America Divided: The Rise and Fall of the Great Society
The Transition of Power and the Kennedy Legacy
The National Atmosphere After Dallas: Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, the United States virtually shut down for four days.
Multimedia Coverage: Millions of Americans watched a sequence of tragic events on television: - Reports on the assassination in Dallas and the nature of the president's fatal wounds. - The arrest and subsequent killing of Lee Harvey Oswald. - The swearing-in of Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) on Air Force One during the return flight from Dallas. - President Kennedy lying in state in the Capitol rotunda. - The funeral on Monday, November 25, featuring the funeral procession with a riderless horse and burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
LBJ’s First Address: On November 27, 1963, a "grim-faced" Johnson delivered his first presidential address to a joint session of Congress. While Kennedy’s inaugural had said, "Let us begin," Johnson stated, "Let us continue."
Public and Political Skepticism: - A few days after the assassination, 70 percent of Americans surveyed were unsure how the country could "carry on without" Kennedy. - Johnson initially felt like an "interloper" in the White House; Kennedy's staff didn't replace the late president's pictures with Johnson’s until February 1964. - Liberal insiders within the Democratic party met privately to discuss denying Johnson the 1964 nomination in favor of Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
Strategy for Legitimacy: Johnson aimed to prove himself a legitimate successor by being more successful than Kennedy at passing "Kennedy programs" through Congress.
Political Stance: Meeting with Walter Heller (Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers), Johnson instructed him to tell liberal friends like Arthur Schlesinger and John Kenneth Galbraith that he would not return to 1950s conservative policies, adding that "John F. Kennedy was a little too conservative to suit my taste."
The Evolution and Character of Lyndon Baines Johnson
Background and Early Life: - Born in 1908 in the Hill Country of central Texas. - Son of Sam and Rebekah Johnson; eldest of five children. - While Johnson often exaggerated his poverty for political effect, the family lived "close to the margin." - His father, Sam Johnson, was a six-term member of the Texas state legislature who refused bribes from business lobbyists and held populist sympathies, believing government should serve ordinary people. - After a collapse in cotton prices following WWI, Sam Johnson ended up working on a road crew on highways he had previously helped bring to his district.
Education and Professional Rise: - LBJ graduated from Southwest Texas State College in San Marcos in 1930. - He briefly taught poor Mexican-American children in a border town, an experience he frequently cited later. - In 1931, he became secretary to a Texas congressman in Washington, D.C.
Political Persona: - Described as a "professional son" to men of power in the early 1930s. - Ambition overrode ideology: he was conservative among conservatives and liberal among liberals. - Relationship with Sam Rayburn: Assisted Johnson in becoming the Texas state director of the National Youth Administration (NYA) in 1935. - First Congressional Election: Elected in 1937 to his home district, running on the slogan "Franklin D. and Lyndon B." - Roosevelt's Impression: FDR remarked to Harry Hopkins that Johnson "could well be the first Southern President."
The Senate and Vice Presidency: - Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948 by a margin of only 87 votes, earning the nickname "Landslide Lyndon." - Served as Senate minority leader in 1953 and majority leader in 1955. - Developed the "Johnson Treatment": A physically intimidating and persuasive style of wheeler-dealing. - Vice Presidency (1960–1963): Johnson felt marginalized by the Kennedys, who had used him to secure southern Democratic loyalty. Kennedy reportedly complained, "I cannot stand Johnson's damn long face."
The War on Poverty: Theoretical and Practical Origins
Kennedy’s Initial Interest: In the spring of 1963, Kennedy read The Other America by Michael Harrington.
The Concepts of Michael Harrington: - Argued that 40 to 50 million people lived in an "economic underworld." - Defined the "invisible poor" living in rural isolation or urban slums. - Adopted the concept of a "culture of poverty" (from anthropologist Oscar Lewis), suggesting poverty was a web of disabilities including bad health, poor housing, and low aspiration.
Launching the War: - After JFK’s death, Walter Heller briefed LBJ on the antipoverty legislation interest. LBJ responded, "That’s my kind of program. Move full speed ahead." - In his January 1964 State of the Union address, Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty in America." - LBJ rejected a modest 10-pilot-project experimental program, telling Roy Wilkins he needed "more practical plans."
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: - Sargent Shriver (Kennedy's brother-in-law and Peace Corps director) was appointed to lead the task force. - The Philosophy of "Hand Up, Not a Handout": Johnson refused "doles" (welfare/transfer payments) and was wary of expensive public works programs like the WPA ( in 1935). - Funding: Initial appropriation was , which was roughly one-tenth the 1935 WPA expenditure when accounting for inflation. - Components of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO): - Community Action Agencies (CAAs): Over 1,000 agencies required to seek "maximum feasible participation" of the poor. - Job Corps: Vocational training for unemployed teenagers. - VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America): A domestic Peace Corps. - In-kind assistance: Food stamps and literacy/adult education.
The Great Society and the 1964 Election
Defining the Vision: In May 1964, Johnson gave a speech at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) defining the "Great Society." - Aimed for a place "where every child can find knowledge… where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect… where the city of man serves… the desire for beauty and the hunger for community." - Rhetoric was crafted by Richard Goodwin.
The 1964 Presidential Election: - LBJ faced Republican Barry Goldwater, an ultraconservative from Arizona. - LBJ campaigned as a man of peace and consensus. - Results: LBJ won with 61 percent of the popular vote, surpassing FDR's 1936 margin.
Early Civil Rights and Economic Accomplishments: - Civil Rights Act of 1964: Signed July 2, 1964. Outlawed segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment/education based on race and (per a whimsical amendment) gender. - Tax Cut of 1964: Passed in February, holding the federal budget to under .
Foreign Policy: The Vietnam Escalation
Containment Policy: Johnson felt compelled to support established U.S. policy in South Vietnam to avoid the "Who lost Vietnam?" debate.
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (August 1964): - Reports of attacks on U.S. destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy. - LBJ privately doubted the August 4 incident, telling an aide, "Hell, those dumb stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish." - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: Authorizing "all necessary measures to repel an armed attack." Passed House unanimously and the Senate with only two dissents (Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse).
Internal Dissent: Senator Richard Russell of Georgia advised Johnson against involvement in late 1963 and May 1964, calling Vietnam "the worst mess I ever saw in my life" and suggesting the U.S. should "get out."
1964 Campaign Retoric: LBJ promised not to send "American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia."
The 89th Congress and High Liberalism (1965)
Legislative Frenzy: In the first six months of 1965, the administration submitted 87 bills to Congress; by October, 84 were signed.
Key Great Society Measures: - Medicare: Federal health insurance for the aged, viewed as an extension of Social Security. Poverty among the elderly dropped precipitously. - Medicaid: Health insurance for poor families. - Environmental Legislation: Water Quality Act of 1965 (Clean Water Act) and Clean Air Act, both proposed by Senator Edmund Muskie. - Urban Development: Appointment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). - Education: Federal aid to schools and scholarships for low-income students.
The Warren Court and the Rights Revolution
Judicial Activism: Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren (appointed 1953), the Supreme Court expanded constitutional rights.
Key Decisions: - Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Overturned segregation in schools. - Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964): Mandated "one man, one vote" reapportionment, breaking the conservative power of rural districts. - Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Protected rights of the accused from improperly obtained confessions. - Griswold v. Connecticut (1965): Struck down contraception bans based on a "right to privacy." - Roe v. Wade (1973): Later built on Griswold's privacy right to legalize abortion.
Grassroots Social Movements and the New Liberalism
The Sierra Club: Grew from 16,000 members in 1960 to 100,000 in 1970, shifting focus from preservation to fighting industrial pollution.
United Farm Workers (UFW): - Led by Cesar Chavez. - 1965 strike against grape growers in the San Joaquin Valley. - Broadened into a national boycott backed by Robert Kennedy and Walter Reuther. - Most growers recognized the union by 1970.
The Resurgence of Feminism (The "Second Wave"): - Betty Friedan: Published The Feminine Mystique (1963), identifying "the problem with no name" among dissatisfied housewives. - NOW (National Organization for Women): Formed in 1966 after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) failed to enforce Title VII protections for women (mockingly called the "bunny law").
The Fall of the Great Society: Backlash and Failure
Internal Conflict: The war on poverty encountered resistance from urban Democratic mayors (like Sam Yorty and John Shelley) who felt Community Action Agencies fanned "class struggle."
Guns vs. Butter: Martin Luther King, Jr. attacked the war in April 1967, arguing it was "broken and eviscerated" by the buildup in Vietnam.
Cost Realities: The OEO received only 1.5 percent of the federal budget from 1965–1970. Cash grants would have only amounted to .
The Moynihan Report (1965): - Daniel Patrick Moynihan's The Negro Family: The Case for National Action highlighted a "tangle of pathology" (instability, abandonment, illegitimacy). - Black activists viewed the report as an insult; it convinced many whites that black poverty was impervious to government aid.
The Welfare Rights Movement: - George Wiley formed the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) in 1966. - Claimed welfare was an entitlement, not a gift. AFDC recipient numbers rose from 0.75 million families to 3 million by 1972 (costing ).
Urban Riots and White Backlash: - Major riots occurred in Watts (1965), Newark (1967), and Detroit (1967; 43 deaths). - By 1966, 52 percent of northern whites believed the government was pushing for integration too fast. - Appearance of "I Fight Poverty, I Work" bumper stickers as a symbol of taxpayer resentment.
Poverty Statistics: Despite the failures, the number of Americans below the poverty line fell from 32 million (17%) in 1965 to 23 million (11%) in 1973.