To Win the Hearts and Minds: The Combined Action program During the Vietnam War

Abstract

On May 4, 1965, two months after the first Marines landed in Vietnam, Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at a dinner meeting with the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. “So we must be ready to fight in Vietnam," he famously announced, "but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live there.”1 Johnson, now committed to escalating the war in Vietnam, would use the phrase, “winning hearts and minds” a total of twenty-eight times between January 1964 and August 1968. In plain terms, the phrase refers to winning the loyalties of the local population through emotional or intellectual appeals to gain strategic military advantages in a war setting. This concept— “winning hearts and minds” — would become integral to discussions of Vietnam War tactics and counterinsurgency strategy.