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Lyndon Johnson on Foreign Policy
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As much personal contact as possible with foreign leaders
LBJ adhered to the idea that the better you know people the better you understand them. He said he felt the president should have as much personal contact as possible with foreign heads of state and their envoys. He pointed out that he has seen 30 heads
of state in 8 months compared with Pres. Eisenhower's record of seeing only 70 in 8 years. He also tried to get the best brains available to help settle any problem. He likes to remain in personal control of most situations.
Source: A Very Human President, by Jack Valenti, p.307-308
, Dec 1, 1976
Goal: 1/2% of GNP for foreign assistance
The president firmly pointed out with some salty language the troubles that burdened the world, the meetings he was going to have the next day with ambassadors from
Latin America, how freedom was besieged everywhere in the world, and how could he face the ambassadors and his own conscience if foreign aid, which he deemed essential as a prime instrument for peace, were blunted.
What he was asking, said the president, was one-half of one percent of the gross national product for foreign assistance. "I'm sending up a bill one billion dollars less than the last bill
President Kennedy wanted and exactly what Congress appropriated last year. This is a bare-bones bill," said the president, "with no fat on it."
Source: A Very Human President, by Jack Valenti, p.143-144
, Dec 1, 1976
America is easily misunderstood by foreign leaders
It may accurately be said that Lyndon Johnson became president without a foreign policy. To clarify, that means that Pres.
Johnson preferred to think about and deal with domestic rather than international affairs; that he lacked extensive acquaintance with foreign leaders or significant knowledge of foreign leaders or significant knowledge of foreign civilizations; and
that he had no carefully thought-out conception of the workings of the international system, few broad-gauged premises concerning diplomacy or war, even less feel or sense of things international. He had little respect for
American relations with other nations after the Truman Administration. The basic trouble, Pres. Johnson believed was that the US is a nation easily misunderstood by foreign leaders, and that it had failed to make itself clear.
Source: Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric F. Goldman, p.379
, Mar 1, 1974
UN and OAS are useful but irresolute
Pres. Johnson was never hostile and rarely indifferent to international organizations for peace; he genuinely recognized the usefulness of the UN and of the battery of regional bodies created since WWII. But his cardinal doctrine--the necessity for
America to move decisively to protect American interests--did not encourage him to worry long over the opinion of other nations. His spread-eagle patriotism, his disdain for the irresoluteness of group diplomacy, and his delight in barnyard language
combined to build few bridges between him and diplomats assembled in international organizations.Of the Latin American regional group, the Organization of American States, LBJ said on an occasion when he knew his words would be repeated, "It couldn't
pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel." The OAS had been notoriously indecisive and ineffective, but one OAS diplomat remarked that it "made us think that your President does not consider us too important."
Source: Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric F. Goldman, p.382
, Mar 1, 1974
Transform Southeast Asia with Mekong Delta project
As early as 1952 the UN started planning a project which would bring Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam, and Thailand together to control the lower Mekong River for the purposes of flood prevention, electric power, irrigation, fisheries development and more
practical navigation. But the program was discouraged by the instability of the area.The UN Mekong project "would make TVA look like a minor operation." The Mekong project seized Johnson's mind and emotions. Here was a chance to build something.
While in Southeast Asia, the Vice President saw to it that he learned everything he could about the Mekong development program. Meeting with its planning committee in Bangkok, he let them know, "I am a river man. All my life I've been interested
in rivers and their development."
"There's been talk years, planning for years. When do we get some action?" The Mekong project was just the sort of program to fill out and underline the emerging lines of LBJ's thinking about the world.
Source: Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric F. Goldman, p.392-393
, Mar 1, 1974
Asia Doctrine: repulse aggression then remake nations
On April 7, 1965, the President articulated the full-blown Asia Doctrine--the repulse of aggression, then the remaking of the nations. His arms out in messianic appeal, the President called for a concert of Asian countries which, with the leadership and
help of the US, would undertake sweeping programs of economic and social improvement.The law of history marched with his phrases. What do "the ordinary men and women of North Vietnam and South Vietnam--of China and India--of Russia and America"--want?
"They want what their neighbors also desire: food for their hunger; health for their bodies; a chance to learn; progress for their country; and an end to the bondage of material misery."
Johnson was with them, he wanted them to know.
He intended to expand and speed up the sending of American farm surpluses to "the needy in Asia." He proposed a "greatly expanded" co-operative program for social up-building in Southeast Asia, with the aid of the US, the UN, and the USSR.
Source: Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric F. Goldman, p.407-408
, Mar 1, 1974
1948 Senate race: Peace-Preparedness-Progress
Johnson based his campaign on "Three bold signposts on the road we should travel toward a better tomorrow." These signposts he listed as Peace-Preparedness-Progress. To help insure a peaceful world, Johnson suggested:- We can strengthen the UN.
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We can keep open the free channels of trade.
- We can stand up to warmakers and say, 'This far and no farther'--as we did in Greece and Turkey.
- We can help free men with the Marshall Plan.
- We can tell the world about America and American aims.
Source: The Lyndon Johnson Story, by Booth Mooney, p. 58
, Jun 1, 1964
1954 Formosa Resolution: line against Communist aggression
When the President submitted the Formosa Resolution, serving notice on the Chinese Communists not to advance against the Nationalists on the Island of Formosa, it was Johnson who took the lead in urging its approval.Nothing was happening to bear out
the prediction made in the 1954 campaign that election of a Democratic Congress would give birth to a regressive "cold war" between the executive and legislative branches of the government. "The objectives of foreign policy should be to promote and
preserve the security and the integrity of the US. From the very beginning of this Congress, the Democratic leadership made it clear that they would support the President in any effort to obtain those objectives."
"That promise was fulfilled.
It was fulfilled in the Formosa Resolution when the President sought to draw a line against Chinese Communist aggression. It was fulfilled in the approval of the Paris pacts, which laid the cornerstone for the defenses of Europe against communism."
Source: The Lyndon Johnson Story, by Booth Mooney, p.115&123
, Jun 1, 1964
Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013
