Johnson, Lyndon B., and National Security

The 36th president of the United States (1963–69), who assumed the presidency after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and faced the increasingly difficult challenge of the Vietnam War. Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–73) was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One at Love Field Airport in Dallas shortly after President Kennedy was shot in that city.

During his first year in office, Johnson faced several obstacles, including the opposition of members of Congress who were reluctant to support Johnson's proposals, especially in the civil rights arena. Johnson used charm and strong-arm tactics to push through his new policies. In 1964, at Johnson's request, Congress passed a tax-reduction law and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was a part of Johnson's wider War on Poverty.

The Vietnam War

Johnson would have preferred to focus his attention on domestic issues, but his administration was quickly consumed by foreign policy, especially the Vietnam War. Inheriting a commitment to an independent, noncommunist South Vietnam, Johnson steadily increased the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. Under Johnson, the conflict expanded to a large-scale but still limited war against communist North Vietnam. Despite deploying more than 500,000 U.S. troops and spending huge amounts of money, the United States could not force North Vietnam to end its support for the communist National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam.

Personally, Johnson would have preferred that the United States not be in Vietnam, and he privately cursed the war. At the same time, however, Johnson believed that the United States could not afford to look weak in the eyes of the world. The war escalated between 1964 and 1968.

On August 2, 1964, in response to U.S. and South Vietnamese spying along the coast of North Vietnam, the North Vietnamese launched an attack against a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second attack allegedly took place on August 4. (Years later, Robert S. McNamara, Johnson's secretary of defense, concluded that no second attack had occurred.) The Johnson administration used the supposed August 4 attack to secure a congressional resolution that gave the president almost unlimited war powers. The resolution, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed both the House and Senate with only two dissenting votes. After passage of the resolution, Johnson initiated limited air attacks against North Vietnam.

Given Johnson's preference for addressing domestic affairs, his administration planned to fight the war with minimal noticeable impact on the nation at home. With this plan, the administration hoped that a limited war would control the mobilization of human and material resources and cause little disruption to everyday American life. However, the administration's goals were not realized. Ultimately, the Vietnam War had a major impact on American society, and the Johnson administration was forced to consider the domestic consequences of its decisions every day.

In late January 1968, North Vietnam and the NLF launched large-scale, coordinated attacks against major cities in South Vietnam. These attacks, known as the Tet Offensive, were intended to force the Johnson administration to begin peace talks. As the death toll mounted and U.S. troops continued to leave for Southeast Asia, antiwar sentiment grew in the United States. Protests erupted on college campuses and in major cities at first, but by 1968, it seemed as if much of the country had turned against the war.

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