Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of the United States
Takeover after Kennedy and the Election of 1964
- When Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in
- Sworn in at Air Force One, highly guarded
- Served for one more year and continued Kennedy's policies
Election of 1964
- Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Humphrey vs Republican Barry Goldwater and William E. Miller
- Johnson won because of Goldwater's tendency to be 'trigger-happy'
Democrat Electoral - 486 Popular - 43,127,041
Republican Electoral - 52 Popular - 27,175,754
The Great Society
- The Great Society:
- Johnson's goal to lift America out of poverty
- 20% of population and 40% of blacks were in poverty
- Developed Medicare to help the elderly and poor
- Lowered the bar for immigration allowing more people in
- Created the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Critics said it wouldn't help in the long run, and not worth the money spent: however poverty did decline slowly.
24th Amendment
- Decreed the poll tax unnecessary in federal elections
- Ratified on January 23, 1964
- The "Jim Crow" laws were being dismantled as a black could vote as much as a white
- Most blacks gained the ability to vote as it didn't cost anything
- Poll tax itself was deemed unconstitutional in 1966
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Vietnam War
- August 1962
- The US Navy worked with South Vietnam in secrecy against the Communist North
- US ships were attacked, and it was deemed to be a minor aggression
- Johnson took advantage of this and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed him to engage in battle in Southeast Asia if he felt it was necessary
Vietnam War
- Skirmishes escalated into battles and Johnson believed that increased pressure would cause the North Vietnamese to be submissive
- Instead the opposite effect occurred and they grew more violent, leading to a stalemate
- The War dragged on for no reason and no end.
- The public frowned upon the waste of resources on the war, and both candidates of the Election of 1968 decided to end the war
Apollo 8's 'Farside' picture
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Tonkin Gulf
Johnson's Civil Rights
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or nationality
- Even though the blacks were able to vote, they were too afraid to act and as few as 5% were voting
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- The Voting Rights Act allowed to votes without any apprehension
- Whites also had to convince blacks as well in order to gain the popular vote
1968
A major communist offensive was launched in Vietnam, and any hopes of the war ending soon was gone
Black Power came to rise, and riots grew more violent, as shown in the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico
Johnson announces that he will not run for another term to the public
Robert Kennedy, JFK's younger brother, was assassinated on June 5th while running for president
Martin Luther King, one of the most prominent social right leaders, was assassinated
Apollo 8 took video of the Earth from the far side of the moon
The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia with over 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops on August 20, putting an end to the "Prague Spring," and beginning a period of enforced and oppressive "normalization."
- The South Vietnamese government finally decide to join in the Paris Peace Talks