How Great was the Great Society? Lyndon B. Johnsons Great Society had several things in common with Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal, such as using the government to create jobs and other social programs, but was very different in many ways as well. The New Deal was in response to the Great Depression and was necessary to bring the country out of hard times, while the Great Society, while certainly inspired by the New Deal, was not economically necessary or impactful as the New Deal. The Great Society was Johnsons attempt to improve American society because of his own personal feelings and ambitions. Johnson had many objectives in implementing the Great Society. He believed that a highly successful and industrialized America should be able to offer a better quality of life to all of its citizens, regardless of race, class, and other factors that resulted in prejudice. He wanted to eradicate that discrimination, declaring a war on poverty. He recognized that in the South, racism was an extremely prevalent problem. Johnson wanted all Americans to have the opportunity to succeed without the major obstacles that stood in the way. In a way, Johnson also recognized the increasingly materialistic nature of American society and hoped that people would move away from extreme consumerism and bring back some focus to the basic freedoms that many were denied. He hoped to bring attention to important civil rights and social issues to make society better overall. He believed that there was no better time for America to make a move on improving social issues. In his own words, he believed that we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.1

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Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64. Volume I, entry 357, pp. 704707. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1965.

According to a report done by the Infant & Toddler Coordination Association, the scope of the Great Society was aid to education, attack on diseaseurban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regionscontrol and prevention of crime...2 The Great Society was an extension of the Bill of Rights as well as a continuation of the New Deals social policies. Ultimately, Johnsons Great Society was unsuccessful and completely overshadowed by the horrors of the Vietnam War. Yet Johnson was still able to make some strong impacts that still exist today, such as welfare programs like Medicaid and Medicare. He also made significant strides in society equality and racial issues by signing into law the Civil Rights Act. Without that, many of the important strides to reduce racism may never have been achieved. The long-term impacts of Johnsons Great Society do not just include the importance of the Civil Rights emphasis. Through his dozens and dozens of programs, he helped set up certain job training like Roosevelt through the Economic Opportunity Act3; he helped preserve millions of wilderness and forestland; he sent valuable funds to public schools, attacking poverty at its roots in an attempt to educate all of Americas children; he reformed discriminative immigration laws; and he helped fund public arts galleries. Through many of these Great Society programs, regulating pollution and providing health care were key in expanding the average lifespan and quality of life for American citizens. Johnsons Great Society was a failure in many ways because of the Vietnam War, which took public attention away from the Great Societys objectives and drained the funds needed for Great Society programs. As the War grew more unpopular, opponents of the social welfare

ITCA. ITCA Medicaid Resource and Technical Assistance Paper. August 2005. http://www.ideainfanttoddler.org/pdf/AppA.pdf 3 Ushistory.org. Lyndon Johnsons Great Society. US History Online Textbook. http://www.ushistory.org/us.56e.asp. Sunday, December 11, 2011.

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programs aided under Great Society reform became more numerous and vocal. Because of reasons beyond Johnsons control, funds for his programs were not equally dispersed or never reached their intended target. Despite all these ultimate failures, Johnsons Great Society was still successful in many ways, and certainly did more for the Civil Rights of Americans than any president since, arguably, Abraham Lincoln. By providing health care and education, additionally, Johnson also brought a large percentage of Americans above the poverty line. If it were not for Vietnam and the many mistakes made there, the Great Society may have had an even larger impact on American society and brought it a step closer to the greatness envisioned by Johnson.