Johnson, Lyndon Baines 1908-1973

JOHNSON, LYNDON BAINES 1908-1973

Vice-president of the united states, i961-1963;president of the united states, 1963-1969

Accepting the Second Slot

In 1960 Sen. Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas, a masterful and powerful Senate majority leader since 1954, surprised Democrats and Republicans alike by agreeing to accept the Democratic nomination for vice-president, a job his fellow Texan, Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Representatives, described as not "worth a pitcher of warm spit." John F. Kennedy's choice of Johnson for his running mate was also somewhat surprising. Johnson and Kennedy had made bitter remarks about one another while they had battled for the presidential nomination, and Kennedy's staff heartily disliked the Texan. Kennedy himself, however, respected Johnson and admired his legislative skills. He also saw that Johnson could balance the ticket, helping to win votes in the South and West, where Kennedy was considered too liberal and was mistrusted because he was a Roman Catholic. There was another, strictly pragmatic reason for Kennedy's choice: "I'm not going to die in office," Kennedy told an aide; "If we win, it will be by a small margin, and I won't be able to live with Lyndon Johnson as the leader of a small majority of the Senate." The election was close, as Kennedy predicted, and Johnson's campaigning in the South and West was a major factor in assuring their victory.

Background

Johnson entered elective politics in the 1930s, having had a firsthand look at Depression-era poverty, first as a schoolteacher in West Texas, then as state director of the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program. Elected to Congress in 1937, he was an avid supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt's social programs. His experiences during the Great Depression were important influences on the War on Poverty and Great Society programs he advanced in the 1960s. In 1948 he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Vice-president Johnson

Entrusted by Kennedy with a more significant role than vice-presidents usually played, Johnson chaired the newly created Committee on Equal Opportunity, chartered to promote compliance with non-discrimination in hiring by the federal government and by companies contracting with the federal government. He also chaired the National Aeronautics and Space Council, playing a key role in guiding the space program.

President Johnson

After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Johnson moved quickly to reassure the country that government policy would not radically change, that he would create continuity by keeping Kennedy's appointees in office, and that he would vigorously promote Kennedy's legislative package. During 1964 he pushed through Congress Kennedy's important tax cut and civil rights bills. His War on Poverty legislation, also passed in 1964, evolved from information collected by task forces created by Kennedy.

Landslide Victory in 1964

Johnson's resounding defeat of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater also gave him impressive majorities in both houses of Congress, enabling him to enact Kennedy's aid to elementary and secondary education and Medicare bills, which became part of Johnson's Great Society package that passed in 1965 and 1966, including the Higher Education Act and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The War in Vietnam

Johnson's downfall as president was in the area of foreign policy, where he had little direct experience. His views on the subject had been formed during his early years in the Senate, as he learned from the political backlash after the 1949 Communist takeover in China and the nationwide hysteria generated when Sen. Joseph McCarthy charged in the early 1950s that Communists had infiltrated all aspects of American life. Johnson extended this lesson to the conflict in Vietnam, commenting to Henry Cabot Lodge, U. S. ambassador to Vietnam, "I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia go the way of China."

Escalation

In 1965 Johnson escalated the war dramatically, first with a bombing campaign against North Vietnam in February and later by sending combat troops. By 1968 there were more than five hundred thousand U.S. troops in Vietnam, and the expanded U.S. role had begun to generate opposition that grew and became more vehement in direct proportion to ever-increasing U.S. involvement.

Johnson's Credibility Gap

Having portrayed himself as a peace candidate during the election campaign of 1964, Johnson escalated the war, leading to the perception that he had been misleading the public. The press began to point out the so-called credibility gap between Johnson's words and deeds. His explanation of why he sent troops to the Dominican Republic in 1965 reinforced this perception. First he claimed that their mission was to protect the lives of American citizens living in that Caribbean country, but subsequently he said he had sent the American military to prevent a possible Communist takeover. More and more Americans began to distrust the optimistic assurances of imminent victory in Vietnam that came from administration and military spokesmen. These predictions appeared even more unrealistic when the enemy launched its major Tet offensive early in 1968. Even before then, protests against the war had become so pervasive that Johnson limited his public appearances to safe venues, such as military bases and other federal facilities.

Johnson Drops Out

Running for the presidential nomination that should have automatically been his as incumbent, Johnson won the New Hampshire primary by a surprisingly small margin over antiwar candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy. As one set of his advisers pressed him to make stronger efforts to get peace negotiations started, another warned him that he was about to lose to McCarthy in the Wisconsin primary. On 31 March Johnson announced on national television that he would order a bombing halt and invited the North Vietnamese to begin negotiations. Then he shocked the nation by announcing that he would not seek another term. During his last year in office, he succeeded in beginning negotiations with the North Vietnamese. After Richard Nixon's inauguration in 1969, Johnson retired to his ranch in Texas.

Sources:

Vaughan Davis Bornet, The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1983);

Robert Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent (New York: Knopf, 1990);

Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power (New York: Knopf, 1982);

Doris Kerns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).