Lyndon Baines Johnson LBJ President: Political Party: Democrat Vice President: Hubert Humphrey

Civil Rights Vietnam War Great Society

Domestic Policy 1964 Reelection landslide: 61% of popular vote and 90% of electoral vote against Barry Goldwater Medicare: hospital insurance and low cost medical insurance for people over 65 Medicaid: extended health insurance to welfare recipients

Domestic Policy War on Poverty = THE GREAT SOCIETY War on Poverty  Alleviate poverty  Proposed legislation  Economic Opportunity Act 1 billion dollars for youth programs Job Corps: Economic Opportunity Act  VISTA  Head Start  Antipoverty measures  CAP: Community Action Programs

Domestic Policy Similarities to the New Deal Addressed economic and social ills, protecting the environment and consumers! Increased role of government in peoples’ lives

Foreign Policy Vietnam Truman and Eisenhower sent aid Kennedy sent advisors Ho Chi Minh, from North Vietnam- leads a independence movement against the French and then the US. North aids the Viet Cong (guerilla fighters) in South Vietnam.

Foreign Policy Gulf of Tonkin North Vietnamese torpedoed boats and attacked an American Destroyer LBJ asked Congress for: “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the US and to prevent further aggression” LBJ- Doesn’t ask for a Declaration of War. This gave LBJ broad military power.

Foreign Policy Escalation March 1965 LBJ began sending troops to fight the Viet Cong & North Vietnamese. Tens of thousands more troops, 61% of Americans supported this escalation. Tet Offensive 1968 a turning point shows the strength of Ho Chi Minh’s forces & support for war in US decreases. LBJ decides not to run for re-election