Vietnam War vs. Great Society

Vietnam War vs. Great Society

Anonymous: "[Johnson] had miscalculated: Even the richest and most powerful nation in the world could not do it all" (qtd. in Turbulent Years: The 60s 36). Lyndon Baines Johnson is a president torn to pieces by war. He glows in the passage of bills benefiting American society. He is someone who has suffered through an entire generation of rebellious teens. What impact did LBJ's foreign policies concerning Vietnam War have on American society?

The Vietnam War really isn't a war. Congress never declared war and thus, it is constitutionally considered police action. The United States can have troops in an area for ninety days, but how ninety days became twelve long, bloody years is beyond my knowledge. The war actually started in 1959, but U.S. involvement did not start until 1961. We withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, and it raged on for another two years. This was Vietnam's civil war, where 58,000 Americans lost their lives and Vietnam was lost to the Communists.

If it hadn't been for the French-Indochina War, America might not have been so deeply involved in Vietnam. The area of Indochina, present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was taken away from France during the Second World War and afterwards, they tried to get it back. France lured the U.S. into paying 80% of the costs used to fight Ho Chi Minh and Communist North Vietnam by the end of the French-Indochina War. As author Gini Holland put it, "This [paying the costs] committed the United States financially, although not yet militarily, to the region" (qtd. in Holland 41). So, when Vietnam was into their civil war, the U.S. felt the need to help South Vietnam. In addition to fighting Communism, the American soldiers faced the very devoted and very martial Vietcong, the pro-Communist guerilla force of South Vietnam. Look what a little help to a friend can do to you.

"It was in Southeast Asia that [Johnson] ran into his greatest difficulties" (qtd. in Encarta "Johnson, Lyndon Baines"). He finished John F. Kennedy's term starting in 1963 and completed another term, ending his presidency in 1969. As many of us are, he was reluctant to get fully involved in the war. After ordering air strikes against North Vietnam in retaliation for U.S. ships being attacked by torpedoes, he stated, "We will seek no wider war" (qtd. in Hargrove 69). Even though he did not want war, his ...

... middle of paper ...

...ghtfully, "We move step-by-step- often painfully…-along the path toward American freedom" (Schuman 73).

Bibliography:

Califano, Joseph A., Jr. The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Simon Schuster, 1991

Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998

Frazier, Thomas R., ed. Voices of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985

Hargrove, Jim. Lyndon B. Johnson. Chicago: Children's Press, 1987

"History Channel." [Online] Available http://www.historychannel.com/, April 15, 2000

Holland, Gini. The 1960s. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc., 1999

"Lyndon B. Johnson." [Online] Available http://www.whitehouse.gov/, April 20, 2000

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Computer Software. Microsoft Corporation, 1993-1998.

Ver. 8.29.00.0912 Windows 98, CD Monk, Linda R., ed. Ordinary Americans. USA: Close Up Foundation, 1994

Rubel, David. Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1997

Schuman, Michael A. Lyndon B. Johnson. Springfield: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1998

The Annals of America: Vol. 18. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1976

Turbulent Years: The 60s. USA: Time Life Inc., 1998