Lyndon Johnson

In Larry L. King’s, Trapped: Lyndon Johnson and the Nightmare of Vietnam, Larry King makes his assessment of Lyndon Johnson. King states, “His personal history simply permitted him no retreats or failure in testing.” (Portrait of America page 313) What King is trying to say about Lyndon Johnson in this statement is that his past does not allow him to retreat or to fail. King describes Lyndon Johnson’s history by saying, “LBJ’s mother, who smothered him with affection and praise should he perform her pleasure and expectations, refused to acknowledge his presence should displease or disappoint her. His father accused him of being a sleepy head, a slow starter and sometimes said in town had a two hour head start on him.” (Portraits of America page 313) By the way that Lyndon Johnson was raised he was thought to succeed. If Lyndon Johnson did not succeed, he would not receive the praise he desired from his parents. For that reason LBJ could not conceive American defeat in Vietnam. King goes on to further say, “These and other disturbing dreams haunted his White House years.”(Portrait of America page 313) King is explaining that LBJ was terrified of failure, therefore could not conceive a defeat in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson definitely did support the troops and its request for manpower. Larry King writes in his essay Trapped: Lyndon Johnson and the Nightmare of Vietnam, “almost always, however, he went along with bigger military spending and, in most cases, with more bombing or whatever tough military action the brass proposed.”(Portrait of America page 314) This shows Larry King’s support for the military manpower.
Johnson began serving as President of The United Sates of America in 1963 after the death of John Kennedy; he was the 36th president of the United States. He always talked of the necessity to be strong. He invoke his father’s standing up to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s, Teddy Roosevelt’s carrying that big stick. FDR’s mobilizing the country to beat