Lyndon Baines Johnson

Birth-Death: (1908 - 1973 ) Term: (1963-1969 )

Fear of the Domino Effect was clearly a motivation behind Johnson's administration when it came to foreign affairs. Johnson escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam by sending additional troops. In Cuba, the American military base at Guantanamo Bay was cut off in an attempt to force their departure. Johnson responded with threats of continued U2 spy-planes over Cuban airspace.

Foreign Events of Lyndon Johnson

    Although the Cold War was in full swing, the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban treaty under Kennedy pointed to peaceful coexistence rather than full scale nuclear war. The American Government still believed in the Domino Theory. Over the presidency of Johnson the amount of troops fighting in Vietnam gradually increased. Before him, President Kennedy increased the number of troops in Vietnam and under Johnson the conflict turned into a full scale war. The United States had hundreds of thousands of troops in Vietnam, yet the situation was not much better than when the United States took over from France in the 1950s. To fight for peace, Johnson announced in March of 1968 that he would not run for another term, he would rather concentrate his efforts on achieving peace in Vietnam. However, this policy did not work and as Johnson was leaving office, American men were still dying in Vietnam.

    President Johnson also began open hostility with Cuba. Trying to force the Americans to leave, Cuba shut off the freshwater supply to the Guantanamo military base. The Americans reacted by building their own water treatment plant. Days later, Johnson announced that American U2 spy-planes will continue to fly inspection over Cuba. Castro said that he would try to shoot them down, and Johnsonıs reply was that all attacks on U2 planes would be met with severe action.