The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69)

1. The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69)

2. Biographical Information: Party: Democrat Years in Office: 1963-1969 President Before: Kennedy President After: Nixon Important Bio Information: • Graduated from Southwest State Teachers College • Taught in Cotulla, TX • 1931-35 Congressional Aid • 1935-37 New Deal state director for the National Youth Administration • 1937-49 House of Reps • WWII service in Naval Reserves • 1948-61 US Senate *Within 4 years is the Democratic leader in the Senate.

3. The “Johnson” Treatment “President Kennedy’s eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson’s hammer blows are designed to make men act.” ― Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power

4. LBJ & the Legacy of JFK LBJ passes JFK’s legislation: • an expanded version of JFK’s civil rights bill (Civil Rights Act of 1964) • Tax Cuts:  Individual  tax rates were cut across the board by approximately 20%. In addition to individual income tax cuts, the act slightly reduced corporate tax rates and introduced a minimum standard deduction

5. LBJ Declares War on Poverty • 1962 publication of The Other America by Michael Harrington highlighted the plight of over 40 million poor . • Created the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) > Head Start > Job Corps > Community Action Program > Appalachian regional development *LBJ’s vision of a “Great Society” involved a sweeping set of New Deal type economic and welfare measures to continue the Liberal transformation begun by FDR.

6. Election 1964 - Goldwater • Emphasis on conservative principles • “Southern strategy”: carry the South states, because of his position on states’ rights, and refusal to endorse civil-rights legislation, as well as Northern “white backlash” vote, those tired of the riots in black neighborhoods in the large Eastern cities • Goldwater spoke too much off-the-cuff, never altered his speech to match the constituency he was speaking to, ended up with contradictions and controversies • His anti-communist rhetoric, when combined with his aggressive comments about the use of nuclear weapons, alarmed many Americans (and was exploited by Johnson) “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Goldwater Ad

7. Election of 1964 - Johnson • Johnson focused on being Chief Magistrate, getting his accomplishments in the newspaper headlines • Emphasis on “consensus” continuing John F. Kennedy’s programs, policies • Whistle-stop tour by the First Lady of the South States to gain support for Civil Rights; maintain the Democratic South • Put Goldwater on the defensive • End of September Johnson embarked on a forty-two day stumping tour; 60,000 miles, two hundred speeches, motorcade, impromptu speeches through a handheld bullhorn Famous Daisy Campaign Ad

8. Election Results *Democratic candidates swept both houses of Congress. Democratic President + Democratic Congress = mandate for the Great Society

9. Great Society Reforms • Medicare: health insurance program for the elderly • Medicaid: health insurance for the poor and disabled • Elementary & Secondary Education Act: federal $ for poor schools • New Immigration Law: ended quota system from the 1920s, skilled & those seeking asylum had priority, doubled number coming into the US • Created the National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities • Created two new cabinet level posts: The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) • Increased funding for public housing • Historic regulations on: auto safety (Nader’ Unsafe at any Speed) & environmentalism (Carson’s Silent Spring)

10. 24th Amendment • To keep blacks from voting, many southern states had adopted numerous tactics including the poll tax, literacy tests, and property requirements. Ratified in 1964. • Local traditions and threats of violence kept many blacks from the voting booths. • Ratified in 1964, the 24th Amendment prohibited the use of poll tax as a requirement for voting in federal elections.

11. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 A master politician, President Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress despite considerable opposition from southern Conservatives. The Civil Rights Act: • strengthened voting rights protections • prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation • required the federal govt withdraw financial assistance from any state or local program permitting discrimination in its operation • authorized the Attorney General to initiate law suits to desegregate schools • established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to foster compliance with the law forbidding discriminatory practices by employers and labor unions.

12. Bloody Selma • Crucial in the minds of many blacks was the issue concerning voter registration. • The Civil Rights Act forbade election officials to apply standards to black applicants that differed from those applied to white applicants. • Civil Rights leaders decided to use Selma, AL, as a test site for voter registration. (Selma was home to 15,000 voting age black citizens, but only 300 were registered to vote) • Led by Dr. King, thousands of civil rights activists went to Selma to protest. Mass arrests, beatings, and two killings brought national attention to the cause of voter registration. • In an effort to carry the message to the state capital of Montgomery, a march was planned to begin in Selma. In an notorious act of police brutality (all of which was captured on TV), the marchers were tear gassed, beaten, and trampled by police horses after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This event is remembered as “Bloody Sunday”. Television Footage

13. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Spurred on by events in Selma, President Johnson addressed Congress in March 1965 and asked the legislators to pass an act that would give the federal government power to ensure nondiscriminatory procedures in all elections. The new Civil Rights Act of 1965: • literacy tests were to be dramatically restricted • federal election monitors would be dispatched to the South to register voters in any county found guilty of disenfranchisement • the attorney general was authorized to bring suits against the use of the poll tax “What’s that big word up there?”

14. Militant Blacks The Black Muslims & Malcolm X The Black Muslims, whose organization, the Nation of Islam, was founded in 1930, continued into the 1960s as a religious body that proclaimed the inherent superiority of the black over the white race and advocated for complete separation of the races. • Although Elijah Muhammad was the revered spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam, the ardent Malcolm X, was the Nation’s leading spokesperson. • Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the use of black violence to counter white violence. • Brother Malcolm was known to speak truth to power in his striving for civil rights. • After discovering corruption within the Nation, Malcolm broke with Muhammad. At the end of his life, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X was softening his tone toward white America. He was assassinated in 1965 by Nation of Islam hit men.

15. Militant Blacks Black Power: The chairman of SNCC, Stokley Carmichael, gave up on interracial collaboration in the mid-1960s and decided to move SNCC toward black nationalism and dismissed the organization’s white members. His popular slogan “Black Power” captured the growing frustration with the pace of the civil rights movement and a new willingness to take aggressive action. The Black Panthers: Organized in Oakland, CA, in 1966, by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the Panthers advocated a revolutionary socialist movement. Panthers were frequently armed at their events and on at few occasions, engaged in firefights with police.

16. The Vietnam Conflict • JFK increases US assistance to South Vietnam, including sending “advisers” to train and later lead Vietnamese troops against the Viet Cong. (These US advisors are CIA and Green Berets) • In 1963, Diem & JFK are assassinated. • The USS Maddox is attacked off the coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

17. The Vietnam Conflict • The US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which dramatically expanded the presidents ability to deploy US forces (to contain communism) without a declaration of war. • President Johnson will order US ground troops into Vietnam in 1965. • LBJ will dramatically escalate the war and by 1968, the US will have over 500,000 men in Vietnam.

18. The Vietnam Conflict • The Johnson Administration and US commanders in Vietnam told the American people that victory was around the corner. • News reports and growing casualty rates create skepticism among many Americans. • In 1968, the communists launch the Tet Offensive.

19. The Vietnam Conflict The Tet Offensive: • Coordinated attack on most US military installations across South Vietnam. (US Embassy in Saigon was briefly captured) • Within a month, US forces had recaptured all territory lost during the Tet Offensive and killed over 45,000 communists. • However, American casualties were the highest of the war and many Americans accused the govt of a “credibility gap” between what was really happening and what was being reported. • Tet will be a turning point in the Vietnam Conflict.

20. LBJ in 1968 LBJ Announces that he will not run for reelection.

21. LBJ’s Legacy Johnson's administration passed an unprecedented amount of legislation, with much of it designed to protect the nation's land, air, water, wilderness, and quality of life.

22. LBJ’s Legacy President Johnson's administration also extended the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, including aid to education, Headstart, Medicare, and Medicaid— programs that are still significant today and that command bipartisan support for their effectiveness.

23. LBJ’s Legacy But many of his initiatives for the arts, for the environment, for poverty, for racial justice, and for workplace safety angered many economic and social conservatives and became the targets of alienated white voters and tax revolters. The reaction to his Great Society and to broader trends helped spawn a dramatic political polarization in the United States that some historians have labeled a conservative counterrevolution.

24. LBJ’s Legacy Further clouding Johnson's legacy was the devastating outcome of the Vietnam War. While his programs kept untold numbers of Americans out of poverty, gave others basic health care, and ensured the fundamental rights of citizenship for minorities, in Southeast Asia, millions of Vietnamese lost their lives and homes, more than 58,000 American military personnel lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more would have their lives permanently altered. At a time when Americans were reshaping the locus of power at home, events in Vietnam were raising serious questions about how America should use its clout abroad. The legacies of death, renewal, and opportunity attached to the Johnson administration are ironic, confusing, and uncertain.