Although through his Great Society vision Lyndon Johnson would convince Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, sign into law the Wilderness Act and start Medicare and Medicaid, his popularity with liberal Democrats would take a drastic fall. It was Johnson who began America's direct involvement in the ground war in Vietnam. By 1968 there were 550,000 American soldiers inside Vietnam being killed at the rate of over 1000 a month.

College students and others protested, burned draft cards, and chanted, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"