Lyndon B. Johnson
|Lyndon B. Johnson|
|36th President of the United States|
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
Hubert Humphrey (1965–1969)
|Preceded by||John F. Kennedy|
|Succeeded by||Richard Nixon|
|37th Vice President of the United States|
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
|President||John F. Kennedy|
|Preceded by||Richard Nixon|
|Succeeded by||Hubert Humphrey|
|Senate Majority Leader|
January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1961
|Preceded by||William F. Knowland|
|Succeeded by||Mike Mansfield|
|Senate Minority Leader|
January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1955
|Preceded by||Styles Bridges|
|Succeeded by||William F. Knowland|
|Senate Majority Whip|
January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1953
|President||Alben W. Barkley|
|Preceded by||Francis J. Myers|
|Succeeded by||Leverett Saltonstall|
United States Senator
January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1961
|Preceded by||W. Lee O'Daniel|
|Succeeded by||William A. Blakley|
|Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 10th district|
April 10, 1937 – January 3, 1949
|Preceded by||James P. Buchanan|
|Succeeded by||Homer Thornberry|
Lyndon Baines Johnson
August 27, 1908
Stonewall, Texas, U.S.
January 22, 1973
near Stonewall, Texas, U.S.
Johnson Family Cemetery
|Spouse(s)||Lady Bird Taylor|
Lynda Bird Johnson Robb
Luci Baines Johnson
|Alma mater||Southwest Texas State Teachers College|
|Religion||Disciples of Christ|
|Service/branch||United States Navy|
|Years of service||1941–1942|
|Battles/wars||World War II|
Presidential Medal of Freedom (Posthumous; 1980)
Lyndon Baines Johnson () (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969), a position he assumed after his service as the 37th Vice President (1961–1963). Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961, including six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader and two as Senate Majority Whip. He campaigned unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1960, but ran as Vice President with John F. Kennedy heading the ticket for the 1960 presidential election. After their election, Johnson succeeded Kennedy following the latter's assassination on November 22, 1963; he completed Kennedy's term and was elected President in his own right in the 1964 election, winning by a large margin over Barry Goldwater. He is one of four people who served in both offices of the executive branch as well as both houses of Congress.
Johnson was strongly supported by the Democratic Party, and as President he designed the "Great Society" legislation upholding civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, and his "War on Poverty". Assisted in part by a growing economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during Johnson's presidency. Civil rights bills signed by Johnson banned racial discrimination in public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace, and housing; and the voting rights act guaranteed full voting rights for citizens of all races. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the country's immigration system was reformed and all national origin quotas were removed. Johnson was renowned for his domineering, sometimes abrasive, personality and the "Johnson treatment" – his aggressive coercion of powerful politicians in order to advance legislation.
Johnson infamously, though reluctantly, escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use military force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963, to 550,000 in early 1968, many in combat roles. American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U.S. and abroad.
Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, and crime rates soared, as his opponents raised demands for "law and order" policies. While he began his presidency with widespread approval, support for Johnson declined as the public became further upset with both the war and the growing violence at home. The Democratic Party split in multiple feuding factions, and after Johnson did poorly in the 1968 New Hampshire primary, he ended his bid for reelection. Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. Johnson died four years after he left office. Historians argue that Johnson's presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his domestic policies.
- Early years 1
- Early political career 2
Congressional career 3
U.S. House of Representatives 3.1
- War record 3.1.1
U.S. Senate 3.2
- Contested 1948 election 3.2.1
- Freshman senator to majority whip 3.2.2
- Senate Democratic leader 3.2.3
- U.S. House of Representatives 3.1
Vice Presidency 4
- Nomination 4.1
- Office 4.2
Presidency (1963–1969) 5
- Swift succession 5.1
- Rapid legislative initiatives 5.2
- Civil rights 5.3
- The Great Society 5.4
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 5.5
- 1964 presidential election 5.6
- Voting Rights Act 5.7
- Immigration 5.8
- Federal funding for education 5.9
- "War on Poverty" and healthcare reform 5.10
- Gun control and the space program 5.11
- Urban riots 5.12
- Backlash against Johnson: 1966–67 5.13
Vietnam War 5.14
- 1964 5.14.1
- 1965 5.14.2
- 1966 5.14.3
- 1967 5.14.4
- 1968 5.14.5
- Transportation 5.15
- The Six-Day War and Israel 5.16
- Pardons 5.17
- 1968 presidential election 5.18
- Administration and Cabinet 5.19
Judicial appointments 5.20
- Supreme Court 5.20.1
- Other courts 5.20.2
- Scandals and controversies 5.21
- Personality and public image 5.22
- Post-presidency 6
- Death and funeral 7
- Major legislation signed 8.1
- Significant Regulatory changes 8.2
- See also 9
- References 10
- Further reading 11
- External links 12
Johnson's grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr., was raised as a Baptist, and for a time was a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In his later years the grandfather became a Christadelphian; Johnson's father also joined the Christadelphian Church toward the end of his life. Later, as a politician, Johnson was influenced in his positive attitude toward Jews by the religious beliefs that his family, especially his grandfather, had shared with him (see Operation Texas). Johnson's favorite Bible verse came from the King James Version of Isaiah 1:18. "Come now, and let us reason together..."
In school, Johnson was an awkward, talkative youth and was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated from Johnson City High School (1924), having participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball. At age 15, Johnson was the youngest member of his class. He was believed to have been the youngest graduate of the school. In the months following his graduation, Johnson relocated to California amidst pressure by his parents to go to college. Johnson enrolled in S.W.T.S.T.C. in the summer of 1924, where students from unaccredited high schools could take the twelve-grade courses needed for admission to Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos. Johnson would later say that he was kicked out of the school.
In 1926, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College (now
- Lyndon Baines Johnson: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
- Extensive essays on Lyndon Johnson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
- "LBJ", an American Experience documentary
- Lyndon B. Johnson at Find a Grave
- Lyndon B. Johnson collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Media coverage
- The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson Digital Edition
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Interviews, speeches and recordings
- White House biography
- LBJ Presidential Library
- Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
- Andrew, John A. (1999). Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
- Bernstein, Irving (1996). Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Bornet, Vaughn Davis (1983). The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
- Brands, H. W. (1997). The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Years of Lyndon Johnson in four volumes:
- Caro, Robert (1990). Means of Ascent. New York: Knopf.
- Caro, Robert (2002). Master of the Senate. New York: Knopf.
- Caro, Robert (2012). The Passage of Power. New York: Knopf.
- Colman, Jonathan. The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963–1969 (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) 231 pp.
- Dallek, Robert (1991). Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973. Oxford University Press.
- Dallek, Robert (1998). Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973. Oxford University Press.
- Dallek, Robert (2004). Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Gould, Lewis L. (2010). 1968: The Election That Changed America. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
- Schulman, Bruce J. (1995). Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism: A Brief Biography with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press.
- Woods, Randall (2006). LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. New York: Free Press.
- The other three people who served in all four elected offices were John Tyler, Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon.
- Foley, Thomas (January 25, 1973). "Thousands in Washington Brave Cold to Say Goodbye to Johnson".
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- Russell H. Coward (2004). A Voice from the Vietnam War. Greenwood. p. 25.
- Epstein, Barbara (1993). Political Protest and Cultural Revolution: Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970s and 1980s. University of California Press. p. 41.
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- "Survey of Presidential Leadership — Lyndon Johnson".
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- "Religion and President Johnson".
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- "The Student Editorials of Lyndon Baines Johnson". LBJ Common Experience, Paper 1. 1968. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
- "President Lyndon B. Johnson's Biography". Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
- "Remarks at Southwest Texas State College Upon Signing the Higher Education Act of 1965". Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Retrieved April 11, 2006.
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- Dallek 1991, pp. 235–245.
- "In-Depth Specials — The story behind Johnson's Silver Star". CNN. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
- Dallek 1991, p. 235.
- Dallek 1991, p. 237.
- Caro 1990, pp. 360–361.
- Woods 2006, p. 217; Caro 1989.
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- Woods 2006, p. 262.
- "LBJ". American Experience. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- "New York Times, The Johnson Treatment: Lyndon B. Johnson and Theodore F. Green". Afterimagegallery.com. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
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- Caro 2012, Part I (passim).
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- Caro 2012, pp. 121–135.
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- Caro 2002, p. 1035.
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- Kennedy to Johnson, "Memorandum for Vice President," April 20, 1961.
- Johnson to Kennedy, "Evaluation of Space Program," April 28, 1961.
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- "Canaveral Now Cape Kennedy; Johnson Announces Memorial Decision". The Blade (Toledo, Ohio). AP. November 29, 1963. p. 1. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
- Dallek 1998, p. 51
- Robert D. Chapman, "The Kennedy Assassination 50 Years Later." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence (2014) 27#3 pp: 615-619.
- Dallek 1998, p. 58.
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- Dallek 1998, p. 68.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 73–74.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 76–80.
- Reeves 1993, pp. 521–523
- Schlesinger, Arthur (2002) . A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. p. 973.
- Dallek 1998, p.115
- Caro, Robert. "The Passage of Power". p459
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- Caro, Robert. "The Passage of Power". p463
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- Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. (2002) . Robert Kennedy And His Times. pp. 644–645.
- Dallek 1998, p.120.
- Dallek 1998, pp.81–82.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 144-155
- Dallek 1998, p.157
- Fletcher, Martin (November 7, 2001). "LBJ tape 'confirms Vietnam war error". The Times.
- Dallek 1998, p. 127.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 124–126.
- Dallek 1998, pp.135-137.
- Dallek 1998, pp.140-142.
- Dallek 1998, p.157.
- Dallek 1998, pp.157–59.
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- President Grant, on October 17, 1871 suspended Habeas Corpus in 9 South Carolina counties, sent in troops, and prosecuted the Klan in the federal district court. McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 369–371.
- Woods 2006, pp. 759–787.
- Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965. Volume II, entry 301, pp. 635–640 (1966)
- Kotz, Nick (2005). "14. Another Martyr". Judgment days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the laws that changed America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 417.
Johnson, Lyndon Baines (April 5, 1968). "182 - Letter to the Speaker of the House Urging Enactment of the Fair Housing Bill". American Presidency Project. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
We should pass the Fair Housing law when the Congress convenes next week.
- Risen, Clay (April 2008). "The Unmaking of the President: Lyndon Johnson believed that his withdrawal from the 1968 presidential campaign would free him to solidify his legacy". Smithsonian Magazine. p. 3,5 and 6 in online version. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- Lerner, Mitchell B. (2012). A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 211–17.
- Bernstein 1996, pp. 183–213.
- Dallek 1988, pp. 195–198.
- Dallek 1988, pp. 200–201.
- Bernstein 1996, p. 195.
- Woods 2006, pp. 563–68; Dallek 1988, pp. 196–202.
- Garson, G. David. "Economic Opportunity Act of 1964". Retrieved January 19, 2010.
- Dallek 1998, pp.320–322.
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- "Medicare Celebrates 35 Years of Keeping Americans Healthy". Retrieved January 19, 2010.
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- "James E. Webb – NASA Administrator, February 14, 1961 – October 7, 1968". History.NASA.gov. NASA. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009.
- "Lyndon B. Johnson". Clinton White House. 1990s (specific date unknown). Retrieved November 22, 2009.
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- Dallek 1998, pp. 222-223.
- Woods, Randall (2006), pp. 790–795; Michael W. Flamm. Law And Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (2005).
- Rouse, Robert (March 15, 2006). "Happy Anniversary to the first scheduled presidential press conference – 93 years young!". American Chronicle.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 391–396; quotes on pp. 391 and 396.
- "The Impact of the Great Society Upon The Lives of Families and Young Children". Infant & Toddler Coordinators Association. August 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
- Humphries, David (November 12, 2011). "LBJ came all the way - but few followed". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
- "The Sixties". Junior Scholastic. February 11, 1994. p. 4.
- "Brief Overview of Vietnam War". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
- Reeves 1993, p. 613.
- Dallek 1998, p. 239.
- Dallek 1998, p. 240.
- Dallek 1998, p. 241.
- Dallek 1998, p. 244.
- Dallek 1998, p. 247.
- Dallek 1998, p. 249.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 250–252.
- Dallek 1998, p. 255.
- Dallek 1998, p.265–268.
- Dallek 1998, p.268.
- Dallek 1998, p.269.
- Dallek 1998, p.270.
- Dallek 1998, pp.272–277.
- Dallek 1998, p.284.
- Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro. "Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and Public Opinion: Rethinking Realist Theory of Leadership." Presidential Studies Quarterly 29#3 (1999), p. 592.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 345 – 351.
- Dallek 1998, pp.362–363.
- Dallek 1998, p.364.
- Dallek 1998, p.365.
- Dallek 1998, p.366.
- Dallek 1998, p.369.
- Dallek 1998, pp.372–373.
- Dallek 1998, pp. 373–374.
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- Dallek 1998, pp.386–388.
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- Dallek 1998, pp.458–459.
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- Dallek 1998, p.462.
- Dallek 1998, pp.463–464.
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- Gould 2010, p. 98.
- Dallek 1998, pp.505–506.
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- Mueller, John E. (1973). War, Presidents and Public Opinion. New York: Wiley. p. 108.
- Shannon, Kelley (November 18, 2006). "Tapes Reveal LBJ's Vietnam Conversations". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
- "Quotation by Lyndon Baines Johnson". dictionary.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
- Dallek 1998, pp.564–569.
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- "LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON LIBRARY ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION" (PDF). Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Retrieved October 8, 2005.
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- Elsen, William A. (January 25, 1973). "Ceremonial Group Had Busy 5 Weeks".
- McElheny, Victor K. (August 28, 1973). "Houston Space Center Is Rededicated to Johnson: New Stamp Issued". The New York Times. p. 24.
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- "President Bush Signs H.R. 584, Designates U.S. Department of Education as the Lyndon Baines Johnson Federal Building". The White House. Retrieved October 6, 2008.
- "Remarks Upon Signing the Clean Air Act". John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
- "Facilities Act of December 16, 1963". Higher-Ed.org. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
- "Remarks Upon Signing the Higher Education Facilities Act". John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
- "Remarks Upon Signing the Vocational Education Bill". John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
- "Remarks Upon Signing the Nurse Training Act of 1964". John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
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- Electoral history of Lyndon B. Johnson
- History of the United States (1945–1964)
- History of the United States (1964–1980)
- Holocaust Museum Houston
- List of facilities named after Lyndon Johnson
- List of Presidents of the United States
- List of Presidents of the United States, sortable by previous experience
- Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
- Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin
- Popular cultural legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson
- U.S. Presidents on U.S. postage stamps
Significant Regulatory changes
- 1965: Higher Education Act of 1965
- 1965: Older Americans Act
- 1965: Coinage Act of 1965
- 1965: Social Security Act of 1965
- 1965: Voting Rights Act
- 1965: Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
- 1966: Animal Welfare Act of 1966
- 1966: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- 1967: Age Discrimination in Employment Act
- 1967: Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
- 1968: Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
- 1968: Bilingual Education Act
- 1968: Civil Rights Act of 1968
- 1968: Gun Control Act of 1968
- 1963: Clean Air Act of 1963
- 1963: Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963
- 1963: Vocational Education Act of 1963
- 1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964
- 1964: Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
- 1964: Wilderness Act
- 1964: Nurse Training Act of 1964
- 1964: Food Stamp Act of 1964
- 1964: Economic Opportunity Act
- 1964: Housing Act of 1964
Major legislation signed
2008 was the celebration of the Johnson Centennial featuring special programs, events, and parties across Texas and in Washington, D.C. Johnson would have been 100 years old on August 27, 2008.
On March 23, 2007, President United States Department of Education headquarters after President Johnson.
Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980.
The student center at Texas State University is named after the former president and graduate.
Runway 17R/35L at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Runway.
Lyndon Baines Johnson Tropical Medical Center is named after the 36th President who visited American Samoa on October 18, 1966. This marked the beginning of construction of the hospital located in the village of Faga'alu, American Samoa. The facility was completed in 1968.
Interstate 635 in Dallas is named the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway.
Lyndon B. Johnson Middle School in Melbourne, Florida, is his namesake.
The Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973, and Texas created a legal state holiday to be observed on August 27 to mark Johnson'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.
Legacy It also meant Johnson's casket traveled the entire length of the Capitol, entering through the Senate wing when taken into the rotunda to lie in state and exited through the House wing steps due to construction on the East Front steps. and many of the military men who participated in the inauguration took part in the funeral. canceled the remainder of the ceremonies surrounding the inauguration to allow for a full state funeral,Armed Forces Inaugural Committee The MDW and the  The inauguration had an impact on the state funeral in various ways, because Johnson died only two days after the inauguration..Nixon's second inauguration (MDW) dealt with their second major task in less than a week, beginning with Military District of Washington's in 2004, was part of an unexpectedly busy week in Washington, as the Ronald Reagan, the minister who officiated the burial rites. The state funeral, the last for a president until Billy Graham and the Rev. John Connally in Stonewall, Texas, is still privately owned by the Johnson family, who have requested that the public not enter the cemetery), a few yards from the house in which he was born. Eulogies were given by Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical ParkJohnson was buried in his family cemetery (which, although it is part of the
Johnson was honored with a W. Marvin Watson, former postmaster general. Nixon did not speak, though he attended, as is customary for presidents during state funerals, but the eulogists turned to him and lauded him for his tributes, as Rusk did the day before, as Nixon mentioned Johnson's death in a speech he gave the day after Johnson died, announcing the peace agreement to end the Vietnam War.
Shortly after Johnson's death, his press secretary Tom Johnson (no relation) telephoned Walter Cronkite at CBS; Cronkite was live on the air with the CBS Evening News at the time, and a report on Vietnam was cut abruptly while Cronkite was still on the line, so he could break the news.
Johnson, who died two days after Richard Nixon's second inauguration, was the second former President to die in the span of two months at the time of his passing. Former President Harry S. Truman, whose death made Johnson the oldest living ex-President, died less than a month before him on December 26, 1972. Johnson's passing left the United States with no living ex-presidents; he and Truman had been the only two since Dwight Eisenhower's 1969 death.
 At approximately 3:39 pm Central Time on January 22, 1973, Johnson began suffering from what he described as "massive chest pains" and placed a call to the Secret Service compound on his ranch. The agents rushed to the former President's bedroom, finding him unresponsive with the phone receiver still in his hand. Johnson was taken on one of his private planes to
|“||On Inauguration Day (January 20, 1969), Johnson saw Nixon sworn in, then got on the plane to fly back to Texas. When the front door of the plane closed, Johnson pulled out a cigarette—his first cigarette he had smoked since his heart attack in 1955. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth and said, "Daddy, what are you doing? You're going to kill yourself." He took it back and said, "I've now raised you girls. I've now been President. Now it's my time!" From that point on, he went into a very self-destructive spiral.||”|
—Historian Michael Beschloss.
Death and funeral
In March 1970, Johnson was hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, after suffering an attack of angina. He was urged to lose considerable weight. He had grown dangerously heavier since leaving the White House, gaining more than 25 pounds (11 kg) and weighing around 235 pounds (107 kg). He had also resumed smoking after nearly fifteen years without having done so, which contributed further to his health issues. The following summer, again gripped by chest pains, he embarked on a crash water diet, shedding about 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in less than a month. In April 1972, Johnson fell victim to a second heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Charlottesville, Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad," he confided to friends. The chest pains hit him nearly every afternoon – a series of sharp, jolting pains that left him scared and breathless. A portable oxygen tank stood next to his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask to gulp air. He continued to smoke heavily, and, although placed on a low-calorie, low-cholesterol diet, kept to it only in fits and starts. Meanwhile, he began experiencing severe stomach pains. Doctors diagnosed this problem as diverticulosis, pouches forming on the intestine. His condition rapidly worsened and surgery was recommended. Johnson flew to Houston to consult with heart specialist Dr. Michael DeBakey, who decided that Johnson's heart condition presented too great a risk for any sort of surgery, including coronary bypass of two almost totally destroyed heart arteries.
During the South Dakota, although McGovern had long opposed Johnson's foreign and defense policies. The McGovern nomination and presidential platform dismayed him. Nixon could be defeated "if only the Democrats don't go too far left," he had insisted. Johnson had felt Edmund Muskie would be more likely to defeat Nixon; however, he declined an invitation to try to stop McGovern receiving the nomination as he felt his unpopularity within the Democratic party was such that anything he said was more likely to help McGovern. Johnson's protégé John Connally had served as President Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury and then stepped down to head "Democrats for Nixon", a group funded by Republicans. It was the first time that Connally and Johnson were on opposite sides of a general election campaign.
Johnson gave Nixon "high grades" in foreign policy, but worried that his successor was being pressured into removing U.S. forces too quickly, before the South Vietnamese were really able to defend themselves. "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.
After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, accompanied by former aide and speech writer Harry J. Middleton, who would draft Johnson's first book, The Choices We Face, and work with him on his memoirs entitled The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969, published in 1971. That year, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum opened near the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public to form the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, with the provision that the ranch "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile relic of the past".
Biographer Randall Woods argues that Social Gospel themes Johnson learned from childhood allowed him to transform social problems into moral problems. This helps explain his longtime commitment to social justice, as exemplified by the Great Society and his commitment to racial equality. The Social Gospel explicitly inspired his foreign-policy approach to a sort of Christian internationalism and nation building. For example, in a 1966 speech he quoted at length from the Social Creed of the Methodist Church issued in 1940, adding " It would be very hard for me to write a more perfect description of the American ideal."
Johnson's cowboy hat and boots reflected his Texas roots and genuine love of the rural hill country. From 250 acres (100 ha) of land that he was given by an aunt in 1951, he created a 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) working ranch with 400 head of registered Hereford cattle. The National Park Service keeps a herd of Hereford cattle descended from Johnson's registered herd and maintains the ranch property.
Johnson was often seen as a wildly ambitious, tireless, and imposing figure who was ruthlessly effective at getting legislation passed. He worked 18–20-hour days without break and was apparently absent of any leisure activities. "There was no more powerful majority leader in American history," biographer Robert Dallek writes. Dallek stated that Johnson had biographies on all the Senators, knew what their ambitions, hopes, and tastes were and used it to his advantage in securing votes. Another Johnson biographer noted, "He could get up every day and learn what their fears, their desires, their wishes, their wants were and he could then manipulate, dominate, persuade and cajole them." At 6 feet 3.5 inches (1.918 m) tall, Johnson had his own particular brand of persuasion, known as "The Johnson Treatment". A contemporary writes, "It was an incredible blend of badgering, cajolery, reminders of past favors, promises of future favors, predictions of gloom if something doesn't happen. When that man started to work on you, all of a sudden, you just felt that you were standing under a waterfall and the stuff was pouring on you."
Personality and public image
In Latin America, Johnson directly and indirectly supported the overthrow of left-wing, democratically elected president Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic and João Goulart of Brazil, maintaining US support for anti-communist, authoritarian Latin American regimes. American foreign policy towards Latin America remained largely static until election of Jimmy Carter to the presidency in 1977.
Johnson continued the FBI's wiretapping of Martin Luther King, Jr. that had been previously authorized by the Kennedy administration under Attorney General Robert Kennedy. As a result of listening to the FBI's tapes, remarks on King's personal lifestyle were made by several prominent officials, including Johnson, who once said that King was a "hypocritical preacher." Johnson also authorized the tapping of phone conversations of others, including the Vietnamese friends of a Nixon associate.
During 1973 testimony before Congress, the CEO of America's largest cooperative of milk producers said that while Johnson was President, his cooperative had leased Johnson's private jet at a "plush" price, which Johnson wanted to continue once he was out of office.
Scandals and controversies
In addition to his Supreme Court appointments, Johnson appointed 40 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 126 judges to the United States district courts. Johnson also had a small number of judicial appointment controversies, with one appellate and three district court nominees not being confirmed by the United States Senate before Johnson's presidency ended.
Johnson in 1965 anticipated court challenges to his legislative measures, and thought it advantageous to have a "mole" in the Supreme Court who he thought could provide him with inside information, as he was able to get from the legislative branch. Abe Fortas in particular was the individual that Johnson thought could fill the bill. The opportunity arose when an opening occurred for Ambassador to the UN, with Adlai Stevenson's death; Associate Justice Arthur Goldenberg accepted Johnson's offer to transfer to the position. Only Johnson's insistence, as well as a slight of hand, in Fortas' assuming Goldberg's seat, could overcome Fortas' wife's objection, that it was too early in his career. Mrs. Fortas expressed unparalleled disapproval to Johnson personally afterwards. When Earl Warren announced his retirement in 1968, Johnson nominated Fortas to succeed him as Chief Justice of the United States, and nominated Homer Thornberry to succeed Fortas as Associate Justice. However, Fortas's nomination was filibustered by senators and neither nominee was voted upon by the full Senate.
Johnson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
|The Johnson Cabinet|
|President||Lyndon B. Johnson||1963–1969|
|Secretary of State||Dean Rusk||1963–1969|
|Secretary of Treasury||C. Douglas Dillon||1963–1965|
|Henry H. Fowler||1965–1968|
|Joseph W. Barr||1968–1969|
|Secretary of Defense||Robert McNamara||1963–1968|
|Clark M. Clifford||1968–1969|
|Attorney General||Robert F. Kennedy||1963–1964|
|Nicholas deB. Katzenbach||1964–1966|
|Postmaster General||John A. Gronouski||1963–1965|
|W. Marvin Watson||1968–1969|
|Secretary of the Interior||Stewart Lee Udall||1963–1969|
|Secretary of Agriculture||Orville Lothrop Freeman||1963–1969|
|Secretary of Commerce||Luther Hartwell Hodges||1963–1965|
|John Thomas Connor||1965–1967|
|Alexander Buel Trowbridge||1967–1968|
|Cyrus Rowlett Smith||1968–1969|
|Secretary of Labor||W. Willard Wirtz||1963–1969|
Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare
|John William Gardner||1965–1968|
|Wilbur Joseph Cohen||1968–1969|
Secretary of Housing and
|Robert Clifton Weaver||1966–1968|
|Robert Coldwell Wood||1969|
|Secretary of Transportation||Alan Stephenson Boyd||1967–1969|
Administration and Cabinet
Johnson did rally the party bosses and unions to give Humphrey the nomination at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Personal correspondences between the President and some in the Republican Party suggested Johnson tacitly supported Nelson Rockefeller's campaign. He reportedly said that if Rockefeller became the Republican nominee, he would not campaign against him (and would not campaign for Humphrey). 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. In the end, Democrats did not fully unite behind Humphrey, enabling Republican candidate Richard Nixon to win the election.
Historians have debated the factors that led to Johnson's surprise decision. Shesol says Johnson wanted out of the White House but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative he decided to leave. Gould says that Johnson had neglected the party, was hurting it by his Vietnam policies, and underestimated McCarthy strength until the very last minute, when it was too late for Johnson to recover. Woods said Johnson realized he needed to leave in order for the nation to heal. Dallek says that Johnson had no further domestic goals, and realized that his personality had eroded his popularity. His health was not good, and he was preoccupied with the Kennedy campaign; his wife was pressing for his retirement and his base of support continued to shrink. Leaving the race would allow him to pose as a peacemaker. Bennett, however, says Johnson, "had been forced out of a reelection race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia.
In addition, although it was not made public at the time, Johnson became more worried about his failing health and was concerned that he might not live through another four-year term. Therefore, at the end of a March 31 speech, he shocked the nation when he announced he would not run for re-election by concluding with the line: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." The next day, his approval ratings increased from 36% to 49%.
By this time Johnson had lost control of the Democratic Party, which was splitting into four factions, each of which generally disliked the other three. The first consisted of Johnson (and Humphrey), labor unions, and local party bosses (led by Chicago Mayor American Independent Party. Vietnam was one of many issues that splintered the party, and Johnson could see no way to win the war and no way to unite the party long enough for him to win re-election.
As he had served less than 24 months of President Kennedy's term, Johnson was constitutionally permitted to run for a second full term in the 1968 presidential election under the provisions of the 22nd Amendment. Initially, no prominent Democratic candidate was prepared to run against a sitting president of the Democratic 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 Vietnam War. On March 12, McCarthy won 42 percent of the primary vote to Johnson's 49 percent, an amazingly strong showing for such a challenger. Four days later, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York 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.
1968 presidential election
The Soviet Union supported its Arab allies. In May 1967, the Soviets started a surge deployment of their naval forces into the East Mediterranean. Early in the crisis they began to shadow the US and British carriers with destroyers and intelligence collecting vessels. The Soviet naval squadron in the Mediterranean was sufficiently strong to act as a major restraint on the U.S. Navy. In a 1983 interview with The Boston Globe, McNamara claimed that "We damn near had war". He said Kosygin was angry that "we had turned around a carrier in the Mediterranean".
In a 1993 interview for the Johnson Presidential Library oral history archives, Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated that a carrier battle group, the U.S. 6th Fleet, sent on a training exercise toward Gibraltar was re-positioned back towards the eastern Mediterranean to be able to assist Israel during the Six-Day War of June 1967. Given the rapid Israeli advances following their strike on Egypt, the administration "thought the situation was so tense in Israel that perhaps the Syrians, fearing Israel would attack them, or the Soviets supporting the Syrians might wish to redress the balance of power and might attack Israel". The Soviets learned of this course correction and regarded it as an offensive move. In a hotline message from Moscow, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin said, "If you want war you're going to get war."
The Six-Day War and Israel
In March 1965, Johnson sent to Congress a transportation message which included the creation of a new Transportation Department - which would include the Commerce Department's Office of Transportation, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Aviation Agency, the Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The bill passed the Senate after some negotiation over navigation projects; in the house, passage required negotiation over maritime interests and he bill was signed October 15, 1965.
Biographers including Dallek have said that Johnson suffered "agonizing decisions" in the Vietnam war and felt it caused divisions both in the U.S. and abroad. Johnson was afraid that if he tried to defeat the North Vietnamese regime with an invasion of North Vietnam, rather than simply try to protect South Vietnam, he might provoke the Chinese to stage a full-scale military intervention similar to their intervention in 1950 during the Korean War, as well as provoke the Soviets into launching a full-scale military invasion of western Europe. It was not until the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s that it was finally confirmed that the Soviets had several thousand troops stationed in North Vietnam throughout the conflict, as did China.
|“||I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved—the Great Society—in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs.... But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.||”|
Johnson once summed up his perspective of the Vietnam War as follows:
Johnson often privately cursed the Vietnam War and, in a conversation with Robert McNamara, he assailed "the bunch of commies" running The New York Times for their articles against the war effort. 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."
A few analysts have theorized 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." The war grew less popular, and continued to split the Democratic Party. The Republican Party was not completely pro- or anti-war, and Nixon managed to get support from both groups by running on a reduction in troop levels with an eye toward eventually ending the campaign.
In March Johnson decided to restrict future bombing with the result that 90% of North Vietnam's population and 75% of its territory was off-limits to bombing. In April he succeeded in opening discussions of peace talks and after extensive negotiations over the site, Paris was agreed to and talks began in May. When the talks failed to yield any results the decision was made to resort to private discussions in Paris. Two months later it was apparent that private discussions proved to be no more productive. Despite recommendations in August from Harriman, Vance, Clifford and Bundy to halt bombing as an incentive for Hanoi to seriously engage in substantive peace talks, Johnson refused. In October when the parties came close to an agreement on a bombing halt, Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon intervened with the South Vietnamese, and made promises of better terms, so as to delay a settlement on the issue until after the election. After the election, Johnson's primary focus on Vietnam was to get Saigon to join the Paris peace talks. Ironically, only after Nixon added his urging did they do so. Even then they argued about procedural matters until after Nixon took office.
On January 30 came the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Tet offensive against South Vietnam’s five largest cities, including Saigon and the US embassy there and other government installations. While the Tet offensive failed militarily, it was a psychological victory, definitively turning American public opinion against the war effort. Iconically, Walter Cronkite of CBS news, voted the nation's "most trusted person" in February expressed his view on the air that the conflict was deadlocked and that additional fighting would change nothing. Johnson reacted, saying “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America”. Indeed, demoralization about the war was everywhere; 26% then approved of Johnson's handling of Vietnam; 63% disapproved. Johnson agreed to increase the troop level by 22,000, despite a recommendation from the Joint Chiefs for ten times that number, By March 1968 Johnson was secretly desperate for an honorable way out of the war. Clark Clifford, the new Defense Secretary, described the war as "a loser" and proposed to "cut losses and get out”. On March 31 Johnson spoke to the nation of “Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam". He then announced an immediate unilateral halt to the bombing of North Vietnam and announced his intention to seek out peace talks anywhere at anytime. At the close of his speech he also announced, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President".
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 thousands of hippies, yippies, Black Panthers and other opponents of Johnson's policies both in Vietnam and in the ghettos converged to protest. Thus by 1968, the public was polarized, with the "hawks" rejecting Johnson's refusal to continue the war indefinitely, and the "doves" rejecting his current war policies. Support for Johnson's middle position continued to shrink until he finally rejected containment and sought a peace settlement. By late summer, he realized that Nixon was closer to his position than Humphrey. He continued to support Humphrey publicly in the election, and personally despised Nixon. One of Johnson's well known quotes was "the Democratic party at its worst, is still better than the Republican party at its best".
With the exception of George Ball the "Wise Men” all agreed the administration should "press forward”. Johnson was confident that Hanoi would await the 1968 US election results before deciding to negotiate.
With the war still arguably in a stalemate and in light of the widespread disapproval of the conflict, Johnson convened a group called the "Wise Men" for a fresh, in-depth look at the war – Dean Acheson, Gen. Omar Bradley, George Ball, Mac Bundy, Arthur Dean, Douglas Dillon, Abe Fortas, Averell Harriman, Henry Cabot Lodge, Robert Murphy and Max Taylor. At that time McNamara, reversing his position on the war, recommended that a cap of 525,000 be placed on the number of forces deployed and that the bombing be halted, since he could see no success. Johnson was quite agitated by this recommendation and described McNamara as "ready to pull another Forrestal”– a reference to the suicide of former Defense Secretary James Forrestal. McNamara's resignation soon followed.
Fellow Democrat Tip O'Neill joined the ranks of those opposed to the war in late 1967. And with the ever increasing public protests against the war, in October Johnson engaged the FBI and the CIA to investigate, monitor and undermine antiwar activists. In mid-October there was a demonstration of 100,000 at the Pentagon; Johnson and Rusk were convinced that foreign communist sources were behind the demonstration, which was refuted by CIA findings.
Despite the election, the South Vietnam government remained incompetent and riddled with corruption; but, in September Ho Chi Minh and North Vietnamese premier Pham Van Dong appeared amenable to French mediation, so Johnson ceased bombing in a 10 mile zone around Hanoi; this was met with dissatisfaction. Johnson in a Texas speech agreed to halt all bombing if Ho Chi Minh would launch productive and meaningful discussions and if North Vietnam would not seek to take advantage of the halt; this was named the "San Antonio" formula. There was no response, but Johnson pursued the possibility of negotiations with such a bombing pause.
In August Johnson, with the Joint Chiefs' support, decided to expand the air campaign and exempted only Hanoi, Haiphong and a buffer zone with China from the target list. Later that month McNamara told a Senate subcommittee that an expanded air campaign would not bring Hanoi to the peace table – the Joint Chiefs were astounded, and threatened mass resignation – McNamara was summoned to the White House for a three-hour dressing down; nevertheless, Johnson had received reports from the CIA confirming McNamara's analysis at least in part. In the meantime an election establishing a constitutional government in the South was concluded and provided hope for peace talks.
By the middle of 1967 nearly 70,000 Americans had been killed or wounded in the war. In July, Johnson sent McNamara, Wheeler and other officials to meet with Westmoreland and reach agreement on plans for the immediate future. At that time the war was being commonly described by the press and others as a “stalemate”. Westmoreland said such a description was pure fiction, and that "we are winning slowly but steadily and the pace can excel if we reinforce our successes". Though Westmoreland sought many more, Johnson agreed to an increase of 55,000 troops bringing the total to 525,000  A Gallup poll in July showed 52% of the country disapproving of the president's handling of the war and only 34% thought progress was being made.
In March Robert Kennedy assumed a more public opposition to the war in a Senate speech. The fact of his opposition and probable candidacy for the presidency in 1968, according to Dallek, inhibited the embattled and embittered Johnson from employing a more realistic war policy. Johnson’s anger and frustration over the lack of a solution to Vietnam and its effect on him politically was exhibited in a statement to Kennedy. Johnson had just received several reports predicting military progress by the summer, and warned Kennedy, "I'll destroy you and every one of your dove friends in six months", he shouted. “You'll be dead politically in six months”. In June a decisive 66% of the country said they had lost confidence in the President’s leadership. McNamara actually offered Johnson a way out of Vietnam in May; the administration could declare its objective in the war – South Vietnam's self-determination – was being achieved and upcoming September elections in South Vietnam would provide the chance for a coalition government. The United States could reasonably expect that country to then assume responsibility for the election outcome. But Johnson was reluctant, in light of some optimistic reports, again of questionable reliability, which matched the negative assessments about the conflict and provided a glimmer of hope. The CIA was reporting wide food shortages in Hanoi and an unstable power grid, as well as military manpower reductions.
January and February 1967 included probes to detect North Vietnamese willingness to discuss peace and all fell on deaf ears. Ho Chi Minh declared that the only solution was a unilateral withdrawal by the U.S. Corrected military estimates released in March indicated a greater number of enemy-initiated actions between February 1966 and 1967; this exemplified the unreliability of information coming from the ground in Vietnam; similar discrepancies existed in measuring the movement of supplies and forces from North to South and assessing Vietcong manpower. In February Johnson nevertheless agreed to attacks on infiltration routes in Laos and fifty-four new targets in the North, as well as the mining of inland waterways to complement bombing.
By year’s end it was clear that current pacification efforts were ineffectual, as had been the air campaign. Johnson then agreed to McNamara's new recommendation to add 70,000 troops in 1967 to the 400,000 previously committed. While McNamara recommended no increase in the level of bombing, Johnson agreed with CIA recommendations to increase them. The increased bombing began despite initial secret talks in being held in Saigon, Hanoi and Warsaw. While the bombing ended the talks, North Vietnamese intentions were not considered genuine.
In the fall of 1966 however, multiple sources began to report progress was being made against the North Vietnamese logistics and infrastructure; Johnson was urged from every corner to begin peace discussions.There was no shortage of peace initiatives; nevertheless, among protesters, English philosopher Bertrand Russell attacked Johnson's policy as "a barbaric aggressive war of conquest" and in June he initiated the International War Crimes Tribunal as a means to condemn the American effort. The gap with Hanoi was an unbridgeable demand on both sides for a unilateral end to bombing and withdrawal of forces. In August, Johnson appointed Averell Harriman "Ambassador for Peace” to promote negotiations. Westmoreland and McNamara then recommended a concerted program to promote pacification; Johnson formally placed this effort under military control in October. Also in October 1966, to reassure and promote his war effort, Johnson initiated a meeting with allies in Manila – the South Vietnamese, Thais, South Koreans, Filipinos, Australians and New Zealanders. The conference ended with pronouncements to stand fast against communist aggression and to promote ideals of democracy and development in Vietnam and across Asia. For Johnson it was a fleeting public relations success – confirmed by a 63% Vietnam approval rating in November. Nevertheless, in December Johnson's Vietnam approval rating was again back down in the 40s; LBJ had become anxious to justify war casualties, and talked of the need for decisive victory, despite the unpopularity of the cause. In a discussion about the war with former President Dwight Eisenhower on October 3, 1966, 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."
Public as well as political impatience with the war began to emerge in the spring of 1966. At the time, when Johnson's approval ratings were reaching new lows of 41%, Sen. Richard Russell, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, reflected the national mood in June 1966, when he declared it was time to "get it over or get out”. Johnson responded by saying to the press, "we are trying to provide the maximum deterrence that we can to communist aggression with a minimum of cost.” In response to the intensified criticism of the war effort, Johnson employed the suspicion of communist subversion in the country, and press relations became strained. Johnson's primary war policy opponent in Congress included among others the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, James William Fulbright. The persistent Johnson began to seriously consider a more focused bombing campaign against petroleum, oil and lubrication facilities in North Vietnam in hopes of accelerating victory. Humphrey, Rusk and McNamara all agreed; the bombing began the end of June. In July polling results indicated that Americans favored the bombing campaign by a 5 to 1 margin; however, in August a Defense Department study indicated that the bombing campaign had little impact on North Vietnam.
At the end of 1965 after consultation with the joint Chiefs and other advisers Johnson decided to increase troops at the rate of 15,000 per month throughout 1966 rather than increasing them at one time, in order to avoid a more publicized increase. At the same time there was deliberation over a bombing pause and Johnson finally agreed on December 28 to a pause and a corresponding "peace offensive"; the pause in bombing and the peace blitz ended January 31without discernible effect. Disturbed by criticism of the war, then underscored with public hearings by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, Johnson convened a second Honolulu conference, and personally attended for three days along with Ambassador. Lodge, Gen. Westmoreland, the Vietnamese Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky. In April 1966 Johnson was encouraged by statistics that the Vietcong had suffered greater numbers of casualties than the South Vietnamese; at the same time, despite urgings in Honolulu to strengthen his internal affairs, Prime Minister Ky’s administration was increasingly vulnerable to rebel forces. The administration pressured Ky to hasten a transfer of power to an assembly but he demurred.
Polls showed that beginning in 1965, the public was consistently 40–50 percent hawkish and 10–25 percent dovish. Johnson's aides told him, "Both hawks and doves [are frustrated with the war] ... and take it out on you." 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; he made very few speeches about Vietnam, and held 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."
After a conference of advisors in Honolulu in April 1965, by the middle of June the total US ground forces in Vietnam were increased to 82,000 or by 150%. On May 2, 1965 Johnson told congressional leaders that he wanted an additional $700 million for Vietnam and the Dominican Republic saying "each member of Congress who supports this request is voting to continue our effort to try to hold communist aggression". The request was approved by the House 408 to 7 and by the Senate 88 to 3. In June Ambassador Taylor reported that the bombing offensive against North Vietnam had been ineffective, and that the South Vietnamese army was outclassed and in danger of collapse. Gen. Westmoreland shortly thereafter recommended the president further increase ground troops from 82,000 to 175,000. After consulting with his principals, Johnson, desirous of a low profile, chose to announce at a press conference an increase to 125,000 troops, with additional forces to be sent later upon request. In order to mute his announcement, Johnson at the same time announced the nomination of Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court and John Chancellor as director of the Voice of America. Johnson described himself at the time as boxed in by unpalatable choices – between sending Americans to die in Vietnam and giving in to the communists. If he sent additional troops he would be attacked as an interventionist and if he did not he thought he risked being impeached. He continued to insist that his decision "did not imply any change in policy whatsoever". Of his desire to veil the decision, Johnson jested privately, "If you have a mother-in-law with only one eye, and she has it in the center of her forehead, you don't keep her in the living room". By October 1965 there were over 200,000 troops deployed in Vietnam.
In early 1965 Johnson sent marines to the Dominican Republic to protect the embassy there and to respond to yet another perceived communist threat. That spring an agreement was reached at the urging of the OAS and the US to end the uprising; this crisis reinforced Johnson’s belief it was essential to convince supporters and opponents at home and abroad that he had an effective strategy to meet the communist challenge in Vietnam.
In March Bundy began to urge the use of ground forces – American air operations alone he counseled would not stop Hanoi's aggression against the South. Johnson approved an increase in logistical troops of 18,000 to 20,000, the deployment of two additional Marine battalions and a Marine air squadron, in addition to planning for the deployment of two more divisions – and most importantly a change in mission from defensive to offensive operations; nevertheless, he disobligingly continued to insist that this was not to be publicly represented as a change in existing policy.
Johnson decided on a systematic bombing campaign in February after a ground report from Bundy recommending immediate US action to avoid defeat; also, the Vietcong had just killed eight US advisers and wounded dozens of others in an attack at Pleiku Air Base. The eight week bombing campaign became known as Operation Rolling Thunder. Johnson's instructions for public consumption were clear – there was to be no comment that the war effort had been expanded. Long term estimates of the bombing campaign ranged from an expectation that Hanoi would rein in the Vietcong to one of provoking Hanoi and the Vietcong into an intensification of the war. But the short-term expectations were consistent - that the morale and stability of the South Vietnamese government would be bolstered. By limiting the information given out to the public and even to Congress, Johnson maximized his flexibility to change course.
in the winter of 1964-65 Johnson was pressured by the military to begin a bombing campaign to forcefully resist a communist takeover in South Vietnam; moreover, a plurality in the polls at the time were in favor of military action against the communists, with only 26 to 30% opposed. Johnson revised his priorities, and a new preference for stronger action came at the end of January with yet another change of government in Saigon. He then agreed with Mac Bundy and McNamara, that the continued passive role would only lead to defeat and withdrawal in humiliation. Johnson said, “Stable government or no stable government in Saigon we will do what we ought to do. I'm prepared to do that; we will move strongly. General Nguyen Khanh (head of the new government) is our boy".
Johnson in late summer 1964 seriously questioned the value of staying in Vietnam but, after meeting with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell D. Taylor, declared his readiness “to do more when we had a base" or when Saigon was politically more stable. In the 1964 presidential campaign, he restated his determination to provide measured support for Vietnam while avoiding another Korea; but privately he had a sense of foreboding about Vietnam – a feeling that no matter what he did things would end badly. Indeed his heart was on his Great Society agenda, and he even felt that his political opponents favored greater intervention in Vietnam in order to divert attention and resources away from his War on Poverty. The situation on the ground was aggravated in the fall by additional Viet Minh attacks on US ships in the Tonkin Gulf, as well as an attack on Bien Hoa airbase in South Vietnam. Johnson decided against retaliatory action at the time after consultation with the Joint Chiefs and also after Lou Harris confirmed that his decision would not detrimentally affect him at the polls. By the end of 1964, there were approximately 23,000 military personnel in South Vietnam. U.S. casualties for 1964 totaled 1,278.
Johnson ascribed to the Domino Theory in Vietnam and to a containment policy that required America to make a serious effort to stop all Communist expansion. At Kennedy's death, there were 16,000 American military personnel in Vietnam. Johnson immediately reversed Kennedy's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. He expanded the numbers and roles of the American military following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident soon after the Republican Convention of 1964.
In October 1966, Johnson became the first serving U.S. president to visit Australia. His visit sparked demonstrations from anti-war protesters.
By year's end, the Democratic governor of  In the congressional elections of 1966, the Republicans gained three seats in the Senate and 47 in the House, reinvigorating the conservative coalition and making it more difficult for Johnson to pass any additional Great Society legislation. However, in the end Congress passed almost 96% of the administration's Great Society programs, which Johnson then signed into law.
In 1966 the press sensed a "credibility gap" between what Johnson was saying in press conferences and what was happening on the ground in Vietnam, which led to much less favorable coverage.
Backlash against Johnson: 1966–67
The biggest wave of riots came April 1968 in over a hundred cities after the assassination of Martin Luther King. 
Major riots in black neighborhoods caused a series of "long hot summers." They started with a violent disturbance in Harlem riots in 1964, and the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965, and extended to 1971. The momentum for the advancement of civil rights came to a sudden halt in the summer of 1965, with the riots in Watts. After 34 lives were lost, along with $35 million in property damage, the public feared an expansion of the violence to other cities, and so the appetite was lost for additional programs in LBJ's agenda.
During Johnson's administration, NASA conducted the Gemini manned space program, developed the Saturn V rocket and its launch facility, and prepared to make the first manned Apollo program flights. On January 27, 1967, the nation was stunned when the entire crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a cabin fire during a spacecraft test on the launch pad, stopping Apollo in its tracks. Rather than appointing another Warren-style commission, Johnson accepted Administrator James E. Webb's request for NASA to do its own investigation, holding itself accountable to Congress and the President. Johnson maintained his staunch support of Apollo through Congressional and press controversy, and the program recovered. The first two manned missions, Apollo 7 and the first manned flight to the Moon, Apollo 8, were completed by the end of Johnson's term. He congratulated the Apollo 8 crew, saying, "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era." On July 16, 1969, Johnson attended the launch of the first Moon landing mission Apollo 11, becoming the first former or incumbent US president to witness a rocket launch.
On October 22, 1968, Lyndon Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968, one of the largest and farthest-reaching federal gun control laws in American history. Much of the motivation for this large expansion of federal gun regulations came as a response to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr..
Gun control and the space program
As a back-up position, in 1965 Johnson turned his focus to hospital insurance for the aged under Social Security. The key player in initiating this program, named Medicare, was Wilbur Mills, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In order to reduce Republican opposition, Mills suggested that Medicare be fashioned as a three layer cake – hospital insurance under Social Security, a voluntary insurance program for doctor visits and an expanded medical welfare program for the poor, known as Medicaid. The bill passed the house by a margin of 110 votes on April 8. The effort in the Senate was considerably more complicated; however, the Medicare bill passed Congress on July 28 after negotiation in a conference committee. Medicare now covers tens of millions of Americans. Johnson gave the first two Medicare cards to former President Harry S Truman and his wife Bess after signing the Medicare bill at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
Johnson's initial effort to improve healthcare was the creation of The Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Strokes (HDCS). Combined, these diseases accounted for 71% of the nation's deaths in 1962. To enact recommendations of the commission, Johnson asked Congress for funds to set up the Regional Medical Program (RMP), to create a network of hospitals with federally funded research and practice; Congress passed a significantly watered down version.
Johnson took an additional step in the War on Poverty with an urban renewal effort, presenting to Congress in January 1966 the "Demonstration Cities Program". To be eligible a city would need to demonstrate its readiness to "arrest blight and decay and make substantial impact on the development of its entire city.” Johnson requested an investment of $400 million per year totaling $2.4 billion. In the fall of 1966 the Congress passed a substantially reduced program costing $900 million, which Johnson later called the Model Cities Program. Changing the name had little effect on the success of the bill; the New York Times wrote 22 years later that the program was for the most part a failure.
In 1964, at Johnson's request, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act, as part of the war on poverty. Johnson set in motion legislation creating programs such as Head Start, food stamps and Work Study. During Johnson's years in office, national poverty declined significantly, with the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line dropping from 23% to 12%.
"War on Poverty" and healthcare reform
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 K-12 teachers' unions, neither the Higher Education Act nor the new endowments mollified the college professors and students growing increasingly uneasy with the war in Vietnam. In 1967, Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act to create educational television programs to supplement the broadcast networks.
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 proportions of students from poor families (which included all the big cities). For the first time private schools (most of them Catholic schools in the inner cities) received services, such as library funding, comprising about 12 percent of the ESEA budget. Though federal funds were involved, they were administered by local officials, and by 1977 it was reported that less than half of the funds were actually applied toward the education of children under the poverty line. Dallek further reports that researchers cited by Hugh Davis Graham soon found that poverty had more to do with family background and neighborhood conditions than the quantity of education a child received. Early studies suggested initial improvements for poor children helped by ESEA reading and math programs, but later assessments indicated that benefits faded quickly and left pupils little better off than those not in the schemes. 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.
Johnson, whose own ticket out of poverty was a public education in Texas, fervently believed that education was a cure for 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 the top priority of the Great Society agenda, with an emphasis on helping poor children. After the 1964 landslide brought in many new liberal Congressmen, LBJ launched a legislative effort which took the name of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. The bill sought to double federal spending on education from $4 billion to $8 billion.; with considerable facilitating by the White House, it passed the House by a vote of 263 to 153 on March 26 and then it remarkably passed without change in the Senate, by 73 to 8, without going through the usual conference committee. This was an historic accomplishment by the president, with the billion dollar bill passing as introduced just 87 days before.
Federal funding for education
With the passage of the sweeping Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the country's immigration system was reformed and all national origins quotas dating from the 1920s were removed. The annual rate of inflow doubled between 1965 and 1970, and doubled again by 1990, with dramatic increases from Asia and Mexico. Scholars give Johnson little credit for the law, which was not one of his priorities; he had supported the McCarren-Walters Act of 1952 that was unpopular with reformers.
In 1967, Johnson nominated civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. To head the new Department of Housing and Urban Development, Johnson appointed Robert C. Weaver—the first African-American cabinet secretary in any U.S. presidential administration. In 1968 Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The impetus for the law's passage came from the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement, the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil unrest across the country following King's death. On April 5, Johnson wrote a letter to the United States House of Representatives urging passage of the Fair Housing Act. With newly urgent attention from legislative director Joseph Califano and Democratic Speaker of the House John McCormack, the bill (which was previously stalled) passed the House by a wide margin on April 10.
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." Johnson was the first President to arrest and prosecute members of the Klan since Ulysses S. Grant about earlier. He turned to themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, thereby mobilizing support from churches North and South. At the Howard University commencement address on June 4, 1965, 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 color 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...
 The Senate passed the voting rights bill by a vote of 77-19 just after 2 1/2 months and won passage in the house in July, by 333-85. The results were significant—between the years of 1968 and 1980, the number of southern black elected state and federal officeholders nearly doubled. The act also made a large difference in the numbers of black elected officials nationally—in 1965, a few hundred black office-holders mushroomed to 6,000 in 1989. In 1965, he achieved passage of a second civil rights bill called the  Johnson gave a congressional speech – Dallek considers it his greatest – in which he said "rarely at anytime does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself…rarely are we met with the challenge… to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation."
Johnson began his elected presidential term with similar motives as he had upon succeeding to the office, ready to "carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right." He was reticent to push southern congressmen even further after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and suspected their support may have been temporarily tapped out. Nevertheless, the civil rights campaign in Selma Alabama led by Martin Luther King ultimately lead Johnson to initiate debate on a voting rights bill in February 1965.
Voting Rights Act
Early in the 1964 presidential campaign, Barry Goldwater appeared to be a strong contender, with strong support from the South, which threatened Johnson's position as he had predicted in reaction to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. However, Goldwater lost momentum as his campaign progressed. On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign managers 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 the visual showed the explosion of a nuclear bomb. The message conveyed was that electing Goldwater president held the danger of a nuclear war. Goldwater’s campaign message was best symbolized by the bumper sticker displayed by supporters claiming “In your heart, you know he's right.". Opponents captured the spirit of Johnson's campaign with bumper stickers that said “In your heart, you know he might” and “In your gut, you know he's nuts". Johnson won the presidency by a landslide with 61.05 percent of the vote, making it the highest ever share of the popular vote. At the time, this was also the widest popular margin in the 20th century – more than 15.95 million votes – this was later surpassed by incumbent President Nixon's victory in 1972. Voters also gave Johnson the largest majorities in Congress since FDR's election in 1936 – a Senate with a 68-32 majority and a house with a 295-140 Democratic margin.
In fact, Johnson was very concerned about potential political damage from media coverage of racial tensions exposed by a credentials fight between the MFDP and the segregationist delegation, and he assigned Humphrey the job of managing the problem. The convention’s Credentials Committee declared that two MFDP delegates in the delegation be seated as observers and agreed to "bar future delegations from states where any citizens are deprived of the right to vote by reason of their race or color." The MFDP rejected the committee's ruling. The convention became the apparent personal triumph that Johnson craved, but a sense of betrayal caused by the marginalization of the MFDP would trigger disaffection with Johnson and the Democratic Party from the left; SNCC chairman John Lewis would call it a "turning point in the civil rights movement."
In preparation for the Democratic convention, Johnson requested the FBI send a squad of 30 agents to cover convention activities; the objective of the squad was to inform the White House staff of any disruptive activities on the floor. The squad's focus narrowed upon the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegation, which sought to displace the white segregationist delegation regularly selected in the state. The squad’s activities also included wiretaps of Martin Luther King's room as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). From beginning to end, the squad's assignment was carefully couched in terms of the monitoring of disruptive activities that might endanger the president and other high-ranking officials.
That same year, Robert F. Kennedy was widely considered an impeccable choice to run as Johnson' vice-president but Johnson and Kennedy however had never liked one another and Johnson, afraid that Kennedy would be credited with his election as president, abhorred the idea and opposed it at every turn. Kennedy was himself undecided about the position and, knowing that the prospect rankled Johnson, was content in refusing to eliminate himself from consideration. Ultimately, Goldwater’s poor polling numbers degraded any dependence Johnson might have on Kennedy as running mate. Hubert Humphrey’s selection as vice president then became a foregone conclusion, and was thought to strengthen Johnson in the Midwest and industrial Northeast. Johnson, knowing full well the degree of frustration inherent in the office of vice president, put Humphrey through a gauntlet of interviews to guarantee his absolute loyalty and having made the decision, he kept the announcement from the press until the last moment to maximize media speculation and coverage.
In Spring 1964, Johnson did not look optimistically upon the prospect of being elected as president in his own right. A pivotal change took place in April when he assumed personal management of negotiations between the railroad brotherhood and the railroad industry over the issue of featherbedding. Johnson emphasized to the parties the potential impact upon the economy of a strike. After considerable horse trading, especially with the carriers who won promises from the president for greater freedom in setting rights and more liberal depreciation allowances by the IRS, Johnson got an agreement. This substantially boosted his self-confidence as well as his image.
1964 presidential election
In August 1964, allegations arose from the military that two US destroyers had been attacked by some North Vietnamese torpedo boats in international waters 40 miles (2,500,000 in) from the Vietnamese coast in the Gulf of Tonkin; naval communications and reports of the attack were contradictory. Although Johnson very much wanted to keep discussions about Vietnam out of the 1964 election campaign, he felt forced to respond to the supposed aggression by the Vietnamese, so he sought and obtained from the Congress the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7. Johnson, determined to embolden his image on foreign policy, also wanted to prevent criticism such as Truman had received in Korea by proceeding without congressional endorsement of military action; a response to the purported attack as well blunted presidential campaign criticism of weakness from the hawkish Goldwater camp. The resolution gave congressional approval for use of military force by the commander-in-chief to repel future attacks and also to assist members of SEATO requesting assistance. Johnson later in the campaign expressed assurance that the primary US goal remained the preservation of South Vietnamese independence through material and advice, as opposed to any US offensive posture. The public's reaction to the resolution at the time was positive – 48% favored stronger measures in Vietnam and only 14% wanted to negotiate a settlement and leave. Retrospectively, the resolution was based on an incorrect assumption of North Vietnamese aggression, according to Johnson's later admission.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Johnson wanted a catchy slogan for the 1964 campaign to describe his proposed domestic agenda for 1965. Eric Goldman, who joined the White House in December of that year, thought Johnson's domestic program was best captured in the title of Walter Lippman's book, The Good Society. Richard Goodwin tweaked it – to "The Great Society" and incorporated this in detail as part of a speech for Johnson in May 1964 at the University of Michigan. It encompassed movements of urban renewal, modern transportation, clean environment, anti-poverty, healthcare reform, crime control, and educational reform.
The Great Society
Passing the civil rights bill in the house required getting it through the Rules Committee, which had been holding it up in an attempt to kill it. Johnson decided on a campaign to use a discharge petition to force it onto the house floor. Facing a growing threat that they would be bypassed, the House rules committee approved the bill and moved it to the floor of the full house, which passed it shortly thereafter by a vote of 290–110. In the Senate, since the tax bill had passed three days earlier, the anti-civil-rights senators were left with the filibuster as their only remaining tool. Overcoming the filibuster required the support of over twenty Republicans, who were growing less supportive due to the fact that their party was about to nominate for president a candidate who opposed the bill. According to Caro, it was ultimately Johnson's ability to convince Republican leader Everett Dirksen to support the bill that amassed the necessary Republican votes to overcome the filibuster in March 1964; after 75 hours of debate, the bill passed the senate by a vote of 71–29. Johnson signed the fortified Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2. Legend has it that as he put down his pen Johnson told an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation", anticipating a coming backlash from Southern whites against Johnson's Democratic Party.
Johnson was quite familiar with the procedural tactic, as he played a role in a similar tactic against the civil rights bill that Harry Truman had submitted to congress fifteen years earlier. In that fight, a rent-control renewal bill was held up until the civil-rights bill was withdrawn. Believing that the current course meant that the Civil Rights Act would suffer the same fate, he adopted a different strategy from that of Kennedy, who had mostly removed himself from the legislative process. By tackling the tax cut first, the previous tactic was eliminated.
President Kennedy had submitted a civil-rights bill to congress in June 1963, which was met with strong opposition. Johnson renewed the effort and asked Bobby Kennedy to spearhead the undertaking for the administration on Capitol Hill. This provided adequate political cover for Johnson should the effort fail; but if it were successful, Johnson would receive ample credit. Historian Robert Caro notes that the bill Kennedy had submitted was facing the same tactics that prevented the passage of civil rights bills in the past; southern congressmen and senators used congressional procedure to prevent it from coming to a vote. In particular, they held up all of the major bills Kennedy had proposed and that were considered urgent, especially the tax reform bill, in order to force the bill's supporters to pull it.
The new president thought it advantageous to quickly pursue one of Kennedy's primary legislative goals – a tax cut. Johnson worked closely with Harry F. Byrd of Virginia to negotiate a reduction in the budget below $100 billion in exchange for what became overwhelming Senate approval of the Revenue Act of 1964. Congressional approval followed at the end of February, and facilitated efforts to follow on civil rights. In late 1963 Johnson also launched the initial offensive of his War on Poverty, recruiting Kennedy relative Sargent Shriver, then head of the Peace Corps, to spearhead the effort. In March 1964, LBJ sent to Congress the Economic Opportunity Act, which created the Job Corps and the Community Action Program, designed to attack poverty locally. The act also created VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, a domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps.
Rapid legislative initiatives
 was the youngest member of Johnson's staff. He handled scheduling and speechwriting part-time.Bill Moyers  Horace Busby was another "triple-threat man," as Johnson referred to his aides. He served primarily as a speech writer and political analyst. Johnson retained senior Kennedy appointees, some for the full term of his presidency; this includes the Kennedy's brother
Johnson was alert to the public demand for answers. To head off snowballing speculation about such conspiracies, he immediately created a panel headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, known as the Warren Commission, to investigate Kennedy's assassination. The commission conducted extensive research and hearings and unanimously concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination. Conspiracy theorists were not satisfied and they kept active for decades.
On November 29, 1963 just one week after Kennedy's assassination, Johnson issued an executive order to rename NASA's Apollo Launch Operations Center and the NASA/Air Force Cape Canaveral launch facilities as the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Cape Canaveral was officially known as Cape Kennedy from 1963-1973.
In the days following the assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson made an address to Congress saying that "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long." The wave of national grief following the assassination gave enormous momentum to Johnson's promise to carry out Kennedy's plans.
Johnson was quickly sworn in as President on the Air Force One plane at Love Field in Dallas on November 22, 1963, just 2 hours and 8 minutes after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, amid suspicions of a conspiracy against the government. He was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a family friend, making him the first (and so far only) President sworn in by a woman. He is also the only President to have been sworn in upon Texas soil. In the rush, a Bible was not at hand, so Johnson took the oath of office using a Roman Catholic missal from President Kennedy's desk. Johnson being sworn in as president has become the most famous photo ever taken aboard a presidential aircraft. He was convinced of the need to make an immediate transition of power after the assassination to provide stability to a grieving nation under shock. Concerned that he as well could be a target of a conspiracy, he and the secret service felt compelled to rapidly remove the new president from Dallas and return him to Washington. Naturally, this was greeted by some with assertions of Johnson being in way too much haste to assume power.
Johnson was touched by a Senate scandal in August 1963 when Bobby Baker, the Senate Majority Secretary and a protégé of Johnson's, came under investigation by the Senate Rules Committee for allegations of bribery and financial malfeasance. One witness alleged that Baker had arranged for the witness to give kickbacks for the Vice President. Baker resigned in October, and the investigation stopped from expanding to Johnson. The negative publicity from the affair fed rumors in Washington circles that Kennedy was planning on dropping Johnson from the Democratic ticket in the upcoming 1964 presidential election. However, when a reporter asked on October 31, 1963, if he intended and expected to have Johnson on the ticket the following year, Kennedy replied, "Yes to both those questions."
Kennedy also appointed Johnson Chairman of the National Aeronautics Space Council. When, in April 1961, the Soviets beat the US with the first manned spaceflight, Kennedy tasked Johnson with evaluating the state of the US space program, and recommending a project that would allow the US to catch up or beat the Soviets. Johnson responded with a recommendation that the US gain the leadership role by committing the resources to embark on a project to land an American on the Moon in the 1960s. While Kennedy assigned priority to the space program, Johnson's appointment provided potential cover in case of a failure.
Kennedy, however, made efforts to keep Johnson busy, informed, and at the White House often, telling aides "I can't afford to have my vice president, who knows every reporter in Washington, going around saying we're all screwed up, so we're going to keep him happy." Kennedy appointed him to 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 may have intended this to remain a more nominal position, Taylor Branch in Pillar of Fire contends that Johnson served to push the Kennedy administration's actions for civil rights further and faster than Kennedy originally 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, Pennsylvania as being a catalyst that led to more action. Johnson took on numerous minor diplomatic missions, which gave him limited insights into global issues, as well as opportunities at self-promotion in the name of showing the country's flag. He was allowed to observe Cabinet and National Security Council meetings. Kennedy gave Johnson control over all presidential appointments involving Texas, and appointed him chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science.
Moreover, many members of the Kennedy White House, including the president's brother and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were contemptuous of Johnson and ridiculed his comparatively brusque, crude manner. Congressman Tip O'Neill recalled that the Kennedy men "had a disdain for Johnson that they didn't even try to hide....They actually took pride in snubbing him."
Johnson sought to increase his influence within the Executive Branch; he drafted an executive order for Kennedy's signature, granting Johnson "general supervision" over matters of national security and requiring all government agencies to "cooperate fully with the vice president in the carrying out of these assignments." Kennedy's response was to sign a non-binding letter requesting Johnson to "review" national security policies instead. Kennedy similarly turned down early requests from Johnson to be given an office adjacent to the Oval Office, and to employ a full-time Vice Presidential staff within the White House. His lack of influence was thrown into relief later in 1961 when Kennedy appointed Johnson's friend Sarah T. Hughes to a federal judgeship; whereas Johnson had tried and failed to garner the nomination for Hughes at the beginning of his vice presidency, House Speaker Sam Rayburn wrangled the appointment from Kennedy in exchange for support of an administration bill.
After the election, Johnson was quite concerned about the traditional feckless nature of his new office, and set about to assume authority not allotted to the position. He initially sought a transfer of the authority of Senate majority leader to the vice presidency, since that office made him president of the Senate, but faced vehement opposition from the Democratic Caucus, including members he had counted as his supporters.
Johnson was re-elected 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 replace Johnson as Senator, but Blakley lost a special election in May 1961 to Tower.
At the same time as his Vice Presidential run, Johnson also sought a third term in the U.S. Senate. According to Robert Caro, "On November 8, 1960, Lyndon Johnson won election for both the vice presidency of the United States, on the Kennedy-Johnson ticket, and for a third term as Senator (he had Texas law changed to allow him to run for both offices). When he won the vice presidency, he made arrangements to resign from the Senate, as he was required to do under federal law, as soon as it convened on January 3, 1961." (In 1988, George H. W. Bush.)
Caro continues in his analysis, that Robert Kennedy tried to get Johnson to agree to be the Democratic Party chairman rather than vice president. Johnson refused to accept a change in plans unless it came directly from John Kennedy. Despite his brother's interference, John Kennedy was firm that Johnson was who he wanted as running mate; he met with staffers such as Larry O'Brien, his national campaign manager, to say Johnson was to be vice president. O'Brien recalled later that John Kennedy's words were wholly unexpected, but that after a brief consideration of the electoral vote situation, he thought "it was a stroke of genius". When John and Robert Kennedy next saw their father, Joe Kennedy, he told them signing Johnson as running mate was the smartest thing they had ever done.
Biographer Robert Caro offered a different perspective; he wrote that the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win what was forecast to be a very close election against Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.. Johnson was needed on the ticket to help carry Texas and the Southern states. Caro's research showed that on July 14, John Kennedy started the process while Johnson was still asleep. At 6:30 am John Kennedy asked Robert Kennedy to prepare an estimate of upcoming electoral votes "including Texas". Robert called Pierre Salinger and Kenneth O'Donnell to assist him; realizing the ramifications of counting Texas votes as their own, Salinger asked him whether he was considering a Kennedy-Johnson ticket, and Robert replied "yes". Caro contends it was then that John Kennedy called Johnson to arrange a meeting; he also called Pennsylvania governor David L. Lawrence, a Johnson backer, to request he nominate Johnson for vice president if Johnson were to accept the role. According to Caro, Kennedy and Johnson met and Johnson said Kennedy would have trouble with Kennedy supporters who were anti–Johnson. Kennedy returned to his suite to announce the Kennedy-Johnson ticket to his closest supporters including northern political bosses. O'Donnell was angry at what he considered a betrayal by Kennedy, who had previously cast Johnson as anti-labor and anti-liberal. Afterward, Robert Kennedy visited with labor leaders who were extremely unhappy with the choice of Johnson and after seeing the depth of labor opposition to Johnson, Robert ran messages between the hotel suites of his brother and Johnson—apparently trying to undermine the proposed ticket without John Kennedy's authorization.
Seymour Hersh revealed that Robert F. Kennedy hated Johnson for his attacks on the Kennedy family, and therefore later maintained his brother offered the position to Johnson merely as a courtesy, expecting him to decline. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. also concurred with Robert Kennedy's version of events, and alleged that John Kennedy would have preferred Stuart Symington as his running-mate but Johnson teamed with House Speaker Sam Rayburn and pressured Kennedy to favor Johnson.
In regard to Johnson's nomination as the vice-presidential candidate, it is impossible to reconstruct the precise manner in which the nomination ultimately took place - this according to Kennedy's Special Counsel Myer Feldman as well as Kennedy himself. Kennedy did realize he could not be elected without support of traditional Southern Democrats, most of whom had backed Johnson; nevertheless, labor leaders were unanimous in their opposition to Johnson. After much back and forth with party leaders and others on the matter, the morning after he was nominated, Kennedy did offer Johnson the vice-presidential nomination at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel at 10:15 am on July 14 and Johnson accepted. From that point to the actual nomination that evening, the facts are in many respects quite in dispute. (Convention Chairman Leroy Collins' declaration of a two-thirds majority in favor by voice vote is even disputed.)
Johnson attempted in vain to capitalize on Kennedy's youth, poor health and failure to take a position regarding Joseph McCarthy. After the failure of the "Stop Kennedy" coalition he had formed with Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington and Hubert Humphrey, Johnson received 409 votes on the 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 know you have to support Kennedy at the start, but I'd like to have you with me on the second ballot." O'Neill replied, "Senator, there's not going to be any second ballot."
Johnson's success in the Senate rendered him a potential Democratic presidential candidate; he had been the "favorite son" candidate of the Texas delegation at the Party's national convention in 1956, and appeared to be in a strong position to run for the 1960 nomination. Jim Rowe repeatedly urged Johnson to launch a campaign in early 1959, but Johnson thought it better to wait, thinking that John Kennedy's efforts would create a division in the ranks which could then be exploited. Rowe finally joined the Humphrey campaign in frustration, another move which Johnson thought played into his own strategy. Johnson's late entry into the campaign in July 1960, coupled with a reluctance to leave Washington, allowed the rival Kennedy campaign to secure a substantial early advantage among Democratic state party officials. Johnson underestimated Kennedy's endearing qualities of charm and intelligence, as compared to his own reputation as the more crude and wheeling-dealing "Landslide Lyndon". Caro opines that Johnson's hesitancy was the result of an overwhelming fear of failure.
- The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the Johnson Ranch swimming pool, in one of Johnson'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 and 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.
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 ever known", discovering exactly where every Senator stood on issues, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses and what it took to get his vote. Robert Baker claimed that Johnson would occasionally send senators on NATO trips in order to avoid their dissenting votes. Central to Johnson's control was "The Treatment", described by two journalists:
A 60-cigarette-per-day smoker, Johnson suffered a near-fatal heart attack on July 2, 1955. He abruptly gave up smoking as a result, with only a couple of exceptions, and did not resume the habit until he left the White House on January 20, 1969. During the Suez Crisis, Johnson supported the Anglo-French military attempt to topple the Egyptian president Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, and tried to prevent the US government from criticizing the Israeli invasion of the Sinai peninsula. Along with the rest of the nation, Johnson was appalled by the threat of possible Soviet domination of space flight implied by the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, and used his influence to ensure passage of the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act, which established the civilian space agency NASA.
In the 1952 general election Republicans won a majority in both the House and Senate. Among defeated Democrats that year was McFarland, who lost to upstart Barry Goldwater. In January 1953, Johnson was chosen by his fellow Democrats to be the minority leader; he became the most junior Senator ever elected to this position. One of his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in appointment to a committee, while retaining it for chairmanships. In the 1954 election, Johnson was re-elected to the Senate, and since the Democrats won the majority in the Senate, Johnson then became majority leader. Former majority leader William Knowland became minority leader. Johnson's duties were to schedule legislation and help pass measures favored by the Democrats. Johnson, Rayburn and President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked well together in passing Eisenhower's domestic and foreign agenda.
Senate Democratic leader
Johnson was appointed to the Senate 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 revealed old investigations and demanded actions that were already being taken in part by the Truman Administration, although it can be said that the committee's investigations reinforced the need for changes. Johnson's brilliant handling of the press, the efficiency with 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. Johnson used his political influence in the Senate to receive broadcast licenses from the Federal Communications Commission in his wife's name. After the 1950 general elections, Johnson was chosen as Senate Majority Whip in 1951 under the new Majority Leader, Ernest McFarland of Arizona, and served from 1951 to 1953.
Once in the Senate, Johnson was known among his colleagues for his highly successful "courtships" of older senators, especially Senator Conservative coalition and arguably the most powerful man in the Senate. Johnson proceeded to gain Russell's favor in the same way that he had "courted" Speaker Sam Rayburn and gained his crucial support in the House.
Freshman senator to majority whip
The runoff count, handled by the Democratic State Central Committee (because this was a party primary) took a week; Johnson was finally announced the winner by 87 votes out of 988,295 cast. By a majority of one (29–28), the Committee voted to certify Johnson's nomination, with the last vote cast on Johnson's behalf by Temple, Texas, publisher Frank W. Mayborn. There were many allegations of voter fraud; one writer alleges that Johnson's campaign manager, future Texas governor John B. Connally, was connected with 202 ballots in Precinct 13 in Jim Wells County that had curiously been cast in alphabetical order, just at the close of polling. Some of these voters insisted that they had not voted that day. Robert Caro argued in his 1989 book that Johnson had thus stolen the election in Jim Wells County, and that 10,000 ballots were also rigged in Bexar County alone. An election judge, Luis Salas, said in 1977, that he had certified 202 fraudulent ballots for Johnson. The state Democratic convention upheld Johnson. Stevenson went to court, but—with timely help from his friend Abe Fortas—Johnson prevailed. He soundly defeated Republican Jack Porter in the general election in November and went to Washington, permanently dubbed "Landslide Lyndon,"; Johnson, dismissive of his critics, happily adopted the nickname.
In the 1948 elections, Johnson again ran for the Senate and won in a highly controversial result. In a three-way Democratic Party primary Johnson faced a well-known former governor, Coke Stevenson, and a third candidate. Johnson drew crowds to fairgrounds with his rented helicopter dubbed "The Johnson City Windmill". He raised money to flood the state with campaign circulars and won over conservatives by voting for the Taft-Hartley act (curbing union power) as well as by criticizing unions. Stevenson came in first but lacked a majority, so a runoff was held; Johnson campaigned even harder, while Stevenson's efforts slumped.
Contested 1948 election
Johnson reported to Roosevelt, to the Navy leaders and to Congress that conditions were deplorable and unacceptable. He argued the South West Pacific urgently needed a higher priority and a larger 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 theaters." Congress responded by making Johnson chairman of a high-powered subcommittee of the Naval Affairs Committee. With a mission similar to that of the Robert Dallek 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."
Johnson reported to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. Johnson and two Army officers went to the 22nd Bomb Group base, which was assigned the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at Lae in New Guinea. A colonel took Johnson's allocated seat on one bomber, and it was shot down with no survivors. Reports vary on what happened to the B-26 Marauder carrying Johnson. He said it was also attacked by Japanese fighters but survived, while others, including other members of the flight crew, claim it turned back because of generator trouble before reaching the objective and before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire; this is supported by official flight records. Other airplanes that continued to the target did come under fire near the target at about the same time that Johnson's plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase. MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star, the military's third-highest medal.
After America entered World War II in December 1941, Johnson, still in Congress, became a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve, then asked Undersecretary of the Navy James Forrestal for a combat assignment. He was sent instead 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. Roosevelt felt information that flowed up the military chain of command needed to get delivered 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 lost the election. W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, radio personality Governor of Texas In 1941, he ran for the U.S. Senate in a special election against the sitting  In 1937, Johnson successfully contested a special election for
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1935, he was appointed head of the Texas National Youth Administration, which enabled him to use the government to create education and job opportunities for young people. He resigned two years later to run for Congress. Johnson, a notoriously tough boss throughout his career, often demanded long workdays and work on weekends. He was described by friends, fellow politicians, and historians as motivated by an exceptional lust for power and control. As Johnson's biographer Robert Caro observes, "Johnson's ambition was uncommon—in the degree to which it was unencumbered by even the slightest excess weight of ideology, of philosophy, of principles, of beliefs."
Johnson married Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and Luci Baines, born in 1947. Johnson had a practice of giving people and animals names with his and his wife's initials, as he did with his daughters and with his dog, Little Beagle Johnson.
After teaching in Houston Johnson entered politics; in 1930, he campaigned for Texas State Senator Welly Hopkins in his run for Congress. Hopkins recommended him to Congressman Richard M. Kleberg, who made Johnson his legislative secretary. Johnson 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 also became a surrogate son to Sam Rayburn.
Early political career