LBJ Deescalates Vietnam: Impact on Great Society and Space Program?

Anaxagoras

Banned
Suppose that LBJ decided to deescalate the Vietnam War until all American troops were gradually withdrawn by the end of 1966. How would this affect the Great Society and space program?
 
It's painfully simple- never adopting the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964. That was LBJ's fig leaf for escalation in the first place.
The JCS listening to the advisors who wrote RVN off as a lost cause in 1962 before the coup against Diem would have kept US involvement manageable.
YMMDV from mine.

In response to the OP:
More $$$ available but IMO the key issue is focus.
Great Society raised expectations of what the federal govt could do to alleviate poverty but also made it clear that folks were at the mercy of a rather bloated and ill-thought out system.
Even as a liberal I think a lot of GS programs were well-intentioned boondoggles. Of course, fifty years' hindsight makes that easier to see.

Without Vietnam, LBJ has a pretty clear shot to a second term 68-72.
It's a possibility Medicare gets extended to all ages and income groups in LBJ's second term.

NASA's caught between the devil and deep blue sea with Apollo program-
getting to the moon was a laudable goal but afterwards- ???
Apollo got NASA money and support that evaporated once they got to the moon.
There were several plans that could have given NASA a post Apollo direction MOL, X-20, and so forth that were scuttled OTL by SecDef Macnamara (X-20) and technological advances in miniaturization (MOL).
e of pi's TL Eyes Pointed Skyward explores that in much more detail.

From a strictly functional standpont, NASA could either focus on unmanned space exploration, orbital infrastructure, and/or continuing manned space exploration. IOTL the Space Shuttle was supposed to make it easier to do all three.

IMO NASA could do several things once Apollo winds down.
Moonbase,
Skylab staying up
Using NERVA space tug to put up/maintain geosynchronous satellites.
A manned mission to Mars, possibly with Soviet participation.
 

Archibald

Banned
Apollo could led to a lunar base (Boeing 1964 Lunar Exploration Systems for Apollo - LESA) with a simple addition to the CSM/ LM: a big, one way unmanned cargo lander. LOX/LH2 propulsion (Centaur's RL-10s). The logistic vehicle max a single launch of a Saturn V. Payload to the lunar surface of 30 000 pounds is feasible.
Most difficult aspect is to have NASA focused to a single goal and a single destination with minimal new hardware so that the budget does not balloon.
Nixon space advisor Charles "laser" Townes actually recommended to continue lunar landings in January 1969, but was not heard.
Even if Apollo is far from perfect or cheap, at least the system exists and cost an arm and a leg to develop, plus a retreat to a Earth orbit space station isn't very glamourous or desirable. That are the best arguments to continue the program. The current Apollo missions can be stetched to 1975 if needed (at two per year after Apollo 12, including Apollo 13 delay).

For the record, Saturn V production line was suspended in July 1968 but definitively stopped and scrapped only in January 1970. As for the Soviets, their lunar program(s) continued until May 1974 (!) and Mishin sacking in favour of Glushko (and Energia / Buran).
As of spring 1972 the Soviets had zero interest in the shuttle (they hated the concept) and were developping new lunar landers (L3M) and a lunar base to follow that (DLB)
 
LBJ in power from '68-72 is probably enough to get us to the Saturn II and other non-shuttle programs. He was far more of an ally to the Space Program than Nixon. If you give the Soviets some flapping butterflies too, such that they at least get a circumlunar flight in early '69, I could see joint moonbases between the Superpowers by the late 70's.

Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?
 
LBJ was in bad health by 1970. Not sure how much was due to Vietnam-related stress and how much was inevitable. But I don't think he'd go for the second term. But if he's still popular in 1968, I think President Humphrey is a valid idea.
 
LBJ was in bad health by 1970. Not sure how much was due to Vietnam-related stress and how much was inevitable. But I don't think he'd go for the second term. But if he's still popular in 1968, I think President Humphrey is a valid idea.
IIRC, his bad health was mostly due to him smoking himself to death in depression over failing to win another term.
 
The end of Vietnam war in 1966 would save the Saturn V production, but not the running Apollo program !
the moment of Apollo 11 land on moon the public and politician lost interests in Moon landing program.
If the Soviets not land on Moon, then the Apollo lunar program is quite death.

As successor could be short term the Apollo Application Program in 1970s
what include several Skylab station, manned Geostationary orbit or polar orbit mission with Apollo CSM & LM as spacelab
and optional a lunar orbital mapping mission and handful dual landings with 14 day on lunar surface.

the Apollo Application Program need a dozen Saturn V and Saturn IB or Titan IIIM.
 
If LBJ avoided getting seriously involved in Vietnam, his legacy would be fantastic. In my mind, Vietnam is the big, overriding blemish on Johnson's otherwise good record. Presumably the economy would be better off and the Great Society programs would be better funded, and he'd serve a second elected term. I have a hard time imagining him not regarded as the second coming of FDR if he avoids Vietnam.
 
This may be nit-picking, but I remember reading an article in Time magazine in 1972 or thereabouts, that LBJ had recently taken up smoking again [the article said he had quit some 15 years earlier] His doctor told him it would kill him, but he figured his heart was going to give out anyway, and he was going to enjoy his time remaining. So if this story was accurate, then he didn't smoke while he was POTUS. [unless he snuck a few, when nobody was looking]
IIRC, his bad health was mostly due to him smoking himself to death in depression over failing to win another term.
 
This may be nit-picking, but I remember reading an article in Time magazine in 1972 or thereabouts, that LBJ had recently taken up smoking again [the article said he had quit some 15 years earlier] His doctor told him it would kill him, but he figured his heart was going to give out anyway, and he was going to enjoy his time remaining. So if this story was accurate, then he didn't smoke while he was POTUS. [unless he snuck a few, when nobody was looking]

The story I heard, and I think this was from a daughter or something in a documentary, was that on the way out of Washington, LBJ took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one up, and told them when they were surprised that basically he didn't give a damn.

Smoking and hard drinking is the reason LBJ died in 1973, and he took them up because he had gone through being a very hated president.
 
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