Johnson
Analiese Gerald
Johnson Becomes President
After Assassination
- JFK is assassinated and LBJ is sworn in on same day: November 22, 1963
- Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in in airport and without a Bible
- made transition smooth, kept most of JFK's policies and even most of "the Harvards", Kennedy's team
Election of 1964
- Democrat Johnson vs. Republican Goldwater
- Johnson ran as an extreme liberal while Goldwater ran as an extreme conservative
- Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf Incident to his advantage
- Johnson won by a huge margin: 486 electoral votes to 53 and about 16 million more popular votes
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Vietnam War
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
- unknown to the public and congress, American and South Vietnamese participated in raids along the cost of North Vietnam
- when North Vietnam attacked Johnson called the attack "unprovoked"
- he used the incident to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution- congress gave Johnson authorization to use military force without congress declaring war
Vietnam War
- World opinion of America's involvement in Vietnam war was increasingly hostile
- America's over commitment in Vietnam left Soviets free to expand influence in Middle East
- domestic discontent of America's involvement grew also, draft members fled to Canada or publicly burned their draft sheet
- Israeli/Palestine conflict grew and America was powerless to intervene
- After opposition to the war reached it's peak in 1968, Johnson finally announced he would pull American troops
The Great Society/ The 24th Amendment
The Great Society
- democratic social reform programs Johnson passed during the lack of Republicans and conservatives in office
- doubled the appropriation of the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion
- created Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- established National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities to increase American cultural life
- Big Four legislative achievements: aid to education, medical care for the elderly and indigent, immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill
24th Amendment
- ratified 1964
- prohibits congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote on all levels/ abolished the poll tax infederal elections
Johnson's Civil Rights
- almost as soon as he entered office as president, he passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned racial discrimination in private facilities open to the public
- Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests and sent federal voter registrars into several southern states
- violence in South reached a peak, era of peaceful protests was over
- Johnson attempted to use to the violence to convince nation they needed to act with his "And we will overcome speech"
- "Black Power" became popular
Great Society
Newspaper
24th Amendment
Protest on poll taxes
Johnson's Civil Rights
Malcolm X, black preacher and supporter of "Black Power"
'68
1968- what all happened to make this a "watershed" year?
- Johnson announced he would but the brakes on the Vietnam war
- Robert F. Kennedy, during his presidential campaign, was assassinated
- Richard Nixon wins presidential election
- The Siege of Chicago and other anti-war protests