Rhetorically, President Johnson presented his Vietnam intervention as part of an international war on poverty. ‘The vast Mekong River can provide food and water and power on a scale to dwarf even...Show moreRhetorically, President Johnson presented his Vietnam intervention as part of an international war on poverty. ‘The vast Mekong River can provide food and water and power on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA,’ LBJ held during his televised speech at Johns Hopkins University of April 1965, informing the audience of the United States’ benevolent ambition in Vietnam. But the desired effect of LBJ's rhetoric was not solely limited to sanctifying foreign affairs: rather, Johnson’s remarks underlined the universalism embedded in Great Society reform, and extrapolated the Democratic platform into a global context - justifying the president's agenda in both the foreign and domestic contexts. Thus, this thesis argues that LBJ’s early Vietnam rhetoric was intimately linked with his public defense of Great Society reforms, and challenge the conceptual dichotomy between domestic and foreign affairs by closely scrutinizing several key speeches of the Johnson presidency.Show less
