"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." Just hours later, in his first official act, he issued an Executive Order to provide more food aid for needy families in response to the poverty he witnessed as he campaigned across the country. So, too, at the end of his Presidency, the poor were again on his mind and at the forefront of many discussions with his advisors as they prepared new initiatives that under President Johnson's leadership would become known as the War on Poverty.