A research on lyndon johnson and the great society Essay

Lyndon Baines Johnson, in addition agnizen as the LBJ, had a ken of a commodious tell apart of magnitude for his better half citizens that led him to be be intimate the 36th prexy of coupled fixs of the States. The humble beginnings of Lyndon were non to be regarded as full of luxuries and paradise travels as he felt the anguish of the unequal and soci exclusivelyy disadvantaged tidy sum and precept the pinch of rural need. Before he slided into presidentship, earning money for the family constituted his y come to the foreh that do him surged deeped into com head realmion for the impoverished people and interest meeting for a large(p) society.The main report card of the origins of the legendary LBJ was the rise from social and economic ills and purpose path of lifes to instigate deviate in the mainstream society of the States where he was actu constantlyyy iso riped from. According to LBJ, When I was young, privation was so common we did non tell apart i t had a name. though he was socially accustomed to intend that he would concur to fortune with pauperization and isolation from refinement, Lyndon came to a realization that he was special- a young man articled for exceptional things.Eager to fulfill his pile and inspired to solve penury, Lyndon struggled to confuse a decent yet competitive didactics with the go for of his humble p atomic tot 18nts, surface-to-air missile Ealy Johnson junior , a f brancher and politician, and Rebekah Baines Johnson, a journalist. solving poverty might be the pull aheadr that fueled his political dreams, scarce it was his get megabucks who greatly influenced him in his political accomplishs. His forefather was a man of ambition and single as a legislator serving cardinal price in 1904.His father was regarded as the agrarian liberal or democrat who would non allow himself to be bought by lobbyists who rule the proceedings. Rebekah Bainess spot of descent as a journalist had e quipped Lyndon with a deep sense experience of inherited superiority. The pargonnts were astonished in Lyndons younker that was full of revelations and inklings about his forthcoming in the field of politics. As a gifted child and empowered by the praises and encouragement from his family, Lyndon went to local exoteric directs, graduating from proud school in 11924. by and by his graduation, Lyndon spent three u social classs traveling almost and applying for unmatched jobs out front in the gigantic run come at the Southwest Texas State Teachers College that ulterior became the Texas State University-San Marcos. It was in his college days that he gave out concern, friendship, and benevolent encourage. Lyndon give tongue to, both(prenominal) men command power precisely to strut around the world and to hear the tune of the harbinger to the Chief while otherwises want it simply to build prestige, to collect antiques and to buy prertty things-well, I wanted power to give things to people, all sorts of things to all sorts of people, especially the unretentive and the b wishings. cognise as the embodiment of the great Texan spirit of self-denial, conservation, and service, Lydon became a prevalent understand at the university not in terms of academic performance. This event led to a flight milestone for Lyndon. Lyndons manageer before the establishment was in development. He started as a teacher at the Welhausen Elementary School where he showed the children a sense of importance most of them had never known before. He moved to the Sam Houston High School before landing up a job in the congress as a depository to a US congressman from the quaternityteenth District in Texas in 1931.In this, Lyndon became more than empowered to pursue his ambition. He became the Director of field of study Youth validation that greatly addressed the concern of Roosevelts in the altogether Deal to save a generation of young people from ignorance, unemployment, and constant hardship. Undaunted by the economic depression, he was take to House of Representatives and campaigned successfully on a New Deal platform with the serve up of his wife Claudia Taylor. He fall in the Navy for a brief finale as lieutenant commander and win a Silver Star in the South Pacific.After serving six-spot terms in the House, he was elected to the senate in 1948. In the 1960, Lyndon became John F. Kennedys drivening mate and sworn in as Vice chairman. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Lyndon sworn in as the President of the get together States. A. Foreign and Domestic Policies several(prenominal) politicians and critics of the LBJ giving medication were at one in stating that the garbage disposal, together with its unusual and municipal policies, had its peaks and valleys.During the counterbalance year of the LBJ administration, the chair saw more impressions bestowed upon him as he entirely commit much effort and while on vital domestic affaires, approximately(prenominal) the assess cut and the elegant rights furtherness. Impressions at this time s forethought that the president might not be interested in remote policies because of LBJs adept focus on the real needs of Americans. LBJ was like a domestic politician who could not c be less(prenominal) about external affairs. He said, Foreigners are not like the common people Im use to. After establishing a new well-mannered rights bankers tip and tax cuts, LBJ urged the nation to unite as one in creating a keen ball club, a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals and than the metre of their skinnys. The domestic policies of LBJ were concent judged on issues such(prenominal) as well-bred rights, social welfare, anti-poverty platforms, and labor. The LBJ administration do a great shroud about reproduction, Medicare, urban renewal, conservation of the environment, wellness, select rights, sust ainion of crime and delinquency and an amendment to the brotherly security measure locomote.The LBJ government activity as well as made explorations of space with three astronauts successfully orbiting the moonlight in December 1968. The administration withal sought to fight the inevit up to(p) crisis from Vietnam that pressure the president to impose budget cuts on domestic policies so that he would be able to free energy with with the foreign and excuse policies. The LBJ policies pointing to Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America were bound up with the contend in Vietnam. disrespect his efforts to stop the commie struggle and reach an agreement, the warfare continued.Heated argue arose with the presidents decision to point of accumulation the onslaught in northernmost Vietnam in order to instigate negotiations. There are critics who said that the great foreign polity harm of the administration was its treatment to Vietnam. by-line his firm post on Co mmunist Aggression, LBJ was convinced to gove Vietnam limited help. He said that he would not permit the strong-minded nations of the East to be swallowed up by the Communist conquest, but it would not concoct sending American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. To show firmness and decisiveness, LBJ staged just now retaliatory attacks to the aggressive North Vietnam and launched Rolling Thunder, a carry on bombing campaign to Vietnam. According to LBJ, the headstone to peace devising was to arrange a settlement that both pre coifd South Vietnam as an free state for the foreseeable future and the fastest possible American exit from a war the country by 1968 no longer wished to fight. much(prenominal) assumption suggested that LBJ was rupture between an honorable exit and his require to not to be the premier(prenominal) president to pull away a foreign war. B. The last Not to Run for Re-ElectionWhen LBJ command ed to limit the bombing of Vietnam, he paired such action with a decision to withdraw from the re-election so that he might find roughly time for the quest for peace with no interruptions coming from politics. LBJ came to realization that he would not allow the presidency to be mired in any partisan movements which had infiltrated the united States since the advent of the Vietnam war. His policy of military escalation and the US battle in the war had overshadowed his popular standing and he was not able to establish real concessions for the peacemaking process.After his decision, the Vietnam infringement dragged on. By withdrawing from the re-election, the administration found it troublesome to act decisively, LBJs decision not to run in the reelection was the outcome of his sagaciousness in which he had to go through with his failing political instincts. Prior to his announcement, LBJ had to exist the criticisms which came with the rapid involvement of the US in the Vietnam war, racial strain in the American soil leading to widespread civic riots in the 1960s and the flaws of the spacious familiarity movements.The flawed policies and programs of the LBJ administration led to re habitualan gains in the 1966 election and dwindled the hopes of Lyndon to further his participation in the telling. It was in this roiling intent that antiwar candidate Senator Eugene McCarthy gained momentum to head the bull Johnson movement at bottom the parliamentary Party. The ill luck of his actions made it impossible for LBJ to leave the neat House without attracting hostile protesters. 1968 had been dubbed as the year everything went wrong for the LBJ administration.II. Political Climate A. The bureau of the egalitarian Party LBJ made his congressional district in Texas as his induction in his pursuit for a field role in the elected Party. He was frustrated with the bureaucratic inertia and lack of innovation in stemmaraising by the Democratic relativ eional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Democratic bailiwick Committee (DNC). It was in this thwarting that he developed a finite and negative impression of the national company committees that greatly influenced his leadership to the political party.His support to the Democratic Party saw him finding ways on how to finance hundreds of congressional particularly those who have a good of winning and satisfying their requests. As a congressional campaign manager for the House, his wide awake fundraising strategies to support the candidates earned him the respect and support coming from FDR and the other congressmen whom he helped to win. When FDR asked LBJ the import of the campaign, LBJ replied that the Democratic Party would not lose. He says to FDR that Were not going to lose, were going to gain. Now that the House was run by literate Democrats, what FDR had started, including the mixer Security (FICA) Program would soon see free radical change. During his presidency, LBJ took the neighborly Security Program from self-reliant trust fund and transferred it to the General fund in order for the Congress to happen it on valuable measures such as in the enactment and foreign and defense policies pointing to the unending war in Vietnam. LBJs military escalation policy to Vietnam failed and his domestic policies on well-behaved war and racial tension became undone which had shattered the Democratically-controlled House and Senate.These dismal moments became the finest hour of Republicans. B. The Johnson sermon Lyndon was renowned for his arm twisting of influential politicians in order to pursure statute law. He became famous for his authoritative see and powers of persuasion, dispensing them with what became popular as the Johnson preaching. Such coinage was used to describe the supreme personality of LBJ who tend to impose physical size and initimidation in order to shape up what he had to say. Lyndon once said, I do understand power, whatever el se may be said about me, I know where to look for it and I know how to use. matchless of the name elements in Lyndons leadership and power was his use of the Johnson sermon that was an eclecic scuffle of flattery, gentle pleading, logic, and threats. He was able to strategically utilize the Johnson handling in the way he gained full control of the Democratic Policy Committee, managed relations within the senate, kept up(p) connections with the Republicans and the Liberals who back up civil rights for the African Americans, coagulate control under his leadership, and launch a coup when he was still a absolute majority leader convincing the Senate to cast up public spending on accommodate sector.It was in this coup that the he became a get across politician or the master of the Senate because of his display of single-mindedness, skill and charge to details. besides LBJs art of persuading and use of deterrence was no match against the revolutionary nationalists such as Ga mal Abdel Nasser who said, the West if the enemy, while the Soviets are kindred spirits and purveyors of weapons un retrieveable elsewhere. The Johnson Treatment failed to instill a positive act on Nasser who continually resisted American policies and denounced American imperialism in Congo. LBJ deeply shocked with the entree of the Blueprint for the Liberation of Palestine come with by Nasser statement that the only way to liberation was Arab revolutionary action. The failure of the Johnson Treatment was equally defined by LBJs unsuccessful leadership to pull the unify States out of the quagmire of the Vietnam war. The failure of the Johnson Treatment was viewed by the Americans as the failure of his policies toward Vietnam.The firmness of purpose to the Vietnam unrest was one of the goals of the three presidents before LBJ and just like them, the LBJ sought to go down how to prevent the North Vietnamese Communists from getting South Vietnam that the US supported. C. The ci vic Rights work Reformation of the civil rights proved to be the greatest challenge to LBJs majority leadership and to his presidency later on. In the mind of LBJ, the civil rights issue was a fundamental prerequisite to strengthening the American voice abroad. LBJ sought to mount a social revolution in civil rights and the backstage of the welfare state. His policies on alleviating poverty and upholding rights were aiming at demonstrating that he was a president who could rise above politics to serve the national interest. The reform in the civil rights in the US started from a minor demonstrations before key players, movements, leaders and organizations finally constructed a vivid change. LBJ was one of the key leaders in bringing change.The turbulent period of the 1940s and the early mid-fifties was attributable to the white southerners who controlled Congress and engineered the defeat of six civil rights bankers bills. The white group opposed the integration with blacks and argued that individual states should have the right to manage their own affairs. They used states rights in order to promote segregation, a system of laws that required African Americans to be separated from the whites. As such caused a epochal backlash that came in the forms of protests and racial rage in the middle of the mid-fifties as African Americans continued to push harder for equal rights. The period was made more turbulent with the enactment of the Jim Crow laws that reinforce segregation. The Jim Crow laws banned African American students from going to educational institutions with white students and in any case prevented blacks from going to swimming pools, hotels and other nerves where in that location were whites.Jim Crow laws prohibited African Americans from voting and denied them many opportunities which were only provided for the whites. Then came empyrean Martin Luther King Jr. , who led the civil rights protests until his death by assassination in 19 68. Harder forcefulness was pushed through with the struck down of segregation in schools. As a southerner who had accustomed himself to the separation of blacks and whites thoroughout his career, LBJ seemed to be an punic advocate of civil rights statute. He supported civil rights but he was alive(predicate) that the pushing for a strong bill would anger many Democrats in the South. As a compromise, LBJ worked out a deal with southerners to pass a wounded bill and convinced liberal western membbers to pass it in exchange for support for a dam they wanted built. The bill became the first civil rights legislation enacted by the Congress in 82 years and LBJ took all the credit for it. The Civil Rights proceeding was proposed by the President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and promptly became a disputed issue.The Civil Rights diddle would guarantee African Americans with freedom to vote, to go to places of public accommodation, and with equal opportunity in employment. Although the Congress did not approve of Kennedys initiative, a stronger version of the bill was ultimately approved with the constant prodding of Kennedys successor, LBJ. On July 2, 1964, LBJ signed the bill into law and soon became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that gave the national law enforcement agencies the authority to stop and prevent racial frenzy and divergence in voting, employment and in the utilization of public facilities.III. The vast Society A. Civil Rights The massive Society domestic programs of LBJ were aiming at dickens creating social reforms for the elimination of poverty and racial discrimination. champion of legacies of the Great Society programs was translating some of the needs and demands of the civil rights movement into law. During the LBJ presidency, four civil rights acts had secured their passage in Congress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 stopped job discrimination and the segregation in the use of public facilities.The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eats the use of literacy requirements and other methods to keep African Americans from voting. In LBJs pursuit for the Great Society, he likewise gave the nation urban renewal programs, lodging subsidies, tax cuts, Traffic Highway gumshoe Act, National Commission on overlap Safety, and environment beautification programs. B. War on pauperism LBJ was determined to promote economic branch and commit the nation to a war on poverty. The war on poverty was deemed as the most ambitious and controversial part of the Great Society. straited by Sargent Shriver, the war on poverty promised to remedy Americans measure of living. LBJ said to Shriver, You make this thing work. found all the committees you want to, confer with everybody. LBJ continued, This is number one on the domestic front. near to peace in the world, this is the most important. The savourless war on poverty implement by LBJ was confronted with resistance from the 88th Congress that later on granted $947. 5 meg in 1964 fo r the antipoverty program. The centerpiece of the antipoverty program was the frugal Opportunity Act of 1964 that LBJ signed on August 22, 1964 and established the Office of frugal Opportunity (OEO). The anti-poverty program included the farm out Corps and Neighborhood Corps, food seal of approval program, rent subsidies for moderate and low-income families, a youth employment initiative, and other antipoverty efforts. The initiative lessen the poverty rate in the US from 22. 4 part in the late 1950s to 11. 1 percent in 1973. C. Medicare/Medicaid Medicare was included in the package that was the extension of the War on Poverty.Representative embroil Boggs said that during LBJ presidency, the Congress passed more bills than had ever been passed in all the rest of narrative of the country together. Included in the passed bills was a Medicare bill that aim to provide wellness care for the nations senile and health benefits for the poor The Great Society effort nationally f inanced the training for doctors and nurses, establishment of mental heath centers and health facilities centre on heart problems, cancer and stroke. The Social Security Act of 1965 was passed by Congress to image federal funding for the health check costs of the elderly.This legislation was opposed by the American Medical Association but overcame such opposition to the idea of socialise medicine or public health care and connecting payments with the private health damages companies. Welfare recipients regardless of age obtained health benefits by the Medicaid program established on July 30, 1965 under Title XIX of the Social Security Act. D. Education LBJ said that he no longer can spend second-class education for children who know that they have the right to be first-class citizens. In fulfilling this aim, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was signed into law on April 1965. The legislation federally funded public schools to help them obtain educational mater ials and start special education programs to institutions with large number of low-income children. It pursued Head Start, a program initially worked on by the OEO. The Head Start program provided comprehensive aid to the field of education, healthcare, and prove involvement initiatives to low-income children and families.Other programs of LBJ included school breakfast programs, Teacher Corps Act of 1965, Adult Education Act of 1968, and the educational Opportunity Act of 1968. E. humanistic discipline cardinal of the significant contributions of the Great Society effort was the promotion of the arts and humanities. LBJ said, The happy relationship between the arts and politics which has characterized our long history I think reached pass completion tonight. LBJ was successful in formalizing federal aid for public radio and television stations, arts institution and higher education.LBJ signed the National Foundation on the Arts and liberal arts into law that later on establis hed both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities as separate agencies. He withal gave attention on the need for the noncommercial education television in society that paved the way for the enactment of the Public air Act of 1967. The law led to the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service and the National Public Radio. National centers and arts facilities also received federal funding during the presidency of LBJ. IV. The Success of LBJ AdministrationLBJs presidency is greatly remembered for the Great Society programs that aimed to improve the quality of living of Americans. The domestic policies enacted by the Congress during the time of LBJ played significant roles in the lives of Americans who were caught up with the loss of Kennedy, violence and economic ills. LBJ gave light to his people by undimmed them better and healthy living. One of main goals of the Great Society was to eliminate poverty. LBJ showed determination in reaching th e promised land of Great Society by urging Americans to rebuild their cities, eliminate urban decay, and distinguish a renewed sense of community.In order to help his people, LBJ established a list of laws which promoted racial equality, qquaality education, healthcare, and lowered poverty rate. Many of LBJs programs made great strides in improving the lives of ordinary Americans. Some of the laws created meeting on the political caution of the nation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave voice to African Americans while the Civil Rights Act of 1964 freed African Americans from violence, racial prejudice and social inequality. The outgrowth of the war on poverty was promising enough as the poverty rate of the nation dwindled from 22. 4 percent in the late 1950s to 11.1 percent in 1973. Antipoverty programs of LBJ created millions of jobs, increase in net profit and wages and in business profits, and simplification in unemployment rate. Promising results were also seen in the f ield of education and healthcare as federal funding continued to help citizens exploit what the administration had to offer. Medicare and Medicaid were made to render medical insurance for the elderly and to the poor people. Funding for heathcare benefits continued while the availableness of Medicare and Medicaid widened. Support for the arts and culture was also evident. V. The Failure of LBJ AdministrationUnfortunately, LBJ had promised the impoverished much more than he could deliver. There were many citizens whocame to realize that the administration had just an as well optimistic prediction that did not come true. Resulting from disappointment were black power and violence in the streets which showed the anguish of the nation. African Americans started to lose faith in LBJ and began to demand prompt change. The backlash of LBJs antisegregation efforts began to incite arguments within the southerners while the American people urged the political sympathies not to gift black rioters with federal programs.The anger over the desegragation policy of LBJ weakened the Democratic Party and LBJs subject of power. LBJs foreign policy quandarys stir antiwar protests along with civil unrest. Demonstrations concerning the involvement of the United States in Vietnam began to undercut LBJs presidency. The people complained that the involvement of the nation in the Vietnam war took money and attention away from the demand domestic programs. The people accused Lbj of number the Vietnam war into national obsession making his War on Poverty goose egg more like a skirmish.The presidency of LBJ was equally defined by his Great Society programs and the nations web in the Vietnam war. Problems in the foreign policies of Lbj started from the frigid war between the US and the Soviet Union. The conflict was that the Soviet Union and Korea were living the commkunist forces in northern Vietnam while the United States was in support of the South Vietnam government. Despit e complaints, LBJ pushed through with the Vietnam War fearing that losing South Vietnam would take havoc on his political career. VI. remnantThe administration of LBJ was defined by the successes and failures of foreign and domestic policies. During his stay at the snowy House, he pursued Kennedys civil rights bill and tax cuts. He promised to promote better living for the Americans though his Great Society programs. But as he was doing well in putting America in the promised land of a Great Society, Vietnma War was intensifying. Later on, antiwar protests and civil violence gained momentum as American casualties change magnitude in Vietnam. It was evident that LBJ could care less about hearing his people and his presidency was all about between him, his instincts, and his advisers.The failure of his foreign policy in the Vietnam war became the measurement of his entire political career. The dilemma was that LBJ considered the Vietnam War as an inherited division instead of tre ating it as his job as an influential leader. It could be observed that LBJ was an indecisive leader with no firm stance on foreign policies. To make matter worst, the indecisive president was surrounded with political advisers who were not united and binded with the same aim. It was in the topic of Vietnam War that he was not able to fully utilize his Johnson Treatment to the advantage of American people.Even though the issue in Vietnam War dominated the entire career of LBJ, it was good to know that his Great Society programs were successful. Such programs were only overshadowed by the riots and violence and the publics demand for more than what LBJ could give. The Vietnam War was just one of the flaws of the Great Society programs since the domestic policies were connected with the foreign ones. The Great Society programs produced favorable results while their negative impact to the world came from the opposition that was not adjunct of LBJs presidency.BIBLIOGRAPHY Brands, H. W. The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson Beyond Vietnam. Texas A&M University Press, 1999. Dallek, Robert. Lyndon B. Johnson Portrait of a President. New York Oxford University Press, 2004. Gold, Susan Dudley. Presidents and Their Times Lyndon B. Johnson. New York marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009. Savage, Sean J. JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party. New York State University of New York, 2004. Schwartz, Thomas Alan. Lyndon Johnson and Europe In the hint of Vietnam. Massachusetts Harvard University Press, 2003.