall under the Communists and this would be perceived as a loss for the United States and the Democrats. One of the factors that contributed to the start of the Vietnam War was when the North Vietnamese attacked U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tokin on August 2nd and 4th 1964. This was a small engagement in which North Vietnamese Torpedo boats caused light damage to the USS Maddox, and light North Vietnam casualties.

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All things considered, it is not a fair assessment to call it “Johnson’s war” bearing in mind Nixon interfered, but to a certain point it is reasonable to call it so, because of the Tonkin Gulf resolution and because of Operation Rolling Thunder. The Tonkin Resolution put too much power into Johnson’s hands and allowed him to start a war without officially declaring one. In addition, Operation Rolling Thunder was a fail and helped the Viet Cong in finding a way to attack the American troops without showing themselves. Nixon going behind Johnson’s back and making a deal with the enemy made the war, to a certain degree, his fault as well. All in all, the Vietnam War should not be looked at as all Johnson 's fault, the blame is divided between

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Johnson's handling of the war, including the escalation of troop levels and the bombing of North Vietnam, drew widespread condemnation and divided the

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President Johnson did not want to fight in a war, he wanted to help the social welfare of the country. As was mentioned before, Johnson did not have a ton of people to fight this war, so he started the Selective Service. By 1968, there were approximately 560,000 troops in Vietnam, which was a lot more than Johnson had originally planned for (Tindall and Shi, 1255). In January of 1968, the Tet Offensive campaign was launched. This was a military campaign that was centered around attacking the US Embassy in Saigon, which just so happened to also be where the US News outlets were located.

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So Johnson settles with ground troops and thought if they could increase the number of troops send to Vietnam, that would cause Vietnam not to outlast the United States. Johnson major drawbacks were that Vietnam leader was not going to give up so easy and that Hanoi was going to take all the bombs and kills that the United States was going to do to them. Knowing that Johnson has caused an even bigger problem with all the casualties that happen. He did not want to run another term, he wanted to step down and be with his family. He was also scared he would be shot in office.

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as a way to flank South Vietnam. In 1962 a peace conference in Geneva declared Laos as neutral ground with a three-part coalition government divided between pro-American, pro-Communist and neutral factions. Congress decided that this would have to be good enough for Laos and turn their attention to South Vietnam. (jfklibrary) Like Eisenhower, Kennedy too doubted getting directly involved with Vietnam as well. (American Presidency, 355) “When South Vietnam’s weak but prodemocratic government and army seemed unable to stand up to Communist North Vietnam on its own, Kennedy dramatically increased the number of United States Military advisors in South Vietnam.

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Johnson’s decisions in Vietnam are complex and debated about to this day. Johnson was left with this issue from Kennedy and as a strong proponent of the Domino Theory he believed that going to war with Vietnam was the right decision. The Vietnam war would devolve into disastrous policy and resulted in the loss of life of numerous Americans. However, while his decisions were disastrous he recognized that a continuation of his presidency would only seek to divide the country more.

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In a sense, he bulldozed President Johnson into doing irrational bombings in Vietnam. McNamara convinced Johnson that bombings should be the only direct response to escalation. Although McNamara sometimes had doubts, he was usually supportive of whatever bombing strategies were proposed. McNamara skillfully withheld the realities of Vietnam from Johnson and the public, so he could continue fighting the war his way. He wanted to send thousands of more troops and spend millions arms.

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By the time that Johnson announced he would no longer be running for reelection, nearly 4000 Americans had died in combat, as well as 58,000 enemies and 14,000 allies. Secretary of State Dean Acheson reported to Johnson that “victory in Vietnam was not feasible within the limits of public tolerance” (New York Times 2). With disapproval rates soaring, Johnson was forced to reduce American involvement in the war by “rejecting major troop reinforcements, reducing the bombing, [and] gradually shifting the burden of the fighting to the South Vietnamese.” Through his actions, the President “hoped to salvage his policy...until the end

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The Vietnam War was bloody, and it saw unprecedented ways of acquiring superiority onto the field by relying on higher body counts and an incessant use of bombardments that far surpassed any previous wars that the U.S. were involved with. With the turmoil that was caused not only in the field of battle, but away from it, Vietnam was a war that seemed to cause more harm than good since it didn’t contribute any benefits towards America. After the stereotypes of the cold war became too powerful to allow for American acceptance of Vietnamese independence, the war was inevitable with no other possibilities presenting themselves in the minds of the American government. It was a costly war for the United States politically, socially, and economically.

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As it says in the textbook that Nixon "initiated negotioations with North vietnam," (Perry 506). Around this time though, the Pentagon Papers were released to the press, causing even more distrust against the government. Nixon, through "vietnamization", slowly pulled the United States' involvement from the war. Unlike what they wanted, when the U.S. pulled its troops, the communists still took over. It says in the text "

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Johnson believed that the American people could only focus and support on one major project – either the ‘Great Society’ or ‘Vietnam War’. Therefore, he felt he could not applying extensive military force which may have lead to the loss of public focus and support for the ‘Great Society’. He also feared that applying “extensive military force” against North Vietnam could escalate into another World War – communist vs anti-communist state actors. Excessive political

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LBJ announced a counter attack on the North Vietnamese, even though he doubted what he was told versus the events that actually occurred. This caused the tensions between the United States and the North Vietnamese to

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