36. LYNDON B. JOHNSON (We're on the Eve of Destruction)
Born: August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas
Died: January 22, 1973, Johnson City, Texas
Term: November 22, 1963- January 20, 1969
Political Party: Democrat
Vice President: Hubert Humphrey
First Lady: Lady Bird Taylor Johnson
Before the Presidency: Lyndon Johnson was the oldest child of struggling farmer Sam Johnson. Sam wasn’t much of a success as a farmer, but he gifted with the gift of gab, and he served five terms in the Texas Legislature before returning back to farming. The family moved to Johnson City when Lyndon was five. There, Lyndon seemed to want to follow his father’s dreams and, at one point, told a classmate he wanted to be President of the United States.
Johnson’s family struggled throughout his childhood, and it gave the young Lyndon a resolve that he wouldn’t let farm prices drop to the point where working class families, like his own, were ruined. He graduated as President of his six member Senior class and his family managed to get enough funds together so Lyndon could attend summer courses at Southwest Texas Teachers’ College. However, his grades were poor, so he was rejected.
So, he decided to sow his wild oats instead. He took off for California with some friends. He drifted a bit between California and Texas, working odd jobs along the way. It got so bad that he would be arrested in 1927. This woke Lyndon up, and this time, the teachers’ college accepted him.
Johnson wasn’t the best student, but he involved himself in extracurricular activities and excelled in his student teaching. He ended up being assigned to teach a small Hispanic school in a poor area. This was during the Great Depression. Johnson excelled in his position and did well financially considering the times, but he really yearned for a political career, so the teaching period was brief.
In 1931, he became an aide to a Congressman of Corpus Christi. There, in Washington, he proved to have a strong work ethic, answering every inquiry from the Congressman’s constituents.
In 1934, while visiting Texas, Lyndon would find love when he met wealthy Claudia Alta Taylor. They would be married within three months, and she would be better known later as Lady Bird Johnson.
Still in Washington, Johnson was clearly a fan of President Roosevelt’s New Deal and was able to procure an appointment as Texas Director of the National Youth Administration, which helped young people find employment. He excelled there as well.
Then fate stepped in. The congressman in his home district died in 1937 and Johnson jumped at the chance to run for his seat. With help from his wife’s inheritance, and being a strong advocate of FDR’s New Deal, he won election at the age of twenty-eight.
Congressman Johnson, due to his age mostly, was somewhat undistinguished at first though he was able to get some housing projects and dams for his district. He also was able to secure electrical power to his old Texas Hill country, something he would consider as his proudest achievement.
One of Texas’ US Senators died in 1941 and Johnson tried for the seat. He was pitted against “Pass the Biscuits, Pappy” O’Daniel. Both were accused of fraudulent methods but O’Daniel proved to be better at it. Johnson returned to the House.
By now, the US was in World War II and Johnson persuaded FDR to give him an officer’s commission in the Naval Reserve. Johnson was appointed as congressional inspector of the war progress in the Pacific which enabled him to keep his seat. He even went on a bombing mission and won a Silver Star. As such, Johnson was able to help out with the war effort and use his political savvy at the same time.
After the war ended, America had entered a different world. Now it was the Cold War against Communism. Johnson, as a New Deal liberal, seemed to be on the wrong side of politics by 1948. This was an issue for him as he went up against Texas Governor Coke Stevenson for the Senate seat.
Stevenson was considered a rather popular Governor due to his more conservative views. The two battled it out for the Democratic nomination, but this time, Johnson was older and wiser, and he knew all the tricks to get elected in Texas. Despite three suspicious vote tallies in South Texas, Johnson edged Stevenson for the nomination and easily defeated his Republican opponent. Lyndon Johnson was now a Senator.
And it was in the Senate where Johnson would truly make his mark and then some. Johnson’s strategic skills made him one of the most powerful Senators in America by the end of his first term. Indeed, he was named the Majority Whip in 1951, after only two years in the Senate. later, when the Republicans took back the Senate, Johnson was named Minority Leader. He was now the most powerful politician in his party.
In 1954, the Democrats were able to take the Senate right back and Senator Johnson was now the Majority Leader. And few would have the power and influence that he had in the fifties. And, though he supported military preparedness, he preferred to use his clout when it came to domestic issues, particularly on spending bills that would help the less advantaged. Johnson was a populist, ultimately, though at least he tried to use it for good.
It is argued that Johnson may have been the most powerful Senate Majority Leader ever. No, he didn’t manipulate the Senate the way Mitch McConnell would, but he knew how to influence other Senators to see things his way. It was called the Johnson treatment in which, basically, Johnson would lean over you as if he was stalking his prey. No one was better at the art of persuasion than Lyndon Johnson.
He also supported President Eisenhower where he could even though he was of the opposite party. As such, he helped push through the Civil Rights Act of 1957, managing to calm Southern nerves along the way. He also helped to get America into the space race after the Russians launched Sputnik.
Johnson’s ambitions and hard work would come at a physical cost, though. In 1955, Johnson suffered a massive heart attack and was sidelined for a time. Like Eisenhower, heart issues would be a major health problem throughout his later life. Johnson did address it though by stopping smoking, lost weight, and tried to delegate some of his work.
By 1960, Johnson felt that he did all he could in the Senate and now it was time to go for the big prize, the Presidency.
Summary of offices held:
1937-1949: US House of Representatives, Texas
1941-1942: United States Naval Reserve, Lieutenant Commander
1949-1961: US Senate, Texas
1951-1953: Senate majority Whip
1956-1957: Senate Majority Leader
1957-1961: Senate Majority Leader
1961-1963: Vice President of the United States
What was going on: Vietnam War, Civil Rights movement, the Beatles, Space program, the Great Society, the assassinations, student protests
Scandals within the Presidency: Bobby Baker corruption charges
Why he was a good President: Only FDR can boast of a stronger domestic agenda than LBJ. Because of Lyndon Johnson, we have the Civil Rights Act that criminalized discrimination, the Voting Rights Act (or at least the part that the Supreme Court allows), Medicaid and Medicare, the Fair Housing Act, and a few other things as well. If we judged LBJ on this alone, he’d probably get an easy A.
Why he was a bad President: One word: Vietnam. While almost a savior domestically, he stubbornly waged the war in Vietnam and over 35,000 American Servicemen would die on his watch alone (Another 20,000 would die under Nixon). He had to deal with protests at home and abroad and, while Nixon would handle them worse, Johnson couldn’t have been prepared for the divide he was causing.
What could have saved his Presidency: Staying out of Vietnam is the easy answer of course. Without Vietnam, he could have been Teddy Roosevelt.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: Well, Vietnam pretty much did, but it could have been worse had he reverted back to the old segregationist policies.
How he became Vice President: Johnson’s Presidential ambitions dated back as early as 1952 when he tried to get on the ticket with Adlai Stevenson. He again would try in 1956. Now it was 1960 and this time, he was going to go for all the marbles.
But he faced long odds, on one hand you had the popular Midwest liberal, Hubert Humphrey (who would later be Johnson’s VP), and, even worse for Johnson, there was that young charismatic idealist from Massachusetts named John Kennedy. All three were Senators.
This was not going to be Johnson’s year either. Kennedy outmaneuvered everybody, even the crafty Johnson, and would secure the nomination. The only question now is who he would pick as his running mate.
Johnson and Kennedy weren’t exactly buddies and Kennedy didn’t expect Johnson to accept the bid for Vice President (Kennedy was pressured by certain Democrats, including some of his closest advisors as a way to attract the South). To Kennedy’s surprise, Johnson accepted, and he was on the ticket. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise as Johnson campaigned hard for the ticket. In fact, it may have very well been Johnson that made the difference in one of the closest elections in American History.
So, Johnson was Vice President, but he would be frustrated that the Kennedy Administration would keep him on the back burner. In fact, it would even be rumored that Johnson would be dropped when 1964 came around. Still, Kennedy nabbed him as head of the Space Program. He also was a key advisor on military affairs, and he also chaired the President’s Committee for Equal Employment Opportunity. Overall, though, he was generally shunned by Kennedy aides, something that grew more frustrating as time went.
On November 22, 1963, Vice President Johnson accompanied President Kennedy to Dallas, Texas. It was a political trip (It looked like LBJ would be on the ticket after all), and Johnson was ready to shake some hands and secure some Texas endorsements, starting with Governor Connally no doubt.
Vice- President Johnson’s car was two vehicles behind Kennedy’s convertible as the motorcade started just before noon.
Two hours later, Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States.
First term: The events of November 22, 1963, are controversial for a variety of reasons and not just because of the assassination. One of them involved the new President, Lyndon Johnson, who insisted he be sworn in on Air Force One. This drew protests from the Kennedy camp, especially after he asked the still shocked first lady, Jackie Kennedy, to witness the proceeding which was also going to be a photo-op. He was sworn in by judge Sarah T. Hughes, a friend of the new President. More controversy occurred as the plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base as Kennedy’s casket was hurriedly removed from the plane. President Johnson gave a quick speech lamenting Kennedy and the country and, while sincere, lacked the charisma of any Kennedy speech. People worried for the immediate future.
But after the mourning period of President Kennedy passed, the new President went right to work starting with the formation of the Warren Commission to investigate what happened in the Kennedy Assassination. That too would prove controversial as they never really had all the information they needed (probably more the fault of zealous Kennedy aides and a sloppy autopsy than anything Johnson did), and a slew of conspiracy theories would soon arise. One of the members of the Warren Commission happened to be Congressman Gerald Ford of Michigan, who would also become an accidental President one day.
One thing Johnson was determined to do was to finally get Kennedy’s Civil Rights bill passed. Johnson had been something of a segregationist, being a product of the South, though not as blatantly racist as the likes of Strom Thurmond for example. But he knew that the African American vote was an important bloc and he always had sympathy for the less fortunate. So, the Civil Rights Bill became his priority in 1964.
Of course, it drew a lot of hostility from the Dixiecrats, and Johnson would later say that it probably cost the Democrats the South for a generation (as it turned out, a lot longer than that). Still, he felt it was the right thing to do and, with the use of his legendary Johnson treatment, he was able to get the groundbreaking bill that banned discrimination in most shapes and forms (the LGBTQ movement wasn’t in play yet). Thus, in many ways the Civil Rights Bill is much more Johnson’s legacy than Kennedy’s.
The other issue he inherited, of course, was Vietnam and this would be the issue that would ultimately sink Johnson’s presidency. Kennedy had been very involved in Vietnam of course, but he also used a bit of restraint even as he had hawks like Defense Secretary Robert McNamara who wanted to go all in. Johnson agreed with McNamara and felt that a quick military intervention was all that was needed to stem the tide of Communism in Vietnam.
Johnson needed an excuse though and he found it in what was called the Gulf of Tonkin incident. There actually was a confrontation between North Vietnam and covert operations in the Gulf, but the second confrontation, the one that sparked direct American involvement in the war, never actually happened. It would later be blamed on miscommunication. The Congress fell for it in any event and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving the President authority to essentially wage war, which he would do after his inauguration the next year.
The Vietnam war was not to be blown sky high just yet and Johnson would go into the 1964 election with a lot of goodwill. The Civil Rights act along with Johnson’s other domestic ideas were very popular and he would be very difficult to defeat in 1964.
Election of 1964: Johnson was all but coronated as the Democratic nominee in 1964. He had a lot of goodwill post-Kennedy and even with a strained relationship with his Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, who nonetheless supported him, there was absolutely no one that was going to try to deny Johnson his bid for a term in his own right.
It was a different story on the Republican side. Barry Goldwater remained the frontrunner, but he was said to have rather extremist views, something that concerned the more moderate members of the party. No one knew it then, but Goldwater had started a movement that would shift the Republican Party much more to the right and eventually give America the gift that was Ronald Reagan.
Of course, there were other candidates to consider. There was talk of a Nixon comeback, but he had been stung by his loss for Governor of California and he really wasn’t ready for a comeback- yet. There was a stop Goldwater movement that lobbied for the nominations of either Nelson Rockefeller or William Scranton. As it was, Goldwater, who was ultimately nominated, would have to pick Liberal Republican William Miller as his running mate.
Goldwater’s style of Libertarianism didn’t sit well with American voters and his speech about Extremism in the name of liberty being no vice didn’t help matters much. The Johnson campaign exploited this with a devastating TV commercial known as the Daisy girl ad which suggested Goldwater would lead us to nuclear war.
So, it was to no surprise that Johnson would win by the largest popular vote margin in history. Some white Southerners did vote for Goldwater given he opposed the Civil Rights Bill (though for libertarian reasons, not because of any hatreds), but for the most part, it was pretty much a rout with Goldwater carrying only six states, his own state of Arizona and five in the Deep South. Lyndon Johnson had a mandate.