Excerpt from "Message to Congress, August 5, 1964"
Reprinted from Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1964

Excerpt from "House Joint Resolution 1145, August 7, 1964"
Reprinted from Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1964

"The issue is the future of southeast Asia as a whole. A threat to any nation in that region is a threat to all, and a threat to us."

The pressure of America's commitment to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia grew especially intense in the spring and summer of 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson had inherited from his Democratic predecessor, John F. Kennedy, the policy of providing military advisors and weapons to support the government of South Vietnam. But pressures in Vietnam and at home soon pushed Johnson to look for a different policy. In Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops, supported by their Vietcong...