Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, into a political family on a Texas farm. Never a serious student, Johnson focused more on being popular. After high school graduation, he held a number of part-time jobs and hitchhiked to California with friends. Once there, he discovered that his dream of a high-paying job was just a dream, and he hitchhiked back to Texas. At that point, Johnson decided college was the best way to go, and he enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers College. He graduated in three years and got a teaching job in Houston.

Politics was in his blood, however, and by November 1931 Johnson was working for a congressional candidate named Richard Kleberg (1887–1955). Kleberg won the race and took Johnson with him to Washington, D.C. , as his personal secretary. Twenty-three-year-old Johnson spent the next four years building a network of friends and contacts in Washington. He met and married Claudia Alta Taylor in 1934. The couple eventually had two daughters.

The following year, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45) chose Johnson to head the Texas division of the National Youth Administration (NYA), a program that provided education and employment assistance to young people. He was the

youngest of the state NYA chiefs, and he won widespread praise for his work.

Heads to the Senate

Johnson won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937, beating eight other candidates. He remained in the House for more than ten years. In 1948, he ran for U.S. Senate and won.

Johnson was elected Senate leader of the Democratic minority in 1953. When the Democrats won control of the Senate from the Republicans in 1954, he became the Senate majority leader, an influential position he retained for six years.

Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the presidential race of 1960 but lost to U.S. senator John F. Kennedy (1917–1963). Kennedy asked Johnson to be his vice presidential running mate and Johnson accepted. In November, Kennedy was elected president after defeating incumbent vice president Richard Nixon (1913–1994). When Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Johnson took the oath of office and became the thirty-sixth president of the United States.

President Johnson

Kennedy had been an extremely popular president, and the nation mourned his death. Johnson needed to assure the public that he could fill his predecessor's shoes, but at the same time, he was dealing with an administration of intellectuals from the Northeast who viewed Johnson as an unrefined southerner who did not have what it takes to lead the country.

Johnson delivered a televised speech to Congress just days after Kennedy's funeral, and with it he won both sympathy and support. He became popular enough to win reelection in 1964. That popularity also convinced Congress to pass numerous laws to help America's minorities and poor. Together, these laws made up a program known as the “Great Society .”

Trouble brews

Despite the president's efforts in civil rights and the “war on poverty,” there were summer riots in cities across America from 1964 to 1968. (See Race Riots of the 1960s .) In the background was another disaster waiting to happen: the Vietnam War (1959–75).

Vietnam was a problem Johnson inherited from Kennedy and the thirty-fourth president, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969; served 1953–61). Since the 1950s, America had backed the South Vietnamese government in its war against the North Vietnamese communist government. With the support of China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam hoped to take control of South Vietnam.

Just before Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the leader of South Vietnam was assassinated. The government there became weaker and more unstable. North Vietnam became more powerful and even won support among the South Vietnamese people.

America at war

In his 1964 campaign, Johnson had promised to keep American soldiers off the battlefields in Vietnam. Privately, however, he had every intention of sending troops to fight. Like other leaders before him, Johnson believed in the domino theory , which says if one country falls to communism, those surrounding it will, too. Johnson did not want to take the blame for communist victory in Vietnam.

In August 1964, North Vietnamese forces reportedly attacked two American destroyer ships in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of North Vietnam. Congress gave Johnson power to do whatever he felt necessary to prevent further aggression. Years later, it became known that the United States had provoked the attack by invading North Vietnamese waters to aid South Vietnamese. In addition to keeping this secrect, Johnson also exaggerated the attack on the destroyers. In fact, he had already prepared what became known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and was just waiting for the right time to use it.

Johnson sent troops to Vietnam with an official declaration of war. With each passing year, he sent over more American troops, spurring a major antiwar movement in the United States. By 1966, Congress was also against the war. By promising the public that victory was just around the corner when in reality the war was far from over, Johnson created what was known as the “credibility gap.” The war he publicly described was far different—and more optimistic—than the one portrayed in the media. Public trust of the president was destroyed.

Leaves the White House

Even Johnson had to admit his ineffectiveness as a leader. On March 31, 1968 (an election year), Johnson stunned the nation by announcing that he would not seek nomination of the Democratic Party for another presidential term. This voluntary stepping-down earned Johnson the admiration of the public and media, as did his announcement that he was calling a temporary halt in the bombing of North Vietnam. Although the war continued, bombing in North Vietnam never did resume.

Johnson retired to his Texas ranch, where he wrote his memoirs. A heart attack in 1955 left him in fragile health, and afterwards he experienced regular heart trouble. In January 1973, Johnson suffered another heart attack and died at home.