Polarization in Presidential Politics: The Vietnam War
When Lyndon Johnson became president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he opted for a different approach to the issue of Vietnam than his predecessor was expected to take. Whereas Kennedy had talked about a decreased US presence in Vietnam, Johnson was a firm believer in what was known as "the Domino Theory" (i.e. the idea that if Vietnam fell to communism, other surrounding Asian nations would also fall, like a row of dominoes.) Johnson resolved himself to a containment policy which required America to make a serious effort to stop Communist expansion.
At the time of Kennedy's death, there were 16,000 American military advisors in Vietnam. When he became President, Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Johnson ordered an increase in this number. He did so following what was known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which happened just over two weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964. At that convention, the Republicans nominated the hawkish Barry Goldwater as their candidate for President.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident actually refers to two separate confrontations between the North Vietnamese and the United States in the waters of that gulf. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, performing an intelligence patrol, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats, resulting in a sea battle. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5 mm round hit the destroyer, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six were wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. It was originally claimed that the second Tonkin Gulf incident occurred on August 4, 1964, as another sea battle, but subsequently it has been shown that there were no actual North Vietnamese torpedo boat attacks in that incident.
As the result of these two incidents, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Johnson authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression." The resolution was Johnson's legal justification for sending more U.S. forces and the commencing war against North Vietnam. Johnson later admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was based in part on a false pretext.
By the end of 1964, there were approximately 23,000 military personnel in South Vietnam. U.S. casualties for 1964 totaled 1,278. By 1968 over 550,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam. For 1967 and 1968 they were being killed at a rate of about 1,000 a month.
Johnson closely watched the public opinion polls, which in turn led to his direct involvement in the management of the war. At first he downplayed the war and made very few speeches about Vietnam. Initially, polls showed that the public was consistently 40–50 percent supportive of the war effort and 10–25 percent opposed to it. But as the war continued and casualties mounted without the appearance of easy victory, support for it declined, and the issue divided the Democratic Party an polarized the nation.
Johnson is said to have often privately cursed the Vietnam War. In a conversation with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Johnson blamed "that bunch of commies" running The New York Times for their articles against the war effort. In a discussion about the war with former President Dwight Eisenhower on October 3, 1966, Johnson said he was "trying to win it just as fast as I can in every way that I know how." Johnson escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to 1968, but the number of American deaths rose. In two weeks in May 1968 alone American deaths numbered 1,800 with total casualties at 18,000. Johnson persisted in his belief in the Domino Theory. He said, "If we allow Vietnam to fall, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Francisco."
The Tet Offensive took place in early 1968. This was a series of military campaigns began on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against the forces of South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian commands and control centers throughout South Vietnam. From this point on, Johnson was consumed by Vietnam more than ever. Venerable CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite gave an editorial report during the Tet Offensive in which he told the public that he believed that the war was unwinnable. In response, Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."
As casualties mounted and success seemed further away than ever, Johnson's popularity plummeted. College students and others protested, burned draft cards, and chanted, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Johnson could not travel anywhere without facing protests. In March of 1968 he announced that he would not seek re-election to the Presidency. He was not allowed by the Secret Service to attend the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where thousands gathered to protest. By 1968, the public was polarized, with the "hawks" rejecting Johnson's refusal to continue the war more aggressively, and the "doves" wanting the US out of Vietnam. In the 1968 election, although he realized that Republican candidate Richard Nixon was closer to his position than Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, he supported Humphrey publicly, saying "the Democratic party at its worst, is still better than the Republican party at its best".
Johnson summed up his involvement in the Vietnam War as President by writing:
“I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved—the Great Society—in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.”
Johnson said that he was afraid that if he tried to defeat the North Vietnamese regime with a full-scale invasion of North Vietnam, he might provoke the Chinese to intervene similar to their intervention in 1950 during the Korean War. He was also afraid that this might provoke the Soviets into launching a military invasion of western Europe. Johnson died four years after leaving office on January 22, 1973. Many believe that the stress of the Vietnam war was a major contributor to his early demise.
Richard Nixon was elected president in November of 1968, at a time when about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam. The war was becoming very unpopular with Americans. Violent protests against the war ongoing, and voters had relied on Nixon's pledge for an early resolution of the war, even though he is believed to have obstructed peace talks that were occurring in the fall of 1968. Nixon took advantage of the polarized opinions, with some voters believing that he would get the nation out of war and others believing that he would prosecute the war more vigorously.
Nixon biographers disagree on whether Nixon came into office convinced that the Vietnam War could not be won, but he was determined to find a strategy which would allow American forces to withdraw, while leaving South Vietnam secure. Within months of taking office, he approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and allied Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists) positions in Cambodia in March 1969. It was code-named "Operation Menu". Although the practice is most closely associated with Nixon, it was actually a policy begun under Johnson. It is said that more bombs were dropped over Cambodia under Johnson and Nixon than the Allies dropped during all of World War II. By mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to North Vietnamese leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. In May 1969 Nixon publicly announced his proposal to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam also did so and allowed South Vietnam to hold internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation. (The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese who fought against the United States on the side of the North Vietnamese).
In July 1969, Nixon visited South Vietnam. He met with his U.S. military commanders and with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. At home protests were calling for the immediate withdrawal of all US troops in Vietnam. Nixon implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops, known as "Vietnamization". He instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but he also authorized military incursions into neighboring Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, used to supply North Vietnamese forces, that passed through Laos and Cambodia. Nixon announced the ground invasion of Cambodia to the American public on April 30, 1970. According to some biographers, this was a time of difficult tension for Nixon. On May 9, 1970 in the early hours of the morning, he went to meet with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial and was said to have behaved strangely. Nixon remained unpopular with war protesters, who saw his campaign promises to end the war at odds with the escalated bombing.
In 1971, excerpts from a series of confidential documents known as the "Pentagon Papers" were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, then a US military analyst. These were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon appeared unconcerned, since the documents mostly concerned the actions of previous administrations. It is said that Nixon was persuaded by his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger that the papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication. The Supreme Court eventually ruled against the government and in favor of the newspapers.
As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, the number of Americans drafted into the military was reduced and in 1973 the draft was finally ended. Negotiation finally began to produce results as the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops, but it did not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to withdraw. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting broke out again, this time without American combat involvement. North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975. On July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The outcome of the war, coupled with the Watergate scandal, left Americans highly mistrustful of their government. When Nixon was pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford, mistrust of government grew, creating a credibility problem that remains to this day.
At the time of Kennedy's death, there were 16,000 American military advisors in Vietnam. When he became President, Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Johnson ordered an increase in this number. He did so following what was known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which happened just over two weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964. At that convention, the Republicans nominated the hawkish Barry Goldwater as their candidate for President.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident actually refers to two separate confrontations between the North Vietnamese and the United States in the waters of that gulf. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, performing an intelligence patrol, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats, resulting in a sea battle. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5 mm round hit the destroyer, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six were wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. It was originally claimed that the second Tonkin Gulf incident occurred on August 4, 1964, as another sea battle, but subsequently it has been shown that there were no actual North Vietnamese torpedo boat attacks in that incident.
As the result of these two incidents, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Johnson authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression." The resolution was Johnson's legal justification for sending more U.S. forces and the commencing war against North Vietnam. Johnson later admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was based in part on a false pretext.
By the end of 1964, there were approximately 23,000 military personnel in South Vietnam. U.S. casualties for 1964 totaled 1,278. By 1968 over 550,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam. For 1967 and 1968 they were being killed at a rate of about 1,000 a month.
Johnson closely watched the public opinion polls, which in turn led to his direct involvement in the management of the war. At first he downplayed the war and made very few speeches about Vietnam. Initially, polls showed that the public was consistently 40–50 percent supportive of the war effort and 10–25 percent opposed to it. But as the war continued and casualties mounted without the appearance of easy victory, support for it declined, and the issue divided the Democratic Party an polarized the nation.
Johnson is said to have often privately cursed the Vietnam War. In a conversation with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Johnson blamed "that bunch of commies" running The New York Times for their articles against the war effort. In a discussion about the war with former President Dwight Eisenhower on October 3, 1966, Johnson said he was "trying to win it just as fast as I can in every way that I know how." Johnson escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to 1968, but the number of American deaths rose. In two weeks in May 1968 alone American deaths numbered 1,800 with total casualties at 18,000. Johnson persisted in his belief in the Domino Theory. He said, "If we allow Vietnam to fall, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Francisco."
The Tet Offensive took place in early 1968. This was a series of military campaigns began on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against the forces of South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian commands and control centers throughout South Vietnam. From this point on, Johnson was consumed by Vietnam more than ever. Venerable CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite gave an editorial report during the Tet Offensive in which he told the public that he believed that the war was unwinnable. In response, Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."
As casualties mounted and success seemed further away than ever, Johnson's popularity plummeted. College students and others protested, burned draft cards, and chanted, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Johnson could not travel anywhere without facing protests. In March of 1968 he announced that he would not seek re-election to the Presidency. He was not allowed by the Secret Service to attend the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where thousands gathered to protest. By 1968, the public was polarized, with the "hawks" rejecting Johnson's refusal to continue the war more aggressively, and the "doves" wanting the US out of Vietnam. In the 1968 election, although he realized that Republican candidate Richard Nixon was closer to his position than Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, he supported Humphrey publicly, saying "the Democratic party at its worst, is still better than the Republican party at its best".
Johnson summed up his involvement in the Vietnam War as President by writing:
“I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved—the Great Society—in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.”
Johnson said that he was afraid that if he tried to defeat the North Vietnamese regime with a full-scale invasion of North Vietnam, he might provoke the Chinese to intervene similar to their intervention in 1950 during the Korean War. He was also afraid that this might provoke the Soviets into launching a military invasion of western Europe. Johnson died four years after leaving office on January 22, 1973. Many believe that the stress of the Vietnam war was a major contributor to his early demise.
Richard Nixon was elected president in November of 1968, at a time when about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam. The war was becoming very unpopular with Americans. Violent protests against the war ongoing, and voters had relied on Nixon's pledge for an early resolution of the war, even though he is believed to have obstructed peace talks that were occurring in the fall of 1968. Nixon took advantage of the polarized opinions, with some voters believing that he would get the nation out of war and others believing that he would prosecute the war more vigorously.
Nixon biographers disagree on whether Nixon came into office convinced that the Vietnam War could not be won, but he was determined to find a strategy which would allow American forces to withdraw, while leaving South Vietnam secure. Within months of taking office, he approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and allied Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists) positions in Cambodia in March 1969. It was code-named "Operation Menu". Although the practice is most closely associated with Nixon, it was actually a policy begun under Johnson. It is said that more bombs were dropped over Cambodia under Johnson and Nixon than the Allies dropped during all of World War II. By mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to North Vietnamese leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. In May 1969 Nixon publicly announced his proposal to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam also did so and allowed South Vietnam to hold internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation. (The Viet Cong were South Vietnamese who fought against the United States on the side of the North Vietnamese).
In July 1969, Nixon visited South Vietnam. He met with his U.S. military commanders and with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. At home protests were calling for the immediate withdrawal of all US troops in Vietnam. Nixon implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops, known as "Vietnamization". He instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but he also authorized military incursions into neighboring Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, used to supply North Vietnamese forces, that passed through Laos and Cambodia. Nixon announced the ground invasion of Cambodia to the American public on April 30, 1970. According to some biographers, this was a time of difficult tension for Nixon. On May 9, 1970 in the early hours of the morning, he went to meet with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial and was said to have behaved strangely. Nixon remained unpopular with war protesters, who saw his campaign promises to end the war at odds with the escalated bombing.
In 1971, excerpts from a series of confidential documents known as the "Pentagon Papers" were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, then a US military analyst. These were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon appeared unconcerned, since the documents mostly concerned the actions of previous administrations. It is said that Nixon was persuaded by his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger that the papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication. The Supreme Court eventually ruled against the government and in favor of the newspapers.
As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, the number of Americans drafted into the military was reduced and in 1973 the draft was finally ended. Negotiation finally began to produce results as the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops, but it did not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to withdraw. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting broke out again, this time without American combat involvement. North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975. On July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The outcome of the war, coupled with the Watergate scandal, left Americans highly mistrustful of their government. When Nixon was pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford, mistrust of government grew, creating a credibility problem that remains to this day.