Johnson Administration and Foreign Affairs
This collection offers online access to the microfilm series, “Lyndon B. Johnson and Foreign Affairs, 1963-1969.” Included here are White House Central Files which consist of the Foreign Affairs Subject Files and the National Defense Subject File on the Vietnam War. The collection enumerates policies, responses, and recommendations from the president’s advisers and cabinet members on handling the growing conflict in South Vietnam, its effects on domestic policies, and the public’s reaction to the war. The files document the Johnson administration's escalation of the war from a commitment of sixteen thousand advisers in November 1963 to that of over five hundred thousand combat troops at the end of 1968. The archive details controversial issues such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the initiation of regular bombing attacks on North Vietnam, the decision to commit large numbers of combat troops to South Vietnam, and efforts to maintain public support for the war.