GOLDWATER VOWS GRADUAL CHANGE IF HE IS ELECTED | New York Times - 4 Sept 1964 |

Formally Opens Campaign--

• Promises to Honor Welfare Obligations;
• An End to Draft Urged;
• In Arizona Speech Pledges to Halt Growth of Federal Power

Fear of Communist Takeover: Nikita Khrushchev Ad - Barry Goldwater 1964 Presidential Campaign Commercial

President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office following John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, enhanced his image as a tough legislator by winning a hard-fought battle to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guaranteed African-Americans access to all public facilities, and banned discrimination by race, religion, or sex. The Vietnam War was escalating, but had yet to become a real liability for Johnson.

The margin of Johnson's landslide victory in 1964 was partly a repudiation of Barry Goldwater's extreme right-wing views. Goldwater, an Arizona senator and author of the best-selling book The Conscience of a Conservative, won the Republican nomination after a bitter primary campaign against moderate New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the infamous statement, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The assertion, meant as a defense of conservatism, merged in the public consciousness with statements in which Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in North Vietnam.

Which Barry Goldwater? (LBJ 1964 - Presidential campaign commercial)

The impressive picking daisies ad ...

Lest we unforget the Goldwater girl ...

When Hillary Clinton Was A Republican | NBC News |

Nixing Nukes in Vietnam - Year 1966 |

As the Vietnam War escalated in spring 1966, a high-ranking Pentagon official with access to President Lyndon Johnson was heard by scientist Freeman Dyson to say, "It might be a good idea to toss in a nuke from time to time, just to keep the other side guessing."

Dyson was a member of the "JASONs"-a group of some 40 scientists who had met each summer since 1959 to consider defense-related problems for the Pentagon. Four of their number-Dyson of Princeton, Robert Gomer and S. Courtenay Wright of the University of Chicago, and Steven Weinberg, then on leave from Berkeley at Harvard-were so appalled by the remark that they decided to respond with a study that would systematically explore the utility of tactical nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War.

The study looked at the effects of using tactical nuclear weapons against a variety of targets, as well as the likely political effects of a nuclear campaign. Many of the study's conclusions seem relevant today, given the ongoing conflict in Iraq and other possible conflicts the United States could face and the Bush administration's newly stated policies of pre-emption and willingness to use nuclear weapons against "rogue states."

McGovern, Goldwater on Divisive Politics and '88 Election

On Oct. 13, 1988, only weeks before the presidential election of George H.W. Bush over Michael Dukakis, former Sens. George McGovern and Barry Goldwater dropped by the MacNeil/Lehrer Report to discuss the state of the race, the divisive politics of their parties and the legacy of conservatism and liberalism.

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President Jimmy Carter on His Greatest Concerns for America

Excerpt: President Jimmy Carter describes his greatest concerns for America, including "the deterioration and quality of our government processes."

On Tuesday, April 8, 2014, President Jimmy Carter spoke in-conversation with Mark K. Updegrove. The program was one of the keynote events during the LBJ Presidential Library's Civil Rights Summit, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.