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 parttime 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.