Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of USA (Nov. 22, 1963- Jan. 20, 1969)
Presidency
- Sworn in on Air Force One at Dallas Love Field Airport following JFK's assassination
- Election of 1964- "Landslide Lyndon"
-Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson with running mate Hubert Humphrey vs. Republican Barry Goldwater with running mate William E. Miller
-LBJ wins 486 electoral votes against Goldwater's 52
-Carried 44 states including DC
-Overwhelming popular vote
The Great Society
- The Great Society- LBJ's democratic reform program.
-1965: Congress passed many Great Society measures
-Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education
-Congress creates the Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development
-First African American cabinet secretary, Robert C. Weaver
-Immigration reform
-The Other America by Micheal Harrington provided public support
-Protected African Americans and women against job discrimination (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
24th Amendment
- January 23, 1964- Prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials
- "Freedom Summer"- Whites and blacks joined together in Mississippi to vote
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Vietnam War
Viet Cong guerillas attacked U.S. air base
Johnson responded by ordering bombing raids on North Vietnam
-"Operation Rolling Thunder"- large scale bombing attacks on communist north which gave Viet Cong bigger reason to keep fighting
Tet offensive-during the new year Viet Cong forces attacked 27 South Vietnamese cities but lost. However it proved that JOhnson’s policy of raising the stakes gradually would not work.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave Johnson complete power over the war in Vietnam and sought to reprimand the North Vietnamese for their “attack” on U.S. naval ships.
Civil Rights
- Started by Kennedy
- discrimination in most private facilities open to the public unconstitutional and illegal
Strengthened the federal governments power to end segregation in schools.
Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Coalition
Voting Rights Act gave blacks more power in the south, however there was not a dramTic increase in African American voters due to violence
- Outlaws black literacy tests
Watershed Year
With Civil Rights came with the integration of blacks into the society
Public sentiment towards Vietnam left a more liberal and anti-federal government view in the minds of people.
Tet offensive-1968; National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces launched a huge attack on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), which was defeated after a month of fighting and many thousands of casualties; major defeat for communism, but Americans reacted sharply, with declining approval of LBJ and more anti-war sentiment - Proved as failure
Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated by an Arab immigrant because of Kennedy’s Pro-Israel stance
Nixon won 1968 election
- “Children’s Crusade” in retaliation of the Vietnam War- North Vietnam has peace talk after Johnson ordered the seize of bombardments
- 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.