LibGuides: G12: The Cold War and the Americas: USFP: Johnson

From the Databases

JFK and LBJ: Did the Johnson Administration Continue the Policies of the Kennedy Presidency?

Foreign Policy

Miller Center: LBJ
A man widely considered to be one of the most expert and brilliant politicians of his time, Johnson would leave office a little more than five years later as one of the least popular Presidents in American history.
LBJ: Foreign Affairs
In international politics, Johnson was unschooled, and he seemed to lean on precepts gleaned from personal experience
Lyndon Johnson and Foreign Policy
You'll need to scroll down a bit to access the full text
The Foreign Policy of Lyndon Johnson
Full text of an online book. Download the PDF.
Political Interference and Johnson's Escalation in Vietnam
Amidst mounting international pressure brought on by the Cold War, Johnson decided to escalate the war in Vietnam in 1965.
Johnson's Vietnam Dilemma
Recording and transcript of a 1964 discussion with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
Johnson Doctrine
In May 1965, when U.S. troops landed in the Dominican Republic, President Lyndon Johnson pronounced his "Johnson Doctrine," declaring that the United States would never again permit the establishment of a Communist regime in the Western Hemisphere.

Johnson Doctrine for Latin America
As over 20,000 U.S. troops landed in the Dominican Republic, Johnson explained that “the American nations cannot, must not, and will not permit the establishment of anotherCommunist government in the Western Hemisphere.”

Domestic Issues

LBJ's Long Shadow
from the National Archives
The Great Society
The Great Society was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality and improving the environment.
Johnson's Domestic Affairs
Johnson called on the nation to move not only toward "the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society," which he defined as one that would "end poverty and racial injustice."

Primary Sources

Great Society Collection
Primary Sources curated from the Johnson Library
Vietnam War Collection
Curated primary sources from the Johnson Library
DPLA: Great Society
Peace without conquest
LBJ speech at Johns Hopkins, 1965
Special Message to Congress on war in SE Asia
On August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese gunboats fired on the U.S. destroyer Maddox. Johnson ordered retaliatory air attacks against North Vietnamese targets and delivered an address to Congress on August 5, 1964.

Graphic History

LBJ and Defense Secretary RobertnMcNamara

"stick em up" 1964

Prior to the 1964 presidential election, President Johnson held back from escalating the war in Vietnam, knowing that it might affect the outcome of his ambitious domestic agenda.

As this cartoon suggests, LBJ's ambitious domestic agenda of civil rights, the "War on Poverty" and "the Great Society" was by 1966 being undermined by the economic and human cost and the popular discord generated by the Vietnam War.

Watch the carpet, fella 1966

At the time of publishing, March 31, 1966, Johnson had just signed an appropriations bill that provided $13.1 billion in funding for the Vietnam war effort. Consequently, he had to trim the financing of his Great Society domestic programs.