State of the Union Addresses by United States Presidents (1964 - 1969)

These five addresses capture a nation in transformation. Lyndon B. Johnson, thrust into presidency after Kennedy's assassination, used the State of the Union platform to declare war on poverty, dismantle segregation, and extend American power into Vietnam. The speeches reveal Johnson's remarkable legislative victories: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, federal education funding. They also document his political unraveling as Vietnam consumed his presidency and public support crumbled. Here is Johnson at his most optimistic, promising a Great Society, and here is Johnson by 1969, acknowledging that we have been unable to find the right formula for peace. For anyone seeking to understand how America became modern, these are primary sources of the first order. Students of rhetoric will find masterful political storytelling. Historians will find the raw material of a pivotal decade.