Declaring War on Poverty
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
SEASON TWO PREMIERE – January 8, 1964. In his State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson unveils his War on Poverty, an effort to tackle subpar living conditions and create jobs across the United States. Johnson discovers that declaring war—even one on an idea—always comes with great costs. Why did LBJ pick poverty as one of his major initiatives? And what is the legacy of the war he started?
This episode features Doris Kearns Goodwin (presidential historian and executive producer of The HISTORY Channel’s forthcoming documentary series, Lincoln and Roosevelt) and Guian McKee (associate professor in Presidential Studies at UVA’s Miller Center).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | History this week January 8th 1964. I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:10.0 | Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States. |
| 0:19.0 | A joint session of Congress. The chamber is full of men in dark suits. They all rise to applaud President |
| 0:27.0 | Lyndon Baines Johnson as he makes his way through the crowd. |
| 0:33.0 | Johnson is here to give his state of the Union address. |
| 0:37.0 | I want to begin to speak. He sounds subdued, even a little mournful. |
| 0:43.0 | My fellow Americans, I will be brief for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long. |
| 0:53.0 | Johnson has at this point been President for less than 50 days. |
| 0:58.0 | John F. Kennedy was assassinated just weeks ago on November 22nd in Dallas, Texas. |
| 1:04.0 | Vice President Johnson was riding in a car behind Kennedy when the shots were fired. |
| 1:08.0 | He was sworn in hours later on Air Force One. |
| 1:12.0 | And today he addresses a still grieving nation. |
| 1:17.0 | He invokes Kennedy's name early on. |
| 1:20.0 | Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. |
| 1:27.0 | Not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right. |
| 1:40.0 | But then, over the course of the next 30 odd minutes, he says Kennedy's name only twice more. |
| 1:47.0 | Johnson is at this point immensely popular in the country. |
| 1:51.0 | His approval rating is over 75%. |
| 1:54.0 | He's stepped up to lead in a time of crisis. |
| 1:58.0 | And he's here to introduce his own agenda to the world, not simply to carry on Kennedy's legacy. |
| 2:05.0 | Johnson wants to define his own presidency. |
| 2:08.0 | And about 10 minutes into his speech, he comes out with a declaration of war. |
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