Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1969
Johnson in the Election of 1964
-Johnson has very large margin win over his republican opponent Barry Goldwater
-Democrats control most of congress with big win, leads the the "Great Society"
Popular Vote
Johnson- 43,127,041
Goldwater- 27,175,154
Electoral College
Johnson-486
Goldwater- 52
The Great Society
-Educational aid to students rather than schools, to improve underprivileged youth performance
-Medicare initiated for the elderly and Medicaid set in place for poor Americans
-Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 doubled amount of immigrants coming into US, families allowed as well, shift to Asian rather than Latin immigrants
-24th Amendment and Voting Rights Act created to help blacks at the polls, stop literacy tests, poll taxes, but they were still not given full equality
-Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development are created
- Conservatives unhappy due to thought of poverty unable to be resolved as democrats were accomplishing it
-congress increases funds to $2 billion for office of economic opportunity
Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Vietnam War
-Then air raid was ordered on North Vietnam, 2 ships hit considered unprovoked
-congress gives war declaration power to Johnson, Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave reason to declare war
-Feb. 1965 air raids on north Vietnam are initiated, after retaliation Operation Rolling Thunder begins with bombing raids on North Vietnam
- War became more the US fighting, South Vietnam not fighting or funding much of anything
-Great deal of domestic protest over war in Vietnam, majority by youth and college students
-Viet Cong invade 27 southern cities in the Tet Offensive, Viet Cong end in a defeat, but after this America wants to discuss immediate end to the now longest foreign soil war in US history
-Costs of war were up to $30 billion spent, not a good outcome for the United States
Civil Rights
-increases power for government to terminate public segregation
-Equal Employment Opportunity Commission created to instill equality in hiring of jobs
-24th Amendment aimed to get rid of polling taxes to help blacks, but there was still resistance in south
- Voting Rights Act prevented literacy tests and placed a federal voting register in poll areas in south to help blacks receive proper suffrage
1968, A Watershed year...
-Vietnam war becomes unpopular, half a million Americans involved
-Election of 1968, republicans with Richard Nixon take the victory over democrat Hubert Humphrey
-War was forced to end in Vietnam after upwards of 100,000 casualties