So many people are not aware that Johnson intentionally did not want the cost and commitment known by the American people as it would interfere with his expensive leftist domestic agenda.
Johnson and McNamara were both masters of deceit. They repeatedly lied to the JCS and to Congress. No one outside a small inner circle knew what the Administration was doing in Vietnam. They overstated to the JCS what they were willing to do, and they undersold the costs to Congress. The public at large was left in the dark as well. Everything took a back seat to his massive Great Society programs, many of which still plague us.