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Lyndon B. Johnson: The 36th President and the Arc of the 1960s
Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office on November 22, 1963, aboard Air Force One. The country was in shock after John F. KennedyÕs assassination in Dallas, and Johnson, the vice president from Texas, suddenly had to steady a grieving nation. He was 55 years old, a career politician who knew Congress better than almost anyone in Washington, and he understood that the moment demanded both continuity and action.
Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas. He grew up in the Hill Country, taught school in a poor Mexican American community, and learned early how poverty could limit a personÕs life. Those experiences stuck with him. He entered politics as a New Deal Democrat, won a House seat in 1937, and by 1949 he was in the Senate. He became Senate Majority Leader in 1955 and built a reputation as a legislative force who could cajole, pressure, and persuade colleagues into line. His method was personal. He would corner senators in hallways, lean in close, and talk until he got a yes. People called it the Johnson Treatment.
As president, Johnson decided to finish KennedyÕs unfinished agenda and then go further. Five days after taking office he told Congress that no memorial could better honor Kennedy than the passage of the civil rights bill. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in public places and employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. A year later he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after the Selma marches made the barriers to Black voting impossible to ignore. Those two laws reshaped American life. Johnson lost the South for Democrats in the process and he knew it. He told an aide, we have lost the South for a generation.
Domestic policy was where Johnson wanted his legacy. He declared an unconditional War on Poverty in January 1964 and followed with the Great Society program. The list of legislation is long. Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965 to provide health coverage for seniors and low income Americans. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act sent federal money to public schools for the first time. Head Start began for preschool children. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities were established. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended the national origins quota system. Federal support for public broadcasting, consumer protection, and environmental rules expanded. By the numbers, the poverty rate dropped from 19 percent in 1964 to 12.1 percent in 1969. Critics argued the programs were expensive and created bureaucracy. Supporters point to the safety net that still exists today.
Foreign policy complicated everything. Johnson inherited a growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He believed in containment and did not want to be the president who lost Southeast Asia to communism. After the Gulf of Tonkin incidents in August 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Johnson steadily increased American troops. By 1968 more than 500,000 U.S. service members were in Vietnam. The war consumed money, attention, and public trust. The Tet Offensive in early 1968 contradicted official claims of progress. Protests spread on campuses and in cities. Riots followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968. JohnsonÕs approval rating fell.
On March 31, 1968, Johnson addressed the nation and announced a partial bombing halt in Vietnam and, more stunning, that he would not run for another term. He wanted to focus on peace without the distraction of politics. Peace talks began, but the war continued after he left office.
Johnson retired to his Texas ranch and died on January 22, 1973, at age 64. His presidency lasted five years and two months. The record is mixed by design. He passed more major domestic legislation than any president since Franklin Roosevelt and advanced civil rights in ways that changed the country permanently. He also deepened a war that divided America and overshadowed his ambitions. He once said the presidency made him feel like a jackass caught in a hailstorm. He meant that the job pulls a person in every direction at once. JohnsonÕs story shows how much a president can do and how quickly events can take control.