Was President Johnson's approach to foreign affairs similar to or different from Kennedy's? Explain your answer.

If you are examining a textbook, refer to that first in terms of progressing towards your answer.  Sometimes, teachers and instructors are assessing you on what the text says and your text might hold a specific view that has to be understood.  Having said this, I would say that the question is fairly difficult to answer because the sampling of data we have from Kennedy's administration is not as present as Johnson's.  On one hand, we understand that both were driven to defeat Communism.  Kennedy's stance in the Cuban Missile Crisis and LBJ's stated initiatives in Vietnam would confirm that both were motivated by defeating Communism.  We can also presume that there is some level of similarity in their foreign policy approach as many of the staff that advised Kennedy were also there to advise Johnson (McNamara, Bundy, Wheeler, as well as George Ball, as examples.)  The largest area of divergence would have to be Vietnam.  Simply put, we don't know if Kennedy would have pursued escalation and its disastrous consequences as LBJ did.  Johnson did argue on many occasion that he was merely carrying out the will of his predecessor, but there is a fairly large belief that argues that Kennedy would have found ways to minimize U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  At the same time, there is an equally sizable contingent who argues that Kennedy's placement of "military advisors" was a first step that would have increased had he been alive.