296 CHAPTER 10|THE PRESIDENCY
Wilson further increased the government’s role in managing the economy through
his support of the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Reserve Act, the fi rst federal
income tax, and legislation banning child labor.^7
As these examples illustrate, presidential power has grown over time as the
president and members of the executive branch have obtained new regulatory pow-
ers over corporations and individual Americans, and as presidents have responded
to shifts in public opinion by proposing new policies. Essentially, because the pres-
ident is the head of the bureaucracy, as the number of agencies and bureaucrats
grows, so does presidential power.
At the same time, Wilson’s foreign policy activities illustrate the limits of
presidential power. While he campaigned in the 1916 election on a promise to
keep America out of World War I, he ultimately ordered American troops to fi ght
on the side of the Allies. After the war, Wilson off ered a peace plan that proposed
(1) reshaping the borders of European countries in order to prevent future con-
fl icts; (2) creating an international organization, the League of Nations, to prevent
future confl icts; and (3) taking other measures to encourage free trade and democ-
racy.^8 However, America’s allies rejected most of Wilson’s proposals, and the Sen-
ate refused to allow American participation in the League of Nations.The Great Depression through the Present
Presidential actions defi ned the government’s response to the Great Depression,
a worldwide economic collapse in the late 1920s and 1930s marked by high unem-
ployment, huge stock market declines, and bank failures. Republican president
Herbert Hoover favored only modest government actions in response, arguing that
more substantial eff orts would be of little use.^9 After Hoover lost the 1932 election,
Democrat Franklin Roosevelt and his staff began reshaping American government.
Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms created numerous federal agencies that helped indi-
vidual Americans and imposed many new corporate regulations.^10 This expansion
continued under Roosevelt’s successors. Even Republican Dwight Eisenhower,
whose party had initially opposed many New Deal reforms, presided over the cre-
ation of new agencies and the building of the interstate highway system.^11
Presidents were instrumental in the civil rights reforms and expansion of the
federal government in the 1960s. Democrat John Kennedy established the Peace
Corps and began bargaining with members of Congress over legislation that would
guarantee voting rights and civil rights for African Americans. Democrat Lyn-
don Johnson, who assumed the presidency after Kennedy’s assassination, cam-
paigned for re-election on his proposals for the Great Society and a War on Poverty.
Johnson’s administration created a wide range of domestic programs, such as the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal
funding for schools; his administration also fi nished the job of enacting voting
rights and civil rights legislation. Again, this expansion of the federal government
through legislation added to presidential power.
Both Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, directed America’s involve-
ment in the Vietnam War, with the goal of forcing the North Vietnamese to abandon
their plans to unify North and South Vietnam. Here again, presidential eff orts did
not meet with success: despite enormous deployments of American forces and more
than 58,000 American soldiers killed, Nixon eventually signed an agreement that
allowed American troops to leave but did not end the confl ict, which concluded only
after a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.