Alexandra Cox
Johnson vs. Nixon
Kennedy and Johnson started and expanded the war in Vietnam, making it the dominant issue of foreign policy. Johnson escalated the Soviet containment strategy in Vietnam with more ground troops. Johnson wanted to focus on internal affairs like health care but had to address the war he inherited in Vietnam and could not fulfill both domestic or foreign policy successfully. Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, his slogan while running for presidency was “Peace with honor” and he succeeded at it through political negotiations. Most of Nixon’s foreign policy was to prioritize détente with China and the Soviet Union so it helped increase political slack. Johnson and Nixon had two different foreign policy plans and Nixon’s …show more content…
Both presidents adhered to a containment plan and called it "flexible response". 1965, President Lyndon Johnson had to deal with increased opposition as a result of Operation Rolling Thunder, an expanded U.S. bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. 1968 following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution LBJ drastically escalated American involvement in Vietnam from 16,000 advisors and soldiers to 550,000 combat troops in 1968. Making this officially into what would be known as Johnson 's War. This war would not only dominate his entire foreign policy, but it would also overshadow his ambitious dreams for domestic programs. According to Gaddis the failure of LBJ is a result to the "sensitivity to the need to keep ends and means in balance was precisely what was lacking in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; there was instead a preoccupation with process at the expense of objectives, a fascination so great with things were to be done that it tended to obscure what was being done...This, then, was the unexpected legacy of 'flexible response ': not 'fine tuning ' but clumsy overreaction, not coordination but disproportion, not strategic precision, but, in the end, a strategic vacuum." (273) Flexible response would not win wars according to Gaddis. The name even implies that there is no strategic maneuvering or planning on anybody’s part, rather America is just responding to all the crisis as the appear. This mind set of crisis response makes it easy to loose focus on the ultimate goal of winning a war because you are just focusing on the now so the situation doesn’t get out of hand. Unlike Johnson Nixon went back to a simple idea, to win, and understood what it took to get
Johnson vs. Nixon
Kennedy and Johnson started and expanded the war in Vietnam, making it the dominant issue of foreign policy. Johnson escalated the Soviet containment strategy in Vietnam with more ground troops. Johnson wanted to focus on internal affairs like health care but had to address the war he inherited in Vietnam and could not fulfill both domestic or foreign policy successfully. Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, his slogan while running for presidency was “Peace with honor” and he succeeded at it through political negotiations. Most of Nixon’s foreign policy was to prioritize détente with China and the Soviet Union so it helped increase political slack. Johnson and Nixon had two different foreign policy plans and Nixon’s …show more content…
Both presidents adhered to a containment plan and called it "flexible response". 1965, President Lyndon Johnson had to deal with increased opposition as a result of Operation Rolling Thunder, an expanded U.S. bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. 1968 following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution LBJ drastically escalated American involvement in Vietnam from 16,000 advisors and soldiers to 550,000 combat troops in 1968. Making this officially into what would be known as Johnson 's War. This war would not only dominate his entire foreign policy, but it would also overshadow his ambitious dreams for domestic programs. According to Gaddis the failure of LBJ is a result to the "sensitivity to the need to keep ends and means in balance was precisely what was lacking in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; there was instead a preoccupation with process at the expense of objectives, a fascination so great with things were to be done that it tended to obscure what was being done...This, then, was the unexpected legacy of 'flexible response ': not 'fine tuning ' but clumsy overreaction, not coordination but disproportion, not strategic precision, but, in the end, a strategic vacuum." (273) Flexible response would not win wars according to Gaddis. The name even implies that there is no strategic maneuvering or planning on anybody’s part, rather America is just responding to all the crisis as the appear. This mind set of crisis response makes it easy to loose focus on the ultimate goal of winning a war because you are just focusing on the now so the situation doesn’t get out of hand. Unlike Johnson Nixon went back to a simple idea, to win, and understood what it took to get