- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plunged to -26 degrees on Jan. 17, their coldest temperature in 111 years. - Montgomery, Alabama (-2), Jackson, Mississippi (-5), and Atlanta (-5) each plunged below zero. - Snow at rush hour on Jan. 11 slickened streets, stranding motorists in Atlanta.
The American public was incensed, and Johnson requested from Congress the authority to take âall necessary stepsâ to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam. Congress complied and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in August 1964.
The LBJ Tapes and the Americanization of the Vietnam War. In the summer of 1965, President Johnson faced an agonizing decision. General Westmoreland had come to him with a bombshell request for 150,000 more troops in Vietnam. LBJ, who wished to be remembered as a great reformer, not as a war president, saw the proposed escalation for what it wasâthe turning point for American involvement in Vietnam.