PRESIDENT
LYNDON B. JOHNSON (D)
1963-1968
APUSH – Lecture 9B
Mrs. Kray
LBJ – Master Politician

Who was LBJ?
Appeared less polished than JFK
 More experienced politician and
lawmaker than JFK




Former Senate Majority Leader
Wanted to expand New Deal social
reforms
Knew how to get things done
Getting the “Johnson Treatment”
 Used JFK’s death to get Congress to
pass some legislation JFK wanted


Civil Rights Act, tax cuts
The Election of 1964

Democrats nominated LBJ
 Ran

on a clearly liberal agenda
Republicans nominated Barry
Goldwater
 Ultra-conservative,
wanted to
end the “welfare state,”
including eliminate the TVA and
Social Security

Impact of Television: The Daisy
Ad
The Results


LBJ won by in the largest landslide in American history
Democrats also won control of Congress by more than a
two-thirds margin
Domestic Policy
LBJ’s War on Poverty and the Great Society
Michael Harrington’s
The Other America, 1962

Michael Harrington’s book pointed out that
although America was prosperous nation,
there were still more than 40 million
people living in poverty


1964: LBJ responds by declaring
unconditional “War on Poverty”
Programs to help the poor


Office of Economic Opportunity, Head Start,
Job Corps (vocational education & literacy
program, also provided legal services),
Community Action Program, Public Housing
Significantly reduced number of people living
in poverty but ran out of funding
The Great Society

LBJ’s wide-ranging reform program


1966: Medicare


Health insurance program for the elderly
1966: Medicaid


These reforms meant a significant increase in federal
spending and more government influence in their lives
Government paid healthcare for the poor & disabled
1966: Two new cabinet positions
Department of Transportation
 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

More Great Society Programs

Office of Economic Opportunity
Centerpiece in “war on poverty”
 created new educational, employment, housing, and
healthcare programs


1965: Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Immigration Act of 1965


Abolished the discriminatory quota system established in the
1920s by the National Origins Act
Increased funding for higher education, public housing,
and crime prevention
The Legacy of the Great Society and
BIG Government
IMPACT



CRITICISMS
Significantly reduced
hunger in America

Made healthcare
available to the poor
and elderly

Contributed to the
greatest reduction in
poverty in U.S. history


Very costly and
inefficient
Created a “welfare
state”
Unrealistic promise to end
poverty
Contributed to growing
disillusion in later years
regarding government’s
ability to solve problems
Domestic Policy
LBJ and the Expanding Civil Rights Movement
Civil Rights Act of 1964



Proposed by JFK but passed
under LBJ
Banned segregation in all
public facilities
Set up the Equal
Employment commission to
end racial discrimination in
employment
Freedom Summer, 1964

Voter registration drive
 Thousands
of white and
black civil rights workers
head to the South to
register African Americans
to vote

Faced southern resistance
3
civil rights workers
disappear
 Later found murdered
The Selma March, 1965

March from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama to
support black voting rights
 Protestors
met with policy
beatings
 National outrage grows

LBJ sent in national troops
to protect the protesters
 Black
youth becoming
frustrated w/slow pace of
change
The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Ended literacy tests and
provided federal registrars in
areas where blacks had been
prevented from voting
 For
the first time since
Reconstruction blacks could vote
in the Deep South
 But is it enough?

1964: 24th Amendment
ratified
 Eliminated
poll tax
The Civil Rights Movement Become
More Radical

1965 was a clear turning point in the
movement

Shift from turning the other cheek to black
power
Why the Switch?
 The Frustration of Rising Expectations


Had success ending de jure segregation
ended in the South
Now movement shifts to the North


Sixties Liberalism


Much more difficult situation (de facto
segregation)
Great Society, Warren Court
The Anti-War Movement
The Influence of Malcolm X


Member of the Nation of Islam
Preached black nationalism, black
separatism, and self-improvement




Did not want help from whites
Criticized MLK and his non-violent
approach
Greatly influenced the thinking of
young blacks in SNCC and CORE
Assassinated in 1965
Growing Urban Violence

Watts Riot, 1964





1966: 43 additional outbreaks of
violence that year


1st large race riot since end of WWII
Started during a routine traffic stop when
a white police officer struck a protesting
black bystander
10,000 people participated, National
Guard called in
34 people died
Chicago and Cleveland
1967 – Eight major riots

Largest in Detroit

43 people died
Images of the Watts Riot, 1964
Impact of Riots & Urban Violence

Televised reports of violence alarmed
million of Americans



White people turn against the civil rights
movement
Whites blamed black militants and
extremism for urban violence
Kerner Commission, 1968



Federal investigation into the causes of
urban violence
Found segregation & white racism were
the main causes of urban violence
But its too late, the damage was already
done
The Black Power Movement

Term coined by Stokely Carmichael


More militant than earlier Civil Rights Movement



Philosophy adopted by SNCC and CORE
Called for more radical and occasionally even violent
action against the racism of white society
Focused in the North & West, dominated by young
leaders

Frustrated by lack of progress

Rejected the approaches of older, more established
black leaders like MLK
Goals:

Instilling a sense of racial pride

Build and celebrate black culture

Amass political and economic power

Movement marked a shift from racial integration to
racial distinction
The Black Panther Party

Symbol of growing militancy in the
movement




10 Point Program


Founded in Oakland, California by Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale
Promised to defend black rights even if it
required violence
Organized along semi-military lines and wore
weapons openly
Jobs, end of police brutality, social services,
exemption from military service
Deliberately created image of militant
blacks willing to fight for justice “through the
barrel of a gun”
Seeds of Indian Militancy

Native American Demographics in the 1950s







Less than 1% of the pop.
Avg. annual family income was $1,000 less than for blacks
Unemployment rate was 10x the national rate
Joblessness was particularly high on reservations where more than 50% of
Indians lived
Life expectancy 20 yrs. less than the national average
Suicides among Indian youths 100x more frequent than white youth
Termination Policy, 1953




Federal gov’t withdrew all official recognition of the tribes as legal entities
& encouraged Indians to assimilate
Tribes grew weaker
Led to wide spread corruption and abuse
Indians fought bitterly against the policy
Indian Civil Rights Timeline
1961
 400 members of 67 tribes gathered in Chicago to discuss ways of bringing all
Indians together in an effort to redress common wrongs



Issued Declaration of Indian Purpose
Stressed the “right to choose our own way of life”
National Indian Youth Council created

promoted the idea of Indian nationalism and intertribal unity
1968
 American Indian Movement (AIM) founded
 Indian Civil Rights Act passed by Congress



Guaranteed reservation Indians many of the protections accorded other citizens by
Bill of Rights
Recognized the legitimacy of tribal laws within the reservations
AIM not satisfied & turned increasingly to direct action
AIM Occupies
Alcatraz Island, 1969
Government Begins to React




Nixon took small steps in the face of growing pressure
Appointed a Mohawk-Sioux to the position of
commissioner of Indian Affairs (1969)
Promised increased tribal self-determination and an
increase in federal aid (1970)
But protests continued . . .
A
nd
2

AIM seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee for 2 mos.
In response to the murder of a Sioux by a group of whites


Wounded Knee, 1973
Demanded radical changes in the administration of the reservation
and insisting the gov’t honor its long-forgotten treaty obligations
A brief clash between occupiers and federal forces left one
Indian dead and another wounded
Native American Victories in the Courts

United States v. Wheeler (1978)
 Supreme
Court confirmed that tribes had independent
legal standing and could not be “terminated” by
Congress

County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation (1985)
 Court
supported Indian claims to 100,000 acres in
upstate New York

Other decisions ratified the authority of the tribes to
impose taxes on businesses within their reservations
and to perform other sovereign functions
Evaluating the Indian Movement
Positives

Tribes won a series of new legal
rights and protections



Negatives

Enjoyed a stronger position than
at any previous time in the 20th c.
Many Indians gain a renewed
awareness of and pride in their
identity as Indians
Challenged patterns of
discrimination that had prevented
many Native Americans from
advancing in the world outside
the tribes

Did not win full justice
and equality for its
constituents
Did not resolve internal
conflicts within the
movement

Are we fighting to
defend tribal autonomy
or for equality?
Latino Activism

Fastest growing minority group in the U.S.




Latino immigration to U.S.
1960: 3 mil. / 1970: 9 mil. / 1990: 20 mil.
1960-1990: 7-12 illegal immigrants arrived
Life in the late 1960s


90% lived and worked in cities
Some were affluent and successful


Most new arrivals poorly educated & faced a
language barrier


Mexicans in the Southwest, Cubans in Miami
pushed into low paying service jobs with few if any
benefits and job security
Slower to develop political influence than some
other minorities


Chicano Movement
La Raza Unida in Texas
The Brown Berets

On March 1, 1968, the Brown Berets planned and participated in the
East LA walkouts or "blowouts", the largest and lengthiest in the history
of California, in which thousands of students left their classrooms to join
the protest for quality education.
Cesar Chavez & the
United Farm Workers, 1965

Largely Chicano organization founded by Chavez

Launched a prolonged strike against growers to demand:
Recognition of their union
 Increased wages and benefits
 Organized a nationwide boycott of grapes and lettuce when
employers resisted



1968 – Chavez campaigned openly for RFK
1970 – the growers of ½ of CA’s table grapes signed
contracts with UFW
Images of Chavez & the UFW
Challenging the “Melting Pot” Ideal

The “Melting Pot” & Assimilation
Efforts of minorities to forge a clearer group
identity challenged this long-standing premise
of American political thought
 Demanded recognition of their own ethnic
identities


Cultural Pluralism & Multiculturalism
◦ Challenged “Eurocentric” basis of
American education and culture
◦ Demanded that non-European
civilizations be accorded equal
attention
Gay Liberation


By the late 1960s, the liberating
impulses that had affect other groups
helped mobilize gay men and
lesbians to fight for their own rights
“Stonewall Riot,” 1969




began the movement
Police raided a gay NYC night club &
began arresting patrons
Gay onlookers taunted the police &
attacked them
Gay Liberation Front founded in 1969
The Rebirth of Feminism



1920  19th Amendment passed
Movement weak often embattled for the
next 40 yrs.
1963  JFK’s Presidential Commission



1963  Equal Pay Act
1963  The Feminine Mystic is published



Betty Friedan’s book gave voice to the
movement
Suburbs has become a “comfortable
concentration camp”
1964  Title VII added to Civil Rights Act


Brought nat’l attention to sex discrimination
Extended to women many of the protections
against discrimination that were being extended
to blacks
1966  National Organization for Women
(NOW) founded
The Women Movement Changes
Women’s Liberation
Women’s Rights


Ended legal &
educational
discrimination
National Organization
for Women



Origins in the New Left
and Civil Rights
Movements
Consciousness raising
Challenged social/cultural
oppression



Abortion
Barbie Dolls
Sexist
Commercials
Images of the Movement
Expanding Achievements

By the early 1970s public and private achievements of women were
substantial



Women in the workforce



Nearly ½ of all married women held jobs by mid-1970s
9/10 of all women with college degrees worked
Competing with men for elected and appointed positions




Gov’t extended affirmative action guidelines to include women (1971)
All-male educational institutions began to open their doors (Yale & Princeton)
Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to Supreme Court (1981)
Sally Ride was 1st woman in space (1983)
Geraldine Ferraro first woman VP nominee (1984)
Symbolic changes


Refusal to adopt husbands’ names
Change from Miss and Mrs. to Ms.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)


Promoted since the 1920s
1972  Congress approved ERA


Ratification seemed almost certain
Late 1970s lost momentum
Antifeminism – disrupt traditional
social patterns
 Seemed redundant

Roe v. Wade, 1973


Ended restrictions on abortion
based on new theory of a
constitutional “right to privacy”
This right was est. in Griswold v.
Connecticut (1965)
Foreign Policy
The Cold War and Vietnam
LBJ and the Cold War

Democrats accused of being “soft on
communism”


LBJ remembered Truman’s “loss” of
China to communism
Domino Theory revived
Since 1954, U.S. had been sending
“military advisers” to help prop up the
nationalist government in South Vietnam
and prevent the spread of communism.
 “I’m not going to be the president that
saw Southeast Asia go the way China
went.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

U.S. Involvement in Vietnam Escalates:
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, 1964



Passed by Congress in
response to an alleged N.
Vietnamese attack on a
U.S. ship in Tonkin Gulf
Gave Johnson a “blank
check” for dealing with
Vietnam
By 1967, more than
500,000 American soldiers
in Vietnam
U.S. Strategy in Vietnam:
The Ground War, 1965-1968

U.S. had no territorial goals

Main enemy were the Viet Cong



Strategy of Attrition



0
Shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail – Viet Cong
supply line
“Pacification” program


Viet Cong = South Vietnamese Communist guerillas
attacking the S. Vietnamese government
Viet Cong were aided by North Vietnamese army
Needed to win the “hearts and minds” of the
Vietnamese people
1st “living room” war -- body counts on T.V. every
night
U.S. Strategy in Vietnam:
The Air War, 1965-1968

1965:Operation Rolling Thunder
began


Sustained bombing of North
Vietnam
1966-68: Bombing of Hanoi
Non-stop bombing for 3 yrs.
 Especially targeted the Ho Chi
Minh Trail
 Downed Pilots became POWs


Carpet bombing - napalm
Understanding the Enemy:
The Viet Cong’s Strategy

Guerilla-style warfare
“the guerilla wins if he does not
lose, the conventional army loses if
it does not win.” – Mao Zedong
 Farmers by day, guerillas by night
 Difficult to tell friend from foe


War of attrition
U.S. grossly underestimated Viet
Cong’s resolve
 Example: Tunnel System

Viet Cong Tunnel System
The Youth Culture and the Growing AntiWar Movement
What is the Youth Culture?

Pattern of social and cultural protests

Purpose: Give vent to 2 related impulses
1) Create a great new community of “the
people” to rise up & break the power of
elites and force the nation to end the Vietnam
War, pursue racial and economic justice and
transform political life
 2) Vision of “liberation” for minorities &
efforts to create a new culture to escape the
dehumanizing pressures of modern
“technocracy”

The Rise of the New Left

Radicalization of many American college &
university students





Baby boomers are now in college
50% of the U.S. population is under 30 by 1970
Sought to challenge political system
Embraced cause of African-Americans and other
minorities
Not communist but revered 3rd world Marxists like
Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh
Examples: SDS and Free Speech Movement
New Left protests at People’s
Park in Berkeley 1969
New Left Organizations

Students for a Democratic Society(SDS), 1962


Formed by students from prestigious universities
Port Huron Statement



Expressed disillusionment with the society they had inherited;
determination to build a new politics
Wanted university decisions to be made through
participatory democracy
Free Speech Movement,1964

Originated a Berkley in a disputed over rights of students
to engage in political activities on campus; gained
national attention


Main issues:



Students occupied buildings, produced a school strike that
75% of students participated in
Disliked impersonal character of the modern university
Denounced role of universities in sustaining “corrupt and
immoral public policies”
Began a decade on turmoil on college campuses
Student Protests on Campuses often related
to Anti-War Protests

Anti-War
protesters
burning draft
cards
Rise of the Counterculture
What is it?
 Youth culture’s rejection of traditional values and its open embrace of sensual
pleasures
 Overlapped in many ways with the New Left
 Sought to challenge the structure of modern American society attacking its
banality, hollowness, artificiality, materialism, and isolation from nature
Symbols
 Hippies



More permissive view of sexual behavior & drug use


most committed adherents of the counterculture
Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, CA
1973 – birth control pill becomes available
Rock n’ roll music


Reflected many of the new iconoclastic values of the time (Beatles)
Used music to express political radicalism (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez)
Images of the Counterculture: The
Beatles
Images of the Counterculture:
Hippies
Images of the Counterculture:
Antiwar Protests
Sounds of the Counterculture
Iconic Symbol of the Counterculture:
Woodstock, 1969
1968: The Year that Rocked America
Vietnam in 1968:
The Tet Offensive

Late in1967, Gen. Westmoreland had
requested more troops in Vietnam



Jan 1968: N. Vietnamese army and Viet
Cong launch an attack on the South


We can see “the light at the end of the
tunnel”
In 1967 most American supported the war
effort
67,000 attack, 100 cities, bases, and the
U.S. embassy in Saigon
U.S. and S. Vietnamese army (ARVN)
beat back the offensive


Military victory for the U.S. but a political
failure b/c Americans turn against the war
Growing credibility gap
“Hey, Hey LBJ! How
many kids did you
kill today?!”
Vietnam Destroys LBJ’s Presidency

Johnson’s popularity
dropped from 48% to 36%
 Remember
his popularity in
the Election of 1964

March 1968, LBJ announced,
“…I shall not seek, and I
will not accept, the
nomination of my party
for another term as your
president.”
1968 Domestic Policy:
The Presidential Election of 1968
Hubert Humphrey,
LBJ’s VP

Robert Kennedy,
former Attorney General;
JFK’s brother
Democratic party divided over who to nominate for president


Eugene McCarthy, Senator
from Minnesota
Big Issue: Vietnam War
R. Kennedy looks like the frontrunner after he wins the California
primary but he is assassinated on live television after his victory
speech
1968 Domestic Policy & Civil Rights:
America Explodes


April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King
Jr. assassinated
Riots break out in
over 60 cities
 43
killed
 3,000 injured
 27,000 arrested
1968 Domestic Policy:
The Democratic National Convention

Vice President Hubert Humphrey wins the democratic
nomination inside while police attack peaceful anti-war
protestors outside