"Johnson was equally determined to prevent the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia, but the price the United States had to pay in lives and money to do so would be much higher than in Latin America. Between November 1963 and July 1965, Johnson transformed Kennedy's program of limited U.S. assistance to South Vietnam into an open-ended commitment to defend that country. By 1968 the United States would have over 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Johnson believed, probably correctly, that South Vietnam would collapse if the United States did not expand its participation in the war. Remembering the conservative backlash against the Truman administration after the communist takeover of China, Johnson believed he could not abandon South Vietnam and remain in the White House. Shortly after assuming the presidency, Johnson said privately, "I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went. If the United States pulled out of Vietnam, Johnson warned on one occasion, "it might as well give up everywhere else- pull out of Berlin, Japan, South America.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 155.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Vietnam War
236 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Vietnam War →
Related Quotes
"Intelligence on Vietcong positions and movements frequently arrived too late to be actionable, delayed in an informat…"
"The war is simply an obscenity, a depraved act by weak and miserable men, including all of us who have allowed it to …"
"You sense a strong sense of mission among the fighting men in Viet Nam, an enormous compassion for all victims of Com…"
"By Thanksgiving, 1967, we still had not made any really final decision about whether or not we'd return for another t…"
"The Vietnam war literally brought this country to its knees because, without going into the technicalities of what Co…"
"Now then, the question is, How can we move to begin to change what's going on in this country. I maintain, as we have…"
"We thought, We will go to Vietnam and be Audie Murphies. Kick in the door, run in the hooch, give it a good burst- ki…"
"And for the men in the audience, hands down, the worst PTSD in the war is in the women who served as surgical nurses …"
"The Road to Viet Nam, and to the other important places Mr. Hope visits at Christmas, had to end for Bob and me after…"
"There were only two types of people when I came home- those who were against what we did and those who said nothing. …"