Compare and contrast the Nixon and Johnson administration during the Vietnam War.?

Answer 1

Johnson wanted nothing to do with "VetNAM" as he used to call it. He wanted the "Great Society" for America; the elimination of poverty and great educational programs for his new society. When the war escalated, he bent over backwards to keep Red China and the Soviets out of it. He went to great extremes to avoid injuring any Soviet Technicians or Merchant Seamen unloading war material off of their Soviet Merchant Ships docked in North Vietnam's harbors (Red Chinese War Material was trucked across the border into North Vietnam). His efforts to avoid injuring personnel of the Communist Super Powers, amounted to "micro-management" of the air war, in the eyes of US Airmen who were flying the bombing missions over North Vietnam. Possibly, US Airmen were aware of Johnson's "big picture" of the war, and their (the pilots & aircrewmen) "little picture" of the war (Strategy verses Tactics) and simply chose to ignore Johnson's predicament of trying to avoid a bigger conflict.

Nixon won the presidential campaign on winning the war or getting out of it with honor. He was cut from a different sheet of cloth than Johnson was. Nixon had lost his first bid for the white house in 1960 to Kennedy, all because he didn't shave the night before (he had a "shadow" on the world's FIRST nation wide TV presidential debate...and it apparently affected his ratings). Everytime he did something in the world of politics, the press was "on him like a hound." It got to a point where he publicly stated to the press, when leaving an office, "...you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore!" So Nixon, was TOUGH, he'd been kicked around by nearly everybody, made fun of, ridiculed, called a loser (when he lost to Kennedy). When it came to Vietnam, he didn't give a darn "about being nice". He listened to his former Chief of the Air Force, GEN Curtis LeMay, who stated, "...BOMB THEM BACK INTO THE STONE AGE!" And he recommended the B-52 Stratofortress Bomber to do it with. But Nixon was not only tough, he was also a seasoned politician too, so he had Kissinger secretly negotiate with the North, and he (Nixon) negotiated with Both Red China & the Soviets, somehow got them to stay out of the war, and he "B-52'd" Hanoi to the negotiating table. It worked, we left.