- 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 major initiative in the Lyndon Johnson presidency was the Vietnam War. By 1968, the United States had 548,000 troops in Vietnam and had already lost 30,000 Americans there.Johnson's approval ratings had dropped from 70 percent in mid-1965 to below 40 percent by 1967, and with it, his mastery of Congress. . tied down to a land war in Asia.. Even so, Johnson was planning for just that contingency if the situation deterioratedâwhich it did. On February 13, 1965, Johnson authorized Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing of North Vietnam.