Why Did Johnson Deal With The Vietnam War

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The 1960s were a weird time in the United States. In the beginning of this decade, John F. Kennedy was elected, and there was a sense of optimism throughout the United States. That optimism soon turned into doubt. President Kennedy was shot in Texas, and Lyndon B. Johnson had to take over. Soon thereafter, President Johnson had to deal with all of the problems going on in Vietnam. Not only that, President Johnson also had to deal with domestic problems that arose in the United States because of the Vietnam War. So now, not only does President Johnson have to deal with the Vietnam War, he also has to deal with the social unrest in the country he is president of. These problems open a door for Richard Nixon to take advantage of, and he does. Not only that, President Nixon will get re-elected in 1972, and win by a landslide. The social …show more content…

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. The Tet Offensive was strategically planned to happen when President Johnson had his first democratic primary in Massachusetts. While the attacked did surprise the US, the US easily eliminated the North Vietnamese, though the media outlets reported otherwise, resulting in Johnson dropping out of the Presidential race. Johnson dropping out, caused a little panic in the Democratic party too, and allowed Nixon to become the next