Would give him 4 stars but for the gulf of tonkin incident and aftermath. I fault congress more actually.

Our national crisis with Civil Rights was a major issue and in this area Pres. Johnson was proactive. Unfortunately, he was greatly misguided on how to handle the Vietnam War crisis.

The majority of Americans remember Lyndon Johnson and his Presidency and think of one thing- Vietnam. Sadly enough, Vietnam is Johnson's legacy. His hopes were high, and in the beginning, he was optimistic about the war. When Johnson came to office following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, there were nearly 16,000 military advisors in Vietnam. These advisors were in fact involved in combat, but their main objective was to train the Vietnamese to win their own war. In 1964, as Johnson publically warned against a strong commitment in Vietnam, the number of advisors rose to 25,000. Following his re-election, the resolve of the South Vietnamese had deteriorated, and Johnson became convinced that the preservation of a Democratic Vietnam was neccessary to maintain America's standing with the rest of the world. Johnson feared that a Communist triumph in Vietnam would ultimately lead to total Communist domination of Southeast Asia. Thus, in 1965, Johnson Americanized the war. He heeded the advise of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and began to commit combat troops in Vietnam. In Operation Rolling Thunder, American planes bombed North Vietnam, gradually increasing the size of the attacks and the importance of the targets. By the end of 1965, 180,000 men were in Vietnam, and that number doubled by the end of 1966. Johnson believed that this escalation would force the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table, willing to accept peaceful terms. However, Johnson failed to realize that the Viet Cong was not willing to negotiate. The conflict had been raging for nearly two decades, with thousands of Vietnamese dead, and the Viet Cong was still fighting. Johnson basically commited the United States to a conflict halfway around the globe that was clearly unwinnable. Johnson soon realized that his strategy had failed, and thus attempted to back down and plead for peace. He halted the bombing of North Vietnam for a month, but the North Vietnamese took advantage of this grace period and used the time to kill more Americans. By 1968, growing opposition to the war erupted here at home, and several violent protests occured. This can only be blamed on Johnson himself. Johnson had been overly optimistic in 1965 and 1966, and when the public realized that the war would take longer than the administration had hoped, the country became deeply divided. In 1968, after announcing his decision not to seek a second term, Johnson halted almost all bombing of North Vietnam, and negotiations with North Vietnam began in Paris. These talks made no progress, and the Vietnam War was left to Johnson's successor to handle. Clearly, Johnson failed in Vietnam. His strategy was foolhardy- the idea that the North Vietnamese would fear U.S. troops. He failed to see that Vietnam truly was unwinnable, and was unable to resist pressure by his advisors to escalate the war. Truly, the best thing to do would've been to withdraw troops from Vietnam in 1965 or 1966, rather than commiting some 500,000 troops as a scare tactic. The domino theory proved to be false in the end. The Vietnam War divided our country deeply, and Johnson considered his political future and reputation more important than the unification of his own country. You have to feel sorry for Johnson to some degree- he really meant to do right, but he lacked the instinct to see that Vietnam truly was a mistake. Once area where Johnson did exhibit strong leadership was his decision in 1965 to send 20,000 U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic, where a revolution was raging. Johnson feared that the Communists would seize control of the revolution, and Johnson was not about to make the same mistake that Eisenhower made with Cuba. American intervention in the Caribbean state destroyed any chance the revolutionaries had and led to a cease-fire. So, in the final analysis, no President in the last half of the 20th century faced a greater crisis than Johnson. He meant well, but as I wrote earlier, he lacked a true knowledge and understanding of the way Communist revolutionaries thought, and lacked instinct. His defenders are quick to point out that he was pressured and deceived by his advisers. Only the President of the United States can send troops to a faraway country. No one else can make that decision for him.