Domestic Policies in the Kennedy & Johnson Years - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Domestic Policies in the Kennedy & Johnson Years

Mr. Daniel LazarSlide2

Election of 1960

Bi-Elections

of

1958

Dems

gained 15 Senate seats (62-34), 48 House seats (282-153) and

6

governorships

1958

recession, Republican policy of lowered farm price supports, labor opposition to state right-to-work

lawsSlide3

Election of 1960

In Chicago, Republicans choose VP Nixon w/ Henry Cabot Lodge as VP

In L.A.…

Stevenson – Lost twice already

LBJ – Southern and rural ties

JFK – won second Senate term in 1958. Won over activist wing. Chosen on first ballot

“I now know the difference between a caucus and a cactus: in a cactus, all the pricks are on the outside.” -LBJSlide4

Election of 1960

Democrats raised the issue of a "missile gap" since the Soviet successful launch of the first earth satellite on 4 Oct 1957,

Sputnik I

, blaming Republican laxness

Republicans

pledged a health program "on a sound fiscal basis and through a contributory system," reaffirmed IKE's foreign policy and called for an expanded national defense program and strong civil rights bill, including enforcing the right to vote and desegregation of public schools

.

Made

an issue of the

youth and

inexperience of

43 year old JFK. Catholic issue.

Kennedy Speech at ministers’ meeting in Houston diffused the Catholic issue.

Four TV debates diffused the inexperience issueSlide5

The Election of 1960

Population: 179,245,000

Kennedy

34,226,731

/

Nixon 34,189,157

118,574 vote differential

49.7%

to

49.6%

Kennedy

won 303 electoral votes (22 states) to 219 (26

states)

Sen. Harry Byrd D-VA: anti-est., anti-integrationist got 15 EC votesSlide6

Election of 1960Slide7

Camelot: Kennedy’s New Frontier

A New Frontier

for the US, outer space

. Symbolism…

Est. a

grand and noble alliance

to combat tyranny, poverty, disease and war and served notice that the US

would “pay

any

price”

to assure survival and the success of

liberty

A New Deal without A Crisis? A New Deal for the Rest? A New Deal without popular support?

The

Best and BrightestSlide8

Camelot: Kennedy’s New Frontier

Minimum wage

raised to $1.25

Housing Act of 1961

Fed funds for public transit

Subsidize middle class housing

Preservation of open space

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” -JFKSlide9

Camelot: Kennedy’s New Frontier

Gemini Program

Response to Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, 12 April 1961

"No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.” (12 Sept 1962)

Peace Corps

Young

volunteers

went to

3

rd

World

as educators, health

workers,

and

technicians

H

elp

implement human resource and economic development programsSlide10

Camelot: Kennedy’s New Frontier

Alliance for Progress

10-point plan of Inter-American cooperation, designed to launch a "decade of democracy" in Latin America

$100 billion, of which 20% was pledged by the US

Goals: increasing the GNP by 2.5% annually, a more equitable distribution of national income, industrial growth and increased agricultural productivity, price stability, agrarian and tax reforms, extension of education, improvement of public health and medical services, and increased low-cost housing.

Quickly became a foreign aid program based on bilateral negotiations between the US and individual Latin American nations. Slide11

JFK and Civil Rights

"The denial of constitutional rights to some of our fellow Americans on account of race - at the ballot box and elsewhere - disturbs the national conscience, and subjects us to the charge of world opinion that our democracy is not equal to the high promise of our heritage.“

-JFK’s First SOTU, January 1961Slide12

JFK and Civil Rights

23rd Amendment

, March 1961, gave DC 3 electoral votes

Despite rhetoric, Kennedy believed the grassroots movement for civil rights would anger Southern whites and make it impossible to get support in Congress, which was dominated by conservative Southern Dems

RFK said we must "keep the president out of this civil rights mess“.

RFK urged the

Freedom Riders

to "get off the buses and leave the matter to peaceful settlement in the courts.“Slide13

JFK and Civil Rights

But

, in 1963 he became

more proactive

. In summer, he intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama. But not enough…

March on Washington

for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963

Set the stage for what became

CRA 1964

J. Edgar Hoover convinced (?) JFK that King was a commie and a public menace. Wire tapping and perpetual harassment. Slide14

Women’s Rights

Dec 1961, est.

Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

. Chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt.

June 1963, Kennedy signed the

Equal Pay Act

-

amended Fair Labor Standards Act.Slide15

New Frontier Failures

Coalition of

Repubs

and S. Dems stymie initiatives

Medicare defeated (again)

Medicaid never hit the floor

Fed aid to education. Nope.

Civil Rights

Mass transit

Defense Budget increased 20% in 3 years

Unfinished business…Slide16

Snapshot of JFKS Foreign Policy

Massive

Retaliation

,

too inflexible, was replaced by

Flexible Response

Doctrine

Mar 1961 -

Peace Corps

est.

Mar 1961 - Alliance for Progress

April 1961 -

Bay

of Pigs Fiasco

Aug 1961 -

Berlin Crisis

Oct 1962 -

Cuban

Missile Crisis

Feb 1963

-

backed coup against the government of

Iraq

headed by

Abd

al-

Karim

Qasim

, who 5years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Iraqi monarchy

Aug 1963 -

Limited Nuclear Test Ban

Treaty

VietnamSlide17

The Assassination

22 Nov

1963

Warren Commission

conducted hearings and concluded that

Lee Harvey Oswald

acted alone

24 Nov, killed by

Jack RubySlide18

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Pushed for many

of Kennedy's proposals and kept most of JFK's personnel, taking advantage of Kennedy's

popularity as President (61% approval at time of death) and his martyrdom

SOTU

Address

1964,

announced

his

Great Society

program, declaring a

War on PovertySlide19

Election of 1964

Democrats in Atlantic City

nominated LBJ

Hubert

Humphrey

(MN) as

VP

Republicans in San

Francisco

After moderates/liberals clashed with conservatives,

Sen

Barry Goldwater

(AZ) for President and Rep. William E. Miller (NY) for

VP

Goldwater attacked the federal income tax, Social Security, TVA

,

civil rights legislation, nuclear test-ban

treaty

In

your heart you know he's right!

Johnson

painted himself as a cautious, astute leader and portrayed Goldwater as a war-monger, countering with

In

your guts you know he's nuts!

Slide20

Election of 1964

Daisy Ad

Both candidates vowed to stay out of war

“We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” LBJ in 1964

“I was told that if I voted for Goldwater that we would be at war in six months. I did and we were.” –William F. Buckley Jr. Slide21

Election of 1964

Johnson's

landslide

of 486 (44

states & DC)

to 52 electoral votes (5 Southern states -- SC, GA, AL, MS, LA +

AZ)

43,129,484

(

61%)

to 27,178,188 (38.5%)

Dems

strengthened their Congressional majority

Senate

-

68-32

House - 295-140

W

ith this sweeping electoral mandate…Slide22
Slide23

The Johnson Treatment

The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the Johnson Ranch swimming pool, in one of Johnson's offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate itself — wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator within his reach.

Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint and the hint of threat. It was all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking

, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment

an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless

.

-Rowland Evans & Robert

Novack

.

Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power

. 1966.Slide24
Slide25

LBJ’s War on Poverty

Eradicate poverty in the richest nation in the history of the world. Aid, education, job training

Michael Harrington’s

The Other America

45 million in poverty

M

inimum wage

was increased to $1.40 per hour ($160 in 1968) and was expanded to include workers in retail stores, restaurants and hotels

Kennedy-Johnson Tax Cuts

lowered the rates from 20-91% to 14-70% over 2 years. Focus on middle class tax cuts.

"... the paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and revenues too low; and the soundest way to raise revenue in the long term is to lower rates now.“ (JFK in 1963)

Economic Aid to Redevelop Appalachia Slide26

LBJ’s War on Poverty

Economic Opportunity Act

,

Aug 1964. Created Office of Economic Opportunity to coordinate efforts against illiteracy, unemployment and inadequate public services and included:

AmeriCorps VISTA

– national service. “Domestic Peace Corps”

Job Corps

, 1964-1994 - (age 16-24, like CCC)

Neighborhood Youth Corps

Upward Bound

S

mall-business loans and incentives

1963-69, poverty declined from 23% to 12%. Slide27

LBJ’s War on Poverty

“Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”

quoted in

Name-Dropping

by John Kenneth Galbraith, p. 149Slide28

LBJ: Investing in the Future

Johnson taught mostly Mexican children at the

Welhausen

School in Cotulla, 90 miles south of San Antonio

Elementary and Secondary School Act

April 1965 provided aid to needy school districts

School breakfast and lunch

1964 = 41% HS graduation rate. 88% today.

National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities

Sept 1965 provided assistance for painters, actors, dancers, musicians and other artists.

Higher Education Act

Oct 1965, the first federal scholarships

70% of undergrads today receive fed aid

Public Broadcasting Act

provided financial assistance to non-commercial educational TV and radio broadcasting. Slide29

Urban Renewal

Housing Act -

Aug 1965 established rent supplements to low-income families to aid their move into private housing

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD

)

- A new Cabinet post in Sept 1965 - first Black Cabinet member

Robert C. Weaver

N

ew Cabinet post, Department of Transportation

Community Action Program (

CAPS

)Slide30

Urban Renewal

The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual’s dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.

-Special message to the Congress on the nation's cities (March 2, 1965);Slide31

Health Care

Medicare

July 1965 provided medical care to the aged through the Social Security System,

Medicaid

for the poor

Food Stamp ActSlide32

Civil Rights

24th Amendment

, Jan 1964, banned a poll tax.

"No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long."

Civil Rights Act of 1964

barred discrimination in public places

Authorized the Attorney General to institute suits to desegregate schools or other public facilities

Outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin

Upon signing CRA 64, Johnson might have said, "We have lost the South for a generation."Slide33

Civil Rights

Voting Rights Act

Aug 1965 - suspended literacy and other voter tests. Required federal supervision of registration. 7 of 11 Rebel States subject to preclearance. 2013 SC ruling?

LBJ denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots," and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's too late." Johnson was the first President to arrest and prosecute members of the Klan since Ulysses S. Grant

Immigration Act of 1965

, eliminated quotas

A

ppointed first Black to the SC,

Thurgood Marshall

Slide34

Civil Rights

You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: 'now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.' You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe you have been completely fair... This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.

-LBJ in the Commencement Address at Howard University on June 4, 1965 on affirmative actionSlide35

Or Does it Explode?

Long hot summers

Harlem 1964

Watts 1965, Epic

Newark 1967, “Newark burned”

Detroit 1967,

Gov

George Romney sent in the troops

LBJ

est

Kerner

Commission

to study the riots

MLK assassinated summer ‘68. Riots across US…

"What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off.“ -LBJSlide36

The Warren Court

Mapp

v. Ohio

– evidence seized illegally cannot be used in court

Gideon v.

Wainright

– free legal counsel to indigent defendants

Escobedo v. Illinois

– accused has a right to have counsel present

Miranda v. Arizona

– suspect must have rights read

Engle v. Vitale

– outlawed compulsory school prayerSlide37

Other Johnson Era Accomplishments

Gun Control Act of 1968

, one of the largest and farthest-reaching federal gun control laws in American history. In part, a response to the murders of JFK, RFK and MLK

Apollo Missions

Clean Air and Water Acts

Wilderness Preservation Act (9 million acres)

T

ruth in Lending Act

Truth in Packaging Act Slide38

Other Johnson Era Accomplishments

“If the circumstances make it such that you can't fuck a man in the ass, then just

peckerslap

him. Better to let him know who's in charge than to let him think he's got the keys to the car.”

Private comment, found in

White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President

(2003)

“I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in a Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket.”

On the qualities of a Presidential Assistant

“If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: "President Can't Swim.“ –On the press and the “credibility gap”

“Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”Slide39

Snapshot of LBJ Foreign Policy

Dominican Republic

-

supported the overthrow of left-wing, democratically elected president Juan Bosch. US

intervened

to

evacuate US

civilians.

22,000 Marines were in the

DR.

OAS intervention resulted in a provisional government which conducted

“free elections”,

in which

Joaquin

Balaguer

was elected president

.

Outer Space Treaty

Jan

1967, Set

up principles for the peaceful exploration of space

Six-Day War

June

1967

Seizure of the

Pueblo

1968.

US naval intelligence-gathering vessel was captured by the North Koreans, claimed it was in Korean territorial

waters.

North Korea

released

82 crew members and one body, kept the

ship

Vietnam & The Credibility Gap

“I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.”Slide40

Assessment of Great Society: Successes

Provide

opportunity & provide human dignity

Health: Medicare and Medicaid, Nursing Homes, Senior Centers, Infant Mortality Rate (esp. for blacks)

Civil Rights: Voting Rights Act, CRA 1964, Education, De-Segregation

Poverty relief to the elderly and the disabled

Public

Housing. Housing as a right. Quality?

Inner City Infrastructure (e.g. San Francisco and Washington rail lines)Slide41

Assessment of Great Society: Successes

Education: Head Start, College Opportunities & Literacy

Consumer Protection: Environmental Protection & Truth in Packaging

High Hopes and High Expectations

Proactive

and compassionate government

Governmental

Leadership &

ActionSlide42

Assessment of Great Society: Failures

Cities declined in spite of billions spent.

People

who could afford to leave cities

usually did

Public

Housing was an utter failure

An authoritarian approach: treating the inner-city like an occupied territory.

Race:

not far enough. 47% AA children in poverty

Federal

Bureaucratization of Schools. A

state/local issue?Slide43

Assessment of Great Society: Failures

Welfare: poverty

remains,

but tax dollars are still being spent.

Give a man a fish…

Welfare vs. Workfare

Exploding

Health Care Costs

Jeffersonian

self-governance?

Emersonian

Self-Reliance?

Vietnam Impact…Slide44

Assessment of Great Society: Failures

Progressive Reform,

The New Deal

and

The Great Society

all came to a tragic halt when

America’s entrance to

war diverted the nation’s physical, economic and emotional resources away from

domestic problems.

…LBJ died on January 22, 1973 at age 64, one day before a ceasefire was signed in VietnamSlide45

Election of 1968, Nixon’s Landslide

Nixon IKE VP

DNC Split

Sen

McCarthy (MN)

Sen

McGovern (SD)

Gov

Wallace (AL)

Sen

RFK (MA)

LBJ

VP Humphrey

R

ealigning election –

ended New Deal Coalition

that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years

Nixon 43% - 301

Humphrey 42.7% - 191

Wallace – 13.5% - 46