Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. He gave a speech to Congress solemnly embracing his duties five days after the assassination, pledging to advance the domestic programs and initiatives of his predecessor and, in foreign affairs, to balance U.S. military strength with restraint. Although he is considered to have failed on the latter front, in view of the Vietnam War, he met with success on the former. In his commencement address at the University of Michigan, delivered six months after his rise to the presidency, Johnson put forward his domestic agenda—his vision of how to grapple with the underlying problems of economic deprivation and a fraying social fabric by creating ambitious antipoverty and public-good programs.