Johnson, Kennedy, Nixon, men for change
Who is going to answer the call?
Yushun Tsou
English 101
Teddy Chocos

President Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon are presidents that left their mark on American history, men of promise and hope, men who sold a vision of freedom and equality to the people during a vital time period in history for the United States and the world. The three of them faced communism, racism, Vietnam, and were all pushed to their limits. For the first time there were enough people that both believe strongly against war and racism, the people demanded change from the government through demonstrations and rallies, but which out of the three would answer the call and keep their promises of change?
John F. Kennedy was the first of the three presidents to try to answer the peoples call. He responded with saying during his inauguration speech, “ we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.” Thus meaning our country needs to develop strong relations between us and neighboring countries, and we shouldn’t go to war with any world powers. “Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.” Which is because its Kennedy explaining that he is an advocate of peace and he will push for peace always, to avoid nuclear war.
In reality, Kennedy did not actually keep his promises. During his presidency
Kennedy did push for violence for instance Cuba, when Russia discovered the

American plans regarding Cuba, revealed that Kennedy ordered the assassination of
Castro and he wanted to overthrow of the Cuban government. (Kunis) Also at one point Kennedy believed that if the United States failed to stop the communist expansion the U.S. would lose credibility with allies and it would damage his reputation. Kennedy was thus determined to prevent Vietnam from becoming another communist country. He said after meeting with Khrushchev, the Russian pro-communist leader at the time, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place.” which meant he planned to push for war to show the Communist countries he has a back bone. (Mann) Even after telling the people during his inauguration speech that he would request peace and not push for war, instead he starts to offer assistance to a political party opposing the
Communists and then he started moving more and more United States personnel into Vietnam. Calling them “Advisors” who came along with South Vietnamese patrols who were in conflict with North Vietnam, those patrols were often caught in hostile firefights. (David Toczek)Offering peace does not involve a massive military presence, its like trying to pet a deer with a shot gun. Well at least Kennedy accomplished one goal, and that was not to start a war with a country that had nuclear weapons, but instead fight with countries that Russia, major communist country with nuclear weapons, was supporting to change over to communism.
The next in line to attempt to change the U.S for the better was Lyndon B.
Johnson. He was remembered strongly from his speech at Howard University where he makes his promises and tries to give a solution. Johnson gives his speech with the tone of hope and it was very realistic, the goals were a hard and long cause to

accomplish. The main point of Johnsons speech was him talking about how freedom isn’t enough, especially for the African American community who have been deprived of opportunity and have slowly developed into their own “nation.” “In far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation: deprived of freedom, crippled by hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope.” In order to fix the situation Johnson offers many programs in order to put the US back on track, “We are trying to attack these evils through our poverty program, through our education program, through our medical care and our other health programs, and a dozen more of the Great Society programs that are aimed at the root causes of this poverty.” Johnson’s plan was to fix the system where the society lives in so that the oppressed can have a chance to compete with the rest of the world because more had to be done for African Americans because, “freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.” I feel like it is hard to reach a goal with things like racism, because racism still strived at that time period and it would take decades before racism diminished enough so that it wasn’t a serious obstruction to US society anymore. But even today the eradication of racism continues, and who knows how long a domestic issue like that could continue, so keep in mind that any promise of defeating racism ultimately did not succeed.
Johnson eventually proved to be invaluable, to changing the U.S in a positive direction. His Great Society Programs, worked, but only for a short time period.
Later, all of the programs failed within his term of PRESIDENCY! Also in addition to the failure of his programs that were made to help the needy, the poor and

uneducated of the United States, which caused massive riots, he escaladed the war in Vietnam. Not only did he fail at his promise to help the people but he was causing more trouble, and getting more Americans killed. The reason for his Great Society
Programs failure was that he raised taxes, and eventually the country reached its
13-year low of unemployment and escalated the war in Vietnam loosing popularity amongst the people making it near impossible for him to pass more programs or support the programs he had already initialized. (Skidmore) His escalation in
Vietnam occurred because he strongly believed in the domino effect where if one could defeat communism here, it will eventually happen to the rest, from Kennedy’s involvement in Vietnam, placing over 16000 “advisors” or military personnel in
Vietnam, Johnson stationed over 25000 when he came into office eventually reaching 500000 by the end of his presidency. (America Romanian)So not only did
Johnson fail to accomplish all his goals during his speech at Howard University but he also escalated national poverty, added gas to the fire in Vietnam, and wasted millions of American dollars on Great Society programs that lasted less than
Johnsons presidency.
Nixon was the last of the three presidents, and his approach was different.
During his inauguration he talks about, like Kennedy, the nations having the power to end the world. ‘’For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of peace.”
The world is afraid of war because of nuclear war and/or because they are tired of the World Wars, they are scared of the end of the World. Major source of the fear was Russia and United States being in the middle of a nuclear arms race to stock pile

as many nukes as possible and relations between the two counties break down scaring the world because if one side were to attack, it could mean mass death to both countries and neighboring counties. That’s why former president Kennedy made goals to repair relations to avoid such a war. Nixon’s also followed a similar approach, “With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reduce the burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the poor and the hungry. But to all those who would be tempted by weakness, let us leave no doubt that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we need to be.” In addition for world peace Nixon also had the goal for equality for all to protect freedom. He accomplished this by making Laws that are no longer bias against African
Americans. Now was the time for blacks and whites to work together “This means black and white together, as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is in the law: to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man.” In a way Nixon takes both arguments of Johnson and Kennedy for international and national peace.
In addition to Nixon’s goals for national and world peace he talks about
Americans strengths and weaknesses. Nixon claims how the US is wealthy but without national pride. “We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit;” To solve this dilemma of lacking nation peace Nixon suggests, “When we listen to "the better angels of our nature," we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things—such as goodness, decency, love, kindness. Greatness comes in simple trappings. The simple things are the ones most needed today if we

are to surmount what divides us, and cement what unites us. To lower our voices would be a simple thing. In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading.” In other words, to be a better country, be a better person, and maybe we can achieve what previous leaders have promised but did not achieve. Nixon does give a good solution to end possible nuclear was by starting to decrease their number of nukes.
Nixon was not lying about the country wanting the end of the war, nor was he lying about things how things were getting better between white and colored populations because they were and he was the president to give the order to end the war in Vietnam. (Talbot) Nixon also was the president to end the Cold War between
Russia and America. (Garthoff) But Nixon did cheat to stay ahead. It was called the
Watergate scandal, the scandal was that Nixon was ordering the invasion of people’s privacies especially to those Nixon or his officials thought were being questionable.
Nixon ordered the harassment of activist groups and political figures, using government agencies. He invaded people’s privacy and abused the rights of many with his power as president. His abuse of power was also expressed to protests of the war, and anti-racist protesters the people that were demanding a change, he was silencing to remain in power and to not have his actions judged. Which makes Nixon not really seem like the pro-equally type.

In the end none of the presidencies really accomplished anything. During a time period where the people desperately needed change none of their politicians pulled through 100% unspoiled. Johnson’s promise of fixing the society failed, and he made the war in Vietnam the worst it had been since Kennedy. Kennedy didn’t live all that long before being assassinated 1000 days into his presidency, but in his short time period he broke some major promises that he made to the people. He provoked violence, and he involved the US in Vietnam to prove a point. Also, he was the president to really cause the countries involvement in Vietnam, if there was no
Vietnam, there wouldn’t have been so much death, over a country that US eventually lost to. In addition to that Johnson’s presidency could have been very successful in changing the country for the better only if there was no Vietnam War. Nixon, the last of the three, Kennedy mess his presidency up, Kennedy’s presidency messed
Johnsons up but Nixon didn’t really because he didn’t break any promises because he didn’t really make any.
Unlike Johnson and Kennedy, promising all this peace and hope, Nixon just said for the country to put a smile on and everything will get better. In a way things did he get better, he ended the war in Vietnam, he ended the cold war, and the only wrong doing that got him almost impeached, before resigning, was that he invaded people’s privacy, and hushed the masses, which was an abuse of his power and an invasion and violation of the major beliefs of the United States of America. In a way
Nixon was the closet to answering the call to change but many people today don’t see it that way.

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