Internet Resources
- Digitized Vietnam Resources: the Johnson AdministrationWhen John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Lyndon Johnson inherited an increasingly deteriorating military and political situation in Vietnam. Though Kennedy had reportedly begun to cool on the conflict, Johnson made the choice to escalate; 1965 saw the first deployment of American ground troopshttps://catalog.archives.gov/id/74258721as well as the beginning of Operation Rolling Thunder, a three year aerial bombardment campaign.
- Johnson's Foreign PolicyPrivately, Johnson agonized over the consequences of the U.S. escalation in Vietnam and raged at the incompetence of the succession of military juntas that tried to govern that country and carry on a war against Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese regulars. Publicly, he was determined not to lose the war.
- LBJ knew the Vietnam War was a disaster in the making. Here's why he couldn't walk away.How did Lyndon Johnson, one of the most gifted political figures of his time, lose his way in a war he didn't start and didn't end?
- Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam WarOn 8 March 1965, two battalions of U.S. Marines waded ashore on the beaches at Danang. Those 3,500 soldiers were the first combat troops the United States had dispatched to South Vietnam to support the Saigon government in its effort to defeat an increasingly lethal Communist insurgency.
U.S. Presidency: LBJ
Learn more about the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson on McKee Library's U.S. Presidency Research Guide.
The River Styx (January 1964-December 1965)
With South Vietnam in chaos, hardliners in Hanoi seize the initiative and send combat troops to the South. President Johnson escalates America's military commitment, authorizing bombing of the North and deploying ground troops in the South.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
Reaching for Glory
"Reaching for Glory is a mesmerizing journey into the inner psychological and emotional life of a frightened, lonely, driven, suspicious man. The Johnson of the secret tapes sees hidden enemies all around him. Disloyal aides are flirting with his nemesis, Senator Robert Kennedy. In Johnson's conspiratorial mind, Communists are behind the Vietnam demonstrations on college campuses. The Soviet Ambassador is manipulating U.S. Senators to oppose the war. Right-wing fanatics are behind black rioters in Los Angeles."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Uncertain Warriors
Lyndon Johnson, when it comes to his role in the Vietnam war, is popularly portrayed as an irrational hawkish leader who bullied his advisers and refused to solicit a wide range of opinions. That depiction, David Barrett, argues, is simplistic and far from accurate.
Shadows of Vietnam
From the day Lyndon Johnson stepped into the U.S. Presidency, he lived in the shadow of Vietnam. With all his skills as a hard-nosed politician, he should have been successful at waging war. Indeed, on the home front, with his War on Poverty, even in the Dominican Republic, he was successful. Yet in Vietnam he failed, in epic proportions. This is the paradox--the shadow-that frames Frank E. Vandiver's riveting examination of one of America's most fascinating and controversial presidents mired in the depths of Vietnam, our most complex and controversial war. It is still not popular--perhaps it never will be-to be sympathetic to Lyndon Johnson. Vandiver stops short of that but is, in the tradition of the biographer, empathetic with him. Readers may disagree with some aspects of this controversial presentation, but, as Vandiver has done for Stonewall Jackson and Black Jack Pershing, he offers an understanding of a major wartime figure as he likely saw himself. His purpose is to show what Johnson knew, felt, feared, and tried to do. This, then, is the Vietnam War through Lyndon Johnson's eyes, with Vandiver providing perspective and the missing puzzle pieces not available to Johnson at the time. Vandiver offers a broad, sweeping synthesis of the scholarship on Johnson's war presidency, along with new insights culled from numerous and extensive interviews and a far-reaching immersion in the primary documents housed in archives around the country.
Lyndon Johnson and Europe
Traditionally seen as a master of domestic politics, Lyndon Johnson is frequently portrayed as inept in foreign relations, consumed by the war in Vietnam, and unable to provide vision or leadership for the Western alliance. In this persuasive revisionist history, Thomas Alan Schwartz takes issue with many of the popular and scholarly assumptions about the president seen as the classic "ugly American." In the first comprehensive study of Johnson's policy toward Europe--the most important theater of the Cold War--Schwartz shows a president who guided the United States with a policy that balanced the solidarity of the Western alliance with the need to stabilize the Cold War and reduce the nuclear danger. He faced the dilemmas of maintaining the cohesion of the alliance, especially with the French withdrawal from NATO, while trying to reduce tensions between eastern and western Europe, managing bitter conflicts over international monetary and trade policies, and prosecuting an escalating war in Southeast Asia. Impressively researched and engagingly written, Lyndon Johnson and Europe shows a fascinating new side to this giant of twentieth-century American history and demonstrates that Johnson's diplomacy toward Europe deserves recognition as one of the most important achievements of his presidency.
American Tragedy
Fought as fiercely by politicians and the public as by troops in Southeast Asia, the Vietnam War--its origins, its conduct, its consequences--is still being contested. In what will become the classic account, based on newly opened archival sources, David Kaiser rewrites what we know about this conflict. Reviving and expanding a venerable tradition of political, diplomatic, and military history, he shows not only why we entered the war, but also why our efforts were doomed to fail. American Tragedy is the first book to draw on complete official documentation to tell the full story of how we became involved in Vietnam--and the story it tells decisively challenges widely held assumptions about the roles of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Using an enormous range of source materials from these administrations, Kaiser shows how the policies that led to the war were developed during Eisenhower's tenure and nearly implemented in the closing days of his administration in response to a crisis in Laos; how Kennedy immediately reversed course on Laos and refused for three years to follow recommendations for military action in Southeast Asia; and how Eisenhower's policies reemerged in the military intervention mounted by the Johnson administration. As he places these findings in the context of the Cold War and broader American objectives, Kaiser offers the best analysis to date of the actual beginnings of the war in Vietnam, the impact of the American advisory mission from 1962 through 1965, and the initial strategy of General Westmoreland. A deft re-creation of the deliberations, actions, and deceptions that brought two decades of post-World War II confidence to an ignominious end, American Tragedy offers unparalleled insight into the Vietnam War at home and abroad--and into American foreign policy in the 1960s.
Lyndon B. Johnson-Speech on Vietnam
Johnson speaks to the nation on the importance of American involvement in Vietnam.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tf2xGb5Nsg