1. The Great Society & Foreign Policy
LBJ
The Great Society & Foreign Policy

2. The Great Society Problems addressed by programs: Poverty Healthcare
Civil Rights
Urban Development

3. Ability to get things done…
Picked up where Kennedy left off
The “Johnson treatment”
Consensus
Passed great deal of policies because of Democratic majority & Southern appeal

4. War on Poverty Economic Opportunity Act Youth programs
Anti-poverty measures
Small-business loans
Job training

5. Dept of Housing & Urban Development
240,000 housing units
$2.9 billion for urban renewal
HUD Secretary
Robert C Weaver (1st African American cabinet member in U.S. History)

6. Education Programs Elementary/ Secondary Education Act (1965)
Higher Education Act (student loans, college tuition waivers, etc.)
Head Start

7. Health & Welfare Medicare Health insurance for elderly (SS) Medicaid
Health insurance for low income families

8. Immigration Act of 1965
Discontinued national origins system from the 1920s
1st come, 1st serve
More than doubled immigration (Asia & L.A.)

9. Civil Rights (very briefly)
Most successes attributed to LBJ’s administration
24th Amendment (abolished Poll Tax)
Civil Rights Bill of 1964
Forbade segregation (interstate commerce)
Title VII (no discrimination in workplace)

10. Civil Rights (very briefly)
Voting Rights Act of 1965
740,000 blacks registered to vote within 3 years
Affirmative Action
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Most comprehensive Civil Rights legislation

11. LBJ
FOREIGN POLICY

12. Vietnam Vietnam overshadows all LBJ’s foreign policies
Cold War commitments become full blown war
Political criticism
Success/failure still debated

13. Legacy Immediate effects of social programs small
Eventually a large impact
Still controversial!!!

14. Elections Landslide win in 1964
Does not even run in 1968 (because of Vietnam)