Vietnam War vs. Great Society Essay

When Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded the presidency after John F. Kennedy's assassination he spoke of his vision of a Great Society in America. This Great Society included "an end to poverty and racial injustice," and also was intended to turn America into a place where kids can enhance their mind, broaden their talents, and people could restore their connection with the environment. In order to reach his goal, LBJ enacted numerous proposals involving taxes, civil rights, poverty, and much more. For the most part Johnson did an excellent job on delivering his promises, but international affairs threatened the Great Society and although LBJ won the presidency in a landslide victory in 1964, by 1966 he and the Supreme Court began to face

Lyndon B Johnson became president in 1963 after the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22nd 1963. He formulated many policies including ‘The Great Society’. This was introduced in an aim to end poverty, improve education and rejuvenate cities for all Americans. Johnson also introduced Civil Rights. This act refers to the personal rights a citizen holds which are protected by the US government and prohibits; the discrimination of race, religion, age or gender. This was introduced to create equal opportunities for all. This essay will outline the key factors regarding whether or not Lyndon B Johnson

Once the American federal spending was focused on Vietnam, things started to go downhill. This shift of focus led to a lot of unhappiness in different parts of society. The main purpose of the Great Society was to benefit the American society and to beat the poverty epidemic plaguing America. A cartoon from the magazine Punch in 1967 titled “The Train Robbery” shows a train titled “U.S. Economy: and shows President Lyndon B. Johnson dismantling train cars titled “The Great Society”. Above the train, the word “Vietnam” is written in the cloud of smoke. The meaning of this cartoon is that President Johnson was taking money away from the Great Society in attempt to gather more money that was needed to pay for the war in Vietnam (Doc E). A graph from the United States Department of Commerce Census Bureau shows the percentage of persons below the poverty level by racial categories. The graph shows a steady decline from the years 1959 to 1974, however the figures for “all non-whites” as well as “blacks” remained three times higher than those for whites (Doc H). From 1965 through 1968, there was still unrest within urban society because African Americans were still demanding help, jobs, health care benefits and public transportation. Many domestic funds were left unsustained or began to diminish because of the large diversion of funds to the Vietnam War effort. Despite this, President Lyndon B. Johnson still wanted

In the 1960s, America was in a realm of turmoil and upheaval. During President Kennedy’s term, there was a rise of race riots, sexual and drug revolutions and many anti-war protests. Upon President Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson came into office with a plan to “correct” society. President Johnson constructed programs to help aid the poor and elderly with medical costs, food stamps, along with aid for education which all came to be known as part of the Great Society programs. Though he did join the United States in the Vietnam War and was unable to navigate out of it, his success in dealing with social, economic and political issues are overshadowed.

The amount of bad press and criticism received from the whole country showed how poorly the conflict was being handled. Citizens of the United States became peace protesters and would cause massive scenes and rally against the war in public. This gave the public a negative view towards Johnson because a majority of Americans wanted out of Vietnam completely. Cohen quotes Todd Gitlin who states “Imagine the sixties without . . . the Vietnam War, and you can imagine an enduring era of reform . . . a reasonably successful wave of racial integration, a modestly successful War on Poverty, a weakened black power strain.” Gitlin is completely correct if Johnson had been able to end the war in Vietnam his presidency would’ve been completely spectacular. Johnson would have been able to end the war, grant more rights to all Americans regardless of race, and have an era of reform on his

Upon Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson took over the white house and was faced with many problems and conflicts throughout his presidency. While the citizens of the United States tried to recover from the loss of Kennedy, Johnson found it advantageous, experiencing varying levels of success and efficacy with his responses between the 1960s and 70s. Johnson influenced America by reporting that Kennedy would have wanted the Great Society, in order to persuade people towards supporting his project. This led them to believe him and therefore support the developing movement. The Great Society was Johnson’s primary method of fixing problems in the United States, including the political, emotional as well as the social problems. Johnson unfortunately entered his presidency facing difficulties such as the Vietnam War, which would later damage his reputation.

Lyndon Johnson’s presidency was embroiled in foreign nations as was Madison’s. An advocator of the space program, Johnson and the leaders of Russia worked things out between their two nations. During Johnson’s presidency, Vietnam became his defining moment. Unfortunately, many people believe this to be his greatest failure.

Lyndon Baines Johnson makes one of the most important historical figures of the United States because of the enormous changes brought in the states federation. During Lyndon Baines Johnson’s reign, there was a lot of evolution in the federal state laws (Andrews and Sarah Gaby 202). After the assassination of the JKF, Lyndon Baines Johnson moved quickly to becoming the president of United States. At the time he fostered the development of some of the largest reforms in the federal laws in the U.S. Lyndon used 1964 mandate to bring in his vision of a great society. This has achieved through sweeping legislation agenda that became one of the most ambitious as well as far-reaching in the history of the United State laws (Andrews and Sarah Gaby 202). Johnson passed a vast number of bills that oversaw the federal support of humanity in many levels. Some of the most important changes that occurred during the times were the Lyndon Baines Johnson war on poverty and discrimination.

Lyndon Johnson made great strides toward the initiative to build this "Great Society". A lot of the items he proposed at the time are still functioning and serving purpose during today's century. The Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act was established in 1965. This would ensure that all cars on the road would not contribute to a major pollution problem. Even though most places still have this enforced in each of our cities, I grew up in Knoxville and we did not have to do this. Which is probably the reason it is considered one of the worst cities because of the smog for Asthma patients. He also enacted the Economic opportunity Act. This was a great program and still has profound impacts on us today. This plan was to enable each working

Johnson began his journey to build “A Great Society” for the American people, who seemed divided on his inauguration. His presidency commenced by completing what the late Kennedy was unable to finish due to his untimely death. Johnson created a full on war with whatever dared to endanger

The war led towards a small economic disaster. This fiscal strain would provide Johnson with problems from both sides. Vietnam came with a serious problem to social establishments since the cause of widespread inflation. Another addition to the nonphysical and psychological cost was a governmental price for President Johnson as his abundant harmony was beginning to fade in a quick fashion.

How should the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson best be remembered? President Lyndon Baines Johnson should be remembered for his achievements more than his doings in Vietnam. Many presidents in the past promised greater and better things to happen domestically but in the end either they failed at addressing the issues of the nation or did not do very much. Most of the presidents had their attention abroad in countries where war was going on. According to the textbook, the authors mentions that the United States spent $32200 on every communists killed in Vietnam while the government’s poverty programs only gave $53 per person. Like most worldwide wars, American mainly focused on the robles of the other countries. They used peacemaking as

Unlike Kennedy, Johnson was very in your face and it was either his way of the highway. Johnson was more concerned on America’s poverty situation, than Kennedy was. Also he was the first president that showed he was down for equal rights for African Americans. Johnson’s policy to fight poverty was call the Great Society. His Great Society created national programs that created more education and government subsidies. He is most known for as the president that passed the Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Act. Johnson’s work for equal rights was a pivotal part of the early 1960’s America. The mistake Johnson made during his presidency was the Vietnam

How did the US involvement in the Vietnam War Impacted the US Socially, Economically, and Globally?

In conclusion, we can say that US policies changed during the presidencies of Johnson and Nixon due to two major reasons that link to each other – the media which transferred raw news from Vietnam to America and then led to people protesting and standing against the government, reducing the support the army had and making many people refuse to join the war.