Documenting United States History

TopIC II | the shattering Consensus 459

document 20.7 lyndon B. Johnson campaign Poster

1964

President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973) inherited the Vietnam War from the John

F. Kennedy administration but escalated the conflict and raised the number of Ameri-

can troops in South Vietnam to over 500,000. Domestic protests, both against the war

and against racial injustice, undermined his series of social reforms, which collectively are

known as the Great Society.

The Shattering consensus

toPic ii

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istorical society.

pr ACTICINg historical Thinking

Identify: Describe the imagery in this poster.

Analyze: What broader message do the images communicate?

Evaluate: All four of the presidents who are depicted in this poster were involved

in international conflicts. What accounted for the domestic reaction to Johnson’s

role in the Vietnam conflict? To what extent was Johnson’s success domestically

compromised by his failed foreign policy?

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