LBJ1 essays

LBJ1 essays Describe the successes and failures of president Johnson in his attempt to build a great society in the U.S.A in the years 1963-1968 A third of a century after Lyndon B. Johnson abandoned his five-year roller coaster as president; his attempts for the betterment of mankind were not always met with approval. Conservatives disdain his Great Society, while liberals excoriate his Vietnam policy. Reganites group Johnsons tenure with the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations in a quartet of presidential failures that precipitated their revolution in the transformation of America and her people. Yet Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the great Liberal nationalists of the American century. In Congress, by crossing the views of Southern populism with the rapidly expanding Northern progressivism he harnessed federal power to modernize the South. As a president, he soothed a nation reeling from Kennedys assassination, fathered civil rights legislation, and crusaded to conquer poverty in his fanciful attempt to become the greatest presidential reformer in the countrys history. It was in his firs 15 months that Mr. Johnson best demonstrated the qualities for which he hoped to be remembered. By masterly managing the transition of power from the slain president to himself, by restoring faith in the viability of the American System of divided legislature and executive powers, by proving the nations capacity to withstand the horror of assassination and by persuading the world of the strength and continuity of America and her institutions. Shrewd management of his relations with Congress brought about quick action on a tax-cut bill only weeks after Mr. Johnson became President. He paved the way for the $11-billion cut slashing the budget, which apparently impressed the economic blocs. In July 1964, Mr. Johnson proudly signed into law the most sweep...