President Lyndon B. Johnson
JFK's successor
Johnson's presidency
Johnson became president after Kennedy’s Assassination
He completed Kennedy's term and then was elected President in his own term
In the election of 1964 LBJ won against Senator Goldwater
Goldwater voted against the civil rights act and was a conservative republican
Candidates: Senator Barry Goldwater (R) vs. Lyndon B. Johnson (R)
Issues: communism, civil rights, government activism
Results: LBJ won
LBJ then expands into Vietnam because of the Tonkin incident
The Great Society
It was the name of LBJ’s Democratic reform
Under the Great Society different measures were taken
Measures taken were (Medicare, Federal Aid to Education, Civil Rights Legislation, Food Stamp Act of 1964, and The Civil Right Act of 1964)
Social Security Act of 1965 - authorized Medicare and provided federal funding for many of the medical costs of Americans
Medicare and Medicaid:
Great Society programs that guaranteed healthcare for specific groups, medicare for 65 and older, and medicaid for poor
- Also estbalished the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966- gave the government the power to enact safety standards for all automobiles sold in the US.
- Fair Packaging and Labeling Act- consumer commodities" be labeled to disclose net contents, identity of commodity, and name and place of business of the product's manufacturer, packer, or distributor.
- Wholesome Meat Act of 1967- It requires that states have inspection programs "equal to" that of the federal government
24th Amendment
Prohibited Congress and State Governments from Conditioning the Right to Vote (on payments of a poll tax and other taxes)
Proposed by Congress to the States on August 27, 1962
Ratified January 23, 1964
A Poll tax was a tax on voting in elections
Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana , Mississippi, Oklahoma , South Carolina and Wyoming have not ratified the amendment
Texas and Alabama did not ratify the amendment until (2002 and 2009 )
- Illinois was the first state to ratify the 24 Amendment
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and the Vietnam War
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed on August 7th, 1964
Gave Johnson power to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia
- Had only two dissenting votes against the resolutions
- Refers to the two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin
- On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Madox engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats
- A battle resulted, with no US casualties and 4 Vietnamese casualties.
Vietnam War
LBJ Firmly believed in the Domino Theory
Wanted to stop the expansion of Communism expansion
Expanded the number of troops sent after the Tokin Gulf Resolution
He began U.S troops direct involvement in ground war in Vietnam
- He was afraid that China and the Soviets would get involved and create a full scale military intervention like the Korean War in 1950
- Progress in Vietnam was lackluster
- The Tet offensive was a Viet Cong attack on 27 South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon.
- It resulted in heavy losses; ended in a military defeat but political victory for the Viet Cong.
- Demoralizing loss for the Americans
- Lead to an American request of 200,00 more troops
The Civil Rights Acts
Outlawed discrimination of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin
It's duty was to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the fourteenth ammendment and fifthteenth ammendment
- imposing of any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of" race or language minority was made illegal
The eventful year of 1968
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy assassinations; the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Prague Spring; the antiwar movement and the Tet Offensive; Black Power; the generation gap; avant-garde theater; the upsurge of the women's movement; and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union" - 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, Mark Kurlansky
By 1968, Johnson could no longer avoid the fact that the U.S. could not win the Vietnam War. Later that year, he agreed to stop the bombing, began withdrawing American forces, and agreed to peace talks in Paris
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at a Memphis hotel by James Earl Ray, white man who resented the increasing black influence in society. King's murder set off a new round of riots across the country
- My Lai- The mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of hundreds of unarmed citizens in the South Vietnamese town of My Lai.
- Majority of victims were women, children (including babies) and elderly people. Lieutenant Calley, the officer who ordered the killings, was tried for murder.
- He claimed he was only following orders, but was convicted and served several years in prison