Lyndon B. Johnson | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Lyndon B. Johnson In the 1960 campaign, Lyndon B. Johnson was elected Vice President as John F. Kennedy's running mate. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th United States President, with a vision to build "A Great Society" for the American people. "A Great Society" for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation's history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Viet Nam. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent.

In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor, whom he had married in 1934. During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures. In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F. Kennedy's running mate, was elected Vice President. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as President. First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death--a new civil rights bill and a tax cut.

Next he urged the Nation "to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor." In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes. The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations. Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act. Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era. . . .

" Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos troubled the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution. The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end Communist aggression and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Viet Nam in order to initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace. When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them successful, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.

For more information about President Johnson, please visit The 36th US President - Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson George W. Bush ï¿½ Lyndon Baines Johnson was the thirty-sixth US President (1963-69) and the first President elected from a Southern state since before the Civil War. He succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of John Kennedy on November 22,1963. Born August 27, 1908, near Johnson City, Texas, he was the son of Sam Ealy Johnson Jr., a struggling Texas farmer. The senior Johnson had also served for five terms as a Texas legislator. Lyndon's mother made her children's education a top priority, and it is said that she had a great influence on her famous son. Lyndon Johnson went to the public schools in Johnson City, Texas. Upon graduating, Lyndon headed out west to "find himself," at various points picking fruit, washing cars, and working in restaurants. Three years later, he went on to college and received a BS degree in Education from Southwest Texas State Teacher's College. After graduating, he taught school.

He had just begun his second year teaching when in 1931, Democratic Congressman Richard Kleberg asked him to come to Washington as his congressional aid. During the next two terms, Lyndon began to develop a network of political contacts in Washington. It was also during this time that on November 17, l934, he married Claudia Alta Taylor, who he called "Lady Bird." She was an affectionate and gentile Southern woman who was her husband's helpmate and confidant, though, unlike Eleanor Roosevelt, she remained quietly in the background. Her warmth earned her much respect and affection from the American people. In 1935, when Lyndon was twenty-seven, Franklin Roosevelt appointed him the head of the National Youth Administration in Texas, a position he held until 1937. This youth group sought to bring the importance of education to the young of Texas and train them for meaningful employment. Johnson was in awe of Franklin Roosevelt and became enamored with his liberal reforms. During his own presidency, he would look back on the Roosevelt administration and use it as a model.

In 1937, Lyndon Johnson was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he continued the liberal reform actions proposed by Franklin Roosevelt. Later in his life he would move politically to the right and show a more conservative side, but as a young man, Lyndon was a liberal. He left Congress for a short time in 1941 and 1942 to serve a term of active duty in the Navy, where he was stationed in the Pacific until Roosevelt recalled all members of Congress to Washington. After the war, Lyndon Johnson's politics grew more conservative, to the point where he even voted against Civil Rights legislation. In 1948 he ran for the Senate, barely winning. The election was so close that his opponent challenged the results in the Texas courts, but Johnson prevailed. In 1953 he became the Senate Democratic Leader, and the following year he was reelected to his Senate seat. When he returned to Washington this time, it was as the Senate Majority Leader, a post he continued to hold through the next six years, in spite of a serious heart attack in 1955.

As the Majority Leader, Lyndon perfected the art of politics that he'd learned from his father, Sam. He was an excellent listener and could compromise when the situation required it. He established friendships with many Senators on both sides of the aisle, which served him well in his years as President. The former liberal was able to hold the conservative Southern leaders together. He was also a friend of Eisenhower, though many in his own party disliked the warm relationship between the Democrat, Johnson, and the Republican President. Johnson wanted to run for the presidency in 1960, but purposely held back, counting upon a second ballot. When John Kennedy took the nomination on the first ballot and offered Lyndon the Vice Presidential slot, Johnson accepted. It was assumed that the Senator from Massachusetts had the North in his hands. He needed Johnson to help win the South. That year the Democrats won the White House with one of the narrowest victories in any Presidential campaign in United States history. Johnson was named by Kennedy to head the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. This gave Johnson a chance to use the skills that enabled him to work with African American leaders and other minorities. As Vice President he also had the chance to undertake missions abroad that broadened his knowledge of foreign policy.

On November 22, l963, Lyndon Johnson was in the motorcade in Dallas, Texas behind President and Mrs. Kennedy when shots rang out. John Kennedy was dead, and Lyndon Johnson became the fourth Vice President to ascend to the office of Chief Executive after an assassination. Johnson took the Oath of Office aboard Air Force One with Mrs. Kennedy and Lady Bird on either side of him. The picture of Lyndon Johnson's swearing in next to the blood stained wife of a martyred President is one of the most famous in history. Johnson termed his domestic program the "Great Society," and his term as President was one of the most fruitful legislative eras in United States history. President Johnson had the largest push of legislation since FDR. Before he left office, Congress had implemented 226 of his 252 legislative requests, upholding his reputation as a man who could get things done. Among his better known programs was his War on Poverty and a strong Civil Rights Act in 1964. Later he would go on to pass Medicare, which provided health services to the elderly and the disabled. He also established the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

One of the most important acts was The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which suspended the literacy requirements that were often used to keep blacks from registering to vote. Also, In 1964, he prodded Congress into enacting an 11 billion dollar tax cut. In 1964 he and his running mate Hubert Humphrey ran a very quiet election compared to that of the staunch "father of conservatism" Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Goldwater warned against American continuation in a war that was undeclared and not even legislated to be called a war. In 1964, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which gave Johnson authority to take any action necessary to protect US troops. Vietnam was one of Johnson's largest priorities, and even before Kennedy was buried, he ordered more military troops into Vietnam and an escalation of the action. Many say this was to build the economy through a wartime increase of manufacturing in the defense Industries. It was for Lyndon Johnson a costly war that would lead him to many sleepless nights. In a stubborn attempt to win the war, Johnson escalated it to the heights never dreamed of when Dwight Eisenhower first sent a team of advisors into the area.

Lyndon Johnson's presidency was tarnished by increasingly strident public opposition to his policies in Southeast Asia. Because of the increasing criticism over our involvement in Vietnam; he did not seek reelection in 1968. Johnson was a tired man. There had been race riots in most of the major cities. Anti-war demonstrations that had begun as peace parades had grown to battles between police and young people. The Lyndon Johnson who made the announcement that he would not be running for reelection appeared to the country as a broken man. Johnson had hopes that his Vice President would win the election for President, but Hubert Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon that year. Lyndon Johnson retired to his beloved ranch in Texas where he wrote his memoirs and supervised the building of his Presidential Library and a school of government at the University of Texas at Austin. The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas is named for him. On January 22, 1973, just five days before the Treaty ending the Vietnam War was signed, Lyndon Baines Johnson died in Texas, of a heart attack. Lyndon B. Johnson: Life Before the Presidency—Miller Center About the Administration Lyndon Baines Johnson was pure Texan.

His family included some of the earliest settlers of the Lone Star State. They had been cattlemen, cotton farmers, and soldiers for the Confederacy. Lyndon was born in 1908 to Sam and Rebekah Baines Johnson, the first of their five children. His mother was reserved and genteel while his father was a talker and a dreamer, a man cut out for more than farming. Sam Johnson won election to the Texas legislature when he was twenty-seven. He served five terms before he switched careers and failed to make a living solely as a farmer on the family land seventy miles west of Austin. Education and Teaching Career In 1913, the Johnsons abandoned the farm and moved to nearby Johnson City. The family house, while comfortable by the standards of the rural South at the time, had neither electricity nor indoor plumbing. Lyndon, like his father, wanted more for his future.

In fact, when he was twelve, he told classmates, "You know, someday I'm going to be president of the United States." Later in life, Johnson would remember: "When I was fourteen years old I decided I was not going to be the victim of a system which would allow the price of a commodity like cotton to drop from forty cents to six cents and destroy the homes of people like my own family." The climb out of the Texas Hill Country, however, would be a steep one. School, at first, was a one-room, one-teacher enterprise. Johnson City High School was a three-mile mule ride away from home. Lyndon graduated in 1924, president of his six-member senior class. Sam Johnson's financial troubles took a toll on his health and his family. The Johnsons scrimped to send Lyndon to summer courses at Southwest Texas State Teachers College to supplement his meager rural education. But the boy did not do well, and he was not allowed into the college after finishing high school. This led to a "lost" period in Lyndon's life, during which he drifted about.

With five friends, he bought a car and drove to California, where he did odd jobs and briefly worked in a cousin's law office. Lyndon then hitchhiked back to Texas and performed manual labor on a road crew. He fell into fights and drinking that eventually led to his arrest. In 1927, he refocused his energies on a teaching career and was accepted to Southwest Texas State Teachers College. Johnson was an indifferent student, but he eagerly pursued extracurricular activities such as journalism, student government, and debating. He excelled in his student teaching and was assigned to a tiny Hispanic school in a deeply impoverished area. Johnson literally took over the school in Cotulla, pushing the long-neglected students and giving them a shred of hope and pride in their achievements. He earned glowing references. When Johnson graduated in 1930, however, America was just entering the Great Depression. His first teaching job paid $1,530—for the year. Johnson again did an exemplary job, but the unpaid political work he had been doing in his free time had fueled other ambitions. Not surprisingly, his teaching career was brief.

Tirelessly, he helped a political friend of his father in some local campaigns, and by late 1931, he had won a job as an aide to U.S. Congressman Richard Kleberg of Corpus Christi. In Washington, Johnson's work ethic was astounding. He poured over every detail of congressional protocol. No mail from Kleberg's constituents went unanswered. He was, in short, a model assistant. His drive, ambition, and competence made him stand out among the young people in Washington at that time. When he returned to Texas in 1934 to visit family, he met a twenty-one-year-old woman named Claudia Alta Taylor, a recent University of Texas graduate and a member of a wealthy East Texas family. They married three months later. Marriage and Congressional Career As a baby, Claudia's nanny had described her as "pretty as a lady bird," and the nickname stuck. Deeply shy but genuine and charming, Lady Bird became a refining balance to her boisterous, hyperactive husband and was a gracious hostess to Johnson's powerful new friends. The new President, Franklin Roosevelt, was fighting the Depression with dozens of social programs.

Johnson, with the support of future Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, won appointment as Texas director of the National Youth Administration, a federal youth-employment program. Again, his work was superb, and when James Buchanan, the congressman in his home district, died in 1937, Johnson quickly moved to grab the job. He tapped his new wife's inheritance and her increasing assets as owner of a local radio station, aligned himself with Roosevelt's sweeping social policies, and won election in Texas's Tenth District. He was just twenty-eight years old. Because of his age and ambition for even higher office, Johnson's early congressional record produced few results. By the late 1930s, however, he was winning federal housing projects and dams for his district. He managed to bring electrical power to the lonely Texas Hill Country of his youth, something he claimed for the rest of his days as his proudest achievement. When one of Texas's two U.S. senators died in 1941, Johnson seemed certain to inherit the job, but a conservative former radio star-turned-governor named W. Lee "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy" O'Daniel entered the race late.

It was widely alleged that both candidates used fraudulent votes, but O'Daniel finagled more than Johnson and carried the election. Still a member of the House, Johnson used his contacts with Roosevelt to obtain an officer's commission in the Naval Reserve. When the U.S. entered World War II, Johnson was appointed congressional inspector of the war's progress in the Pacific, thus maintaining his seat in the House. He went on a single bombing mission, securing the "combat record" and a Silver Star for serving under hostile fire. Observing wartime industrial and technological trends, Johnson invested and became well-to-do for the first time. Lady Bird, meanwhile, gave birth to two daughters, one born in 1944 and another three years later. By the time the war ended, the world was a very different place—and so was America. Its uneasy ally from the war, the Soviet Union, refused to withdraw its armed forces from Europe. The Cold War had begun. Many of Johnson's countrymen were weary of the New Deal's activist social policies at home and the threat of more war overseas; the new communist expansion abroad frightened them. The Democrats were losing their longtime grip on Congress and the White House.

While Johnson easily won a sixth term in 1948, his opponent painted him as an old-style liberal, a career politician who had profited from the war while exposing himself to little risk. The charges lingered into the following year, when Johnson tried once again to enter the U.S. Senate. Yet again a popular Texas governor was in the way. His name was Coke Stevenson, and his presence and character were so impressive that he was widely known as "Mr. Texas." Johnson and Stevenson battled endlessly for the Democratic nomination and forced a runoff. The young congressman then waged an all-out, rough-and-tumble Lone Star State campaign and showed that he had learned lessons since his earlier Senate defeat. Three counties in the southern portion of the state provided highly suspicious vote tallies that gave Johnson the victory in the Democratic primary—crucial in those days to a general election, since Republicans were few and far between and could never win the subsequent election—by 87 votes out of a 250,000 cast. He easily defeated his Republican opponent in the general election and won the Senate seat, but the cost to his credibility was steep.

Everyone knew the election had been rife with fraud, and his slim, questionable margin of victory was certainly no popular mandate. Critics began calling him "Landslide Lyndon," and the new senator found their disdain hard to shake for a long time. Senator par Excellence As a senator, Johnson found his true calling. The Senate, with only a quarter of the membership of the House, gave him a higher national profile. Johnson's ascent to power was startling; by the end of his first term, he was one of the most powerful senators in America. He used strategies that had enabled his fast climb in the House: wooing powerful members, angling for spots on important committees, and outworking everyone. Because both Senate Democratic leaders had been defeated by the resurgent Republicans in the recent election, it was a time of rapid advancement for newcomers. Just two years into his Senate term, Johnson was named the whip, or assistant to his party's leader, in charge of rounding up votes. Two years after that, Republicans won a majority in the Senate on the coattails of the new President, Dwight Eisenhower. Once again, Johnson's Democratic superiors were election casualties, so he became minority leader.

In the fall 1954 elections, the Democrats had regained control of the Senate, and when the Senate convened in 1955, Johnson became majority leader. It was a dizzyingly fast climb. Early in LBJ's Senate career, he had championed military preparedness, but as he rose to power, he increasingly turned his attention to domestic issues. Already contemplating a White House run of his own, he strategically sought to work with, not against, the popular Eisenhower. Laboring almost around the clock, begging and berating to get his way, Johnson was the Senate's master, perhaps its most powerful leader ever. Working with fellow Texan and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Johnson was able to compile an impressive record of legislative achievement. LBJ did his homework and had an uncanny ability to know how to approach other senators. He became known for the "Johnson Treatment," in which he leaned close in on a senator, towering over his prey, speaking softly and cajoling, flattering, even bribing, until he won the senator's vote. Unfortunately, his drive and ambition almost killed him. In mid-1955, he suffered a massive heart attack in the bucolic Virginia countryside.

Not yet fifty, he reassessed his life; he quit smoking, lost weight, and tried to delegate more of his work. He was instrumental in winning passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, working closely with Eisenhower while soothing southern colleagues who were suspicious of such social change. When the Soviets launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite that year, he led the way to get America into the race for space. By 1958, Johnson sensed that he had gone as far in the Senate as he ever would. He turned his sights on the prize of prizes: the presidency. A Heartbeat from the Presidency Being from the South was still a handicap to a presidential candidate in 1960; the region had not yet assumed the kind of power that would put Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in the White House in later years. In 1952 and 1956, Johnson had tried but failed to be named vice president on the Democratic ticket, referring to himself as a "western" candidate. In 1960, his primary foe for the nomination was his Senate colleague, John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts. For the only time in his life, Johnson was out-campaigned.

Kennedy announced his candidacy early, spent lavishly, worked local political machines with corporate efficiency, and piled up one primary win after another. Johnson held back, waiting for Kennedy's youth and Catholicism to take its toll. It never did. The young man from Boston won the party's nomination on the first ballot. However, Kennedy was a decided underdog to win the White House. The Republicans had nominated a skilled and compelling candidate, Vice President Richard Nixon. The Democrats needed a running mate who would appeal to those that JFK made uneasy. Lyndon Johnson—southern, Protestant, mature, and the ultimate congressional insider—would be a perfect contrast to the northeastern, Catholic, youthful Democratic nominee. Kennedy was both amused and awed by the larger-than-life Texan and was mildly surprised when Johnson not only accepted the offer but campaigned hard for the ticket. It paid off because 1960 was the closest presidential race of the century. Several southern states that had defected to the Republicans during the Eisenhower years returned to the Democratic fold and helped Kennedy win. (See Kennedy biography, Campaigns and Elections section, for details.)Kennedy relegated Johnson to the outer circles of the New Frontier but did give him some significant responsibilities.

Johnson headed the space program, played a key role in military policy, and chaired the President's Committee for Equal Employment Opportunity. In foreign policy, Johnson had much less influence, though he did encourage acceptance of a diplomatic "trade" of Russian missiles in Cuba for American ones in Turkey. Kennedy typically did not rely on LBJ for advice in these matters, however. Overall, Johnson was frustrated as vice president, particularly when the New Frontiersmen around Kennedy ignored him and refused to take advantage of his expertise. In late November 1963, Kennedy decided to travel to Texas to shore up support for his upcoming reelection bid. Johnson was riding two cars behind Kennedy's in the motorcade when the bullets struck the young President. By the time Johnson reached the hospital, Kennedy was dead. Aboard Air Force One, before its return to Washington, Johnson was sworn in as President; Lady Bird and Kennedy's widow were at his side. When the plane landed, he gave a brief speech to his dazed nation, promising, "I will do my best—that is all I can do." Two weeks later, Johnson moved into the White House.

One adviser never forgot the image of a mover packing Kennedy's trademark rocking chair—while another carried in Johnson's cowboy saddle."All that I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today," Johnson told a joint session of Congress when he outlined his plans for governing. He kept Kennedy's cabinet and top aides, telling them that he and the nation needed them to provide continuity. Within days, Johnson firmly grasped the reins of government. His grief at Kennedy's tragedy was balanced by the demands and responsibilities of the Oval Office. " target="_blank">Address to Joint Session of Congress (November 27, 1963) Lyndon B. Johnson | president of United States | Britannica.com president of United States Alternative Titles: LBJ, Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson McGeorge Bundy Lyndon B. Johnson, in full Lyndon Baines Johnson, also called LBJ (born August 27, 1908, Gillespie county, Texas , U.S.—died January 22, 1973, San Antonio , Texas), 36th president of the United States (1963–69).

A moderate Democrat and vigorous leader in the United States Senate , Johnson was elected vice president in 1960 and acceded to the presidency in 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . During his administration he signed into law the Civil Rights Act (1964), the most comprehensive civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction era, initiated major social service programs, and bore the brunt of national opposition to his vast expansion of American involvement in the Vietnam War . (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America .) Lyndon B. Johnson, c. 1963. White House Collection Key events in the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Early life Johnson, the first of five children, was born in a three-room house in the hills of south-central Texas to Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., a businessman and member of the Texas House of Representatives, and Rebekah Baines Johnson, daughter of state legislator Joseph Baines and a graduate of Baylor College. Sam Johnson had earlier lost money in cotton speculation, and, despite his legislative career, the family often struggled to make a living.

After graduating from high school in 1924, Johnson spent three years in a series of odd jobs before enrolling at Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos . While pursuing his studies there in 1928–29, he took a teaching job at a predominantly Mexican American school in Cotulla, Texas, where the extreme poverty of his students made a profound impression on him. Through his later work in state politics, Johnson developed close and enduring ties to the Mexican American community in Texas—a factor that would later help the Kennedy-Johnson ticket carry Texas in the presidential election of 1960 . Career in Congress After graduating from college in 1930, Johnson won praise as a teacher of debate and public speaking at Sam Houston High School in Houston. That same year he participated in the congressional campaign of Democrat Richard Kleberg (son of the owner of the King Ranch , the largest ranch in the continental United States), and upon Kleberg’s election he accompanied the new congressman to Washington, D.C., in 1931 as his legislative assistant. While in Washington, Johnson worked tirelessly on behalf of Kleberg’s constituents and quickly developed a thorough grasp of congressional politics. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent In 1934, in San Antonio, Texas, Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, known from childhood as “Lady Bird.” A recent graduate of the University of Texas , where she finished near the top of her class, Lady Bird Johnson was a much-needed source of stability in her husband’s life as well as a shrewd judge of people. In Washington, Johnson’s political career blossomed rapidly after he was befriended by fellow Texan Sam Rayburn , the powerful chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and later Democratic leader of the House of Representatives. Following two years as director of the National Youth Administration in Texas (1935–37), he ran successfully for a seat in the House as a supporter of the New Deal policies of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt . He represented his district in the House for most of the next 12 years, interrupting his legislative duties for six months in 1941–42 to serve as lieutenant commander in the navy—thereby becoming the first member of Congress to serve on active duty in World War II .

While on an observation mission over New Guinea , Johnson’s plane survived an attack by Japanese fighters, and General Douglas MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star for gallantry. Johnson proudly wore the decoration in his lapel for the rest of his life. USA Facts Johnson ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the United States Senate in a special election in 1941. Running again in 1948, he won the Democratic primary (which in Texas was tantamount to election) after a vicious campaign that included vote fraud on both sides. His extraordinarily slim margin of victory—87 votes out of 988,000 votes cast—earned him the nickname “Landslide Lyndon.” He remained in the Senate for 12 years, becoming Democratic whip in 1951 and minority leader in 1953. With the return of a Democratic majority in 1955, Johnson, age 46, became the youngest majority leader in that body’s history. During his years in the Senate, Johnson developed a talent for negotiating and reaching accommodation among divergent political factions.

Despite a severe heart attack in 1955—which he would later describe as “the worst a man could have and still live”—Johnson became a vigorous and effective leader of his party. By methods sometimes tactful but often ruthless, he transformed the Senate Democrats into a remarkably disciplined and cohesive bloc. At the Democratic convention in 1956, Johnson received 80 votes as a favourite-son candidate for president. With an eye on the presidential nomination in 1960, he attempted to cultivate his reputation among supporters as a legislative statesman; during this time he engineered the passage of two civil rights measures, in 1957 and 1960, the first such legislation in the 20th century. Vice presidency Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies At the Democratic convention in 1960, Johnson lost the presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy on the first ballot, 809 votes to 409. He then surprised many both inside and outside the party when he accepted Kennedy’s invitation to join the Democratic ticket as the vice presidential candidate.

Overcoming his disappointment at not heading the ticket himself, he campaigned energetically, and many observers felt that without his presence Kennedy could not have carried Texas, Louisiana, and the Carolinas, states that were essential to his victory over the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon . Johnson was generally uncomfortable in his role as vice president. His legendary knowledge of Congress went largely unused, despite Kennedy’s failure to push through his own legislative program. Although he served on the National Security Council and was appointed chairman of some important committees—such as the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the Peace Corps Advisory Council, and the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity—Johnson regarded most of his assignments as busy work, and he was convinced that the president was ignoring him. His frustration was compounded by the apparent disdain with which he was regarded by some prominent members of the Kennedy administration—including the president’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy , who later regarded LBJ, with his Texas drawl and crude, occasionally scatological sense of humour, as the “usurper” of Kennedy’s Camelot. Johnson, in turn, envied President Kennedy’s handsome appearance and his reputation for urbanity and sophisticated charm.

Despite Johnson’s physically imposing presence (he stood six feet three inches [nearly two metres] tall and usually weighed more than 200 pounds [more than 90 kg]), he suffered from deep-seated feelings of inferiority, which his dealings with the Kennedys—the scions of the “Eastern establishment”—seemed to make all the more acute . As he frequently said, it was his curse to have hailed from “the wrong part of the country.” Accession to the presidency Listen: Johnson, Lyndon B.: accession to the presidency Lyndon B. Johnson at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, after his swearing-in as president of the … Listen: Johnson, Lyndon B.: oath of office Lyndon B. Johnson taking the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963. In Dallas on November 22, 1963, during a political tour of Johnson’s home state, President Kennedy was assassinated. At 2:38 pm that day, Johnson took the oath of office aboard the presidential plane, Air Force One , as it stood on the tarmac at Love Field, Dallas, waiting to take Kennedy’s remains back to Washington.

In one afternoon Johnson had been thrust into the most difficult—and most prized—role of his long political career. One of the new president’s first acts was to appoint a commission to investigate the assassination of Kennedy and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald , the alleged assassin, two days later. Chaired by Earl Warren , the chief justice of the United States, the Warren Commission concluded in September 1964 that there had been no conspiracy in Kennedy’s death. Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson standing by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson as he takes … Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson’s notes for his brief address at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 22, … Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum In the tempestuous days after the assassination, Johnson helped to calm national hysteria and ensure continuity in the presidency. On November 27 he addressed a joint session of Congress and, invoking the memory of the martyred president, urged the passage of Kennedy’s legislative agenda, which had been stalled in congressional committees. He placed greatest importance on Kennedy’s civil rights bill, which became the focus of his efforts during the first months of his presidency.

“No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory,” he said, “than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill.” In February 1964, after a series of amendments by civil rights supporters, the House passed a much stronger bill than the one that Kennedy had proposed, and the measure was finally passed by the Senate in June, after an 83-day filibuster by Southern opponents. U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson talking with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Oval Office at the White … Yoichi Okamoto/Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo Trending Topics Listen: Civil Rights Act; Johnson, Lyndon B. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson addressing the nation as he signed the Civil Rights Act, July 2, … The Civil Rights Act , which Johnson signed into law on July 2, 1964, was the most comprehensive and far-reaching legislation of its kind in American history. Among its provisions were a prohibition of racial segregation and discrimination in places of public accommodation, a prohibition of discrimination by race or sex in employment and union membership, and new guarantees of equal voting rights.

The law also authorized the Justice Department to bring suit against local school boards to end allegedly discriminatory practices, thereby speeding up school desegregation. The constitutionality of the law was immediately challenged but was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1964. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson preparing to sign the Civil Rights Act during a ceremony at the … © Bettmann/Corbis Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr., and others … Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum; photograph, Cecil Stoughton Johnson outlined his domestic agenda in a commencement address at the University of Michigan in May 1964: “In your time 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 injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.” The Great Society program, beginning with the Civil Rights Act and continuing with other important measures passed during Johnson’s second term, was the most impressive body of social legislation since the New Deal of the 1930s.

It encompassed measures designed to fight the “war on poverty,” including legislation establishing the Job Corps for the unemployed and the Head Start program for preschool children; new civil rights legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act (1965), which outlawed the literacy tests and other devices used to prevent African Americans from voting; and Medicare and Medicaid, which provided health benefits for the elderly and the poor, respectively. Other legislation addressed problems in education, housing and urban development, transportation, environmental conservation, and immigration. Johnson saw these measures as building on and completing the New Deal vision of Franklin D. Roosevelt; with their adoption the United States joined the ranks of the welfare states of western Europe and Scandinavia. However, the effect of these undertakings was soon vitiated by increasing American military involvement in the war in Vietnam, which began during the Eisenhower administration and was accelerated by President Kennedy. Former U.S. president Harry S. Truman (right) looking on as Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signs the … Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum/NARA Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, … Lyndon B.

Johnson Library and Museum; photograph, Robert Knudsen Election and the Vietnam War In the presidential elections of 1964, Johnson was opposed by conservative Republican Barry Goldwater . During the campaign Johnson portrayed himself as level-headed and reliable and suggested that Goldwater was a reckless extremist who might lead the country into a nuclear war. When Republican supporters of Goldwater declared, “In your heart, you know he’s right,” Democrats responded by saying, “In your heart, you know he might.” Goldwater’s remark to a reporter that, if he could, he would “drop a low-yield atomic bomb on Chinese supply lines in Vietnam” did nothing to reassure voters. On election day Johnson defeated Goldwater easily, receiving more than 61 percent of the popular vote, the largest percentage ever for a presidential election; the vote in the electoral college was 486 to 52. Johnson interpreted his victory as an extraordinary mandate to push forward with his Great Society reforms. Button from Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 U.S. presidential campaign. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Results of the American presidential election, 1964… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In early August 1964, after North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin near the coast of North Vietnam without provocation, Johnson ordered retaliatory bombing raids on North Vietnamese naval installations and, in a televised address to the nation, proclaimed, “We still seek no wider war.” Two days later, at Johnson’s request, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution , which authorized the president to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” In effect, the measure granted Johnson the constitutional authority to conduct a war in Vietnam without a formal declaration from Congress. Although there were contradictory reports about the “engagement” in the gulf—about which side did what, if anything, and when—Johnson never discussed them with the public. In August 1964, in response to an alleged attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on U.S. … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Despite his campaign pledges not to widen American military involvement in Vietnam, Johnson soon increased the number of U.S. troops in that country and expanded their mission.

In February 1965, after an attack by Viet Cong guerrillas on an U.S. military base in Pleiku, Johnson ordered “Operation Rolling Thunder,” a series of massive bombing raids on North Vietnam intended to cut supply lines to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters in the South; he also dispatched 3,500 Marines to protect the border city of Da Nang . Fifty thousand additional troops were sent in July, and by the end of the year the number of military personnel in the country had reached 180,000. The number increased steadily over the next two years, peaking at about 550,000 in 1968. Commemorative button and ribbon from Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration as U.S. president, c. … Americana/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Creighton Abrams, U.S. commander in South Vietnam, speaking as Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (centre) and … U.S. Department of Defense As each new American escalation met with fresh enemy response and as no end to the combat appeared in sight, the president’s public support declined steeply.

American casualties gradually mounted, reaching nearly 500 a week by the end of 1967. Moreover, the enormous financial cost of the war, reaching $25 billion in 1967, diverted money from Johnson’s cherished Great Society programs and began to fuel inflation. Beginning in 1965, student demonstrations grew larger and more frequent and helped to stimulate resistance to the draft. From 1967 onward, antiwar sentiment gradually spread among other segments of the population, including liberal Democrats, intellectuals , and civil rights leaders, and by 1968 many prominent political figures, some of them former supporters of the president’s Vietnam policies, were publicly calling for an early negotiated settlement of the war. As his popularity sank to new lows in 1967, Johnson was confronted by demonstrations almost everywhere he went. It pained him to hear protesters, especially students—whom he thought would venerate him for his progressive social agenda—chanting, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” To avoid the demonstrations, he eventually restricted his travels, becoming a virtual “prisoner” in the White House .

Domestic problems Meanwhile, as Johnson’s reform consensus gradually unraveled, life for the nation’s poor, particularly African Americans living in inner-city slums in the North, failed to show significant improvement. Vast numbers of African Americans still suffered from unemployment, run-down schools, and lack of adequate medical care, and many were malnourished or hungry. Expectations of prosperity arising from the promise of the Great Society failed to materialize, and discontent and alienation grew accordingly, fed in part by a surge in African American political radicalism and calls for black power. Beginning in the mid-1960s, violence erupted in several cities as the country suffered through “long, hot summers” of riots or the threat of riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles (1965), Cleveland, Ohio (1966), Newark, New Jersey , and Detroit, Michigan (1967), Washington, D.C. (1968), and elsewhere. Fears of a general “race war” were in the air.

The president responded by appointing a special panel to report on the crisis, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which concluded that the country was in danger of dividing into two societies—one white, one black, “separate and unequal.” Last days On January 23, 1968, an American intelligence-gathering vessel, the USS Pueblo, was seized by North Korea; all 80 members of the crew were captured and imprisoned. Already frustrated by the demands of the Vietnam War, Johnson responded with restraint but called up 15,000 navy and air force reservists and ordered the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the area. The Pueblo crew was held for 11 months and was freed only after the United States apologized for having violated North Korean waters; the apology was later retracted. To make matters worse, only one week after the seizure of the Pueblo, the Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam embarrassed the Johnson administration and shocked the country. Although the attack was a failure in military terms, the news coverage—including televised images of enemy forces firing on the U.S.

embassy in Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital—completely undermined the administration’s claim that the war was being won and added further to Johnson’s nagging “credibility gap.” The Tet Offensive was a military failure for the Viet Cong, but, at the same time, it devastated … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Listen: Johnson, Lyndon B. U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson announcing that he would not seek renomination, March 31, 1968. Meanwhile, Senator Eugene McCarthy declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, an unprecedented affront to a sitting president, and Robert Kennedy announced his own candidacy soon thereafter. On March 31, 1968, Johnson startled television viewers with a national address that included three announcements: that he had just ordered major reductions in the bombing of North Vietnam, that he was requesting peace talks, and that he would neither seek nor accept his party’s renomination for the presidency. In March 1968, with protests against the Vietnam War growing, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

, in April 1968 provoked new rioting in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Two months later Robert Kennedy was shot dead in Los Angeles, and the Democratic presidential nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey was ensured. At the tumultuous Democratic convention in Chicago in August, delegates nominated Humphrey against weak opposition by McCarthy as antiwar protesters and student radicals engaged in televised battles with police outside the convention hall. During his campaign against Republican candidate Richard Nixon and third-party candidate George Wallace , Humphrey, heavily burdened by his association with Johnson’s unpopular Vietnam policies, tried to distance himself from the president by calling for an unconditional end to the bombing in North Vietnam. Meanwhile, negotiations had begun with the North Vietnamese, and in October, one week before the election, Johnson announced a complete cessation of the bombing, to be followed by direct negotiations with Hanoi . But it was too late for Humphrey, who narrowly lost the election to Nixon by a popular vote of nearly 30.9 million to Nixon’s 31.7 million.

After attending his successor’s inauguration in January 1969, Johnson retired to his home in Texas, the LBJ Ranch near Johnson City , where he worked on plans for his presidential library (dedicated May 1971) and wrote his memoirs, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963–1969 (1971). In January 1973, less than one week before all the belligerents in Vietnam signed an agreement in Paris to end the war, Johnson suffered a heart attack and died. He was buried at the place he felt most at home: his ranch. Lyndon B. Johnson. Walter Cronkite (left) interviewing Lyndon B. Johnson, 1971. Frank Wolfe/The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum Cabinet of President Lyndon B. Johnson The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Cabinet of President Lyndon B.

Johnson November 22, 1963-January 20, 1965 (Term 1) State Replacing the Vice President Replacing the Vice President Posted on April 8, 2008 Q: If a vice president assumes the presidency, who becomes vice president? A: The new president appoints someone to fill his or her old position, subject to congressional approval. FULL QUESTION If the president dies, and the VP is sworn in as the new pres, does the speaker of the House then get sworn in as the new VP? Or is there no official ceremony required? When LBJ was sworn in for JFK, who became the VP? FULL ANSWER The Constitution specifies that if the president dies or leaves office before finishing his or her term, the vice president takes the job. The only "official ceremony" required by the Constitution is that any president must take the oath of office: U.S.

Constitution, Article II, Section 1: Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:–"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." If the vice president was unable or ineligible to ascend to the presidency (or if the office was vacant) the speaker of the House would be next in line under terms of the Presidential Succession Act, which was first passed in 1947. However, when the vice president becomes president, the speaker does not move into the office of vice president. The legislation only specifies who is to become president. When the position of vice president becomes vacant, the 25th Amendment states : 25th Amendment: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. The vice president takes the same oath of office as members of Congress. The 25th amendment was precipitated by the very case our reader asks about: When Lyndon B.

Johnson became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the position of vice president remained vacant for the remainder of his term. Had Johnson left office during that time, House Speaker John W. McCormack of Massachusetts would have been next in line to take his place as president. After Johnson won the 1964 election, his running mate, Hubert H. Humphrey, became vice president. A few years later, in Feb. 1967, the 25th amendment was ratified. This amendment has been invoked twice. In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew stepped down and was convicted of corruption charges after pleading "no contest." President Richard Nixon then appointed House Republican Leader Gerald Ford as vice president. When Nixon resigned and Ford became president, Ford named former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president. -Justin Bank

Question: What was the last position that Lyndon B Johnson held when he became President of the USA?
Answer: Vice President