increasingly unpopular and increasingly expensive Vietnam War. His fracture in relations with Martin Luther King, Jr. stemmed from KingÆs antiwar rhetoric and his belief that the Vietnam War was draining valuable resources needed to implement programs for African Americans. However, together the two men worked tirelessly with great courage and sacrifice to end Apartheid in American society, fulfilling a promise made by Abraham Lincoln a century before them. When asked what his proudest moment in office had been, Kotz (431) explains President Johnson stated without hesitation, ôI expect the thing that has pleased me as much as any other thing that has come to me is the response that the Congress made to my Voting Rights Act.ö
Despite JohnsonÆs pleasure in helping push for racial equality in American society and law, the struggle and its victories did not come easily. Though initiated by President Kennedy, civil rights reforms were something Kennedy hesitated in pushing through a staunchly opposed Southern-controlled Congress. Johnson, in contrast, did everything from using his personal power of persuasion to bribing Senators and Representatives with promises of aid and other perks for their states to win the votes necessary to pass Civil Rights legislat
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