"Lyndon Johnson's War"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that more than 25 years after the last helicopter lifted from the United States embassy in Saigon, the Vietnam War continues to cast a shadow on American history and continues to be the subject of contentious debate.The paper says that, for Hunt, one of the biggest failings of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia was the government's inability or unwillingness to view the war from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. The author believes that the major shortcoming of "Lyndon Johnson's War" is that it failed to present the relationship between the Cold War presidencies.

From the Paper:

"Johnson's government subscribed to the prevailing "domino theory," the idea that if Vietnam falls to Communism, other satellite countries would follow. Like his predecessor President Eisenhower, Johnson believed that Communism was inimical to the free world. The domino theory reveals a view of Communism as a monolithic aggression. It did not recognize the nuances of the motives of the North Vietnamese people and their sympathizers. The Vietnam War was thus fought with the ultimate goal of containment in mind, with keeping Communism from spreading around Asia and, by extension, the rest of the world."

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