Notes & Rough Drafts

Notes
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Johnson furthered Kennedy’s ideas about the role of government in the life of the individual. These programs cost immense amounts of money, and the costs associated with them led to billions in federal deficits, and, combined with the tremendous costs of the Vietnam War, gave the United States a level of debt unseen since World War 2 - New Deal type spending. The “safety net” created by Johnson for the poorest Americans survived conservative backlash and continues to exist to this day.

The Great Society legislation set up Johnson for failure in the 1960s, he couldn’t have his cake and eat it too.

The colossal military budgets necessary to sustain the Vietnam War drained the country of much-needed tax dollars that could have been used for internal improvements in such crucial areas as education and science in a decade in which rapidly developing technology made these areas ever more crucial. Also, huge welfare programs at home that included Social Security, Medicare, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great society programs further crippled the government treasury and caused severe inflation as the two-headed monster of government military and domestic spending was not funded by increased taxes.

The murder of four students at Kent State and two more at Jackson State led to violence and riots as more and more people grew convinced that the government was not fighting this war to protect the people.

The nation was becoming increasingly polarized, and by 1971, it seemed like there was no middle ground. You were either a pro-government, pro-military “hawk” or an anti-government, anti-military, “dove”.

Nixon’s socially conservative Republican views and cautious pandering to Southern voters limited his effectiveness as an agent of social justice, therefore, he was never popular to begin with.

Whistleblower and Pentagon official Daniel Ellsburg leaked top-secret documents regarding the Vietnam War to the New York Times, which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. With these, the public now knew the extent of manipulation and deception used by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to keep the American public in the dark in regards to the war.

Nixon’s cronies - CREEP (Committee for re election of the President) were caught breaking into the Watergate hotel, “bugging” the Democratic Convention. Nixon denied any wrongdoing, especially when it came to covering up the controversy, but refused to release recorded telephone conversations that would have revealed his innocence or guilt in the face of accusations from a White House lawyer, John Dean. Eventually forced to turn over the tapes by the Supreme Court, the tapes revealed that not only was Nixon complicit in the break-in, but he had abused his power as President to obstruct justice and protect himself and his friends. Facing impeachment and almost sure conviction, Nixon chose to publicly resign and keep his pension.

The only President not elected, Ford was regarded as dimwitted, and his pardoning of Nixon caused further controversy over his competence.

Great Society programs such as welfare payments were frowned upon by fiscal conservatives, who

sought to replace welfare spending with military spending, intending to force the Soviets into an arms race that the American economy could bear better than the Soviet economy.