Johnson, Lyndon Baines

Almost from the start, Johnson encountered trouble in foreign policy. In a series of executive actions, he steadily expanded the US commitment of personnel and supplies to the South Vietnamese regime, which was struggling with Communist insurgents from North Vietnam. Citing the need to protect US lives and prestige, Johnson increased the Kennedy-authorized contingent of 17,000 men in South Vietnam to 125,000 by mid-1965, 480,000 by mid-1967, and 550,000 by the end of 1968. The enlarged forces, supported by intensive US Air Force bombing raids, faced regular North Vietnamese units in bloody, often inconclusive battles. Repeated predictions of victory from US generals and Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara proved wrong. As the US commitment grew, so did opposition to the war and to Johnson personally. In 1966 the president was an unwelcome ally in many Democratic congressional campaigns, and by 1967 he had to avoid public appearances because of demonstrations and threats to his life.

Johnson also drew criticism in April 1965 for sending 22,000 US troops into the Dominican Republic, ostensibly to protect Americans but in fact to prevent Communists from assuming power. During the brief Arab-Israeli Six-Day War of June 1967, Johnson put the hot line between Moscow and Washington, D.C., to its first test. He and Soviet Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin agreed not to intervene in the conflict. A summit meeting with Kosygin two weeks later at Glassboro, New Jersey, failed, however, to produce an agreement with the USSR on the future of Vietnam.

In December 1967 Johnson visited foreign capitals in search of support for his war policies, proclaiming “The enemy cannot win, now, in Vietnam.” A month later, however, Communist forces launched the Tet offensive, showing unexpected strength and nearly cutting South Vietnam in half. Protest over the war reached new intensity and acquired a political voice: Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota challenged Johnson in the New Hampshire presidential primary of March 1968. Because of McCarthy's strong showing there, Johnson decided to spare himself and the nation a divisive renomination struggle. The times, filled with political and racial unrest, seemed to call for conciliatory gestures from the man who wished to be “president of all the people”. On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a unilateral de-escalation of the war in Vietnam and concluded the televised speech by stating “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president”. In May he ordered peace talks to begin in Paris between US and North Vietnamese representatives.

Still colourful and controversial, Johnson retired to his Texas ranch in January 1969. He wrote his memoirs, The Vantage Point (1971), and supervised the building of his presidential library and a school of government at the University of Texas, Austin. He died of heart disease January 22, 1973, in San Antonio, Texas.