1969 State of the Union Address

38°53′23″N 77°00′32″W / 38.88972°N 77.00889°W / 38.88972; -77.00889TypeState of the Union AddressParticipantsLyndon B. Johnson
Hubert Humphrey
John W. McCormackPrevious1968 State of the Union AddressNext1970 State of the Union Address

The 1969 State of the Union Address was given by Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, on Tuesday, January 14, 1969, to the 91st United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.^[2] It was Johnson's sixth and final State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker John W. McCormack, accompanied by Vice President Hubert Humphrey, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

Johnson's speech functioned effectively as a farewell address, focusing on the major accomplishments of his administration. Like Johnson's previous State of the Union Addresses, this address included discussion of Johnson's Great Society initiatives and the Vietnam War.^[2] Johnson said that his greatest regret as president was his inability to pass a law creating a federal gun registry:

Frankly, as I leave the Office of the Presidency, one of my greatest disappointments is our failure to secure passage of a licensing and registration act for firearms. I think if we had passed that act, it would have reduced the incidence of crime. I believe that the Congress should adopt such a law, and I hope that it will at a not too distant date.^[2]

At the end of his speech, Johnson thanked many individuals for their counsel and assistance during his time in office. These included former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, House Speaker John W. McCormack, House Majority Leader Carl Albert, Senator Mike Mansfield, President pro tempore Richard Brevard Russell, and Republican congressional leaders Senator Everett Dirksen and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford.^[2] Johnson then urged that no one should increase burdens on President-elect Richard Nixon for the sake of partisanship, and then he closed his speech with these words:

Now, it is time to leave. I hope it may be said, a hundred years from now, that by working together we helped to make our country more just, more just for all of its people, as well as to insure and guarantee the blessings of liberty for all of our posterity. That is what I hope. But I believe that at least it will be said that we tried.^[2]

See also

• Great Society
• War on poverty
• Vietnam War

References

External links

Presidency
(timeline)

Foreign policy	Johnson Doctrine Dominican Republic occupation Vietnam War Gulf of Tonkin Resolution "Credibility gap" Glassboro Summit Outer Space Treaty Operation CHAOS
Domestic policy	Administrative Conference of the United States (1964) Cannabis policy Civil Rights Act of 1964 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Executive Order 11246 (1965) Flood Control Act of 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 Voting Rights Act of 1965 Child Nutrition Act 1966; School Breakfast Program Uniform Time Act (1966) White House Conference on Civil Rights (1966) Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 Executive Order 11375 (1967) Civil Rights Act of 1968 Gun Control Act of 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
Economic policy	Revenue Act of 1964 Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 Urban Mass Transportation Administration Coinage Act of 1965 Food and Agriculture Act of 1965 High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1965) Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (1966) Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (1966) Tax Adjustment Act of 1966 Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967 U.S. Department of Transportation (1967) Wholesome Meat Act (1967) Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 Consumer Credit Protection Act of 1968 Truth in Lending Act Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 Ginnie Mae National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 National Flood Insurance Program Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1968 Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 Williams Act (1968)
Environmental policy	Wilderness Act (1964) Land and Water Conservation Fund (1965) Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965 Rivers and Harbors Act of 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 Clean Waters Restoration Act (1966) National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 Air Quality Act of 1967 National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (1968)
Great Society/ War on Poverty	Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Community Action Agencies Head Start Job Corps Office of Economic Opportunity Food Stamp Act of 1964 Food Stamp Program AmeriCorps VISTA (1965) Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) Higher Education Act of 1965 FAFSA Federal Family Education Loan Program Federal Work-Study Program Pell Grant Stafford Loan Student loans in the United States Teacher Corps TRIO Upward Bound National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities 1965; National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Humanities Older Americans Act (1965) Administration on Aging Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 Economic Development Administration Social Security Amendments of 1965 Medicare Medicaid Model Cities Program (1966) National Historic Preservation Act 1966; National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmark State Historic Preservation Office Bilingual Education Act (1967) Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 Corporation for Public Broadcasting PBS NPR

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