Johnson & the Great SocietyJohnson & the Great SocietyThe Main IdeaThe Main Idea

President Johnson used his political skills to push Kennedy’s proposals through Congress and expanded them with his own

vision of the Great Society.

Reading FocusReading Focus

• Why was Lyndon Johnson’s background good preparation for becoming president?

• Why was Johnson more successful than Kennedy in getting Congress to enact Kennedy’s agenda?

• In what ways did Johnson’s Great Society change the nation?

• What foreign-policy issues were important in Johnson’s presidency?

Lyndon Johnson: Lyndon Johnson: PersonalityPersonality• Large and intense with

none of Kennedy’s good looks, polish, or charm

• Hardworking and ambitious

• Genuine desire to help others

• Greater concern for the poor and underprivileged than Kennedy

• Believed in an expanded role for government in making Americans’ lives better

Lyndon Johnson: Lyndon Johnson: Political Political

ExperienceExperience

• School teacher in Texas

• Served as Texas Congressman

• Served as U.S. Senator

• Served as majority leader in the Senate after one term as senator

• By 1960, Johnson had more influence in Washington, D.C., than any other Democrat.

The Beginning of Johnson’s PresidencyThe Beginning of Johnson’s PresidencyJohnson’s mastery of the political process, along with his years of experience in Washington, allowed Johnson to make a smooth transition to the presidency.

He vowed to continue to carry on the New Frontier.Johnson called on members of Congress to pass Kennedy’s programs so that Kennedy did not die “in vain.”Johnson wanted to go beyond the Kennedy administration’s plans; he sponsored anti-poverty programs, tax-cut bills, and civil rights legislation.

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law. The law was signed in the East Room of into law. The law was signed in the East Room of the White House on 2 July 1964. Martin Luther the White House on 2 July 1964. Martin Luther King, Jr. is standing directly behind the President.King, Jr. is standing directly behind the President.

Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: War on PovertyWar on Poverty

• Kennedy was influenced by Michael Harrington’s The Other America, a study of poverty that shattered the popular belief that all Americans had prospered from postwar prosperity.

• Johnson launched the War on Poverty when he asked Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964.

Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: Economic Opportunity Act: 1964Economic Opportunity Act: 1964Funded several new anti-poverty

programs

• The Job Corps offered work-training programs for unemployed youth.– a no-cost education and vocational training

program administered by the Office of the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Labor. It serves youth, ages 16 through 24.

– Offers career planning, on-the-job training, job placement, residential housing, food service, driver's education, health and dental care, a bi-weekly basic living allowance and clothing allowance.

– Some centers offer childcare programs for single parents as well.

President L. B. Johnson VisitsPresident L. B. Johnson Visits

Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda: Economic Opportunity Act: 1964Economic Opportunity Act: 1964

• VISTA was a domestic version of the Peace Corps– an anti-poverty program created by

Johnson's Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as the domestic version of the Peace Corps. Initially, the program increased employment opportunities for conscientious people who felt they could contribute tangibly to the War on Poverty.

– Volunteers served in communities throughout the U.S., focusing on enriching educational programs and vocational training for the nation's underprivileged classes.

• Other programs provided education for adults, work for unemployed parents, and help to fight rural poverty and assist migrants.

• During the Clinton Administration, VISTA was brought under the newly created AmeriCorps program (1993), a division of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and was renamed "AmeriCorps*VISTA.

Enacting Enacting Kennedy’s Kennedy’s

Programs—Other Programs—Other Initiatives PassedInitiatives Passed

• Johnson pushed for the passage of Kennedy’s tax-cut bill.– Congress demanded that the president promise to hold government spending to

$100 billion.

– Johnson used the press to help him convince Congress to pass the Tax Reduction Act in 1964.

– The nation’s economy grew by more than 10 percent and unemployment declined.

• Johnson pushed for the passage of Kennedy’s civil rights bill.

– After a year of debate, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson’s “War on Poverty”Johnson’s “War on Poverty”• The name for legislation first introduced by President Johnson during

his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. – This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate

of around nineteen percent.

– The speech led the United States Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty.

– As a part of the Great Society, Johnson's belief in expanding the government's role in social welfare programs from education to healthcare was a continuation of FDR's New Deal, which ran from 1933 to 1935, and the Four Freedoms of 1941.

The War on Poverty began with The War on Poverty began with President Lyndon Johnson's visit President Lyndon Johnson's visit to Tom Fletcher's front porch in to Tom Fletcher's front porch in Martin County, Kentucky, in Martin County, Kentucky, in April 1964.April 1964.

The Great Society

• The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed or enacted by President Johnson.– Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial

injustice.

– New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period.

• It resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of FDR, but differed sharply in types of programs enacted & some proposals were stalled initiatives from John F. Kennedy's New Frontier.

• Johnson's success depended on his skills of persuasion, coupled with the Democratic landslide in the 1964 election that brought in many new liberals to Congress.

• While some of the programs have been eliminated or had their funding reduced, many of them, including Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding, continue to the present.

In 1964 Johnson told the nation that he had his own plans for the United States. He In 1964 Johnson told the nation that he had his own plans for the United States. He called the domestic programs of his administration the Great Society.called the domestic programs of his administration the Great Society.

Election of 1964: Meet the Candidates• In order to launch Johnson’s

Great Society, he needed to win the ion.– He chose Hubert Humphrey as his

running mate

– He had come to office less than a year earlier upon the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, and Johnson had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's popularity.

– He also successfully painted Goldwater as a right-wing legislator who wanted to abolish the social welfare programs created in the 1930s (such as Social Security)

Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson(D) Texas(D) Texas

Election of 1964: Meet the Candidates

• Republican’s chose Barry Goldwater, the Governor of Arizona as their candidate.

• His views were very different from Johnson’s.• He suggested using nuclear

weapons to end Vietnam.

• Attacked the Great Society with claims that people were only equal in the eyes of God and that government programs to help people were similar to communism

Barry GoldwaterBarry Goldwater(R) Arizona(R) Arizona

"Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The Stakes Are Too High for You to Stay at Home“The most celebrated and perhaps most notorious of all political commercials was aired as a paid spot just once, during the NBC Movie of the Week on September 7, 1964. In Johnson’s "Peace Little Girl (Daisy)" ad, a young girl counts to ten as she picks the petals off a daisy. When she reaches nine, an ominous adult voice begins counting down to zero as a close-up of the little girl dissolves to a nuclear explosion. Tony Schwartz, the ad’s creator, called it "the first Rorschach test on the American public." Without mentioning Goldwater or citing any statements by him, the ad exploited the established public fear that he would start a nuclear war if elected president.

Johnson’s “Daisy Girl” Campaign AdJohnson’s “Daisy Girl” Campaign Ad

The Goldwater campaign vigorously protested the ad. Republican National Committee chairman Dean Burch said, "This horror-type commercial is designed to arouse basic emotions and has no place in the campaign." The Democrats withdrew it, but the controversy led to its being replayed in its entirety on network news and commentary programs, and the "daisy girl" made the cover of Time.

With its suggestive style and provocative sounds and visuals, the daisy ad exemplified Johnson’s innovative commercials, which were produced by the vanguard New York agency Doyle Dane Bernbach and were almost exclusively attack ads.

Goldwater Goldwater attacks attacks

Johnson’s Johnson’s “Daisy Girl” “Daisy Girl”

Campaign AdCampaign Ad

Election of 1964: Results

Johnson easily won the Presidency, carrying 44 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. As of 2009, Johnson's 22.6 percentage point-margin of victory in the popular vote is the 5 th largest such margin in Presidential election history (after the margins of the elections of 1920, 1924, 1936, & 1972) . Johnson won 61.1% of the national popular vote, which remains the highest popular-vote percentage won by a U.S.p residential candidate since 1820.

Creating the Great SocietyCreating the Great Society• Elementary and Secondary Education Act - first large

scale program of government aid to public schools

• The Higher Education Act - created the first federal scholarships for needy college students

• Head Start – education program for preschool children of low-income parents

• Omnibus Housing Act – created Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

• Medicaid – program that provides free health care for poor people

• Medicare – health care program for people over age 65

• The Great Society emphasized the environment; laws were passed to improve water and air quality.

• Lady Bird Johnson worked to preserve the outdoors and natural beauty of the United States.– Pushed for the Highway Beautification Act (came to be called

Lady Bird’s bill)

Lady Bird Johnson Lady Bird Johnson

Decline of the Great SocietyDecline of the Great SocietyBetween 1965 and 1966, Congress passed 181 of the 200 major bills that President Johnson requested. Some members of Congress were concerned about the rapid pace of reform.

The midterm elections of 1966 allowed the Republicans to gain seats in both houses of Congress—which slowed down Johnson’s legislative program.

The new Congress did enact some Great Society programs:• Public Broadcasting Act (1967) — Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and National Public Radio (NPR).• The Truth-in-Lending Act (1967)

• designed to protect consumers in credit transactions, by requiring clear disclosure of key terms of the lending arrangement and all costs.

• A 1968 law to establish the nation’s wild and scenic rivers program

Johnson’s Foreign Policy: Johnson’s Foreign Policy: VietnamVietnam

• By the end of 1966, some 385,000 U.S. combat troops were in Vietnam, and the government was spending $2.5 billion a month on the war.

• “We cannot have guns and butter.”

Johnson’s Foreign Johnson’s Foreign Policy: Policy:

Johnson DoctrineJohnson Doctrine

• Policy dictating that revolutions in Latin America were more than local concerns if communism was involved. The U.S. would intervene.

• Johnson sent troops to end a revolt in the Dominican Republic in 1965.

Anti-U.S. demonstration in Dominican Anti-U.S. demonstration in Dominican Republic (1965)Republic (1965)

Johnson’s Foreign Policy: Johnson’s Foreign Policy: Relations with the Soviet UnionRelations with the Soviet Union

• Continued Kennedy’s effort to improve relations with Soviet Union

• Signed treaty to protect each country’s diplomats from harassment by authorities in the other country

• United States and Soviet Union (along with 58 other nations) signed agreement to ban weapons in outer space.

• Outer Space Treaty (OST) - 1967.

• The Outer Space Treaty has been signed and ratified by the U.S., UK, USSR, France, India, and 58 others. It prohibits nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction from being placed in space (including Earth orbit).

Johnson’s Foreign Johnson’s Foreign Policy: Policy: Pueblo IncidentPueblo Incident

• In January 1968 North Korea captured a U.S. Navy spy ship—the Pueblo—off the coast of Communist North Korea.

• The United States claimed it was in international waters and called up troops.

• The North Koreans released the crew, but kept the ship.

USS PuebloUSS Pueblo