November 3

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
D.C. residents cast first presidential votes, 1964
American Revolution
Washington learns of Conway cabal, 1777
Automotive
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel opens to traffic, 1930
Civil War
Confederate General Jubal Early is born, 1816
Cold War
Johnson defeats Goldwater for presidency, 1964
Crime
A serial killer abducts and rapes his teenage victim, 1984
Disaster
Hotel fire ends in disaster in South Korea, 1974
General Interest
Panama declares independence, 1903
The Soviet space dog, 1957
Communists and Klansmen clash in Greensboro, 1979
Iran arms sales revealed, 1986
Hollywood
Carrie creeps out audiences, 1976
Literary
Thackeray completes Barry Lyndon, 1844
Music
The Crystals earn a #1 hit with "He's A Rebel"—or do they?, 1962
Old West
Black Bart makes his last stagecoach robbery, 1883
Presidential
Newspaper mistakenly declares Dewey president, 1948
Sports
The Body is elected governor of Minnesota, 1998
Vietnam War
Battle of Dak To begins, 1967
Nixon calls on the "silent majority", 1969
World War I
Central Powers face rebellion on the home front, 1918
World War II
The order is given: Bomb Pearl Harbor, 1941

Cold War

Nov 3, 1964:

Johnson defeats Goldwater for presidency

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In one of the most crushing victories in the history of U.S. presidential elections, incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr. With over 60 percent of the popular vote, Johnson turned back the conservative senator from Arizona to secure his first full term in office after succeeding to the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963.

During the 1964 campaign, Goldwater was decidedly critical of Johnson's liberal domestic agenda, railing against welfare programs and defending his own decision to vote against the Civil Rights Act passed by Congress earlier that year. However, some of the most dramatic differences between the two candidates appeared over the issue of Cold War foreign policy. The Republican angrily charged Johnson and the Democratic Party with having given in to communist aggression, pointedly referring to the existence of Castro's communist Cuba 90 miles off America's shore. On more than one occasion, Goldwater seemed to suggest that he would not be above using nuclear weapons on both Cuba and North Vietnam to achieve U.S. objectives. Johnson's advisers, of course, did all they could to portray Goldwater as a saber-rattling warmonger, who would bring the world to nuclear annihilation if elected. The President countered his opponent's challenges by portraying himself as a model of statesman-like restraint. Concerning Vietnam, he mollified domestic concerns about a possible war by claiming that he would not send "American boys nine or ten thousand miles from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

Johnson's statement satisfied many Americans, but any commitment he may have had about avoiding direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict was already eroding by the time of the 1964 election. Four months after his victory, Johnson committed U.S. combat troops to Vietnam.

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This Week in History, Nov 3 - Nov 9

Nov 03, 1964
Johnson defeats Goldwater for presidency
Nov 04, 1956
Soviets crush Hungarian revolt
Nov 05, 1968
Richard Nixon elected president
Nov 06, 1988
Renowned Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov visits United States
Nov 07, 1957
Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters
Nov 08, 1960
John F. Kennedy elected president
Nov 09, 1989
East Germany opens the Berlin Wall

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