Johnson
How Johnson Became President
a. Became president after Kennedy was shot
b. Sworn in on an airplane while carrying Kennedy to funeral
c. Election of 1642
i. Democrat
ii. Won by a large margin: 486 to 52 in the electoral college
The Great Society
a. The Great Society- Involved many programs that were meant to aid with civil rights and the poor
i. Volunteers in Service to America—domestic Peace Corps
ii. War on Poverty
b.
c. Medicare and Medicaid
i. Available to all elderly Americans regardless of need
ii. Form of federal welfare assistance
iii. Assisted medical community because the fed paid all fees
d. Civil rights legislations
e. Federal Aid to education
The 24th Amendment
a.The 24th Amendment
January 1964
b. Abolished poll taxes in federal elections
c. Stopped any restrictions against blacks and allowed them to vote
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Vietnam War
i. US Navy ships were working with South Vietnamese gunboats in provocative raids along the coast of North Vietnam
ii. Determined that the “battle” that ensued never happened
iii. Gave LBJ authorization, without a formal declaration of war of Congress, for the use of military force in southeast Asia
b. Vietnam War
i. Started taking a more direct approach
ii. Operation Plan 34B—sending Asian mercenaries into North Vietnam to carry out acts of sabotage
iii. “Operation Rolling Thunder”- a series of bombing of North Vietnam
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act
a. Civil Rights Act of 1964
i. Made it possible for the federal government more muscle to enforce school desegregation orders and to prohibit racial discrimination
b. Voting Rights Act
i. Marked the end of nonviolent demonstrations
ii. Invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks
iii. Decreased the wealth and education gap
1968 – A “watershed” year
a. Watershed refers to the division of two distance eras in terms of values, morals, and behaviors
i. Martin Luther King assassinated
ii. Robert Kennedy assassination- brother to JFK and US General Attorney, recently elected as New York Senator
iii. Riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
iv. Prague Spring
v. Fall of the USSR