American During its longest war - Essay Example

History America during Its Longest War President Lyndon Johnson came to office during an established, complicated, and troubled term. Johnson considered these conditions suitable for embarking on a war on poverty within the United States and Southeast Asia. During Johnson’s term, liberals strived to set up policy arrangements capable of safeguarding a fundamental measure of economic security for United States citizens. This meant ensuring poverty levels in the country before the war in Vietnam were low.

However, when the war began, the United States began facing a major domestic threat from poverty, which relate to the war in Southeast Asia directly.Thesis statement: America’s wars on poverty and Southeast Asia relate in the sense that social legislation slowed down because Johnson’s government did not have enough economic power to deal with domestic poverty. The military spent a majority of the budget on the Southeast Asia war. America underwent several encounters during its longest war.

Domestic War on Poverty and in Southeast Asia With this new convention, Social Security and welfare were born. These programs were part of social legislation in the United States. In the process, insuring the jobless, helping senior citizens and the blind directly, and payments to orphans or absentee fathers were the duty of the government (Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Fahs, Gerstle, Rosenberg, and Rosenberg 989). In 1966, Johnson managed to construct a Congress that settled on domestic war, as well as the progress it made towards its fulfillment.

Even so, incidents in Southeast Asia started to outshine Johnson’s national accomplishments slowly (Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Fahs, Gerstle, Rosenberg, and Rosenberg 991). For instance, finances Johnson intended on combating poverty in the United States began redirection to the Vietnam War. Conservatives in Johnson’s administration slandered him for his national policies and liberals for his aggressive position on Southeast Asia. When America’s war in Vietnam became mostly violent in 1965, Johnson made them the topic of his secretly recorded and annotated transcriptions.

Johnson discusses consecutive developments of the United States’ connection with the Vietnam War. These developments changed an assisting and advice-giving military effort into a radical, complete American war (Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Fahs, Gerstle, Rosenberg, and Rosenberg 998). Between 1964 and 1965, a series of congressional decisions to take serious military action in Vietnam simply Americanized the Southeast Asian conflict. These decisions range from the events of the Tonkin Gulf in 1964 to the placement of 44 combat troop battalions in 1965.

Some antiwar activities in the United States ensued during Johnson’s term. For example, no liberty fissures broke out in Congress and ensued amongst the public. Antiwar protesters demonstrated openly against their nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War. A contributory factor to this antiwar campaign in the United States was the rising number of casualties. As Johnson dedicated more funds, ammunition, and soldiers to the war, Vietnam kept winning. These funds were originally for the improvement of social welfare of Americans.

Johnson received much disparagement because of abusing the people’s liberty when it came to public funds. In addition, America was on the losing end in the war despite the substantial funding.Conclusion President Johnson’s administration spent a majority of the budget on the war in Southeast Asia, which made it hard to combat the domestic war on poverty. As a result, social legislation slowed down. Johnson secretly wrote of the manner in which the war in Southeast Asia changed from an advice-giving mission to a full-blown war.

This was the first indication of a growing budget and spending source. Johnson intended to use the same source of funding to fight the war on poverty. Even so, owing to the nature of the war in Southeast Asia, it was problematic for Johnson’s administration to fight poverty in the United States.Work CitedMurrin, John M., Paul E. Johnson, James M. McPherson, Alice Fahs, Gary Gerstle, Emily S. Rosenberg, and Norman L. Rosenberg. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Volume 2: Since 1863.

New York: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.