History Book: Lyndon B. Johnson’s first State of the Union address

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, January 8th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book.

SPEAKER JOHN MCCORMACK: Members of the Congress. I have the great pleasure of presenting to you the President of the United States. [APPLAUSE]

60 years ago the president is Lyndon Baines Johnson. He’s appearing before a joint session of Congress in his first State of the Union speech as president, following the shock of the assassination of President Kennedy.

During his address Johnson outlines his administration’s priorities—including the so-called war on poverty. WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler presents a few excerpts of this notable speech.

PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President…

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: As a former speech teacher, I appreciate President Johnson’s opening line from January 8th, 1964.

JOHNSON: I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long.

Compared to many modern State of the Union addresses, it is definitely shorter—coming in under 45 minutes. President Johnson doesn’t spend much time on formalities, but jumps right in with his hopes for the Congress.

JOHNSON: Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time…

There’s a lot riding on this speech. While it’s only been seven weeks since the assassination of John F Kennedy, the short season of political solidarity is already waning. Plus he faces an election in 10 months.

JOHNSON: If we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly.

As president, Johnson has his work cut out for him as he must convince Congress to follow through on measures JFK began.

JOHNSON: Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy – not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right. In his memory today, I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party, and to always debate principles; never debate personalities.

Johnson cleverly—yet tastefully—evokes the memory of Kennedy, masterfully encouraging Congress to embrace the former President’s civil rights bill and tax cuts. For his part, he promises to cut spending.

JOHNSON: For my part, I pledge a progressive administration which is efficient, and honest and frugal. The budget to be submitted to the Congress shortly is in full accord with this pledge.

Besides committing to cut the ten billion dollar deficit in half, President Johnson promotes reducing the federal workforce. He also calls for responsible arms control, and working more closely with international allies. But the speech is most remembered today for Johnson’s surprising declaration of war…

JOHNSON: This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America…Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. Our joint Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists – in city slums and small towns, in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps…among the young as well as the aged, in the boomtowns and in the depressed areas. Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it. No single piece of legislation, however, is going to suffice.

In the years following this speech, the Johnson administration will clarify this vision—calling it “the great society”…which some believe ends up making the problem worse…not better. However, for now, Johnson doesn’t offer many specifics. But as everyone is against poverty, it’s an easy sell. It’s a common public speaking technique. Give the audience something to agree with, then try to build on that good will as the speaker moves to something more controversial.

President Johnson turns his attention to civil rights.

JOHNSON: Today, Americans of all races stand side by side in Berlin and in Viet Nam. They died side by side in Korea. Surely they can work and eat and travel side by side in their own country.

Johnson delivered his first speech before a joint session of Congress shortly after the death of President Kennedy. In that speech his pledge to fight for civil rights was warmly received…but this time, it seems little more than polite applause. Undaunted, Johnson once again raises the specter of JFK before making his final appeal.

JOHNSON: John Kennedy was a victim of hate, but he was also a great builder of faith – faith in our fellow Americans, whatever their creed or their color or their station in life; faith in the future of man, whatever his divisions and differences. So I ask you now in the Congress and in the country to join with me in expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation, a nation that is free from want and a world that is free from hate – a world of peace and justice, and freedom and abundance, for our time and for all time to come.

The next day, supporters and critics alike praise President Johnson’s speech in the papers. It reassures a troubled nation that Johnson will stay the course. And Congress seems convinced as well…as they work with the president to pass both the Revenue Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Later that year, Johnson goes on to easily win the election with 61 percent of the vote and the widest popular margin in American history.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book, I’m Paul Butler.

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