Lbj’s Great Society

Lyndon Baines Johnson moved quickly to make up himself in the office of the Presidency. disrespect his conservative voting record in the Senate, Johnson soon reacquainted himself with his liberal roots. LBJ sponsored the largest reform agenda since Roosevelts New Deal. The aftershock of Kennedys assassination provided a climate for Johnson to complete the unfinished work of JFKs New Frontier. He had cardinal months before the election of 1964 to prove to American voters that he deserved a chance to be prexy in his possess right. Two truly important pieces of legislation were passed.First, the Civil Rights Bill that JFK promised to sign was passed into law. The Civil Rights interpret banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ending segregation in any public facilities. Johnson in any case signed the omnibus Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The law created the position of Economic Opportunity aimed at attacking the roots of American poverty. A Job Corp s was established to provide valuable vocational training. steer Start, a preschool program designed to help disadvantaged students arrive at kindergarten ready to learn was put into place.The Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) was post up as a domestic Peace Corps. Schools in necessitous American regions would now receive volunteer teaching attention. Federal notes were sent to struggling communities to attack unemployment and illiteracy. As he campaigned in 1964, Johnson stated a fight on poverty. He challenged Americans to build a expectant Society that eliminated the troubles of the poor. Johnson won a decisive victory over his archconservative republican opponent Barry Goldwater of Arizona. American liberalism was at high tide under President Johnson. The Wilderness Protection Act saved 9. 1 million commonwealth of forestland from industrial exploitation. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided major financing for American public schools. The Voting R ights Act banned literacy tests and other discriminatory methods of denying suffrage to African Americans. Medicare was created to offset the costs of health care for the nations elderly. The bailiwick Endowment for the Arts and Humanities used public money to lineage artists and galleries. The Immigration Act ended discriminatory quotas based on pagan origin. An Omnibus Housing Act provided funds to construct low-income housing. Congress tightened contamination controls with stronger Air and Water Quality Acts. Standards were raised for safety in consumer products. Johnson was an action legislator and used his connections in Congress and forceful personality to pass his agenda. By 1966, Johnson was pleased with the progress he had do. But soon events in south-east Asia began to overshadow his domestic achievements. Funds he had envisioned to fight his fight on poverty were now diverted to the war in Vietnam.He set up himself maligned by conservatives for his domestic poli cies and by liberals for his hawkish stance on Vietnam. By 1968, his hopes of release a legacy of domestic reform were in serious endangerment The turbulent 1960s reached a boiling point in 1968. When the course of study began, President Johnson hoped to win the war in Vietnam and then cruise to a randomness term to finish building his Great Society. But events began to turbinate out of his control. In February, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam brought a shift in American public opinion toward the war and low approval ratings for the President.Sensing vulnerability, Eugene McCarthy challenged Johnson for his own partys nomination. When the Democratic primary votes were tallied in New Hampshire, McCarthy scored a remarkable 42 percent of the vote against an incumbent President. Johnson knew that in addition to fighting a bitter campaign against the Republicans he would have to fight to win choke of the Democrats as well. His hopes darkened when Robert Kennedy entered the race in mi d-March. On March 31, 1968, Johnson impress the nation by announcing he would not seek a second term.His Vice-President Hubert Humphrey entered the election to carry out Johnsons programs. The Great Society program became Johnsons agenda for Congress in January 1965 aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, remotion of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnsons recommendations. Millions of elderly wad found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When trey astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them Youve taken all of us, all over the world, into a new era. . . . Neverthele ss, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos degenerate the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, scarce there was no early solution.The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnsons efforts to end commie aggression and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he moderate the bombing of North Viet Nam in order to initiate negotiations. At the kindred time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a nominee for re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace. When he left office, peace talks were under flair he did not live to see them successful, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973.