Vietnam War and Great Society Overview

Name: _Leidy Francisco__________ Date:__4/12/25______ Period: ____1_____ Directions: Read the secondary source outlines and answer the questions that follow. Following, complete the exit tickets, including the MCQ’s that follow. Topic 8.8 The Vietnam War Thematic Focus - America in the World (WOR) Diplomatic, economic, cultural, military interactions between empires, nations, and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly important role in the world. Learning Objective Explain the causes and effects of the Vietnam War. Historical Developments Concerned by expansionist Communist ideology and Soviet repression, the United States sought to contain communism through a variety of measures, including major military engagements in Vietnam. * Domino theory * Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Tet Offensive Postwar decolonization and the emergence of powerful nationalist movements in Asia led both sides in the Cold War to seek allies among new nations, many of which remained non aligned. Americans debated the appropriate power of the executive branch in conducting foreign and military policy. * War Powers Act 1. THE VIETNAM DIVIDE 1. In the last topic, I left off talking about U.S involvement in Vietnam by introducing its geographic reality, namely that it was divided into north and south after being decolonized. 2. We also talked about its political reality, namely that the north was communist under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the south was democratic with strong ties to the United States. 3. Additionally, recall Eisenhower’s domino theory which said that U.S. support of South Vietnam was critical because if it fell to the communists then it would be like a domino knocking over the rest of the nations in the region which would soon be a giant communist block party in the Pacific. 4. Remember U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was largely devoted to the containment of communism so Eisenhower left office and John F. Kennedy came in to replace him and he agreed with the communist domino theory. 5. Therefore, Kennedy sent no small amount of what he called military advisers into south Vietnam and Kennedy claimed that they weren't there to fight - they were just there to support the southern government. QUESTION 1: What was the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War? 2. ASSASSINATION OF KENNEDY / THE GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT 1. Anyway, you can see where this is going. In 1963, Kennedy went ahead and got himself assassinated and as vice president, Lyndon B Johnson became president just as the situation in Vietnam was degenerating. 2. That is when things got bad in the Gulf of Tonkin incident: the story goes like this. 1. The North Vietnamese fired on a U.S. battleship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which remember, was only there to get a sense of how the Vietnamese were feeling. Why else would you have a battleship in the Gulf of Tonkin? 2. Even that aggression is disputed: we're not sure whether the north Vietnamese fired upon the U.S. ship but that didn't matter because Johnson used this incident as a justification for U.S. military involvement in the region and to that end Johnson asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which essentially gave the President a blank check to exercise whatever powers were necessary to protect American interests in the region. 1. Now, to be clear this was not a declaration of war because only Congress can declare war. This was just authority given to the Commander-in-Chief of the military to do what needed to be done to defend American interests in the region. 3. It did lead to some military engagements and that fact led to a huge debate back in America: had the executive branch abused its power by conducting foreign policy with military action apart from congressional approval? 1. The answer to that is yes, that's what happened but also kind of no because Congress did give approval for the military intervention. The point is with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in play, the U.S. military got heavily involved in the region. QUESTION 2: Who became President of the United States once John F. Kennedy was assassinated? QUESTION 3: What was the Gulf of Tonkin incident? QUESTION 4: What did the incident lead to and what did this give the President the power to do? QUESTION 5: What ultimately ended up happening because this resolution was in play? 3. MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM 1. Now, the real problem is how long it would take to deploy enough military personnel from the United States to make a difference over there? 2. Good thing we already had 16,000 military advisors over there. By 1963 the north Vietnamese had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in south Vietnam. 3. Now, Johnson’s strategy was step by step escalation: the idea was that the North Vietnamese were backwards and primitive and if the mighty United States just applied a little more pressure than they would bring them to their knees. That didn’t work. 1. All of a sudden by 1965, nearly 200,000 American troops were fighting in Vietnam and two years later it was more than double that number. 2. This north Vietnamese enemy turned out to be far more adept at fighting than the Americans had predicted. So, American troops were dying by the thousands for a cause that seemed at best vague to them. 3. I mean, in World War II, the enemy was clear – it was like fascism totalitarianism. In Vietnam, we're sending our sons into the meat grinder year after year so that we can stop the spread of communism and all in a war that was never officially declared by Congress. QUESTION 6: What was Johnson’s strategy for military involvement in Vietnam? What was happening with this strategy? 4. VIETNAM WAR AT HOME 1. As you can imagine, the Vietnam war was fiercely opposed and debated back home as Americans continued to die. The nation at home seemed to be coming apart at the seams. 1. Not only was the Civil Rights Movement in full force but intense anti-war protests were also erupting. Part of this was due to the Johnson administration's campaigns of disinformation on the war. 2. Johnson never stopped believing that just a little more escalation would win the war and so to keep Americans from opposing it, the Johnson administration painted a very rosy picture of what was happening across the sea. 3. The problem was that this war became America’s first truly televised war. 1. Now that the television was a staple of most American households, reporters in the field of battle in Vietnam sent back reels of the actual situation on the ground, which was that it was a bloodbath that America was certainly not winning and may have even been losing. 4. So, with these two different versions of reality flooding the consciousness of the average American, a new term is coined: credibility gap. 1. The president is lying to us about the progress of the war, and we can see it for ourselves right here on television. 5. Anyway, the event that broke Johnson’s ability to continue the escalation was the Tet Offensive. 1. This was a massive surprise attack carried out by the North Vietnamese which inflicted heavy casualties on U.S. troops. 2. However, the U.S. did counterattack and inflicted even heavier losses on the Vietcong. 6. In response to this, Johnson and his staff requested 200,000 more troops to be sent to Vietnam and it was at this that Johnson’s advisers turned against him and said no you cannot do that, and Johnson ended the escalation, thereafter, Johnson's term was over. 7. Richard Nixon was elected president and his goal was to reduce U.S. involvement in Vietnam without looking like we had conceded defeat. 1. The chief program he proposed was known as Vietnamization: the program basically provided for the removal of American troops from Vietnam while still lending financial aid and munitions to carry out the war for themselves. 8. It was Nixon who effectively ended the Vietnam war. QUESTION 7: How did Johnson portray the war to Americans? QUESTION 8: How did the television impact the way the war was perceived by Americans? QUESTION 9: What is the credibility gap? QUESTION 10: What was the Tet Offensive and how did it break Johnson’s ability to continue escalation? QUESTION 11: When Richard Nixon was elected, what was his goal and what was the program he proposed? What did it do? TOPIC 8.9 The Great Society Thematic Focus- Politics and Power (PCE) Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shaped government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens. Learning Objective Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of government over time. Historical Developments Despite overall affluence in postwar America, advocates raised concerns about the prevalence and persistence of poverty as a national problem. * “War on Poverty” Liberalism, based on anti-communism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of government power to achieve social goals at home, reached a high point of political influence by the mid-1960s. Liberal ideas from expression in Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which attempted to use federal legislation and programs to end racial discrimination, eliminate poverty, and address other social issues. * Food Stamp Act, Medicare, Medicaid Thematic Focus- Migration and Settlement (MIG) Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and the environment. Learning Objective Explain the continuities and changes in immigration over time. Historical Developments Immigrants from around the world sought access to the political, social, and economic opportunities in the United States, especially after the passage of new immigration laws in 1965. * Immigration Act of 1965 1. INTRODUCTION 1. Two hours after the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson took the presidential oath aboard a plane in Dallas. A native of rural west Texas and a graduate of a little-known teacher’s college, he seemed unsophisticated compared to the wealthy, Harvard-educated Kennedy. 2. However, Johnson was a skilled politician who had started his career as a Roosevelt Democrat during the Great Depression. 3. As the new president, Johnson was determined to expand the social reforms of the New Deal. He called his program the Great Society. During his almost 30 years in Congress, he had learned how to get things done. QUESTION 12: How was Johnson perceived at the start? QUESTION 13: What was he determined to do when elected and what was it called? 2. THE WAR ON POVERTY 1. In his best-selling book on poverty, The Other America (1962), Michael Harrington helped focus national attention on the 40 million Americans still living in poverty. 2. President Johnson responded by declaring in 1964 an “unconditional war on poverty.” 1. The Democratic Congress gave the president almost everything he asked for by creating the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and providing this antipoverty agency with a billion-dollar budget. 2. The OEO sponsored a wide variety of self-help programs for the poor, such as Head Start for preschoolers, the Job Corps for vocational education, literacy programs, and legal services. The controversial Community Action Program allowed the poor to run antipoverty programs in their own neighborhoods. QUESTION 14: How did the President respond to Michael Harrington’s book? QUESTION 15: What did Congress allow the President to create? What did this organization provide? 3. THE ELECTION OF 1864 1. Johnson and his running mate, Senator Hubert Humphrey, went into the 1964 election with a clearly liberal agenda. 2. In contrast, the Republicans nominated a staunch conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who advocated ending the welfare state, including the Tennessee Valley Authority and Social Security. 3. A television ad by the Democrats pictured Goldwater as a dangerous extremist who might ignite a nuclear war. 1. However, the Goldwater campaign did energize young conservatives and introduced new conservative voices, such as former film actor and TV host Ronald Reagan of California. QUESTION 16: Explain the events of the election of 1964. 4. GREAT SOCIETY REFORMS 1. Johnson’s list of legislative achievements from 1963 to 1966 is long and includes new programs that would have lasting effects on U.S. society. Several of the most significant ones are listed in the table below. GREAT SOCIETY PROGRAMS Title Year Passed Program Food Stamp Act 1964 Expanded the federal program to help low-income people buy food National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities 1965 Provided federal funding for the arts and for creative and scholarly projects Medicare 1965 Provide health insurance for all people 65 and older Medicaid 1965 Provided funds to states to pay for medical care for the poor and disabled Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 Provided federal funds to poor school districts and funds for special education programs Higher Education Act 1965 Provided federal scholarships for postsecondary education Immigration Act 1965 Abolished discriminatory quotas based on national origins Child Nutrition Act 1966 Added breakfast to the school lunch program 2. In addition to the programs listed in the table, Congress increased funding for mass transit, public housing, rent subsidies for low-income people, and crime prevention. Johnson also established two net cabinet departments: the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 3. In response to Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), Congress also passed automobile industry regulations that would save hundreds of thousands of lives in the following years. 4. Clean air and water laws were enacted in part as a response to Rachel Carson’s exposé of pesticides, Silent Spring (1962). 5. Federal parks and wilderness areas were expanded. President Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson, helped improve the environment with her Beautify America campaign, which resulted in the Highway Beautification Act that removed billboards from federal highways. QUESTION 17: Name and explain at least three reforms that came from the Great Society program. 5. EVALUATING THE GREAT SOCIETY 1. Critics have attacked Johnson’s Great Society for making unrealistic promises to eliminate poverty, for creating a centralized welfare state, and for being inefficient and very costly. 2. Defenders point out that these programs gave vitally needed assistance to millions of Americans who had previously been forgotten or ignored - the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. 3. Johnson himself would jeopardize his domestic achievements by escalating the war in Vietnam - a war that resulted in higher taxes and inflation. QUESTION 18: How did critics see the Great Society program? How did defenders see it? 6. CHANGES IN IMMIGRATION 1. Before the 1960s, most immigrants to the United States had come from Europe and Canada. By the 1980s, 47 percent of immigrants were coming from Latin America, 37 percent from Asia, and fewer than 13 percent from Europe and Canada. 1. In part, this dramatic shift was caused by the arrival of refugees leaving Cuba and Vietnam after the Communist takeovers of these countries. 2. Of far greater importance was the impact of the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended the ethnic quota acts of the 1920s favoring Europeans and thereby opened the United States to immigrants from all parts of the world. 1. Legal immigration increased sharply. In the 1970s, about 400,000 immigrants entered each year. In the years between 1990 and 2020, the number exceeded 1,000,000 people. 3. By the mid-1970s, as many as 12 million foreigners were in the United States illegally. The rise in the number of immigrants from Latin America and Asia led to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which penalized employers for hiring immigrants who had entered the country illegally or had overstayed their visas while also granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants arriving by 1982. 1. Even so, many Americans concluded that the nation had lost control of its own borders. QUESTION 19: What did the Immigration Act of 1965 do? How did this impact immigration? QUESTION 20: What did the immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 do? EXIT TICKET FOR APUSH TOPIC 8.8 Please answer the below question to the best of your ability using the information from the secondary source outline above. EXPLAIN ONE CAUSE AND ONE EFFECT OF THE VIETNAM WAR. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ EXIT TICKET FOR APUSH TOPIC 8.9 Please answer the below question to the best of your ability using the information from the secondary source outline above. IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN ONE CAUSE AND ONE EFFECT OF THE GREAT SOCIETY PROGRAM ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPLAIN THE IMPACTS OF THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1965 ON CHANGES IN IMMIGRATION PATTERNS OVER TIME ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Questions 1-3 refer to the excerpt below “We will stay [in Vietnam] because a just nation cannot leave to the cruelties of its enemies a people who have staked their lives and independence on America’s solemn pledge - a pledge which had grown through the commitment of three American Presidents. We will stay because in Asia - and around the world - are countries whose independence rests, in large measure, on confidence in America’s word and in American protection. To yield to force in Vietnam would weaken that confidence, would undermine the independence of many lands, and would whet the appetite of aggression. We would have to fight in one land, and then we would have to fight in another - or abandon much of Asia to the domination of Communists.” Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union Message, January 12, 1966 1. Which foreign policy development supports the perspective presented in this excerpt? 1. The practice of brinkmanship 2. The process of decolonization 3. The belief in the domino theory 4. The principle of mutually assured destruction 2. In which way did Johnson most significantly depart from the policies of previous presidents regarding Vietnam? 1. He used a larger number of U.S. troops in combat roles. 2. He was more successful in negotiating with North Vietnam. 3. He set a lower limit on the number of U.S. troops sent to Vietnam. 4. He gave more decision-making authority to the generals. 3. Which of the following best characterizes the position of the president’s anti war critics? 1. The war threatened to cause an inflationary cycle. 2. The conflict was primarily a civil war between factions in Vietnam. 3. The containment policy would not work in Asia. 4. The continued involvement would weaken trust between the United States and its allies. Questions 4-7 refer to the excerpt below “In your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. … The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents.” Lyndon B. Johnson, speech, May, 1964 4. Which provides evidence to refute Johnson’s argument in this source? 1. The information in Michael Harrington’s 1962 book about poverty 2. The number of African Americans registered to vote in the South 3. The reaction to the Brown v. Board of Education decision 4. The hope of people in other nations to emigrate to the United States 5. Which of the following historical slogans or developments were most closely related to Johnson’s plans as described in this source? 1. “Gilded Age,” because it focused on material goods and wealth 2. “Square deal,” because it addressed business-labor relations 3. “Return to Normalcy,” because it recalled a better time in the past 4. “New Deal,” because it aimed to attack economic hardships 6. Johnson’s primary purpose in giving this speech was to 1. present his goals for a second term in office 2. remind graduates to continue to enrich their minds 3. attack the rich and powerful supporters of his political opponent 4. separate himself from the policies of Kenedy and other Democrats 7. What is the relationship between this speech and Johnson’s record as president? 1. He ignored the goals expressed in this speech and focused on other priorities. 2. He failed to get Congress to pass legislation to implement his policies. 3. He made many compromises with Congress, so he accomplished only a little. 4. He passed significant legislation that reflected the vision expressed in this speech.

Name: _Leidy Francisco__________     Date:__4/12/25______     Period: ____1_____

Directions: Read the secondary source outlines and answer the questions that follow. Following, complete the exit tickets, including the MCQ’s that follow.
Topic 8.8 The Vietnam War
	Thematic Focus - America in the World (WOR)
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, military interactions between empires, nations, and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly important role in the world. 
	Learning Objective

Explain the causes and effects of the Vietnam War.

Historical Developments

Concerned by expansionist Communist ideology and Soviet repression, the United States sought to contain communism through a variety of measures, including major military engagements in Vietnam. 
* Domino theory
* Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Tet Offensive

Postwar decolonization and the emergence of powerful nationalist movements in Asia led both sides in the Cold War to seek allies among new nations, many of which remained non aligned.

Americans debated the appropriate power of the executive branch in conducting foreign and military policy. 
* War Powers Act

1. THE VIETNAM DIVIDE
   1. In the last topic, I left off talking about U.S involvement in Vietnam by introducing its geographic reality, namely that it was divided into north and south after being decolonized. 
   2. We also talked about its political reality, namely that the north was communist under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the south was democratic with strong ties to the United States.
   3. Additionally, recall Eisenhower’s domino theory which said that U.S. support of South Vietnam was critical because if it fell to the communists then it would be like a domino knocking over the rest of the nations in the region which would soon be a giant communist block party in the Pacific. 
   4. Remember U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was largely devoted to the containment of communism so Eisenhower left office and John F. Kennedy came in to replace him and he agreed with the communist domino theory. 
   5. Therefore, Kennedy sent no small amount of what he called military advisers into south Vietnam and Kennedy claimed that they weren't there to fight - they were just there to support the southern government.
 
QUESTION 1: What was the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War?

2. ASSASSINATION OF KENNEDY / THE GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT
   1. Anyway, you can see where this is going. In 1963, Kennedy went ahead and got himself assassinated and as vice president, Lyndon B Johnson became president just as the situation in Vietnam was degenerating. 
   2. That is when things got bad in the Gulf of Tonkin incident: the story goes like this. 
      1. The North Vietnamese fired on a U.S. battleship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which remember, was only there to get a sense of how the Vietnamese were feeling. Why else would you have a battleship in the Gulf of Tonkin? 
      2. Even that aggression is disputed: we're not sure whether the north Vietnamese fired upon the U.S. ship but that didn't matter because Johnson used this incident as a justification for U.S. military involvement in the region and to that end Johnson asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which essentially gave the President a blank check to exercise whatever powers were necessary to protect American interests in the region. 
         1. Now, to be clear this was not a declaration of war because only Congress can declare war. This was just authority given to the Commander-in-Chief of the military to do what needed to be done to defend American interests in the region. 
      3. It did lead to some military engagements and that fact led to a huge debate back in America: had the executive branch abused its power by conducting foreign policy with military action apart from congressional approval? 
         1. The answer to that is yes, that's what happened but also kind of no because Congress did give approval for the military intervention. The point is with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in play, the U.S. military got heavily involved in the region.
 
QUESTION 2: Who became President of the United States once John F. Kennedy was assassinated?

QUESTION 3: What was the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

QUESTION 4: What did the incident lead to and what did this give the President the power to do?

QUESTION 5: What ultimately ended up happening because this resolution was in play?

3. MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM
   1. Now, the real problem is how long it would take to deploy enough military personnel from the United States to make a difference over there? 
   2. Good thing we already had 16,000 military advisors over there. By 1963 the north Vietnamese had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in south Vietnam. 
   3. Now, Johnson’s strategy was step by step escalation: the idea was that the North Vietnamese were backwards and primitive and if the mighty United States just applied a little more pressure than they would bring them to their knees. That didn’t work. 
      1. All of a sudden by 1965, nearly 200,000 American troops were fighting in Vietnam and two years later it was more than double that number. 
      2. This north Vietnamese enemy turned out to be far more adept at fighting than the Americans had predicted. So, American troops were dying by the thousands for a cause that seemed at best vague to them. 
      3. I mean, in World War II, the enemy was clear – it was like fascism totalitarianism. In Vietnam, we're sending our sons into the meat grinder year after year so that we can stop the spread of communism and all in a war that was never officially declared by Congress.

QUESTION 6: What was Johnson’s strategy for military involvement in Vietnam? What was happening with this strategy?

4. VIETNAM WAR AT HOME
   1. As you can imagine, the Vietnam war was fiercely opposed and debated back home as Americans continued to die. The nation at home seemed to be coming apart at the seams. 
      1. Not only was the Civil Rights Movement in full force but intense anti-war protests were also erupting. Part of this was due to the Johnson administration's campaigns of disinformation on the war. 
   2. Johnson never stopped believing that just a little more escalation would win the war and so to keep Americans from opposing it, the Johnson administration painted a very rosy picture of what was happening across the sea. 
   3. The problem was that this war became America’s first truly televised war. 
      1. Now that the television was a staple of most American households, reporters in the field of battle in Vietnam sent back reels of the actual situation on the ground, which was that it was a bloodbath that America was certainly not winning and may have even been losing. 
   4. So, with these two different versions of reality flooding the consciousness of the average American, a new term is coined: credibility gap. 
      1. The president is lying to us about the progress of the war, and we can see it for ourselves right here on television. 
   5. Anyway, the event that broke Johnson’s ability to continue the escalation was the Tet Offensive. 
      1. This was a massive surprise attack carried out by the North Vietnamese which inflicted heavy casualties on U.S. troops. 
      2. However, the U.S. did counterattack and inflicted even heavier losses on the Vietcong. 
   6. In response to this, Johnson and his staff requested 200,000 more troops to be sent to Vietnam and it was at this that Johnson’s advisers turned against him and said no you cannot do that, and Johnson ended the escalation, thereafter, Johnson's term was over. 
   7. Richard Nixon was elected president and his goal was to reduce U.S. involvement in Vietnam without looking like we had conceded defeat. 
      1. The chief program he proposed was known as Vietnamization: the program basically provided for the removal of American troops from Vietnam while still lending financial aid and munitions to carry out the war for themselves. 
   8. It was Nixon who effectively ended the Vietnam war.

QUESTION 7: How did Johnson portray the war to Americans?

QUESTION 8: How did the television impact the way the war was perceived by Americans?

QUESTION 9: What is the credibility gap?

QUESTION 10: What was the Tet Offensive and how did it break Johnson’s ability to continue escalation?

QUESTION 11: When Richard Nixon was elected, what was his goal and what was the program he proposed? What did it do?

TOPIC 8.9 The Great Society
	Thematic Focus- Politics and Power (PCE)
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shaped government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens. 
	Learning Objective

Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of government over time.
	Historical Developments

Despite overall affluence in postwar America, advocates raised concerns about the prevalence and persistence of poverty as a national problem. 
* “War on Poverty”

Liberalism, based on anti-communism abroad and a firm belief in the efficacy of government power to achieve social goals at home, reached a high point of political influence by the mid-1960s.

Liberal ideas from expression in Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which attempted to use federal legislation and programs to end racial discrimination, eliminate poverty, and address other social issues. 
* Food Stamp Act, Medicare, Medicaid

Thematic Focus- Migration and Settlement (MIG)
Push and pull factors shape immigration to and migration within America, and the demographic change as a result of these moves shapes the migrants, society, and the environment. 
	Learning Objective

Explain the continuities and changes in immigration over time.
	Historical Developments

Immigrants from around the world sought access to the political, social, and economic opportunities in the United States, especially after the passage of new immigration laws in 1965. 
* Immigration Act of 1965

1. INTRODUCTION
   1. Two hours after the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson took the presidential oath aboard a plane in Dallas.  A native of rural west Texas and a graduate of a little-known teacher’s college, he seemed unsophisticated compared to the wealthy, Harvard-educated Kennedy. 
   2. However, Johnson was a skilled politician who had started his career as a Roosevelt Democrat during the Great Depression.  
   3. As the new president, Johnson was determined to expand the social reforms of the New Deal.  He called his program the Great Society.  During his almost 30 years in Congress, he had learned how to get things done.

QUESTION 12: How was Johnson perceived at the start?

QUESTION 13: What was he determined to do when elected and what was it called?

2. THE WAR ON POVERTY
   1. In his best-selling book on poverty, The Other America (1962), Michael Harrington helped focus national attention on the 40 million Americans still living in poverty.  
   2. President Johnson responded by declaring in 1964 an “unconditional war on poverty.” 
      1. The Democratic Congress gave the president almost everything he asked for by creating the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and providing this antipoverty agency with a billion-dollar budget. 
      2. The OEO sponsored a wide variety of self-help programs for the poor, such as Head Start for preschoolers, the Job Corps for vocational education, literacy programs, and legal services.  The controversial Community Action Program allowed the poor to run antipoverty programs in their own neighborhoods.

QUESTION 14: How did the President respond to Michael Harrington’s book?

QUESTION 15: What did Congress allow the President to create? What did this organization provide?

3. THE ELECTION OF 1864
   1. Johnson and his running mate, Senator Hubert Humphrey, went into the 1964 election with a clearly liberal agenda.  
   2. In contrast, the Republicans nominated a staunch conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who advocated ending the welfare state, including  the Tennessee Valley Authority and Social Security. 
   3. A television ad by the Democrats pictured Goldwater as a dangerous extremist who might ignite a nuclear war. 
      1. However, the Goldwater campaign did energize young conservatives and introduced new conservative voices, such as former film actor and TV host Ronald Reagan of California.

QUESTION 16: Explain the events of the election of 1964.

4. GREAT SOCIETY REFORMS
   1. Johnson’s list of legislative achievements from 1963 to 1966 is long and includes new programs that would have lasting effects on U.S. society.  Several of the most significant ones are listed in the table below.
GREAT SOCIETY PROGRAMS
	Title
	Year Passed
	Program
	Food Stamp Act
	1964
	Expanded the federal program to help low-income people buy food
	National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities
	1965
	Provided federal funding for the arts and for creative and scholarly projects
	Medicare
	1965
	Provide health insurance for all people 65 and older
	Medicaid
	1965
	Provided funds to states to pay for medical care for the poor and disabled
	Elementary and Secondary Education Act
	1965
	Provided federal funds to poor school districts and funds for special education programs
	Higher Education Act
	1965
	Provided federal scholarships for postsecondary education
	Immigration Act
	1965
	Abolished discriminatory quotas based on national origins
	Child Nutrition Act
	1966
	Added breakfast to the school lunch program
	   2. In addition to the programs listed in the table, Congress increased funding for mass transit, public housing, rent subsidies for low-income people, and crime prevention. Johnson also established two net cabinet departments: the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 
   3. In response to Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), Congress also passed automobile industry regulations that would save hundreds of thousands of lives in the following years.  
   4. Clean air and water laws were enacted in part as a response to Rachel Carson’s exposé of pesticides, Silent Spring (1962).  
   5. Federal parks and wilderness areas were expanded.  President Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson, helped improve the environment with her Beautify America campaign, which resulted in the Highway Beautification Act that removed billboards from federal highways.

QUESTION 17: Name and explain at least three reforms that came from the Great Society program.

5. EVALUATING THE GREAT SOCIETY
   1. Critics have attacked Johnson’s Great Society for making unrealistic promises to eliminate poverty, for creating a centralized welfare state, and for being inefficient and very costly.  
   2. Defenders point out that these programs gave vitally needed assistance to millions of Americans who had previously been forgotten or ignored - the poor, the disabled, and the elderly.  
   3. Johnson himself would jeopardize his domestic achievements by escalating the war in Vietnam - a war that resulted in higher taxes and inflation.

QUESTION 18: How did critics see the Great Society program? How did defenders see it?

6. CHANGES IN IMMIGRATION
   1. Before the 1960s, most immigrants to the United States had come from Europe and Canada.  By the 1980s, 47 percent of immigrants were coming from Latin America, 37 percent from Asia, and fewer than 13 percent from Europe and Canada. 
      1. In part, this dramatic shift was caused by the arrival of refugees leaving Cuba and Vietnam after the Communist takeovers of these countries.  
   2. Of far greater importance was the impact of the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended the ethnic quota acts of the 1920s favoring Europeans and thereby opened the United States to immigrants from all parts of the world.  
      1. Legal immigration increased sharply.  In the 1970s, about 400,000 immigrants entered each year.  In the years between 1990 and 2020, the number exceeded 1,000,000 people.
   3. By the mid-1970s, as many as 12 million foreigners were in the United States illegally.  The rise in the number of immigrants from Latin America and Asia led to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which penalized employers for hiring immigrants who had entered the country illegally or had overstayed their visas while also granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants arriving by 1982.  
      1. Even so, many Americans concluded that the nation had lost control of its own borders.

QUESTION 19: What did the Immigration Act of 1965 do? How did this impact immigration?

QUESTION 20: What did the immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 do?

EXIT TICKET FOR APUSH TOPIC 8.8

Please answer the below question to the best of your ability using the information from the secondary source outline above.

EXPLAIN ONE CAUSE AND ONE EFFECT OF THE VIETNAM WAR.

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EXIT TICKET FOR APUSH TOPIC 8.9

Please answer the below question to the best of your ability using the information from the secondary source outline above.

IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN ONE CAUSE AND ONE EFFECT OF THE GREAT SOCIETY PROGRAM

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EXPLAIN THE IMPACTS OF THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1965 ON CHANGES IN IMMIGRATION PATTERNS OVER TIME

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Questions 1-3 refer to the excerpt below

“We will stay [in Vietnam] because a just nation cannot leave to the cruelties of its enemies a people who have staked their lives and independence on America’s solemn pledge - a pledge which had grown through the commitment of three American Presidents.

We will stay because in Asia - and around the world - are countries whose independence rests, in large measure, on confidence in America’s word and in American protection.  To yield to force in Vietnam would weaken that confidence, would undermine the independence of many lands, and would whet the appetite of aggression.  We would have to fight in one land, and then we would have to fight in another - or abandon much of Asia to the domination of Communists.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union Message, January 12, 1966

1. Which foreign policy development supports the perspective presented in this excerpt?
   1. The practice of brinkmanship
   2. The process of decolonization
   3. The belief in the domino theory
   4. The principle of mutually assured destruction

2. In which way did Johnson most significantly depart from the policies of previous presidents regarding Vietnam?
   1. He used a larger number of U.S. troops in combat roles.
   2. He was more successful in negotiating with North Vietnam.
   3. He set a lower limit on the number of U.S. troops sent to Vietnam.
   4. He gave more decision-making authority to the generals.

3. Which of the following best characterizes the position of the president’s anti war critics?
   1. The war threatened to cause an inflationary cycle.
   2. The conflict was primarily a civil war between factions in Vietnam.
   3. The containment policy would not work in Asia.
   4. The continued involvement would weaken trust between the United States and its allies.

Questions 4-7 refer to the excerpt below

“In your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.  The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all.  It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.  … The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, speech, May, 1964

4. Which provides evidence to refute Johnson’s argument in this source?
   1. The information in Michael Harrington’s 1962 book about poverty
   2. The number of African Americans registered to vote in the South
   3. The reaction to the Brown v. Board of Education decision
   4. The hope of people in other nations to emigrate to the United States

5. Which of the following historical slogans or developments were most closely related to Johnson’s plans as described in this source?
   1. “Gilded Age,” because it focused on material goods and wealth
   2. “Square deal,” because it addressed business-labor relations
   3. “Return to Normalcy,” because it recalled a better time in the past
   4. “New Deal,” because it aimed to attack economic hardships

6. Johnson’s primary purpose in giving this speech was to
   1. present his goals for a second term in office
   2. remind graduates to continue to enrich their minds
   3. attack the rich and powerful supporters of his political opponent
   4. separate himself from the policies of Kenedy and other Democrats

7. What is the relationship between this speech and Johnson’s record as president?
   1. He ignored the goals expressed in this speech and focused on other priorities.
   2. He failed to get Congress to pass legislation to implement his policies.
   3. He made many compromises with Congress, so he accomplished only a little.
   4. He passed significant legislation that reflected the vision expressed in this speech.

Transcript for:Vietnam War and Great Society Overview

Transcript for:
Vietnam War and Great Society Overview