We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2019
President Lyndon B. Johnson was inclined to favor “tougher” military responses that promised victory. He understood the intricacies of the policy that he had inherited but changed it. He promoted Rusk to the detriment of other advisors who had supported a counterinsurgency program and who left, including Hilsman, Michael Forrestal and Ted Sorensen. McNamara initially resisted expanding the commitment in Vietnam. In a presidential election year, he was sent on two trips to South Vietnam, in March and May, that were designed to placate possible critics of Johnson’s policies, including the JCS, Ambassador Lodge, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the SFRC. Johnson pressed his Secretary to give the Chiefs “something” militarily. In response, McNamara looked for “disavowable actions” and eventually moved to support a bombing program as a substitute for deploying ground troops.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
