Tyler Nisonoff

The LBJ Brand on the Presidency

 Johnson – liberal Texan who became slightly more Republican
 “Johnson Treatment” -backslapping, flesh-pressing, and arm-twisting that
overbore friend and foe alike
 As President, he shed the conservative side and revealed the Liberal
 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Banned discrimination in most private facilities open to the public,
strengthened federal power to end segregation in schools, created the federal
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
 Also had sex clause to help end gender discrimination
 1965 – Johnson issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to
take “affirmative action” against discrimination
 Also made sure Kennedy’s tax bill got through Congress – “War on Poverty”
and helped Appalachia
 “Great Society” – a New Deal approach to Domestic affairs - inspired by
Michael Harrington’s The Other American – showed poverty
Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964
 Goldwater attacked the Federal income tax, Social Security, TVA, civil rights
legislation, nuclear test ban, and Great Society
 After the Tonkin Gulf episode, Johnson ordered an air raid on North Vietnam
 Johnson claimed he did not want to escalate the war, unlike Goldwater – Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution
 Johnson won a landslide victory

The Great Society Congress

 Strong Democratic majority in Congress allowed a flood of legislation to pass
 Strongly escalated war on poverty
 Congress created Department of Transportation and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development – Robert C. Weaver – first black cabinet
secretary
 Also passed National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities
 Big Four legislative achievements: aid to education, medical care for elderly
and indigent, immigration reform, and new voting rights
 By giving money to students and not schools, Johnson avoided dispute over
church and state
 Medicare and Medicaid created “entitlements” – provided to certain groups
(elderly and poor)
 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 – abolished quota system off
nationality doubled the number of immigrants that count enter annually. Set
limits on immigrants from the Western Hemisphere for the first time
 Despite a lot of political attacks on Great Society, poverty declined along with
infant mortality rates.
Combating Communism in Two Hemispheres
 Dominicans revolted against their military government in 1965
 Labeled it the dissidents “communist conspirators” and sent troops to quell it
 Lack of evidence of communism - Condemned for relapse back to “gunboat
diplomacy”
 Johnson ordered first order of attacking U.S. troops to land
 “Operation Rolling Thunder” – full bombing of North Vietnam
 Johnson believed a gradual build-up of strength would be the most effective
method, but failed to take into account the strength and resilience of the Viet
Cong.
 South Vietnamese were becoming spectators
 Corrupt and collapsible govs replaced each other
 Johnson defended his actions with the Domino theory

Vietnam Vexations
 Many countries disapproved of America’s intervention
 In 1966 Charles de Gaulle, president of France, ordered NATO out of France
 Because US was busy in Vietnam, Soviet Union expanded in Mediterranean
 Israel shocked Soviet Union when it won the Six-Day War
 Caused more hostility in Middle East
 Protests became increasingly popular
 Draftees fled to Canada and publicly burned their draft cards
 Senate Committee on Foreign Relations led by Senator William Fulbright
 He held antiwar televised hearings
 When Defense Sec. McNamara expressed his doubts, he was eased out of the
cabinet
 “Bombing halts” were supposed to support peace, but just allowed both sides
to flow more troops into South Vietnam
 Became the longest war in US’s history
 Johnson turned CIA and FBI to investigate antiwar activists

Vietnam Topples Johnson

 Tet offensive – Viet Cong mounted 27 simultaneous attacks
 For the Viet Cong, ended in military defeat but political victory – showed the
war was not going to end soon and Johnson’s tactics were failing
 Military leaders called for 200,000 more troops, a staggering request
 Talks about Eugene McCarthy as a strong contender for Democratic ticket
 Robert Kennedy also decided to run
 In 1968, Johnson announced he would freeze troops in Vietnam and that he
would not run for reelection
 Three days later, North Vietnam announced it would discuss peace