How does one make up their mind whether President Johnson’s War on Poverty was a success or failure? That depends on your own personal beliefs and or whom you listen to. One person may say it is the words and how they're spoken that make it a war. While another person says just look at what happened and the outcome.
One author said that this was Johnson’s way of carrying on President Kennedy’s legacy and not be totally identified with him. Poverty on this scale in America was a new issue, and he needed a way to get rapid support from the public who knew very little about it. With access to the media, he had a way of shaping and defining the way poverty would be looked at. He chooses the language of war