AMST 3100 The 1960s

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AMST 3100 The 1960s

• LBJ

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Backdrop Rise of Liberalism

• In 1946, Cyril Connally helped define the
  emerging liberal ideology in his Ten Indicators
  of a Civilized Society.
• 1. Abolition of the death penalty
• 2. Penal reform aimed at rehabilitation
• 3. Slum clearance and new towns
• 4. Subsidized energy/heating
• 5. Free medicine, food, and clothes subsidies
• 6. Abolition of censorship, surveillance, and
  travel restrictions
• 7. Reform of laws against gays, abortion, divorce
  
• 8. Limitations on property ownership
• 9. Preservation of natural beauty, architecture,
  the arts
• 10. Laws against racial and religious
  discrimination

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The new liberalism

• Connallys ideas represent a shift away from the
  intellectual search for utopia toward the
  policy-based pursuit of enlightened hedonism or
  humanism.
• Connallys ideas reflected what some in the 1960s
  came to call the permissive society.
• Virtually everything he called for was enacted
  into law in the 1960s across most Western
  democracies. These 1960s reforms dramatically
  altered life in Western cultures. Citizens became
  more free than they had ever been.
• While the U.S. headed in this same direction,
  there were more conservatives here that resisted
  these reforms. They argued these reforms would
  lead to anarchy and un-Christian lifestyles.
• At the core of the ideological debate in the U.S.
  were two opposing views of government, with
  liberals more willing to use government as a tool
  to achieve humanistic aims.

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LBJ

• A Southerner, yet a product of this rising
  liberalism
• A reform liberal
• Idealistic
• Social liberal
• strong advocate for civil rights, tolerant of
  social diversity
• Economic liberal
• government can regulate capitalism without
  harming it, the welfare state as a force of good,
  we need a war on poverty
• A hawk on foreign policy issues
• Strong military
• Anti-communist Cold Warrior
• Domino theory containment policy advocated
• Imperialism in the name of freedom is acceptable

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LBJ

• Civil Rights was the moral issue facing the
  nation, and the South could never progress until
  it buried Jim Crow.
• LBJ was himself a Southerner who understood both
  the South and poverty.
• One of LBJs most prideful accomplishments was
  the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• From then on, LBJ expected the gratitude of
  Afro-Americans and could never grasp why so many
  were angry at him by 1966.

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LBJ vs Barry Goldwater, 1964

• Classic campaign that pitted two ideological
  purists against each other LBJs emphasis on
  equality versus Goldwaters emphasis on
  individual liberty.
• Goldwater was more hawkish in foreign policy than
  LBJ.
• LBJ, like all Democrats, feared being labeled
  soft on communism so he pushed an aggressive
  foreign policy.
• LBJ painted Goldwater as likely to start World
  War III while he painted himself as the candidate
  of peace and moderation.
• The Daisy Girl TV advertisement implied a vote
  for Goldwater was a vote for nuclear holocaust.
  It was an effective negative ad that was a
  harbinger of future media tactics by both
  political parties.
• LBJ presented himself as the peace candidate, yet
  he was seriously considering a dramatic
  escalation of U.S. presence in Vietnam.
• LBJ took most of the North, East and West, but
  failed to take the Deep South, where few blacks
  were allowed to vote.

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Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964

• LBJ used the Gulf of Tonkin incident (August,
  1964) involving dubious reports that U.S.
  warships had been attacked to win a congressional
  resolution giving him a free hand in crafting
  policy in Vietnam.
• This resolution was passed after less than 9
  hours of consideration by a Congress that did not
  seriously consider the consequences of giving the
  President so much war-making authority.
• The Congressional vote was unanimous. It passed
  by 416 to 0. The Senate vote was 82 to 2.
• At that time, Vietnam was not an area of national
  concern.
• After securing Congresss approval with this
  resolution, LBJ dramatically escalated U.S.
  involvement in Vietnam.
• Subsequent information suggests the entire
  incident did not occur and was manufactured by
  the Pentagon for the benefit of LBJ.

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LBJs Great Society

• As a reform liberal, LBJ believed in the power of
  government to meet social needs and to
  redistribute limited resources to the poor.
• LBJ prioritized domestic policy initially
  (1964-65)
• 1. Civil rights (against racism)
• 2. War on poverty
• However, by 1966, his new priority was Vietnam
  and his domestic policies suffered as he
  redirected resources toward the war.
• This priority switch greatly angered civil rights
  advocates and doomed LBJ due to the difficulties
  of fighting two wars at once.

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The War on Poverty

• In 1960, the overall poverty rate was around 21.
• Basic Approach to LBJs War on Poverty
• 1. Outlaw racial discrimination, emphasize equal
  opportunity.
• 2. Use government programs to help the poor.
• A. Give poor communities resources for them to
  decide usage.
• Example Community Action programs
• B. Create new welfare programs tied to a
  perceived culture of poverty among the poor.
• This was the preferred approach. LBJ wanted to
  offer the poor opportunity not money.
• Result
• Poverty declined by 1970 to around 12.
• The welfare state had grown very large and was
  expensive.
• Dramatic upward mobility for some minority
  groups.
• Raised expectations among the poor, some of which
  were not met.

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The War on Poverty programs and beneficiaries

• LBJs War on Poverty emphasized new government
  resources
• Food stamps
• AFDC (Aid for Families with Dependent Children)
• Medicaid (medical care for the poor)
• Public housing
• Jobs programs
• School and child programs
• College loans
• The beneficiaries
• The poor
• Minority groups
• The aged
• In 1960 about 40 were poor. By 1970, 25 were
  poor and by 1974 only 16 were poor).
• Students

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Consequences of the War on Poverty

• The War on Poverty raised the expectations of
  blacks, and when many remained poor especially
  in the ghetto - they rebelled and rioted.
• The execution of the War on Poverty was sloppy in
  many cases, and some policies were more harmful
  than helpful.
• Example public housing projects were probably
  more harmful than helpful in cities like Boston.
• Conservatives and many moderates were upset at
  the rise of the liberal welfare state, feeling
  that it cut into individual initiative and
  created a class of welfare dependents.
• Yet in virtually all other Western democracies,
  the welfare state was much more developed and did
  not cut into productivity.
• Even today, the U.S. is the only Western
  democracy not to offer child care subsidies and
  national health care for everyone.

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LBJ

• To LBJ, the Great Society was a culture of equal
  opportunity in which a beneficent government
  created new resources to raise the standard of
  living for all, rich and poor, black and white.
• Between 1964-1965 LBJ succeeded in passing more
  legislation than many Presidents pass in their
  entire careers.
• His accomplishments were unprecedented, yet as he
  increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam he could no
  longer sustain his promise for the Great Society.
• Frustration and anger among the poor, students,
  liberals, and minority groups would rise and
  LBJs remaining tenure would be conflict-ridden
  as he increasingly devoted the bulk of U.S.
  resources to the war in Vietnam by 1966.

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