LBJ AND VIETNAM
Like Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson relished having the power to act as on his own as a global gendarme. "The congressional role in national security," he maintained, "is not to act but to respond to the executive." He escalated clashes with North Vietnamese communists who had no offensive capability of harming the United States. In August 1964, he used an attack on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin that never happened, as an excuse for full-scale war. Although claiming he possessed power to do so unilaterally, he did ask congress to approve a resolution modelled after one given to Dwight D. Eisenhower in a crisis over Taiwan. Only two senators dissented, one of whom protested "the Constitution does not permit the President to wage war at his discretion." As requested, Congress granted Johnson free "reign".
With this backing and high public approval, Johnson enlarged the conflict in Vietnam. When, as in Korea, casualties mounted, misery spread, and the war became unpopular, he offered various implausible reasons to justify his intervention. He also flaunted the distorted judgments of White House attorneys who cited earlier illegal uses of force to give authority to his actions. When he realized the war had become an albatross and he could not win re-election, he terminated his candidacy. Up to this time, no president had exploited the war power as outrageously as he had.
Like Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson relished having the power to act as on his own as a global gendarme. "The congressional role in national security," he maintained, "is not to act but to respond to the executive." He escalated clashes with North Vietnamese communists who had no offensive capability of harming the United States. In August 1964, he used an attack on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin that never happened, as an excuse for full-scale war. Although claiming he possessed power to do so unilaterally, he did ask congress to approve a resolution modelled after one given to Dwight D. Eisenhower in a crisis over Taiwan. Only two senators dissented, one of whom protested "the Constitution does not permit the President to wage war at his discretion." As requested, Congress granted Johnson free "reign".
With this backing and high public approval, Johnson enlarged the conflict in Vietnam. When, as in Korea, casualties mounted, misery spread, and the war became unpopular, he offered various implausible reasons to justify his intervention. He also flaunted the distorted judgments of White House attorneys who cited earlier illegal uses of force to give authority to his actions. When he realized the war had become an albatross and he could not win re-election, he terminated his candidacy. Up to this time, no president had exploited the war power as outrageously as he had.