policy - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
retaining the Kennedy personn~el in his administration and pursuing the
Kennedy domestic and foreign policies served not only to provide the
country with contir.uity in the crisis atmosphere surrounding the Kennedy
assassination, they also served to block political adventures that otherwise
might have initiated by Robert Kennedy.
Johnson entered office without a national constituency. It
is revealing that he was seldom comfortable appealing to the masses of
American voters.
He was a parliamentarian who was singularly gifted with
talents for maneuvering among other parliamentarians and obtaining specific
objectives. He was, however, limited in his understanding and ability to
evoke long-term support for his position from the people at large. His
approaches to both the 1964 and 1968 presidential campaigns indicated his
limitations in developing and exploiting grass roots organizations on a
national scale. 24/
In all his dealings with other politicians, Johnson sought
to obtain his desired goals by maneuver and manipulation.
explains his peculiar relationship with the press.
This tendency
Instead of approaching
the press in large open press conferences as Kennedy had, Johnson sought to
win press support through small group discussions with reporters where he
could exercise his powerful persuasive abilities.
Kennedy and Johnson thus adopted strikingly different to
political styles. Kennedy for his part sought to stand as the leader of
all the peuple and to appeal directly to them by passing a Congress which
he saw as an obstruction to obtaining his ends. Johnson tor his part sought
to obtain his goals through the tactics of parliamentary m,,aneuver that had
been so successful for him in his role as Senate Majority Leader. 25/
c. Impact on Vietnam War Policy Making
Johnson kept the Kennedy foreign policy advisors and
depended upon them for maintaining continuity. While this may have eased
problems of transition at a time of considerable national uncertainty
following the assassination, and while it prevented Robert Kennedy from
rallying the Kennedy people to his political banner, it aiso meant the loss
of an opportunity for reviewing the fundamental premises of the US presence
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