LBJ HIS PRESIDENCY & HIS LEGACY Created by: Susan Pojer Adapted by Janelle Garrett

The Great Society A War on Poverty The War in Vietnam The Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Texan’s Family

LBJ’s Resume Congressional Staffer Member of the House of Representatives U.S. Senator –Majority Leader Vice-President

“The Johnson Treatment” Reputation of being “overpowering and intimidating” Invaded personal space: nose to nose “persuasive and personable rather than elegant and charming” Glencoe American History text p.855

“The Johnson Treatment” “”an incredible, potent mixture of persuasion, badgering, flattery, threats, reminders of past favors and future advantages” Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee said you felt like “a St. Bernard had licked your face for an hour, [and] had pawed you all over” Hubert Humphrey described it as a “tidal wave.” Johnson’s most notable victory as majority leader was the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first such legislation since Reconstruction.

The Texan’s Style

Obama needs LBJ’s Style needs-lbjs-style and in-the-news/what-obama-can-learn-from-lbjhttp:// needs-lbjs-stylehttp:// in-the-news/what-obama-can-learn-from-lbj “As Obama prepares to answer them, he should think about the style of an overlooked Democratic leader: Lyndon Johnson. Yes, I know. Obama is very unlike LBJ, just as Kennedy was stylistically different from his vice president. Hubert Humphrey once said, “Johnson was constantly compared to Kennedy, and that was like comparing a heavyweight boxer to a ballet dancer.” But the heavyweight got a lot more done than the dancer. Humphrey described LBJ, whom he served as vice president, this way: “Johnson’s presidency was more like a developer moving into an area that needs rehabilitation, renovation and rebuilding. It isn’t pretty at times. There’s a lot of debris laying around, but all at once you see new structures coming up, and it may not be all quite finished, but the structures are there.” It raises a central issue about that presidency: How could a leader be so flawed and still move a nation ahead?

War on Poverty “There are tens of millions of Americans who are beyond the welfare state. Taken as a whole there is a culture of poverty…bad health, poor housing, low levels of aspiration, and high levels of mental distress. Twenty percent of a nation, some 32,000,000.” Michael Harrington, author of the Culture of Poverty 1962

War on Poverty “The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.” LBJ 1964 Medicare and Medicaid Head Start HUD Job Corps Water Quality and Clean Air Acts Highway Safety Act Fair Packaging and Labeling Act

The 1964 Election

1964 Republican Candidate AZ Sen. Barry Goldwater 4D0 Conservatives take over the 1964 Republican National Conventionhttp:// 4D0 wU Barry Goldwater’s “Extremism in the Defense of Liberty” wU RU Ronald Reagan campaigns for AgH20 or full speech AYhttp:// RU AY

“The Daisy Ad”

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Johnson/Humphrey

The Results

Civil Rights Legislation Civil Rights Act 1964 Voting Rights Act 1965 “WE SHALL OVERCOME”

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Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Rk8zzAw&NR=1http:// Rk8zzAw&NR=1 A US ship was attacked on 2 August But was there a second?

Tet Offensive 1968

The 1968 Decision m/watch?v=rFDy55S GrBc Hey Hey LBJhttp:// m/watch?v=rFDy55S GrBc m/watch?v=vOs7BjZr gqY&feature=related I will not run speechhttp:// m/watch?v=vOs7BjZr gqY&feature=related

1968 Tet Offensive L0mTHWI&playnext=1&list=PL3C98898 ED6D1CF0A&feature=results_videohttp:// L0mTHWI&playnext=1&list=PL3C98898 ED6D1CF0A&feature=results_video Cronkite’s editorial –President Johnson “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost the American people.”