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Lyndon. B. Johnson
By:
Jason Do, Ed Lee, Alan Xie
Presidential Challenges
Circumstances / Challenges
At Home:
- At the very start of Lyndon B Johnson's presidential career, the people were mourning the death of JFK, but Johnson grasped this opportunity to appeal to the memory of JFK. LBJ did continue in JFK's footsteps but when he had completed what JFK set out to do, LBJ went past that and did even more.
- Poverty was a very big issue which LBJ set out to fix through his social welfare programs. His social welfare programs were similar to FDR's New Deal Alphabet agencies, which were agencies created to help the poor by means of providing jobs, through low-interest loans, etc.
- Racial Injustice was also an issue solved by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which LBJ got passed through his persistance. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or sex. Getting this act passed was a big challenge for LBJ but although he knew he would lose Southern votes, he went through with it because he knew it was the right thing to do.
Abroad:
- Vietnam War
- War was unpopular and LBJ made some very poor decisions.
- He became so unpopular because of this that he never ran for president again.
- Downplayed the whole situation to the public while sending in more and more troops.
- Only president to lose a war.
7 Presidential Hats:
Presidential Evaluation
"All his life Lyndon Johnson used politics to do big things. In civil rights, in education, in povery programs, and in conversation, he changed the face of American society. But in the end, politics failed him, exposing an insecure side of Johnson's character - a side that he'd successfully covered up with political buster all his professional life."
Lyndon B. Johnson was always a politician. He always helped the American people and did what was nessassary to improve the American life by using political slyness. However, when the country needed him to be an emotional leader, and not a politician, he was unable to change. Congress would no longer listen to him, and the people grew restless with the Vietnam War sacrificing 500 American lives each week. Ultimately, Johnson was never able to showcase his domestic greatness with his foreign diplomacy failures overshadowing his accomplishments.
Final Grade:
Work Cited
"Lyndon B. Johnson" American Experience: The Presidents. PBS Online. 6 May 2007. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents>
McPherson, James M. To the Best of My Ability: The American Presidents. New York: DK Publishing, 2002.
“Lyndon B. Johnson.” The White House. Past Presidents. 8 May 2007. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/lj36.html>.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/
http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/academic/americanpresident
http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/
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