US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  The long delayed tax cut that Kennedy had been pushing for: This tax cut was finally passed in the summer of 1964.

  Pushing his own agenda: The Great Society

  The result of the 1964 presidential election was a foregone conclusion. The Democrats nominated Lyndon Johnson on the first ballot. The Republicans, on the other hand, went to the conservative right of their party and picked Barry Goldwater, a senator from Arizona, as their candidate. Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act, wanted to curtail Social Security, and advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam.

  Johnson won the 1964 election in one of the greatest landslides in U.S. history. He received 61 percent of the vote, won by almost 16 million votes, and carried all but 6 states. In addition, he was given large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Now he could push for further reform.

  Johnson quickly turned to his pet project, the Great Society. He outlined the Great Society in a commencement address at the University of Michigan. In the address, Johnson claimed that the United States had become a rich and powerful society, but that many problems still persisted. These problems included poverty, racial injustice, and poor education. Unless the problems were resolved, a Great Society couldn’t exist in the United States. Johnson proposed to reduce crime, rebuild inner city areas, make college more affordable, reduce classroom crowding, and hire better and more-qualified teachers to help bring about his dream society.

  The Great Society project resulted in many programs, passed by Congress between 1965 and 1967, that are still with us today:

  The Higher Education Act: This act established scholarships and low interest student loans to help poor students attend college.

  The Elementary and Secondary Education Act: This act provided billions of dollars in funding to help improve public schools.

  The Medicare Act: This act provided federal hospital and medical insurance for the elderly (those over 65). The act further created Medicaid, which provides hospital and medical benefits for the poor, regardless of age.

  The Model Cities Act: This act gave $1.2 billion to improve housing and education in inner city areas.

  The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities: This independent agency provides grants to art programs and artists throughout the United States and its territories.

  The Highway Beautification Act: This act limited billboards on federal highways.

  The Department of Transportation (DOT): This department was created to oversee national transportation issues.

  The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): This depart- ment provides funds and resources for homebuyers and community groups (HUD).

  President Johnson appointed the first African American to the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall, who argued the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas before the Court in 1954 (see Chapter 18), was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.

  Getting involved in Vietnam

  Johnson supported Eisenhower and Kennedy in their decision to get the United States involved in Vietnam (see the “Conflict in Vietnam” sidebar in this section). As Johnson put it, “If we quit Vietnam, tomorrow we’ll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week we’ll have to fight in San Francisco.”

  By 1964, Johnson knew that he had to do more to help South Vietnam fight off communist aggression: “Just like the Alamo, somebody damn well needed to go to their aid. Well, by God, I’m going to Vietnam’s aid.” He increased the number of U.S. military advisors, who were training the South Vietnamese army, to 25,000. Many of the military advisors were now fighting in the field with their South Vietnamese allies. It wasn’t enough.

  Johnson issued the Gulf of Tonkin report to Congress in August 1964. The report claimed that North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin attacked U.S. warships. To punish North Vietnam for this outrage, Johnson asked Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed him to increase U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. Congress passed the resolution, and the United States escalated the war.

  In 1965, the United States increased its troop presence to 200,000 and began bombing North Vietnam. In addition, the United States asked some of its Asian allies to contribute troops to the effort. Most of them did. By the end of 1965, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines had committed troops. The war in Vietnam was now an international affair.

  By 1967, the war was taking a horrible toll on the United States. About 15,000 soldiers had died already, and the war had cost the United States $25 billion. Public opinion started to shift. At first, most U.S. citizens supported the war to stop communism. The horrible cost in human lives and the graphic pictures from the front changed public opinion. Johnson was ready to end the war. He approached North Vietnam and offered peace talks. North Vietnam rejected the offer, and the war continued.

  Conflict in Vietnam

  In 1945, France regained its colony of Indochina, consisting of what is today Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Indochina had been conquered by Japan during World War II (WWII), but a native force, organized by communist leader Ho Chi Minh, fought the Japanese. After WWII ended, Indochina was returned to France, which refused to implement reforms demanded by the natives. After France objected to the reforms, a bitter eight-year war of independence followed.

  At first, the United States stayed out of the conflict. But when China went communist in 1949, U.S. policy changed. The United States didn’t want to see another communist country in Asia. President Truman sent military and economic aid to France to help the country fight communism in Indochina. But by 1954, France seemed to have lost the war.

  Before giving up, France asked the United States for more help. It wanted the United States to initiate air strikes against the communists. Eisenhower agreed to help destroy the communists, but he wanted France to abandon Indochina afterwards. France refused, so peace talks took place in Geneva, Switzerland. At the 1954 Geneva conference, the following provisions were agreed to:

  French withdrawal from Indochina

  The division of Vietnam into a communist North Vietnam and an anti-communist South Vietnam

  Democratic elections in Vietnam, which were to be held in 1956, to unify the country

  By 1956, it looked like the communists might win democratic elections. So the United States backed South Vietnam’s refusal to hold elections. North Vietnam, in retaliation, started a communist uprising in South Vietnam. Eisenhower decided to intervene. He sent military and economic aid and committed America’s first troops, namely military advisors. Now the United States was involved in Vietnam. Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy, increased U.S. military presence dramatically.

  Mounting the Tet offensive

  In January 1968, North Vietnam launched a major offensive against the United States and its South Vietnamese allies. The campaign began during the Vietnamese New Year’s celebrations — Tet. The North Vietnamese and its South Vietnamese communist allies, the Vietcong, attacked every large city and provincial capital in South Vietnam.

  The U.S. response to the Tet offensive turned out to be a major victory. In the counterattacks, 85,000 communist troops were killed, eliminating the Vietcong as a viable fighting force. From then on, the United States fought regular North Vietnamese soldiers.

  Despite subsequently liberating almost all the cities taken, the U.S. media declared that the war was lost after the Tet offensive. The public followed the media, and for the first time, a majority of U.S. citizens opposed the war in Vietnam.

  Getting out

  On March 31, 1968, President Johnson announced major changes in his policies towards Vietnam in a nationally televised address. He called for peace and offered to stop bombing North Vietnam if they agreed to negotiate. As a sign of goodwill, the United States stopped bombing about 90 percent of the country right away.

  Johnson proceeded to tell the nation about a new strategy in Vietnam. It called for South Vietnam to build up its forces, which al
lowed the United States to cut back its troop size. At the same time, the United States would continue to equip the new and larger South Vietnamese army with the best possible weaponry. According to Johnson, the destruction of South Vietnam wasn’t acceptable. He told the world that the United States would do whatever it took to protect its ally in Asia.

  Johnson’s address to the nation had two purposes. First, he outlined the new policies in Vietnam. Second, Johnson shocked the nation by declaring that he wouldn’t run for reelection. Johnson had decided to run for reelection in early 1968, but he suddenly faced opposition from the liberal anti-war wing of his party. Senator Eugene McCarthy, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota, entered the race and won 42 percent of vote in the New Hampshire primary. His victory emboldened more challengers. Senator Robert Kennedy from New York was next to challenge Johnson. Polls showed that Johnson would lose the race to any Republican challenger. Johnson knew that he had a tough race coming up, so he decided to quit while he was ahead.

  Johnson stayed out of the ensuing battle for the Democratic nomination. He personally favored his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, over Robert Kennedy, but he didn’t intervene on Humphrey’s behalf because he was fed up with politics and wasn’t happy that people from his own party were challenging him. He didn’t even campaign for Humphrey in the battle against the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon. After Nixon’s victory, Johnson retired to his Texas ranch and wrote his memoirs. He died of heart failure in January 1973.

  Chapter 21

  Covering Up: Richard Nixon

  In This Chapter

  Pursuing a career in politics

  Contending for the presidency

  Serving as president

  Losing the presidency

  T his chapter deals with the most controversial president in U.S. history — Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon had a distinguished career in Congress and was an active vice-president under Dwight Eisenhower. He resolved many problems for Ike before ascending to the slot of chief executive.

  As president, Nixon was a foreign policy genius. If rankings were based on foreign policy alone, he would be one of the top five presidents in the history of the United States. However, there was Watergate, the scandal that ruined Nixon’s presidency, smeared his reputation, and undermined public confidence in the presidency.

  In retirement, Nixon became an elder statesman, advising presidents such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and even Democrat Bill Clinton. He managed to repair his tarnished reputation somewhat, but the Watergate controversy continues to linger. Richard Nixon may not have been one of America’s better presidents, but he doesn’t deserve to be listed among the worst.

  Nixon’s Early Political Career

  In 1946, when Nixon got back from serving in the South Pacific during World War II, the Californian Republican Party approached the returning war hero and asked him to run for the 12th district’s congressional seat, held by longtime Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis.

  Nixon had no issues to attack Voorhis on, so he researched Voorhis’s past and found that he had been a socialist, believing in powerful unions and government-owned industries. Nixon accused Voorhis of still being a socialist and of being soft on communism. The Cold War — the period after the end of World War II when the relationship between the Unites States and the Soviet Union was characterized by suspicion and animosity — was just starting, and with Americans feeling scared and belligerent about communism, the accusation was enough to help Nixon win the seat.

  Nixon learned a valuable lesson during that campaign race: Attacking an opponent for being soft on communism was a great strategy. Nixon went on to build a career on being a staunch anti-communist.

  Growing up modest

  Richard Nixon was born on his family’s lemon farm in California in 1913. The young Nixon was a quiet, obedient child who seemed gloomy and depressed. In high school, Nixon debated competitively at the national level.

  Nixon’s life was characterized by two tragedies early in his life. His two beloved brothers, the only two people he was ever close to, had both died of tuberculosis by the time Nixon was 20. Nixon never got over their deaths.

  Nixon attended Whittier College in California, where he proved to be an exceptional student. He graduated second in his class and received a scholarship to attend Duke University to study law. A troubling incident occurred while Nixon attended Duke University: Nixon was worried about his grades, so he and a classmate broke into a professor’s office to look at the grade sheets. But he did well in law school, graduating third in his class.

  After graduation, Nixon returned to California to practice law at a small law firm in Whittier. He met the love of his life in 1937 and fell in love with Thelma (Pat) Catherine Ryan, a typing and shorthand teacher, who was active in amateur theater. He went as far as auditioning for a part in a play so that he could be close to her. On their first date, he asked her to marry him. She refused. But Nixon persisted, and in 1940 they were married.

  Shortly after World War II broke out, Nixon joined the Navy. He spent all of the war years in the South Pacific. Nixon retired from the military with the rank of lieutenant commander in 1946.

  Pursuing communists in the House

  As a member of the House of Representatives, Nixon accomplished much. He was a member of the Herter Committee, which studied and supported the Marshall Plan, and he served on the House Education and Labor Committee, where he helped draw up the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 (see Chapter 17 for more information on the Marshall Plan and the Taft-Hartley Act).

  Nixon’s reputation as an anti-communist got him on the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was assigned to investigate and uncover communists and subversive organizations in the federal government and other areas of the United States, notably the film industry.

  Nixon made a name for himself by doggedly pursuing the Alger Hiss case, when even President Truman was tired of pursuing the matter. A State Department official who was accused of treason, Hiss was ultimately convicted of perjury in 1950 due to Nixon’s pursuit, and Nixon became a hero to the conservative right.

  Red-baiting his way to the Senate

  In 1950, Nixon ran for the Senate. His opponent was longtime liberal Democratic senator Helen Gahagan Douglas. Nixon used the same tactics he’d used in his first House, labeling Douglas as soft on communism. He called her “The Pink Lady,” despite having no basis for the accusation. The tactic worked, and Nixon won the election by almost 700,000 votes.

  After he won the seat, Nixon didn’t spend a lot of time in the Senate. In 1951, he toured the United States, giving speeches to Republican organizations. He became a household name among Republicans across the country.

  Delivering California and being chosen vice president

  Nixon saved the day for Eisenhower at the Republican presidential convention in 1952, when he delivered all of California’s votes to Eisenhower, making the difference for the general. The grateful Eisenhower picked Nixon as his vice-presidential candidate.

  After being selected as Eisenhower’s vice-presidential nominee, Nixon was accused of financial improprieties. The New York Post reported that Nixon had set up a fund to help out fellow Republicans and that many wealthy Californians had donated money to it. While this type of fundraising was perfectly legal, Eisenhower was running on a platform of political morality.

  Many in the Republican Party called for Nixon’s resignation as the vice- presidential nominee. In September 1952, Nixon went live on national television and gave his famous Checkers Speech. He disclosed all of his financial assets and told the U.S. public that he was innocent of any wrongdoing. He further revealed that he had received a puppy, by the name of Checkers, as a gift. He told the public that his children loved the dog and that he would rather resign as Eisenhower’s vice-presidential nominee than return the little puppy and hurt his children. To quote Nixon: “The kids, like all kids, loved the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say
about it, we are going to keep it.”

  When he left the studio, Nixon thought his career was over. But letters expressing support for Nixon poured in, and Nixon’s career was saved.

  Serving as vice president

  The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket easily won the presidential election of 1952. Richard Nixon became the youngest vice president in U.S. history — in 1953, he was only 40 years old. Unlike previous vice presidents, Nixon wasn’t a quiet bystander but an active participant in forming the administration’s policies. Eisenhower hated partisan politics, so he sent Nixon to defend his policies in front of Congress.

  Nixon traveled the world for Eisenhower, visiting more than 50 countries and becoming the goodwill ambassador for the Eisenhower administration. In 1959, Nixon traveled to Moscow and appeared in a televised debate with Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the merits of democracy and communism. This kitchen debate was later broadcast in both countries. Nixon became the first U.S. politician to address the Soviet public on live television.

  In 1960, Nixon was the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. He received the nomination on the first ballot and went into the 1960 election as the clear favorite.