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Lyndon B. Johnson

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Lyndon Baines Johnson
   Lyndon B. Johnson
     __________________________________________________________________

   36th President of the United States
   In office
   November 22, 1963 –  January 20, 1969
   Vice President(s)   None (1963-1965),
   Hubert Humphrey (1965-1969)
   Preceded by John F. Kennedy
   Succeeded by Richard Nixon
     __________________________________________________________________

   37th Vice President of the United States
   In office
   January 20, 1961 –  November 22, 1963
   President John F. Kennedy
   Preceded by Richard Nixon
   Succeeded by Hubert Humphrey
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born August 27, 1908
   Stonewall, Texas
   Died January 22, 1973
   The Texas 'White House', LBJ Ranch, Stonewall, Texas
   Political party Democratic
   Spouse Lady Bird Johnson
   Profession Teacher, career politician
   Religion Disciple of Christ
   Signature

   Lyndon Baines Johnson ( August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often
   referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States
   (1963–1969). After serving a long career in the U.S. Congress, Johnson
   became the 37th Vice President; in 1963, he succeeded to the presidency
   following President John F. Kennedy's assassination. He was a major
   leader of the Democratic Party and as President was responsible for
   designing his Great Society, comprising liberal legislation including
   civil rights laws, Medicare (health care for the elderly), Medicaid
   (health care for the poor), aid to education, and a major " War on
   Poverty". Simultaneously he escalated the Vietnam War, from 16,000
   American soldiers in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968, of whom over 1000
   were killed every month.

   He was elected President in his own right in a landslide in 1964, but
   his popularity steadily declined after 1966 and his reelection bid in
   1968 collapsed as a result of turmoil in his party. He withdrew from
   the race to concentrate on peacemaking. Johnson was renowned for his
   domineering personality and arm twisting of powerful politicians. His
   long-term legacy is hard to judge, as advances he made in civil rights
   and his " Great Society" are claimed by some to be offset by the
   Vietnam War.

Early years

   Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas, on August 27, 1908, in a small
   farmhouse in a poor area on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel
   Ealy Johnson and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two boys: LBJ and
   his brother, Sam Houston, and sisters Rebekah (1910-1978), Josefa
   (1912-1961), and Lucia (1916-1997). The nearby small town of Johnson
   City, Texas was named after LBJ's grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson,
   whose forebears had moved west from Georgia. In school, Johnson was an
   awkward, talkative youth with a tendency to lie and was elected
   president of his eleventh-grade class. He graduated from Johnson City
   High School in 1924.

   In 1926, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College
   (now Texas State University-San Marcos). He worked his way through
   school, participated in debate and campus politics, edited the school
   newspaper, and graduated in 1931. The college years refined his
   remarkable skills of persuasion. One year Johnson taught mostly Mexican
   children at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. When he returned to
   San Marcos in 1965, after having signed the Higher Education Act,
   Johnson looked back:

          "I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in
          that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet
          the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed
          to practically every one of those children because they were too
          poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this
          Nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained
          closed to any American."

Political career

   After graduation Johnson briefly taught public speaking at Genesee
   Community College and debate in a Houston high school, then entered
   politics. Johnson's father had served five terms in the Texas
   legislature and was a close friend to one of Texas's rising political
   figures, Congressman Sam Rayburn. In 1931, Johnson campaigned for Texas
   state Senator Welly Hopkins in his run for Congress. Hopkins
   recommended him to Congressman Richard M. Kleberg, who appointed
   Johnson as Kleberg's legislative secretary. LBJ was elected speaker of
   the "Little Congress," a group of Congressional aides, where he
   cultivated Congressmen, newspapermen and lobbyists. Johnson's friends
   soon included aides to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as
   fellow Texans such as Vice President John Nance Garner. He became a
   surrogate son to Sam Rayburn.
   FDR, Governor Allred of Texas, & LBJ. In later campaigns, Johnson
   edited out the picture of Governor Allred to assist his campaign
   Enlarge
   FDR, Governor Allred of Texas, & LBJ. In later campaigns, Johnson
   edited out the picture of Governor Allred to assist his campaign

   Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, of Karnack, Texas on November 17,
   1934. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and Luci Baines
   Johnson, born in 1947. Johnson enjoyed giving people and animals his
   own initials; his daughters' given names are examples, as was his dog
   Little Beagle Johnson. (His wife was already nicknamed "Lady Bird".)

   In 1935, Johnson was appointed head of the Texas National Youth
   Administration, which enabled him to use the government to create
   educational and job opportunities for young people. He resigned two
   years later to run for Congress. Johnson was a notoriously tough boss
   throughout his career, often demanding long workdays and work on
   weekends; he worked as hard as any of them.

Texas Congress

   In 1937, Johnson ran for Congress in a special election for the 10th
   Congressional District of Texas to represent Austin, Texas and the
   surrounding Hill Country. He ran on a New Deal platform and was
   effectively aided by his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

   President Roosevelt found Johnson to be a welcome ally and conduit for
   information, particularly with regards to issues concerning internal
   politics in Texas ( Operation Texas) and the machinations of Vice
   President Garner and House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Johnson was immediately
   appointed to the Naval Affairs Committee. He worked for rural
   electrification and other improvements for his district. Johnson
   steered the projects towards contractors which he personally knew, such
   as the Brown Brothers, Herman and George, who would finance much of
   Johnson's future career. (The Brown & Root company would eventually be
   a subsidiary of Halliburton.) In 1941, he ran for the U.S. Senate in a
   special election against the sitting governor, radio personality W. Lee
   "Pappy" O'Daniel. Johnson was not expected to win against the popular
   governor, but he ran a strong race and was declared the winner in
   unofficial returns. He ultimately was defeated by controversial
   official returns in an election marked by massive fraud on the part of
   both campaigns.

War record

   After America entered the war in December 1941, Johnson, a commissioned
   officer in the Navy Reserves, asked Undersecretary of the Navy James
   Forrestal for a noncombatant assignment, and he was sent to inspect the
   shipyard facilities in Texas and on the West Coast. In the spring of
   1942, President Roosevelt needed his own reports on what conditions
   were like in the Southwest Pacific. He felt information that flowed up
   the military chain of command needed to be supplemented by a highly
   trusted political aide. From a suggestion by Forrestal, President
   Roosevelt assigned Johnson to a three-man survey team of the Southwest
   Pacific.

   Johnson reported to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. The three
   observers went to the base of the 22nd Bomb Group, which was assigned
   the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese air base at Lae on New
   Guinea. The military commanders felt that there was no need for outside
   observers—which underscored Roosevelt's point—but Johnson insisted. A
   colonel took Johnson's original seat on the one bomber; it was shot
   down and everyone died. Reports vary on what happened to the B-26
   Marauder Johnson was on. Some accounts say it was also attacked by
   Japanese fighter-planes but survived, while others claim it turned back
   before reaching the objective and never came under fire. Whichever it
   was, MacArthur awarded LBJ the Silver Star, the military's
   third-highest medal, for his plane ride. Johnson protested that he had
   done nothing to deserve a medal, but nevertheless did not return it and
   often wore the medal on his lapel in later years.

   Johnson reported back to Roosevelt, to the Navy leaders, and to
   Congress, that conditions were deplorable and unacceptable. He argued
   the theatre urgently needed a higher priority and a bigger share of war
   supplies. The warplanes sent there, for example, were "far inferior" to
   Japanese planes, and morale was bad. He told Forrestal that the Pacific
   Fleet had a "critical" need for 6,800 additional experienced men.
   Johnson prepared a twelve-point program to upgrade the effort in the
   region, stressing "greater cooperation and coordination within the
   various commands and between the different war theatres." Congress
   responded by making Johnson chairman of a high-powered subcommittee of
   the Naval Affairs committee. With a mission similar to that of the
   Truman Committee in the Senate, he probed into the peacetime "business
   as usual" inefficiencies that permeated the naval war and demanded
   admirals shape up and get the job done. However, Johnson went too far
   when he proposed a bill that would crack down on the draft exemptions
   of shipyard workers if they were too often absent. Organized labor
   blocked the bill and denounced Johnson. Johnson's mission thus had a
   significant impact in upgrading the South Pacific theatre and in
   helping along the entire naval war effort. Johnson’s biographer
   concludes, "The mission was a temporary exposure to danger calculated
   to satisfy Johnson's personal and political wishes, but it also
   represented a genuine effort on his part, however misplaced, to improve
   the lot of America's fighting men."

Senate years

1948 contested election

   In 1948, Johnson again ran for the Senate and won. This election was
   highly controversial: a three-way Democratic Party primary saw Johnson
   facing a well-known former governor, Coke Stevenson, and a third
   candidate. Johnson drew crowds to fairgrounds with his rented
   helicopter dubbed "The Flying Windmill". He raised money to flood the
   state with campaign circulars, and won over conservatives by voting for
   the Taft-Hartley act curbing unions and by criticizing unions on the
   stump. Stevenson came in first but lacked a majority, so a runoff was
   held. Johnson campaigned even harder, while Stevenson's efforts were
   poor. The runoff count took a week as the two candidates see-sawed for
   the lead. The state Democratic committee handled the count (not the
   state, because it was a party primary), and it finally announced
   Johnson won by 87 votes.

   The state Democratic convention upheld Johnson. Stevenson went to court
   but, with timely help from his friend Abe Fortas, Johnson prevailed.
   Johnson was elected Senator in November, and went to Washington tagged
   with the sobriquet "Landslide Lyndon".

Freshman Senator

   Once in the Senate, Johnson was known among his colleagues for his
   highly successful "courtships" of older senators, especially Senator
   Richard Russell, patrician leader of the Conservative coalition and
   arguably the most powerful man in the Senate. Johnson proceeded to gain
   Russell's favour in the same way as he had "courted" Speaker Sam
   Rayburn and gained his crucial support in the House.

   Johnson was appointed to the Armed Services Committee, and later in
   1950, he helped create the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee.
   Johnson became its chairman and conducted investigations of defense
   costs and efficiency. These investigations tended to dig out old
   forgotten investigations and demand actions that were already being
   taken by the Truman Administration, although it can be said that the
   committee's investigations caused the changes. However, Johnson's
   brilliant handling of the press, the efficiency at which his committee
   issued new reports, and the fact that he ensured every report was
   endorsed unanimously by the committee all brought him headlines and
   national attention.

Senate Democratic leader

   January 1953, he was chosen by his fellow Democrats to be the minority
   leader. Thus, he became the youngest man ever named to the post. One of
   his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in appointment
   to a committee, while retaining it in terms of chairmanships. The
   senate majority leader, Robert A. Taft of Ohio, died July 31, 1953. The
   Republicans elected William F. Knowland of California as new senate
   majority leader. In 1954, Johnson was re-elected to the Senate, and
   since the Democrats won the majority in the Senate, Johnson became
   majority leader. Bill Knowland was elected minority leader. LBJ's
   duties were to schedule legislation and help pass measures favored by
   the Democrats. He, Rayburn and President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked
   smoothly together in passing Eisenhower's domestic and foreign agenda.
   In 1959, Knowland retired from the Senate. Everett M. Dirksen of
   Illinois was elected minority leader. Historians Caro and Dallek
   consider Lyndon Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader in
   history. He was unusually proficient at gathering information. One
   biographer suggests he was "the greatest intelligence gatherer
   Washington has even known," discovering exactly where every Senator
   stood, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses, and
   what it took to win him over. Central to Johnson's control was "The
   Treatment", described by two journalists:

          The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came,
          enveloping its target, at the LBJ Ranch swimming pool, in one of
          LBJ's offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the
          Senate itself-- wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator
          within his reach.

          Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery,
          exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, the hint of threat. It was
          all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its
          velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction.
          Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated
          them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a
          scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and
          narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets
          poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the
          genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic
          experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless.

Vice Presidency

   Johnson's success in the Senate made him a possible Democratic
   presidential candidate. He was Texas' "favorite son" candidate at the
   party's national convention in 1956. In 1960, Johnson received 409
   votes on the first and only ballot at the Democratic convention which
   nominated John F. Kennedy.

   Tip O'Neill, then a representative from Kennedy's home state of
   Massachusetts, recalled that Johnson approached him at the convention
   and said, "Tip, I'd like to have you with me on the second ballot."
   O'Neill, understanding the influence of the Kennedy name, replied,
   "Senator, there's not going to be any second ballot."

   During the convention, Kennedy designated Johnson as his choice for
   vice president. Some later reports (such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)
   say that Kennedy offered the position to Johnson as a courtesy and did
   not expect him to accept. Others (such as W. Marvin Watson) say that
   the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win the 1960 election against
   Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. and needed Johnson on the
   ticket to help carry Southern states.

   While he ran for vice president with John F. Kennedy, Johnson also
   sought a third term in the U.S. Senate. His popularity was such that
   Texas law was changed to permit him to run for two offices at the same
   time. Johnson was reelected senator, with 1,306,605 votes (58 percent)
   to Republican John Tower's 927,653 (41.1 percent). Fellow Democrat
   William A. Blakley was appointed to take Johnson's place as Senator,
   but Blakley lost a special election in May 1961 to Tower.

   After the election, Johnson found himself powerless. Kennedy and his
   senior advisors rarely consulted the Texan and prevented him from
   assuming the vital role that Vice President Richard Nixon had played in
   energizing the state parties. Kennedy appointed him to nominal jobs
   such as head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment
   Opportunities, through which he worked with African Americans and other
   minorities. Though Kennedy probably intended this to remain a nominal
   position Taylor Branch in Pillar of Fire contends that Johnson served
   to force the Kennedy administration's actions for civil rights further
   and faster than Kennedy intended to go. Branch notes the irony of
   Johnson, who the Kennedy family hoped would appeal to conservative
   southern voters, being the advocate for civil rights. In particular he
   notes Johnson's Memorial Day 1963 speech at Gettysburg as being a
   catalyst that led to much more action than otherwise would have
   occurred.

   Johnson took on numerous minor diplomatic missions, which gave him
   limited insights into international issues. He was allowed to observe
   Cabinet and National Security meetings. Kennedy did give Johnson
   control over all presidential appointments involving Texas, and he was
   appointed chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science.
   When, in April 1961, the Soviets beat the U.S. with the first manned
   spaceflight Kennedy tasked Johnson with coming up with a 'scientific
   bonanza' that would prove world leadership. Johnson knew that Project
   Apollo and an enlarged NASA were feasible, so he steered the
   recommendation towards a program for landing an American on the moon.

Presidency 1963-1969

Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

   Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One by Federal Judge
   Sarah T. Hughes, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
   Alongside Johnson is Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of slain President John
   F. Kennedy.
   Enlarge
   Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One by Federal Judge
   Sarah T. Hughes, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
   Alongside Johnson is Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of slain President John
   F. Kennedy.

   Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One in Dallas at Love
   Field Airport after the assassination of President Kennedy on November
   22, 1963. He was sworn in by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a very
   close friend of his family, making him the first President sworn in by
   a woman.

   To investigate Kennedy's murder, Johnson created a special panel called
   the Warren Commission. This panel, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren,
   conducted hearings about the assassination and concluded that Oswald
   shot the President and did not conspire with anyone. Not everyone
   agreed with the Warren Commission, however, and numerous public and
   private investigations continued for decades after Johnson left
   office..

   A number of conspiracy theories exist which place Lyndon Johnson as a
   co-conspirator to the assassination. This is contributed from the fact
   that Johnson strongly disagreed with some of John F. Kennedy's
   policies.

1964 Presidential election

   On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign managers for the 1964
   presidential election broadcast the " Daisy ad." It portrayed a little
   girl picking petals from a daisy, counting up to ten. Then a baritone
   voice took over, counted down from ten to zero and a nuclear bomb
   exploded. The message was that Goldwater meant nuclear death. Although
   it was soon pulled off the air, the commercial helped escalate the
   rhetoric of American politics to levels not seen before. Johnson won by
   a sweeping landslide that defeated many conservative Republican
   congressmen, giving him a majority that could overcome the Conservative
   coalition.

   Johnson won the presidency in his own right with 61 percent of the vote
   and the widest popular margin in American history — more than 15
   million votes.

   However, 1964 was also the year that Johnson supported the conservative
   Democratic delegates from Mississippi and denied the Mississippi
   Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) seats at the 1964 Democratic National
   Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. To appease the MFDP, the
   convention offered an unsatisfactory compromise, and the MFDP rejected
   it. In the same year, Johnson lost the popular vote to Republican
   challenger Barry Goldwater in the Deep South states of Louisiana,
   Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, a region that had
   voted for Democrats since Reconstruction.

Civil Rights

   President Johnson signs the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.
   Enlarge
   President Johnson signs the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

   In response to the civil rights movement, Johnson overcame southern
   resistance and achieved passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
   effectively outlawed most forms of racial segregation. In 1965 he
   achieved passage of a second civil rights bill that outlawed
   discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern blacks to
   vote for the first time.

   In other actions on the civil rights front, Johnson nominated civil
   rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to the positions of Solicitor General
   and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first
   African-American to serve in either capacity. After the murder of civil
   rights worker Viola Liuzzo, Johnson went on television to announce the
   arrest of four Ku Klux Klansmen implicated in her death. He angrily
   denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots", and warned them to
   "return to a decent society before it's too late." He turned the themes
   of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, thereby mobilizing
   support from churches North and South. On June 4, 1965 at the Howard
   University commencement address, he said that both the government and
   the nation needed to help achieve goals: ...To shatter forever not only
   the barriers of law and public practice, but the walls which bound the
   condition of many by the colour of his skin. To dissolve, as best we
   can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder,
   divide the great democracy, and do wrong--great wrong--to the children
   of God...'

Great Society

   The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in
   January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban
   renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed
   regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of
   crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at
   times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's
   recommendations.

Federal aid to education

   Johnson had a lifelong commitment to the belief that education was the
   cure for both ignorance and poverty, and was an essential component of
   the American Dream, especially for minorities who endured poor
   facilities and tight-fisted budgets from local taxes. He made education
   a top priority of the Great Society, with an emphasis on helping poor
   children. After the 1964 landslide brought in many new liberal
   Congressmen, he had the votes for the “Elementary and Secondary
   Education Act” (ESEA) of 1965. For the first time large amounts of
   federal money went to public schools. In practice ESEA meant helping
   all public school districts, with more money going to districts that
   had large propositions of students from poor families (which included
   all the big cities.) However for the first time private schools (most
   of them Catholic schools in the inner cities) received services, such
   as library funding, comprising about 12% of the ESEA budget. As Dallek
   reports, researchers soon found that poverty had more to do with family
   background and neighbourhood conditions than the quantity of education
   a child received. Early studies suggested initial improvements for poor
   kids helped by ESEA reading and math programs, but later assessments
   indicated that benefits faded quickly and left students little better
   off than those not in the programs. Johnson’s second major education
   program was the “Higher Education Act of 1965" which focused on funding
   for lower income students, including grants, work-study money, and
   government loans. He set up the National Endowment for the Humanities
   and the National Endowment for the Arts, to support humanists and
   artists (as the WPA once did). Although ESEA solidified Johnson's
   support among K12 teachers' unions, neither the Higher Education act
   nor the Endowments mollified the college professors and students
   growing increasingly uneasy with his war in Vietnam.

War on Poverty

   In 1964, upon Johnson's request, Congress passed a tax-reduction law
   and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in association with the War
   on Poverty.

Medicare and Medicaid

   Millions of elderly people were aided by the 1965 Medicare amendment to
   the Social Security Act. Poor people received federal money for medical
   care through the medicaid program.
   President Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Harry Truman and his
   wife, Bess, are on the far right
   Enlarge
   President Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Harry Truman and his
   wife, Bess, are on the far right

Space race

   NASA made spectacular explorations in the space program Johnson had
   championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited
   the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken …
   all of us, all over the world, into a new era …."

Urban Riots

   As Martin Luther King and other black leaders broke with Johnson on the
   Vietnam issue, major riots in black ghettos caused of series of "long
   hot summers." They started with a violent disturbance in Harlem in 1964
   and the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965, and extended to 1970.
   The biggest wave came in April, 1968, when over 100 cities
   simultaneously had riots after the assassination of Dr. King. City
   after city burst into flames. Newark burned in 1966, where 6 days of
   rioting left 26 dead, 1500 injured, and the inner city a burned out
   shell. In Detroit in 1967, Governor George Romney sent in 7400 national
   guard troops to quell fire bombings, looting, and attacks on
   white-owned businesses and on police. Johnson finally sent in federal
   troops with tanks and machine guns. Detroit continued to burn for three
   more days until finally 40 lay dead, 2250 were injured, 4000 were
   arrested, property damage ranged into the hundreds of millions; much of
   inner Detroit was never rebuilt. The great cities had been Democratic
   strongholds--now one after another they exploded in flame. Johnson
   called for even more billions to be spent in the cities, and another
   federal civil rights law regarding housing. But his political capital
   had been spent, his Great Society was in its death throes. Johnson's
   popularity plummeted as a massive white political backlash took shape,
   reinforcing the sense Johnson had lost control of the streets of major
   cities as well as his party.
   October 23, 1966: Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Lyndon Johnson during
   arrival ceremonies at the Manila International Airport
   Enlarge
   October 23, 1966: Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Lyndon Johnson during
   arrival ceremonies at the Manila International Airport

Backlash against Johnson: 1966-67

   Johnson problems began to mount in 1966. By year's end the Democratic
   governor of Missouri warned that Johnson would lose the state by
   100,000 votes, despite a half-million margin in 1964. "Frustration over
   Vietnam; too much federal spending and . . . taxation; no great public
   support for your Great Society programs; and . . . public
   disenchantment with the civil rights programs" had eroded the
   President's standing, the governor reported. There were bright spots,
   however. In January 1967 Johnson boasted that wages were the highest in
   history, unemployment was at a thirteen-year low, and corporate profits
   and farm incomes were greater than ever; however a 4.5% jump in
   consumer prices was worrisome, as well as the rise in interest rates.
   Johnson asked for a temporary 6% surcharge in income taxes to cover the
   mounting deficit caused by increased spending. Johnson's approval
   ratings stayed below 50 percent; by January 1967 the number of his
   strong supporters had plunged to 16% from 25% four months before. He
   ran about even with Republican George Romney in trial matchups that
   spring. Asked to explain why he was unpopular, Johnson responded, "I am
   a dominating personality, and when I get things done I don't always
   please all the people." Johnson also blamed the press, saying they
   showed "complete irresponsibility and lie and misstate facts and have
   no one to be answerable to." He also blamed "the preachers, liberals
   and professors." who had turned against him. In the congressional
   elections of 1966 the Republicans gained 47 seats, reinvigorating the
   Conservative coalition and making it impossible for Johnson to pass any
   additional Great Society legislation.

Vietnam War

   President Johnson increasingly focused on the American military effort
   in Vietnam. He firmly believed his containment policy required America
   to make a serious effort to stop all Communist expansion. At Kennedy's
   death, there were 16,000 American military advisors in Vietnam. Johnson
   expanded their numbers and roles following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
   (less than three weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964 which
   had nominated Barry Goldwater for President).
   LBJ visits Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon, in September 1964.
   Enlarge
   LBJ visits Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon, in September 1964.

   By 1968 there were 550,000 American soldiers inside Vietnam; in 1967
   and 1968 they were being killed at the rate of over 1000 a month.

   Politically, Johnson closely watched the public opinion polls. His goal
   was not to adjust his policies to follow opinion, but rather to adjust
   opinion to support his policies. Until the Tet Offensive of 1968, he
   systematically downplayed the war: few speeches, no rallies or parades
   or advertising campaigns. He feared that publicity would charge up the
   hawks who wanted victory, and weaken both his containment policy and
   his higher priorities in domestic issues. Jacobs and Shapiro conclude,
   "Although Johnson held a core of support for his position, the
   president was unable to move Americans who held hawkish and dovish
   positions." Polls showed that beginning in 1965, the public was
   consistently 40-50% hawkish and 10-25% dovish. Johnson's aides told
   him, "Both hawks and doves [are frustrated with the war] ... and take
   it out on you."

   It was domestic issues that were driving his polls down steadily from
   spring 1966 onward. Analysts report that "Vietnam had no independent
   impact on President Johnson's popularity at all after other effects,
   including a general overall downward trend in popularity, had been
   taken into account."

   He often privately cursed the Vietnam War, and in a conversation with
   Robert McNamara, Johnson assailed "the bunch of commies" running the
   New York Times for their articles against the war effort. He referred
   to the war as his "bitch mistress," but believed that America could not
   afford to lose and risk appearing weak in the eyes of the world. In a
   discussion about the war with former President Dwight Eisenhower,
   Johnson said he was "trying to win it just as fast as I can in every
   way that I know how" and later stated that he needed "all the help I
   can get." Johnson escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to
   1968 and the number of American deaths rose. In two weeks in May 1968
   alone, American deaths numbered 1,800 with total casualties at 18,000.
   Alluding to the Domino Theory he said, "If we allow Vietnam to fall,
   tomorrow we’ll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Francisco."
   When reporters repeatedly pressed Johnson in late 1967 on why he was so
   committed to the war, Johnson exposed himself to them and said, 'That
   is why'".

   After the Tet offensive of January 1968, his presidency was dominated
   by the Vietnam War more than ever. As casualties mounted and success
   seemed further away than ever, Johnson's popularity plummeted. College
   students and others protested, burned draft cards, and chanted, "Hey,
   hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Johnson could scarcely
   travel anywhere without facing protests, and was not allowed by the
   Secret Service to attend the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where
   hundreds of thousands of hippies, yippies, Black Panthers, and other
   opponents of Johnson's policy both in Vietnam and in the ghettoes
   converged to protest. Thus by 1968, the public was polarized, with the
   "hawks" rejecting Johnson's refusal to win the war, and the "doves"
   rejecting his continuation of containment. Support for Johnson's middle
   position continued to shrink until he finally rejected containment and
   sought a peace settlement. By late summer, however, he realized that
   Nixon was closer to his position than Humphrey.

1968 Presidential election

   Entering the 1968 election campaign, initially, no prominent Democratic
   candidate was prepared to run against a sitting President of his own
   party. Only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota challenged Johnson as
   an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, hoping to pressure
   the Democrats to oppose the war. On March 12, McCarthy won 42% of the
   primary vote to Johnson's 49%, an amazingly strong showing for such a
   challenger. Four days after this, Robert F. Kennedy entered the race.
   Internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to
   hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly. Johnson
   did not leave the White House to campaign. Johnson had lost control of
   the Democratic party, which was splitting into four factions, each of
   which despised the other three. The first comprised Johnson (and
   Humphrey), labor unions, and local party bosses (led by Chicago Mayor
   Richard J. Daley). The second group comprised students and
   intellectuals who were vociferously against the war, and rallied behind
   McCarthy. The third group comprised Catholics, ethnics and blacks; they
   rallied behind Robert Kennedy. The fourth group were traditional white
   Southerners, who rallied behind George C. Wallace and his third party.
   Vietnam was one of many issues that splintered the party and Johnson
   could see no way to unite the party long enough for him to win
   reelection. On the other hand, he could avoid defeat in November by
   withdrawing from the race, keeping control of the party machinery by
   giving the nomination to Humphrey, and assure his place in history by
   ending the war before the election.

   Then at the end of a March 31 speech, he shocked the nation when he
   announced he would not run for re-election: "I shall not seek, and I
   will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your
   President,"( Text and audio of speech). He did rally the party bosses
   and union to give Humphrey the nomination. In what was termed the
   October surprise, Johnson announced to the nation on October 31, 1968,
   that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval and
   artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1, should
   the Hanoi Government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with
   the Paris peace talks.

   LBJ wasn't disqualified from running for a second term under the
   provisions of the 22nd Amendment because he had served less than 24
   months of JFK's term.

Legislation and programs

      Lyndon B. Johnson and his cabinet in 1968
      Enlarge
      Lyndon B. Johnson and his cabinet in 1968

   Major legislation signed

        * 1964 - Civil Rights Act of 1964
        * 1964 - Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
        * 1964 - Wilderness Act
        * 1964 - Nurse Training Act
        * 1964 - Food Stamp Act of 1964
        * 1964 - Economic Opportunity Act
        * 1965 - Higher Education Act of 1965
        * 1965 - Social Security Act of 1965
        * 1965 - Voting Rights Act
        * 1965 - Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
        * 1967 - Age Discrimination in Employment Act
        * 1968 - Bilingual Education Act
        * 1968 - Fair housing

   Administration and Cabinet

      (All of the cabinet members when Johnson became President in 1963 had
      been serving under John F. Kennedy previously.)
      Official White House portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson
      Enlarge
      Official White House portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson

   OFFICE                    NAME                     TERM
   President                 Lyndon B. Johnson        1963–1969
   Vice President            None                     1963–1965
                             Hubert H. Humphrey       1965–1969
   National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy           1963–1966
                             Walt Rostow              1966–1969
   C.I.A. Director           John McCone              1963–1965
                             William Raborn           1965–1966
                             Richard M. Helms         1966–1969
   F.B.I. Director           J. Edgar Hoover          1963–1969
   State                     Dean Rusk                1963–1969
   Treasury                  C. Douglas Dillon        1963–1965
                             Henry H. Fowler          1965–1968
                             Joseph W. Barr           1968–1969
   Defense                   Robert S. McNamara       1963–1968
                             Clark M. Clifford        1968–1969
   Justice                   Robert F. Kennedy        1963–1964
                             Nicholas deB. Katzenbach 1964–1966
                             Ramsey Clark             1966–1969
   Postmaster General        John A. Gronouski        1963–1965
                             Lawrence F. O'Brien      1965–1968
                             W. Marvin Watson         1968–1969
   Interior                  Stewart L. Udall         1963–1969
   Agriculture               Orville L. Freeman       1963–1969
   Commerce                  Luther H. Hodges         1963–1965
                             John T. Connor           1965–1967
                             Alexander B. Trowbridge  1967–1968
                             Cyrus R. Smith           1968–1969
   Labor                     W. Willard Wirtz         1963–1967
   HEW                       Anthony J. Celebrezze    1963–1965
                             John W. Gardner          1965–1968
                             Wilbur J. Cohen          1968–1969
   HUD                       Robert Clifton Weaver    1966–1968
                             Robert Coldwell Wood     1969
   Transportation            Alan Stephenson Boyd     1967–1969

   Supreme Court appointments

      Johnson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
      United States:
        * Abe Fortas – 1965
             + Fortas was also nominated to be Chief Justice of the United
               States in 1968, but he withdrew.
        * Thurgood Marshall – 1967
             + Marshall was the first African-American to be appointed to the
               Supreme Court.

   Retirement, death, and honours

      After leaving the presidency in 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in
      Johnson City, Texas. In 1971, he published his memoirs, The Vantage
      Point. That year, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum opened
      on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. It is the most
      visited presidential library in the nation with over a quarter million
      visitors per year. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public
      to form the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, with the
      proviso that the ranch "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile
      relic of the past".

      Johnson died at 4:33 p.m. on January 22, 1973 from a third heart attack
      at his ranch, at age 64. His health was ruined by years of heavy
      smoking and stress, and the former President had severe heart disease.
      He was found in his bed, reaching for his phone. Johnson was honored
      with a state funeral in which Texas Congressman J.J. Pickle and former
      Secretary of State Dean Rusk eulogized him at the Capitol.

      The final services took place on January 25. The funeral was held at
      the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., where he
      worshipped often when president. The service, presided over by
      President Richard Nixon and attended by foreign dignitaries, led by
      former Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato, was the first presidential
      funeral to feature eulogies, and they were given by the Rev. Dr. George
      Davis, the church's rector and W. Marvin Watson, former postmaster
      general. Nixon did not speak, though he attended, as customary for
      presidents during state funerals, but the eulogists turned to him and
      lauded him for his tributes, as Rusk did the day before.

      Johnson was buried in his family cemetery (which can be viewed today by
      visitors to the Lyndon B. Johnson National Park in Stonewall, Texas),
      with eulogies by John Connally and Reverend Billy Graham. The state
      funeral, the last until Ronald Reagan's in 2004, was part of a busy
      week for the Military District of Washington (MDW), beginning with
      Nixon's second inauguration.

      The Manned Spacecraft Centre in Houston, Texas, was renamed the Lyndon
      B. Johnson Space Centre, and Texas created a legal state holiday to be
      observed on August 27 to mark LBJ's birthday. It is known as Lyndon
      Baines Johnson Day. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the
      Potomac was dedicated on September 27, 1974.

      LBJ was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980.

      Johnson's widow, Lady Bird Johnson (born 1912), is still alive, and
      will turn 94 on December 22, 2006.

   Trivia

        * Lyndon Johnson was 6 feet 3 inches (190 cm) tall and weighed about
          216 pounds (98 kg), the second tallest President, behind Abraham
          Lincoln at 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall.
        * Had he stayed in the 1968 race and won re-election, he would have
          served nine years, second only to Franklin D. Roosevelt's 12 years.
          LBJ's death, on January 22, 1973, occurred only two days after this
          presidential term would have ended, and followed the death of
          former President Harry S. Truman by less than a month. This left
          the U.S. with no living former presidents until the resignation of
          Richard Nixon in August 1974.
        * He was baptized in the Pedernales River as a member of the
          Disciples of Christ in 1923.
        * Johnson was famously frugal. Even as President, White House tapes
          recorded him asking a photographer to take his family portraits for
          free, saying he was a very poor man living on a weekly paycheck and
          had a very great deal of financial debt. In fact Johnson was a
          multimillionaire, but he still received the photographic portraits
          gratis. The White House press corps made jokes at his expense
          regarding his habit of turning off all lights in the White House
          when the rooms were not in use. Johnson's secretary revealed years
          later that he would wash and reuse Styrofoam cups. [Caro 2002]
        * His favorite soft drink was Fresca, which he drank constantly.
          Johnson had a small control box installed in the writing desk in
          the small personal office adjacent to the Oval Office. This control
          box contained two buttons, marked "Coffee" and "Fresca". Pushing
          one of these buttons would summon Johnson's military aide bringing
          the appropriate drink.
        * Johnson, while using the White House bathroom, was known to insist
          that others accompany him and continue to discuss official matters
          or take dictation. Among those whe received this "privilege" was
          Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post.
        * Lake Granite Shoals, a reservoir of the Colorado River in central
          Texas was renamed Lake LBJ in 1965 in honour of the sitting
          President.
        * He was the only American President to have ever visited Malaysia
          (1966). In Labu, state of Negeri Sembilan, the village called FELDA
          L.B. Johnson was named after him during his visit to the village,
          with Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Malaysian prime minister.
        * He was the first American President to visit Turkey and Australia
          while in office.
        * Robert F. Kennedy greatly disliked Johnson and the feeling was
          mutual. Kennedy felt that Johnson was not worthy of the vice
          presidency, while Johnson merely regarded Kennedy as "Jack's Little
          Brother", a spoiled brat who was riding his older brother's
          coattails to success. [Dallek 2004 p 139]
        * Two Austin, Texas, area broadcast radio stations using the call
          sign KLBJ, ( 590 kHz AM and 93.7 MHz FM), were once owned by the
          Johnson family before being sold to other commercial interests. The
          Johnsons also owned the first broadcast television station in the
          Austin area, KTBC (channel 7).
        * Born in 1908, LBJ was the first American president born in the 20th
          century (chronologically). However, the younger Kennedy was the
          first person born in the 20th century to serve as president.
        * He was one of only three southern Senators who refused to sign the
          Southern Manifesto.
        * When he was a young school teacher, Johnson petitioned the local
          Masonic Lodge for membership. He was accepted and received his
          Entered Apprentice degree, but never advanced beyond that.
        * Barbara Garson wrote a notorious 1966 counterculture drama entitled
          MacBird, which satirically depicts then-President Lyndon Johnson as
          Macbeth - the Scottish king whose lust for power carried him to the
          throne.
        * He was famously implicated by New Orleans District Attorney Jim
          Garrison in the alleged plot to assassinate President John F.
          Kennedy.

   Portrayals

   Movies

        * The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977): played by Andrew
          Duggan
        * King (1978, TV): played by Warren Kemmerling
        * Kennedy (1983, TV): played by Nesbitt Blaisdell
        * The Right Stuff (1983): played by Donald Moffat
        * Robert Kennedy & His Times (1985, TV): played by G.D. Spradlin
        * J. Edgar Hoover (1987, TV): played by Rip Torn
        * LBJ: The Early Years (1987, TV): played by Randy Quaid
        * JFK (1991): played by Tom Howard and John William Galt (voice)
        * Forrest Gump (1994): archive footage, voice-over by John William
          Galt
        * Thirteen Days (2000): played by Walter Adrian
        * Path to War (2003): played by Michael Gambon

   Fiction

        * In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Johnson awards Naked Snake the
          fictional title of " Big Boss" and the Distinguished Service Cross.
          In the game, he was voiced by Richard McGonagle.
        * The fictional short story Lyndon in Girl with Curious Hair by David
          Foster Wallace.
        * In an episode of Seinfeld Kramer is asked by a friend who their
          baby looks like, the mother or the father, to which Kramer replies
          "Lyndon Johnson."
        * In the film Bubba Ho-tep Lyndon Johnson makes a posthumous
          appearance as a ravenous mummy terrorizing an old folk's home in
          rural Texas.
        * The postmodern novel " The Public Burning" by Robert Coover.
        * In the film Point Break one of the bank robbers wears an LBJ face
          mask to conceal his identity.

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