Was Johnson's foreign war in Vietnam doomed to fail because of his domestic war on poverty? There were many problems during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency from 1963 to 1969 which played a significant role in condemning his foreign war in Vietnam. The Vietnam War, which unofficially began in 1955, lasted until 1972 and was considered Johnson's war due to its immediate focus and escalation during his time as president. Johnson's domestic war on poverty was not the only issue that doomed his war in Vietnam. Other issues that doomed his foreign war in Vietnam include his plans for a Great Society, civil rights, tactics, and the escalation of the war itself. This essay will investigate the scope of the issues that doomed the foreign war in Vietnam and determine which were the most significant. This essay will also discuss how the Vietnam War may have doomed some domestic policies during Johnson's tenure as president. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The war in Vietnam was the major foreign policy issue during Johnson's tenure as president and through much of the 1960s. When he became president, Lyndon Johnson inherited the Vietnam War with a fragile government that was already doing badly. The main reason for Johnson's war in Vietnam was due “largely to his symbolic status within the geostrategic struggle to maintain the sphere of post-war liberal capitalists.” The Vietnam War was part of the largest conflict that divided the world after World War II. , the Cold War, or the struggle between the communist world led by Soviet Russia and the so-called "free" capitalist world dominated by the United States. As soon as he became president, Johnson immediately had to focus on the Vietnam War. On November 24, 1963, he said, “the battle against communism… must be undertaken… with strength and determination.” . Johnson and his advisors believed that the war in Vietnam would be short and successful. Johnson had no intention of sending American troops to fight and die in Asia. He and his advisors believed that America had the technology, money, and experience to win this war without significant casualties. The Administration had no real plan, years later Johnson would admit that there was “no plan for victory militarily or diplomatically.” . On April 7, 1965, at John Hopkins University, in a speech defined by some analysts as Johnson's most influential foreign policy speech, the future of the "limited war" in Vietnam was decided. On the surface, the speech calls for "unconditional negotiations," promising help for North Vietnam's development and reconstruction if the Communists agree to compromise. This speech highlights that talk of peace and negotiations has paved the way for further escalation. In 1968, the United States had 548,000 troops in Vietnam and had already lost 30,000 Americans there. Vietnam was necessary for him to demonstrate in the next 1964 elections that he was a tenacious person, determined to build a Great American Society and at the same time manage the communist threat. The decision to commit U.S. ground forces to Vietnam ultimately doomed his presidency. The initial need for military action is questioned by historians such as Logevall who argue that American politicians had easy access to information that not only cast doubt on the need for military escalation. , but it indicated somealso the probable uselessness. As a result, he questions "not only the practicality of the chosen path, but also its morality", stressing that America was aware of the consequences of the escalation of the Vietnam War, however it continued. One of Johnson's key advisors for the Vietnam War was McNamara who admitted a collective failure throughout the escalation process to "critically analyze our assumptions" and spoke of an ignorance that was more than simply routine but an inevitable condition of all state officials. Therefore, emphasizing the war was fatal due to the failure to clearly analyze the situation. Johnson understood the connections between home and foreign countries and sought to demonstrate to his audiences how economic well-being at home and abroad were related. In Lyndon Johnson's administration, the belief that a nation's economic development and progress were intertwined with the nation's stability and security bordered on the sacred. However, by focusing heavily on both domestic and foreign policy, he ultimately led them both to their doom. The domestic war on poverty and the Great Society were Johnson's main focus on his domestic agenda. Johnson had plans for a Great Society that could have been the fatal factor in the Vietnam War. Johnson had a more important national goal: building the Great Society. Johnson metaphorically declared war on poverty in 1964, setting in motion an important period in the history of reform in the United States that still affects the American people decades later. Harrington states that there were "50,000,000 poor people in this country." Johnson adopted the poverty issue from Kennedy and, in tragic circumstances, gave Johnson the chance to establish his own authority, identity and constituency and show the nation that continuity was key after the assassination. by Kennedy. Johnson believed that for social change to occur in the United States, he reflected, "three conditions had to be met: recognition of the need, the will to act, and someone to lead the effort." Because he felt the need, he led the nation in the vision of the Great Society. Johnson unequivocally committed himself to passing President Kennedy's civil rights legislation. He believed that this was possible only with better coordination of existing federal programs and new efforts organized and carried out at the local level, with government and people working together, could America win the war on poverty. Johnson imposed forty programs intended to eliminate poverty by improving living conditions and enabling people to break out of the cycle of poverty, programs including the Food Stamp Act of August 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act of March 1964. His focus and determination to eliminate poverty could have doomed the Vietnam War before it began. The war on poverty and all the programs cost a lot of money which will soon be forced to stop due to the Vietnam War. In addition to his anti-poverty agenda, Johnson also legislated to improve society, through better schools, better health, and better homes. He wanted to help Americans out of poverty and unemployment. He had a vision of a Great Society, Johnson wanted to transform three sectors of American society, the “cities…countrysides…classrooms”, by transforming these sectors he could expand education and eradicate poverty. Johnson's vision of a Great Society shows that there has been a turning point in American politics, from a foreign vision to a more domestic vision. Johnson was also afraid of social upheavals, so he wantedkeep the population happy. Johnson introduced sixty separate bills that provided for new and better-equipped classrooms, scholarships for minorities, and low-interest student loans. Health care guaranteed to every American over age sixty-five through Medicare and Medicaid. He introduced measures to recover the heritage of clear air and water and even created measures with the philosophy that artists, artists and writers were an important part of America's heritage and deserved support. Johnson succeeded in providing America with policies and programs to help create its Great Society. However, his Great Society may have doomed the Vietnam War as Johnson was more devoted to his domestic policies rather than his foreign policy. Carl Brauer argues that “poverty was the right issue for the right man at the right time” and that the Vietnam War was not his priority or central issue as an issue.president. The domestic issue of poverty and Johnson's attention to detail in legislating were the bane of the failure of the Vietnam War. Johnson, of course, did not remain president for long. He carried out most of the Great Society reforms in his first two years in office, when he had a large Democratic majority in Congress. By 1968, the Vietnam War had led to considerable criticism of the president's record and a sharp decline in his popularity, and Johnson decided not to run for re-election. Johnson was initially wary of the Vietnam War due to fears that it might "distract domestic attention from Great Society reforms." He believed that the Vietnam War would be a trap that would frustrate his domestic policies. Her noted fear and caution about the Vietnam War demonstrate that she may have been doomed before it even began and that her domestic policies took priority. The domestic war on poverty was an important issue for Johnson and one to which he devoted much attention, making it one of the reasons his war in Vietnam was a failure. Many historians argue that the Vietnam War was the fatal factor in the Vietnam War. Johnson's vision of a great society. No one expected that Vietnam would kill the Great Society. As Johnson struggled to articulate a message of peace and prosperity, the rising beat of the war drums threatened his ambitious domestic reforms. The expenses resulting from the escalation of the Vietnam War were a major cause of the failure of Johnson's vision of a Great Society. Lyndon Johnson feared a conservative backlash, which he believed would doom his Great Society. He became an insecure and problematic leader dealing with the unwanted burden of Vietnam. A Johnson administration perceived as not allocating sufficient resources to defeat communism in Vietnam would provide opponents of the Great Society with the perfect argument against proceeding with costly social and economic reforms at home. As Johnson struggled to articulate a message of peace and prosperity, the rising beat of the war drums threatened his ambitious domestic reforms. As Irving Bernstein writes in his in-depth study of the era, “One might speculate about what might have happened if the country had remained at peace. Economic policy was working beautifully in 1965, and it is likely that prosperity would have continued into 1968,” underscoring what might have been the case for American poverty and prosperity if they had not been involved in the Vietnam War. As president, however, Johnson did exactly that: committing U.S. ground forces to Vietnam in 1965. This decision ultimatelycondemned his presidency and the Great Society. Johnson's deepest fears were "that revealing the full costs of the war would mean the ruin of his great society", he acutely perceived his dilemma. On the one hand, he recognized the dangers that a wider war would pose for the Great Society. On the other hand, he considered a lost war ruinous for his political position and legislative effectiveness", Johnson did not want to be involved in the war and was more of a domestic president, his fears became reality when he saw that he was no longer a war lost. achievable and his vision of a Great Society died. Other problems within the United States also dealt a severe blow to the war in Vietnam was a major issue throughout the 1960s . Lyndon Johnson was considered one of the most important figures of the civil rights movement. Johnson fought on several fronts for African Americans to become equal in the United States. Many believe that Johnson launched the war on poverty to attract a high percentage of black votes in the 1964 election. Johnson believed that “the nation's racial problems were essentially economic in nature” and was determined to help resolve the issue. The war on poverty and civil rights are silently linked and demonstrate that domestic problems were a fatal factor in the Vietnam War. The greatest act of the civil rights movement in American history was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which became a major priority for Johnson, continuing Kennedy's civil rights policy. The Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and is considered one of the major legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. civil rights. Acts like these show the importance of Johnson's domestic policies that would doom his war in Vietnam. By the summer of 1964, the Civil Rights Act had become the "centerpiece of Johnson's political life", exemplifying Johnson's domestic politics, and the lack of attention on his war in Vietnam could have doomed him. With Johnson's political life now completely centered on civil rights law, Johnson also saw "civil rights reform as essential to the well-being of the nation." together not only the whites and blacks separated but also the South from the rest of America. However, many civil rights groups protested the Vietnam War. In an April 1967 speech, Martin Luther King stated that war was “the greatest source of violence in the world today.” In January 1966, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) “formally opposed the war, and was soon followed by the Congress of Racial Equality” (CORE), which was also opposed by superstars like Muhammad Ali and militant groups like the Black Panthers. As the cost of war, the great society, and the war on poverty decreased, Johnson had to see how to advance his civil rights policies. After the riots in the summer of 1966, he saw it as an important issue that would doom the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement and Johnson's attention to it meant that many argued that he was one of the key figures of the movement, this shows how with the problems with civil rights at home, his war in Vietnam was always on the road to failure. .America's youth was also an internal issue that doomed the Vietnam War. Problems with student protests began before the Johnson era and would continue during his tenure. In thestatement of the students for a democratic society of Port Huron in 1962, the problems are presented to the students as their comfort has been compromised by the events of the “fight against racial bigotry and the reality of the Cold War”, these problems create for the students the problem of student protests at home and domestic politics must continue to come before the war in Vietnam. The amount of suffering endured by the Vietnamese was far more important to the campus peace movement than to the general public. Explain why students were “heavily involved in the first anti-war protests.” Student protests against his domestic war on poverty and his war in Vietnam would have damaged Johnson and had a disastrous effect on the war in Vietnam. As Johnson's term wore on, support for his domestic reform agenda was eroding as fiscal conservatives in both parties decried the growing cost of transforming America into a Great Society and inner-city black youth railed against the white symbols of authority and control. Protests at home, especially by students, had a disastrous impact on Johnson's war in Vietnam. The tactics of the Vietnam War were yet another reason why Johnson's Vietnam War was doomed. Lyndon Johnson and his advisors decided to escalate the war in hopes that it would end. For Johnson, the decision to continue the war in Vietnam followed the path of his predecessors. When Johnson took office, he affirmed the commitments of the Kennedy administration. The tactics of the Vietnam War were guided by Johnson's advisors. On February 13, 1965, Johnson authorized Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing of North Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, two Marine battalions, 3,500 soldiers, landed near Da Nang to protect the airfields, with orders to fire only if hit. This was the first time that United States combat forces had been sent to mainland Asia since the Korean War. On April 3, Johnson authorized two additional Marine battalions, a Marine air squadron, and an increase in logistics support units of 20,000 men. “The United States Air Force would drop bombs at a rate unmatched in history.” It also authorized troops to carry out active search and destroy missions. By mid-April, the Marines had transitioned to full-scale offensive operations. In November 1965 there were 175,000 soldiers and in 1966 another 100,000. The number will rise to 535,000 by the end of Johnson's presidency. Oliver believes that the American decision to intensify its military commitment was made for reasons that were radically independent of the historical conditions that actually occurred in Southeast Asia and that had implications for much of the rest of the moral history of the war. The tactics of the Vietnam War were violent in nature, "Johnson agreed to follow a more aggressive policy" towards the Vietnam War and created a tactic that would constrain the pressure on the Vietnamese. The tactic of heavy bombing by U.S. forces was intended to destroy the will of ordinary Vietnamese to resist, as bombing raids during World War II did against the Germans and Japanese. However, this never happened. Vietnam's leaders were ready for a war and would remain strong for twenty years or more. President Johnson wanted to resolve the crisis in Vietnam, but he turned out to be a president who failed to end the war. This created a cloud of uncertainty around his tenure and the outcome of his war in Vietnam. The tactics of the Vietnam War were so violent..