Lyndon B. Johnson
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- Vice President to:
John F. Kennedy - Democrat,
from Massachusetts.
- John F. Kennedy served 1961 - 1963. He died in office in 1963, at the age of 46.
- Dates Served: Johnson served as Vice President from 1961 - 1963, then as President till 1969.
- Political Party: Johnson was a Democrat, from Texas.
- Born: 1908.
- Died: 1973, at the age of 65.
- The presidential opponent during the 1960 campaign was:
- Campaign issues in 1960:
- This year the issue of the day was Communism. Kennedy blamed the Eisenhower
Administration for letting a Communist country (Cuba) emerge in America's own backyard
and vowed to escalate the arms race by modernising the military's missile program.
Nixon made an issue out of Kennedy's youth and lack of experience. The race was
a very close one but Nixon wasn't prepared for the power of television. He and
Kennedy held the first televised Presidential debates right after Nixon had been in the
hospital and he looked it. Kennedy appeared confident and photogenic, whereas
Nixon appeared tired and mean-looking. On election day Kennedy won by a margin
so thin you could see through it.
- Notable Facts about Lyndon Johnson:
- Religious affiliation: Johnson was a member of the Disciples of Christ denomination.
He rarely discussed religion with friends, though he claimed to pray regularly in the
White House. In 1966 Johnson became the first sitting President to meet with the Pope,
meeting with Pope Paul VI to discuss world conflicts.
- While in college, Johnson had dated the daughter of a prominent leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
They became engaged but their plans were thwarted when her father learned of their plans.
Johnson's father was no fan of the KKK and had often criticized the group publicly, and for
this reason his fiance's father disapproved of Lyndon. He supposedly told his daughter,
"I won't have my daughter marrying into that no-account Johnson family. I've known that
bunch all my life, one generation after another of shiftless dirt farmers and grubby
politicians, always sticking together and leeching onto one another. None of them will
ever amount to a damn." Johnson heard this and dumped her.
- Johnson once claimed that he payed a total of $2.50 for the
wedding ring he bought for his wife at Sears.
- Johnson held a variety of jobs prior to beginning his political career. He graduated from
the Texas State Teachers college and the studied law for less than a year before dropping
out. He taught public speaking from 1930 - 1931 at a High School in Houston, Texas then
quit to work as secretary to a Democratic Representative from 1931 - 1934. From 1935 - 1937
he worked as Director of the National Youth Administration in Texas, helping colleges train
students for part-time jobs.
- Johnson had a dog which he carried around by it's ears. Presumably
it was a small dog.
- In 1937 Johnson was elected to the US House of Representatives, representing Texas from
1937 - 1949. He was a strong New Deal supported, winning Roosevelt's personal approval of
the newcomer from Texas.
- From 1941 - 1942 Johnson served in the Navy during World War II, while still a member of
the US House of Representatives. He survived an air-to-air attack by Japanese planes over
New Guinea and was awarded the Silver Star. He resigned from the Navy after one year, in
compliance with President Roosevelt's order for all Congressmen in the military to return
to Washington to resume their political duties.
- In 1949 Johnson was elected to the US Senate, representing Texas from 1949 - 1961. He was
named the Democratic whip in 1951 and then Senate Minority Leader in 1953. When the Democrats
took over the majority of the Senate in 1955, Johnson became the youngest-ever Senate Majority
Leader, at age 46. He suffered a heart attack that same year, but recovered without a scratch.
- During the Eisenhower Administration, Johnson opposed the admition of Communist China into the
UN and opposed sending military aid to Vietnam. Not a fan of McCarthy, Johnson suggested that
McCarthy's hearings be televised, believing that letting Americans witness him for themselves
would be the most effective way to bring McCarthy down. He was right, America found McCarthy
offensive, and his Communist witch-trials were soon over.
- Up until 1957 Johnson consistently voted with his Texas colleagues against Civil Rights
legislation, but he gradually changed and decided to support the Civil Rights acts of 1957 and
1960. For his reputation as a well-balanced Senator he almost won the Democratic nomination for
President in 1956 but lost against Adlai Stevenson. He tried again to win the Democratic
nomination for President in 1960 but lost out to Senator John F. Kennedy.
- Kennedy chose Johnson as his VP in order to carry the Southern states, since he knew he was
viewed as part of the Liberal Eastern establishment and would need to carry much of the South
in order to win. Johnson didn't want the nomination at first, and he was supported in this by
many of his supporters. Many of Kennedy's supporters didn't approve either, viewing Johnson as
a lukewarm recent convert to only a very few of their progressive agendas. But Johnson accepted
and Kennedy succeeded in winning the states of Texas, Louisiana, and the Carolinas largely due
to Johnson. Considering Kennedy's narrowest-ever margin, around 100,000 votes out of 68 million
cast, he wouldn't have won if it weren't for Johnson.
- President Kennedy often sent his Vice President on foreign goodwill missions. Johnson had a standard
goodwill line he often repeated, "Y'all come to Washington and see us sometime." In 1962 this offer caught
the attention of a poor camel-driver in Pakistan named Bashir Ahmed, who set out on his camel to go
to America and visit the Vice President. Members of the US press made a lot of fun of his trip, but
Johnson turned the story into a good PR opportunity by arranging for the People-to-People program to
pick up Ahmed's travel expenses. Ahmed made it to Washington and he and Johnson had a friendly chat.
- After Kennedy's assassination in 1963 Johnson ascended to the Presidency and won re-election
the following year, serving as President throughout most of the 1960's.
- After leaving office Johnson retired to his ranch in Texas, doing interviews with Walter Cronkite
and giving occassional speeches. He died in 1973 after a series of heart attacks.
Notable Events during his Vice Presidency:
- The Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961. On April 17, 1961 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles attempted to
invade Cuba in an amphibious assault on Cochinos Bay (Spanish for "Bay of Pigs"). The goal was
to ignite another revolution in Cuba, toppling Fidel Castro's 2-year old Communist government.
They thought that they would be backed by the US military, but after 3 days of fighting and
400 exile casualties no support came and they surrendered to the Cuban Army. This made Fidel's
day and made Kennedy look less than competent, even though the attack had been approved and
planned by the Eisenhower Administration. Kennedy had given the final go-ahead and he accepted
responsibility for it's failure. He authorized an exchange with Cuba the following year in
which the US payed Cuba $53 million in exchange for the exiles's return to the States.
- Creation of the Peace Corps, 1961. In March of 1961 President Kennedy created the Peace Corps,
which was an organization under the control of the State Department that enlisted volunteers
to work on building and teaching projects in third-world countries. The first director was
Kennedy's brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, father-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- The Berlin Wall is erected, 1961. The government of East Germany built a wall around the entire
Western portion of the city of Berlin. NATO threatened to go to war with the Communist government,
but backed down when it was found to that the wall was built on East German soil and was apparently
designed to contain East Germans within East Germany, since there had been a steady stream of
defections into West Berlin for years. President Kennedy travelled to West Berlin and gave an
impassioned speech pledging US support for West Berlin. He said, "All free men, wherever they
may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich
bin ein Berliner", the last 4 words being in German.
- First human in space. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin sat in a small compartment
on top of a rocket and blasted into space, becoming the first person to ever leave the Earth. He
orbited the planet once, in one and half hours, before landing again. (He died 7 years later, flying a fighter-jet while drunk and crashing, but that's another story).
- The Space Program. 4 weeks after the Soviets sent a man into space, President Kennedy defined a
mandate whereby the US would put a man on the surface of the moon by the end of the decade. He
ordered NASA to begin the Mercury Project which started testing launch and re-entry technologies.
In May of 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space.
Throughout the 1960's and 1970's the Soviets will accomplish the "firsts" in all areas of space travel
except for a manned moon landing. They were the first to launch a satellite, the first to put a man
into space, the first to send a woman into space, the first to send a probe to the moon, to Venus, and
to land an unmanned ship on Mars. But they didn't all work. Almost all of the US efforts did work.
Sometimes first-to-market isn't always such a good idea.
- The Steel Price Rollback, in 1962. Inflation was high in 1962 and the Kennedy Administration
drew up a proposal where Corporations and Labor Unions would agree to a self-enforced agreement
where workers would temporarily agree to wage freezes and corporations would agree to temporarily
not raise prices for their products. Steelworker Unions agreed to a contract drawn up between them and
the Steel industry Management that stated these objectives, though they were not legally binding.
The Unions assumed that Management would live up to their commitment to not
increase prices. No such luck. Before the ink was dry on the contract, US Steel Corp announced
an overall 3.5% price-increase across the board on all products, while keeping their workers' wages fixed,
and other steel companies quickly fell in line and did the same. President Kennedy blew a gasket and went on
national television in April of the same year to denounce "the tiny handful of steel executives whose
pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility". Off-camera, Kennedy
said "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons-of-bitches, but I never believed it till
now!"
- Civil Rights. In 1962 several Southern states were openly defying the new right of black people
to enroll in formerly whites-only public schools. Groups of Civil Rights activist staged
"Freedom Rides" that travelled through Southern states challenging local segregation laws. In
March of 1963 Rev. Martin Luther King led 200,000 people in the Freedom March in Washington.
Kennedy responded by ordering an end to all racial discrimination in all federally owned
housing projects, created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. He made numerous
appointments of black people to federal posts. He also called for greater authority for the
Attorney General in bringing lawsuits against schools practicing segregation.
- Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962. In October of 1962 satellite reconnaissance photos of Cuba showed
that the Soviets were in the process of building nuclear missile bases on Cuban soils, with ominous-looking
missiles pointed right at the US. The Soviets admitted their existence but claimed they were for
self-defense purposes, but the satellite photos showed that they were in offensive positions.
Kennedy responded by ordering a Naval blockade of the entire island of Cuba, with US Naval warships
prepared to intercept and turned away any approaching ship suspected of carrying military hardware.
He also warned Moscow that any missile fired from Cuba at
the US, or at any other Latin American nation, would be met with massive nuclear retaliation by the US
against the Soviet Union itself. Several very tense days followed in which Soviet ships carrying
more missiles headed towards Cuba, with a US Naval blockade ready to meet them. At the last minute
Soviet leader Krushchev blinked and backed down, ordering the ships turned around and sent back to
the USSR. In exchange for US promises not to invade Cuba, the Soviets promised to dismantle the
missile sites, which they did by the end of the year.
- The song "Louie Louie" is released by the quintet "The Kingsmen", on April 1963. The history of music
reaches its peak.
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, in 1963. In July of 1963 the US met with Britain and the Soviet Union and
worked out an arrangement to end all atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty was
eventually ratified by almost all nations except for France and Communist China. It still allowed
for underground nuclear testing.
- The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution is ratified in 1961, giving the residents of Washington DC the right
to vote for President. They had traditionally been barred from voting, due to DC's neutral status.
- On November 22, 1963 President Kennedy rode in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas, on his way to a
meeting with State Democratic leaders. While driving past the Texas School Book Depository building
3 shots were fired from an upper-story window, 2 of them hitting Kennedy, the second shot shattering
the back of his head. He was rushed to the hospital and quickly died. Lee Harvey Oswald, age 24, was
arrested about an hour later, having been seen fleeing from the building where the shots came from.
Oswald denied shooting the President, and two days later he himself was killed while being transferred
between jails, when Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, walked up and shot Oswald at point-blank range,
with it all being captured on the evening news.
Thus was born one of the greatest conspiracy theories of all time. With the primary suspect dead, the
mystery surrounding the killing grew faster than fungus on 3-day-old cheese. Oswald had a wonderfully
shady background, having belonged to several Communist organizations, lived in the Soviet Union for a
while, and expressed his love and admiration for Fidel Castro. The section of road where Kennedy was
shot was surrounded by buildings on all sides which caused loud noises to echo, leading to endless
confusion as to how many shots had been heard. Strange things were scene on a grassy knoll and the
trajectory of the bullets fired by Oswald were endlessly scrutinized, leading to all sorts of wonderful
theories that Kennedy had been the victim of everything from a Mafia hit to the victim of a Cuban-backed
assassination squad, with Oswald being simply the "patsy". President Johnson was sworn in as President
and he appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the event, which eventually concluded that
Oswald was the lone gunman and had acted out of a confused need for infamy. (It's too bad that reality never
quite lives up to the X-Files).
- Proving, yet again, that famous people always die in threes, on the exact same day as Kennedy was assasinated, CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley also died.
Notable events during his completion of Kennedy's Presidential term:
- The Great Society. In May of 1964 Johnson, now President, gave a speech at the University of Michigan
that outlined his domestic agenda for a war on poverty, more Civil Rights laws, Environmental protection
programs, and the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. He called his agenda "The Great Society" saying,
"We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society but upward to
the Great Society. The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty
and racial injustice. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his
mind and enlarge his talents."
Thankfully he didn't name his domestic policy some new variation on the old "Deal" naming convention like
Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Truman had done. We could have gone from the Square Deal to the
New Deal to the Fair Deal to the Great Deal...
- The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, in 1964. In August of 1964 North Vietnamese ships attacked 2 US Navy boats
in the Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam. The US retaliated by bombing North Vietnamese Naval bases. President
Johnson appeared on national television defending the attack, but promised that US assistance to South
Vietnam would remain limited to sending advisors, not soldiers. However, several days later Johnson asked
Congress for a broadly defined resolution allowing the US to "take all necessary measures to repel any
armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression". Congress
approved and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was an open-ended blank check allowing Johnson
to authorize any military buildup he deemed necessary. It became the legal basis upon which the US gradually
increased it's military role in Vietnam. No formal declaration of war was ever declared.
6 months later, in February 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder was launched by the US Air Force, initiating
massive air-raids over North Vietnam. 4 weeks later Johnson sent 3,500 Marines to Danang, marking the
beginning of 8 years of a war of attrition in Vietnam that was to give birth to endless anti-War
demonstrations in the US, a similarly endless lack of Congressional commitment to the overall effort, and
eventual victory by the North Vietnamese Communists armies. By 1968 there would be over half a million
US soldiers in Vietnam. This was now Johnson's war and it would gradually wear him down personally.
- The War on Poverty. In 1964 the Johnson Adminstration created the Office of Economic Opportunity which
funded several programs aimed at reducing poverty. Some of the programs included The Job Corps which
funded vocational training for poor young adults aged 16 - 21, the Volunteers in Service to America (VISA)
which was a sort of domestic version of the Peace Corps which consisted of development projects in the
inner cities, and the Work-Study Program which helped low-income students find part-time work they could
do while going to college. Johnson appointed R. Sargent Shriver, Kennedy's brother-in-law, as the new
office's first director, since he had already directed the creation of the Peace Corps.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This banned a wide range of discriminatory practices in various fields of
employments and directed the Attorney General to begin desegregation lawsuits.
- Television show "The Munsters" premiers on Sept. 24, 1964. Only two days later "Gilligan's Island" premiers.
- The 24th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified in 1964, outlawing the Poll Tax.