would include sometimes quite different tactics and strategies. Institutional context and political relevance of the controversy had its military consequences, its political tones. [Under construction]. Johnson: politics of war in 1967 As Commander-in-Chief, the American President directs the nation's armed forces. President Johnson, in holding a democratically elected public office, was ultimately dependent upon the popular vote for political support, and on political forces at play. As a national figure, his well-known profile was in domestic policy, not in foreign policy. His main focus was expressly oriented toward American society, specifically to a package of progressive 'Great Society' programs to further his view of economic and racial justice. Johnson's political agenda was center-left. The liberal Democratic Party was his career affiliation. Rather than the Vietnam War, he preferred to first pursue to completion his administration's domestic goals. Nonetheless, Johnson planned to satisfy as well the conservative strata of the electorate, by stopping communism in South Vietnam. To do so, Johnson relied on the military chiefs and continued to send military advisors to South Vietnam. In the early 1960s, the US Army was more focused on conventional warfare, apt for fighting the Red Army in Europe, or re-fighting the Korean War, than in tangling with elusive communist guerrillas in a political struggle in Southeast Asia. Johnson, in his ambitious plan to satisfy different constituencies with different goals, was obliged to pursue a 'guns and butter' program, which would break the budget. His critics began to find contradictions in his pronouncements, especially after his 1964 election as an anti-war candidate was followed by his 1965 escalation of the war in South Vietnam. His staid stories about the situation and strategy in South Vietnam began to seem arbitrary, politicized. A "credibility gap" emerged in the press and in public opinion. In preparation for the 1968 Presidential election, Johnson decided to mount a public relations campaign in 1967. A favorable image of American forces and prospects in the Vietnam War would be promoted to court American voters, who were becoming divided about the conflict. For this 'PR' campaign, Johnson enlisted General Westmoreland, his military commander in Vietnam, to make the pro-war case. The General returned to Washington several times. He addressed Congress, held press conferences, and appeared on television news programs responding to questions about the war. The new American ambassador in Saigon, Ellsworth Bunker, arrived later in Washington, to support the campaign, the