Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War

About the lecture

In this module, we think about the US strategy in Vietnam under President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69), thinking in particular about Johnson’s escalation of the war effort from 1965 onwards. Was this Johnson’s plan all along? If so, what took him so long to put it into action? If not, what lead him to make the decisions he did?

About the lecturer

Kevin Ruane is a Professor of Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University and a By-Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He specialises in twentieth century international history, in particular Anglo-American relations, the Cold War, Nuclear History, and the Vietnam war. His recent publications include Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (Bloomsbury, 2016), The Vietnam Wars (Manchester, 2000) and War and Revolution in Vietnam, 1930-75 (Routledge, 1998).