To what extent did domestic politics influence President Johnson’s decisions to escalate the war?
Uploaded by Kerrytom on Aug 10, 2013
It is a fair comment to acknowledge that President Johnson’s decision to escalate the war in Vietnam was influenced by domestic politics. Clearly it is the case that all President’s foreign policy decisions are somewhat affected by domestic politics, this was abundantly clear in the case of Johnson. The most obvious and clear example of this in Johnson case, is related to his Great Society legislation. There is an expression often used in relation to Johnsons stance on both the war in Vietnam and the Great Society legislation, that he wanted his “guns and his butter”.
The Great Society dealt with issues with affected the poor and the minorities in America, including the environment, education, poverty, etc. This bill had just started to go through the process of getting through congress. Johnson felt at the time that he had a two year window of opportunity to get this legislation through Congress, however he was fearful that the scale of escalation that he was planning for Vietnam, would mean that he would have to scale back on the Great Society. He was well aware that similar programs were being put in place by Wilson and Roosevelt, before they were put on the back burner, because of the wars in which they were engaged.
“With the Medicare and voting rights bills before Congress, with the Great Society still unfinished, LBJ would not convert to a war footing, would not sacrifice his domestic agenda. Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had both become war presidents; they had abandoned the New Deal and the New Freedom to achieve military victories. Johnson would not make that sacrifice”
Johnson realised that if he was to raise the issue of the true costs of the escalation of the war that he would not be able to go through with his Great Society plan. Many Southern Senators who would use it as an excuse to block civil rights legislation, also many would demand a betting balancing of the books.
“And so- to avoid a Vietnam versus Great Society debate that might destroy his social and civil rights legislation- Johnson (shutting Bundy up) signed off on Westmoreland’s minimum numbers, but sidled into war with minimum fuss: no prime-time speech, no new resolution, no call-up of reserves, no tax increase, no drumming up of support. Announce at noon: ‘No change in policy’.”
For this reason he decided to keep the escalation of...