...and neither did the President. He, LBJ, had to get permission from the Congress in the name of We the People to send me there.
Right! The people via the Congress provided a Resolution "Gulf of Tonkin", Not a declaration of war. It seems to me 55000 of us died But Congress didn't send us... Johnson did and did so under the authority the Constitution gave him...
You, no doubt, find it repugnant to link Johnson into the effort and consider that you did a dang thing for him but you did... he was the ultimate boss... The CiC of the whole lot of us. No matter the rank we have someone above us who we 'work' for until you get to where the buck stops...
He, the president, also did or does what he does for 'we the people'. It is the people who gave him the authority by electing him... at that point he's the boss of the military and you execute his orders. You fire your weapon as a representative of the President who has the authority delegated to you via his chain of command.