Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ)
Chandler Webb
Johnson As President
- After Kennedy's passing, Johnson took over in office in November of 1963
- Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 under him, which prevented racial discrimination in almost all private facilities that were open to the public.
- Not only this, but also helped end segregation in other public places.
- Act also tried to include women, but it was at first not successful but eventually passed including the sexual clause.
- Johnson also helped women when he said that all federal contractors had to work against discrimination.
- Continued Kennedy's stalled tax bill and also voiced his ideas regarding Appalachia and helping the people there.
- Labeled his program the "Great Society"
- Michael Harringtons The Other America revealed the extent of poverty and helped people support LBJ's plan
Election of 1964
-Democratic candidate
-Republicans nominated Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona
-Goldwater attacked:
-Republicans nominated Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona
-Goldwater attacked:
- the federal income tax
- the Social Security system
- the Tennessee Valley Authority
- the civil rights legislation
- the nuclear test-ban treaty
- the Great Society
-Unknown to the American public or Congress, U.S. ships had been firing on North Vietnam with South Vietnam gun boats.
-Two of the boats were supposedly fired upon
-Despite this, LBJ declared that the attack was unprovoked and used this to his advantage in his campaign against Goldwater, implying that he wouldn't want war whereas Goldwater would.
-Congress also passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which basically allowed Johnson to become involved in South Vietnam with use of military force.
-Johnson easily won in 1964 with 43,129,566 against 27,178,188 and 486 to 52 in the electoral count
The Great Society
- Congress doubled the money used for the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion and gave more than $1 billion to the Appalachia situation
- Johnson convinced Congress to make 2 new cabinet positions - the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Established the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities to list the American cultural life
- Big Four Legislative achievements of the Great Society:
- Aid to education (educational aid to students instead of schools)
- Medical care for the elderly and indigent (medicare and medicaid)
- Immigration reform (doubled the amount allowed to come in, abolished the "national origins" quota, set limits on immigrants from Western Hemisphere for the first time)
- A new voting rights bill
- Although Johnson did not win completely against poverty, he did make a serious dent in it.
24th Amendment and Civil/Voting Rights Acts
- Johnson passed the Voting Rights of 1965 to fight against racial discrimination
- Despite this and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, very few blacks were able to vote in the south (only about 5% due to Jim Crow laws)
- The 24th Amendment passed in Jan. 1964 and took away the poll tax in federal elections to help make it easier for blacks to vote
- June 1964, one black and two white civil rights workers disappeared and then reappeared beaten and buried. 21 white Mississippians were blamed and arrested, but the white juries did not convict them.
- Despite efforts, only a few Mississippian blacks were able to vote.
The Vietnam War
- Dominicans rose against their government in April of 1965 and Johnson dispatched troops to restore order so that the DR would not be taken over by communism.
- Ended up making Johnson unpopular because of his abandonment of the "gunboat diplomacy".
- Meanwhile, trouble was still going on in Vietnam
- There were attacks on the American air base in South Vietnam from Viet Cong guerrillas.
- Johnson ordered bombing raid against North Vietnam and told U.S. troops to land.
- March 1965 - "Operation Rolling Thunder". Regular bombing attacks on North Vietnam
- Despite Johnson's efforts to get the communists to back down by the bombings, it actually strengthened their resistance
- As American involvement increased, South Vietnam became less and less in the war.
- Despite the South's government being unreliable and corrupt, America continued to back it up
- America continued fighting because it was also afraid that if it backed out, other countries would doubt it's faithfulness
- Johnson kept the war going and kept sending soldiers, despite the end of the war being out of sight.
- While the U.S. was fighting in South Vietnam, the Soviet Union expanded to the Mediterranean area.
- Israel took over territories in Sinai Peninsula, the Golan heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River
- Because of fighting in Vietnam, the US could not help defuse other Middle Eastern conflicts
- As the war carried on, many draftees fled to Canada or did not report for duty. The public was losing faith in Johnson and in the causes or "winnability" of the war.
- Johnson assured the public that the war was worth it, but as it continued their doubts and his stubbornness grew.
- When the election of 1968 came around, Johnson withdrew his name of the ballot with the promise that he would start the process of taking America out of the war. North Vietnam offered willingness for peace in response.