Who coined the phrase "War on Poverty?"

JohnnyCougar

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:20 PM
Original message

Who coined the phrase "War on Poverty?"

Was it Johnson?

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Sinistrous

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:23 PM
Response to Original message

1. Lyndon Johnson certainly used the term.

Can't say for sure that he was the first.

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carnie_sf

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:25 PM
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2. I'm pretty sure LBJ was the first to use it

he came up with that phrase as part of his great society initiative, although Billy Preston also used "war on poverty" to pretty good effect.

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Wilms

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:29 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. Yea. I think LBJ

Reagan's was the "War on the Poor". Isn't that right?

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RobertKennedyjr

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:27 PM
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3. That would be Johnson.

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Wilms

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:30 PM
Response to Reply #3

5. Gee. Is that really you?

Or are you just a fan?

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Art_from_Ark

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:48 PM
Response to Reply #3

6. Uh, that would be JFK

"Dwight Macdonald praised the book for 40 pages in the New Yorker. After that Harrington was bombarded with requests for articles, speeches and media interviews. The book became required reading among social scientists, government officials, student activists, and intellectuals. Economic adviser Walter Heller gave a copy to President Kennedy, who may have read it before ordering a federal war on poverty three days before his death."

Johnson ran with the ball and got the credit.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1969

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Wilms

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Sun Mar-13-05 04:45 AM
Response to Reply #6

8. Thanks for that. DU is so cool. n/t

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ConcernedCanuk

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Sat Mar-12-05 09:58 PM
Response to Original message

7. Bush's Budget Transforms the War on Poverty Into a War on the Poor

.
.
.

A digression from the posted Q., but I thought it worthy of note . .

"President Bush refers to himself as a wartime president, and he has shown resolve not to back down on the battlefield. But the budget he released this week waves a flag of surrender in another war, the 40-year "war on poverty."

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0209-26.htm

40 years - that would be around '65

Modern History Sourcebook:
President Lyndon B. Johnson:
The War on Poverty, March 1964

Proposal for A Nationwide War On The Sources of Poverty'

Lyndon B. Johnson's Special Message to Congress, March 16, 1964

"Rather it is a commitment. It is a total commitment by this President, and this Congress, and this nation, to pursue victory over the most ancient of mankind's enemies."
____________________________________________________________

ahhh

how times have changed . . .

(sigh)

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