Lyndon B. Johnson
Omar Elmougy- Furnish 4
Presidency
Johnson became president after Kennedy’s Assassination
- He completed Kennedy's term and then was elected President in 1964
The Great Society
LBJ’s Democratic reforms
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
Welfare
- Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, Wholesome Meat Act of 1967
24th Ammendment
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
Passed on August 7th, 1964
Gave Johnson power to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia
- Had only two dissenting votes against the resolutions
Vietnam War
Firmly believed in the Domino Theory
Wanted to stop the expansion of Communism expansion
Expanded the number of troops sent after the Tonkin 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
- Ended with the fall of Saigon in April of 1975
- Considered one of the most unjust wars ever, thousands of civilians were raped and massacred as a result of the war
Civil Rights
Outlawed discrimination of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin
It's duty was to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the fourteenth amendment and fifteenth amendment
- Imposing of any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure in a manner which results in a denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of" race or language minority was made illegal
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. 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