Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric Goldman: on Foreign Policy

Lyndon Johnson: America is easily misunderstood by foreign leaders

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.

Lyndon Johnson: UN and OAS are useful but irresolute

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."

Lyndon Johnson: Transform Southeast Asia with Mekong Delta project

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.

Lyndon Johnson: Asia Doctrine: repulse aggression then remake nations

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.