Johnson and Goldwater's Secret Agreement.

Two events of the summer of 1964 were major factors in shaping American history for the rest of the decade and beyond: on 2 July President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and on 5 August Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which later led to escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War. Yet neither race nor the war was an issue in the 1964 election campaign. On 24 July the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Barry Goldwater, and President Johnson met secretly and agreed not to use the war or civil rights as major campaign issues. With a relatively small number of American troops in Southeast Asia, the American public was far more focused on the Cold War with the Soviet Union than on events in Vietnam. Yet, as Goldwater pointed out, opposition to American involvement there was...