Turning Point : LBJ, Vietnam, the Great Society, and the Month That Defined His Presidency

A pivotal month. A presidency transformed. A nation forever changed. In Turning Point, independent historian Ryan S. Walters delivers a gripping, day-by-day narrative of the most decisive month of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—when the paths of Vietnam, the Great Society, and American political history converged. This powerful new work reveals how a single month produced the turning points that shaped LBJ’s legacy. From the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident—and the deceptive intelligence that led to Congress granting Johnson sweeping authority to wage war—to the landmark domestic breakthroughs of the Great Society, Walters exposes how August 1964 set the course for both one of America’s greatest social revolutions and one of its most disastrous foreign wars. Readers will uncover:The truth behind the Gulf of Tonkin, including the attack that never happened and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that pushed the U.S. into Vietnam. How the Economic Opportunity Act and Food Stamp Act, passed in the same month, launched Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty.”LBJ’s dramatic, almost last-minute decision to run for president in his own right—despite deep personal doubts and escalating political crises. The fierce rivalries, race riots, political intrigue at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, and the chilling discovery of three murdered civil-rights workers in Mississippi. How persistent questions about LBJ’s personal wealth nearly derailed his political future. Walters masterfully situates these events within the larger themes of Johnson’s presidency: the feud with Bobby Kennedy, chaos in South Vietnam, fractures within the Democratic Party, and the shadow of corruption that followed LBJ throughout his career. Perfect for readers of presidential history, Cold War studies, political biography, and fans of Robert Caro and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Turning Point delivers a fast-paced, authoritative look at the month that defined—and doomed—a presidency.