LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Lyndon B. Johnson: Vietnam War
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Johnson's influence thereafter remained strong enough to dictate the nomination of Vice-President Humphrey, who had supported the war, as the Democratic presidential candidate for the 1968 election. Although Johnson stopped all bombing of the North on November 1, he failed to make real concessions at the peace table, and the war dragged on. Humphrey lost in a close race with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon.
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The war had significantly changed the public's judgment of Johnson. Once seen as a political magician with a sure mastery of people and circumstances, he now seemed battered by events out of his control and beyond his ken. His vaunted capacity for wearing out his young aides was being enlarged by a fury regarding any form of dissent within the ranks. And the people saw a president who wearily wrestled with the politics of the nation's problems rather than with the problems themselves. His ill-temperedness, sometimes combined with disingenuousness, made his public persona unattractive to many Americans. It stood in the way of bringing Johnson the public sympathy a beleaguered president traditionally receives, as Kennedy had received it after the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs.
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Johnson's triumph in 1964 gave him a mandate for the Great Society, as he called his domestic program. Congress responded by passing the Medicare program, which provided health services to the elderly, approving federal aid to elementary and secondary education, supplementing the War on Poverty, and creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It ... passed another important civil rights law--the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Johnson quickly moved up the ladder in the Senate. He became the Democratic party whip in 1951, chaired the Preparedness Committee, which investigated government contracts during the Korean War, was elected minority leader in 1953, and ran the Senate as majority leader after the 1954 election returned it to Democratic control. He instituted the Johnson Rule, giving every Democratic senator, no matter how junior, at least one good committee assignment.
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As for Gore's move to offset his high use of energy by investing in renewable energy sources, Johnson wasn't convinced. "In general, I applaud his efforts to reduce energy consumption, but if he is going to be a spokesman for global warming, he has to be willing to make the same sacrifices."
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Organize groups in the class, each simulating principal advisers to Johnson when he took office late in 1963. Have each group read material that discusses the reasons for the expanded U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War from 1964 on. Have each group write a letter to President Johnson outlining its advice about what he should do and stating the reasons that its point of view is the correct one. Each group can then give a brief summary of its view to the rest of the class and answer questions. This activity can ... lead to either a class debate on the U.S. involvement in Vietnam or further group work on developing a policy that reflects a class consensus.
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