| October 21 |  |
Editor says, what if Lyndon Johnson focused on his Great Society Reforms to the exclusion of Foreign Policy? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the November 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: |  Facebook |  Twitter |
In 1964, on this day US President Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered his signature foreign policy speech in an address he delivered at the Memorial Hall in Akron University, Ohio:
Akron Address"We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.
I told [the Generals] to let Vietnam go the way of China. And then I want 'em to leave me alone, because I've got some bigger things to do right here at home".
In effect Johnson had turned the Truman Doctrine and the Domino Theory on their heads in order to rationalise a non-intervention strategy in Vietnam. Despite tempting provocations such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Johnson pursued a domestic agenda and built the "Great Society" through to landslide re-elections in 1964 and 1968.
A transcript of Johnson's speech is described at Bartleby.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Bartleby Labels: Lyndon B. Johnson, Vietnam, Sixties, Domestic Agenda, America. Editor says, we have taken the liberty of making some significant modifications to the speech text in order to justify the policy change.
~ That would have sparked an anti-Communist reaction as S,Vietnam fell in 1965-66 (most likely0that would've taken his Great Society with it.
~ Much depends on if all of Southeast Asia is blown off or LBJ simply pulls back to places more stable (i.e. w/o a major native pro-communist movement like the Viet Cong) and puts what attention not directed domestically toward keeping the populace happy with those governments. That and if Saigon caved to the V.C. they may not open their arms to Hanoi in any case.
~ Difficult to say what success Domino Theory would have without major blowback from American influence. We could run into major communist/Muslim stalemate the farther west and south any spread went.
~ Had this actually happened, it might have been the only worthwhile thing that LBJ did in his entire Presidency...
~ Nothing strengthens a Communist insurgency more than the direct involvement of a foreign power. Is it possible that, without US troops on the ground (even in an advisory role), there may have been some sort of accommodation between North and South Vietnam? After all, not all the VC came from the North. I'm sure the hardcore types in Hanoi would have wanted to crush the South, but were they in the majority? I don't know.
~ One big thing the VC/NVs had on their side was the nationalist card..."we're Vietnamese defending our country against these foreign interlopers!" Without that, and with indirect help from outside, the South Viets might be able to pull it off long enough to get their acts together.
~ Propaganda. I lived through that era. Journalists were always using the "corruption" word but never really proving it. I remember once, a journalist suggesting to an American air force officer that newly arrived selling artillery pieces would be sold on the black market. The officer looked at him as though he were crazy -- but it never stopped. I had a unique window on that propaganda campaign as my father and his friends were part of it. It's really an untold story.
Regarding the VC, they were a narrow base, exclusively Buddhist, exclusively rural, more like a SE Asian KKK. They felt oppressed because they weren't allowed to oppress the Cao Dai, the Hoa Hao, and the Catholics, and their main "military" activity was assassinating other Buddhists who disagreed with them. They otherwise operated as puppets on Hanoi's string, but you could never get one of my dad's clique to admit it -- until after they marched into Saigon and were disbanded by the NVA.
~ Johnson would never have done it. Too much Texas macho was on the line.
Oh, and there was plenty of evidence of corruption, but friends of the Saigon regime either wouldn't look at it or, in a few cases, were involved. The truth is the best propaganda.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
