Johnson Involvement In Vietnam Essay

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in November of 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president. Due to the sudden death of JFK, Johnson had inherited many responsibilities and policies of dealing with the growing problem in Vietnam (Young 105). He continued to be involved in South Vietnam because he did not want the U.S to lose their prestige and did not want to show weakness to the Communists. By the mid- 60s, the war in Vietnam began to escalate as more troops were being sent to Vietnam. As the war dragged on, Johnson’s popularity amongst the American citizens lowered. Therefore to ensure Johnson’s popularity amongst the American citizens, secret memos of what was happening in Vietnam at the time were being circulated …show more content…
Because Johnson worried that South Vietnam would have difficulty in defending against the Viet Cong, he brought in more military aid (Hickman). By increasing military aid to patrol the shores of North Vietnam, he hoped that the newer technology that were being sent in would boast the power of Western technology and stop further Communist advancement. Prior to sending in military aid, South Vietnam’s patrol boats were sent to collect data in an attempt to gather information to be used against the North (Vietnam: A Television). Because South Vietnam failed multiple times to gain information against the North, U.S sent in destroyers to the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox was met with enemy fire because the Viet Cong were retaliating against attacks from the South the day before. Because the attacks were sudden, the U.S had no choice but to strike back against the North. After the first attack, involvement in Vietnam grew as Johnson saw this event as a challenge that he could not back down from …show more content…
These young men did not want to go off to war because they realized that the government was operating under false pretenses and did not want to lose their lives over a war that could not be won. At the time of the Vietnam War, it became mandatory for men as young as eighteen to join the military (Vietnam: A Television History). However, as the years went by during the Vietnam War people realized how gruesome the war was and showed opposition for the draft. Around the time of 1967, an antiwar movement resistance developed that demanded the government to send its troops back home. Many people wanted the war to be over because “living in America meant having guilty knowledge of the war and of the government’s lies about it” (Young 197). Groups such as the SNCC (Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee) and civil rights activist, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. were against the war movement because the government were mostly sending poor into the battle field to die; whereas, the rich whites did not ever have to meet with the battle