The Great Society And The Vietnam War

The Great Society and the Vietnam War

" Did the Vietnam War Kill the Great Society?"

The Great Society was the vision of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In Johnson's first year of office he obtained usage of one of the most extensive legislative branches in the Nation's history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapid growing struggle to restrain Communist control in Vietnam. President Johnson thought of a plan of programs to help the United States and improve on the foreign affairs that were in established before his presidency. The Great Society proposed under Johnson's initiative was a set of domestic programs. The two main goals of the Great Society social reform were to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Also the Great Society helped to settle the issues of major spending, education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation. Many believed the Great Society resembled the New Deal policy created by Franklin D. Roosevelt, but in actuality some of the Great Society proposals where adopted from John F. Kennedy's New Frontier policy. As the United States went into war with Vietnam in 1959 America braced for the worst. The policies created was expected to uphold regardless if America was at war or not, but many people where skeptical of the strengths of the policy. As the war progressed and the casualties arose, there was a national cry out for federal aid and the end of the war.

In my conclusion the Vietnam War did kill the Great Society. Because of the tremendous amount of money spent on the war, all of the programs created to improve our society were cut because of the debt that our nation was in after the war. That is why I believe that the Vietnam War killed the Great Society.

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