Lyndon Baines Johnson

Portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). After a long career in the U.S. Congress, Johnson became the thirty-seventh Vice President on a ticket with Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election. In 1963, he succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson was an important leader of the Democratic Party, and as President, he was responsible for the passage of key civil rights legislation and Medicare, a major "War on Poverty", as well as the escalation of the war in Vietnam. He was elected in a landslide in 1964, but his 1968 reelection bid collapsed due to low support from within both his party and the general public. In 1973, Johnson's years of overeating, excessive drinking, and smoking caught up to him, and he died of a heart attack on his Texas ranch.

Early years

Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas, on August 27, 1908, in a small farmhouse in a poor area on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two boys: LBJ and his brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and sisters Rebekah (1910-1978), Josefa (1912-1961), and Lucia (1916-1997). Johnson attended public schools and graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924. (Johnson City, near his birthplace, was named after LBJ's grandfather, Sam Ealy Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Georgia.) In school, Robert Caro describes Johnson as an awkward, talkative youth with a tendency to lie; regardless, he was elected president of his eleventh-grade class.

In 1926, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College (now Texas State University-San Marcos). He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics, and edited the school newspaper, graduating in 1931. Robert Caro devoted several chapters of The Path to Power, the first volume of his biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson, to detailing how Johnson's years at San Marcos refined his gift of persuasion that helped his political career. This was complemented by his humbling experience of taking a year off from college, where he taught mostly Mexican immigrants at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. When he returned to San Marcos in 1965, after having signed the Higher Education Act, Johnson looked back on this experience:

"I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this Nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American."

Entering politics

After graduating from college, Johnson briefly taught public speaking and debate in a Houston high school prior to entering politics. Johnson's father had served five terms in the Texas legislature and was a close friend to one of Texas's rising political figures, Congressman Sam Rayburn. In 1931, Johnson campaigned for Texas state senator Welly Hopkins in his run for Congress. Hopkins rewarded Johnson by recommending him to congressman Richard Kleberg. Johnson was then appointed as Kleberg's legislative secretary and elected the youngest speaker of the "Little Congress," a group of Washington legislative aides. Johnson used the little-known group to further his political career. Being speaker of the "Little Congress" gave Johnson the excuse he needed to meet with and invite leaders to the group's events. He was also able to cultivate certain media contacts and attention through the group.

As secretary, Johnson became acquainted with people of influence, found out how they had reached their positions, and gained their respect for his abilities. Johnson's friends soon included some of the men who worked around President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as fellow Texans such as Vice President John Nance Garner. His strongest contact would be the fierce speaker of the house Sam Rayburn. Although by nature Rayburn was a insular man, Caro believed that Johnson turned into a "Professional Son" for Rayburn, a man who had no family.

In 1935, Johnson became the head of the Texas National Youth Administration, which enabled him to use government to create educational and job opportunities for young people. The position let him build political pull with his constituents. During this time of his life and throughout his career, Johnson was a notoriously tough boss, often demanding long workdays and continued work on the weekends from his staffers. He resigned two years later to run for Congress.

FDR, Gov. Allred of Texas, & LBJ. In later campaigns, Johnson would edit out the picture of Governor Allred for propaganda purposes

Member of Congress

In 1937, Johnson successfully ran for a seat in the House of Representatives to represent the 10th Congressional District in Texas, a district that included Austin, Texas and the surrounding Hill Country. He ran on a New Deal platform and was effectively aided by his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

President Roosevelt often ignored Johnson early in his career, but the President would later find Johnson to be a welcome ally and conduit for information, particulary with regards to issues concerning internal politics in Texas and the machinations of Vice President Garner and House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Johnson was immediately appointed to the Naval Affairs Committee, a job that carried high importance for a freshman congressman. He also worked for rural electrification and other improvements for his district. With his strong influence within the White House, Johnson was able to steer the projects towards contractors whom he personally knew. In gratitude, these contractors would finance much of Johnson's future career.

First campaign for Senate

In 1941, Johnson ran for the U.S. Senate in a special election against the sitting governor of Texas, radio personality W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. Johnson was not expected to win against the popular governor, but he ran a strong race and was declared the winner in unofficial returns. Johnson ultimately was defeated by controversial official returns in an election marked by massive fraud on the part of both campaigns. During his last campaign, he promised that he would serve in the military should war break out; in December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. and LBJ's promise was put to the test.

World War II

On June 20, 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth bill was introduced to Congress to institute the first peacetime draft. The very next day Congressman Johnson received his appointment in the Naval Reserve, which would exempt him from the draft — signed into law in September as the Selective service and training act of 1940, initiated in November. After America entered the war a year later, Johnson asked Undersecretary of the Navy James Forrestal for a noncombatant assignment— and was sent to inspect the shipyard facilities in Texas and on the West Coast.

By the spring, Johnson’s constituents in Texas were eager to hear about their Congressman's activities on the war front. In addition, he was looking to fulfill his 1940 campaign pledge to "fight in the trenches" should America enter the war, so he again pressed his contacts in the Administration to find a new assignment— this time, closer to a combat zone.

President Roosevelt needed his own reports on what conditions were like in the Southwest Pacific—he felt information that flowed up the military chain of command needed to be supplemented by a highly trusted political aide. From a suggestion by Forrestal, FDR assigned Johnson to a three-man survey team of the Southwest Pacific. Johnson left for Melbourne and reported to General Douglas MacArthur. The observers were sent to Garbutt Field in Queensland, home of the 22nd Bomb Group. The bombers' missions targeted the Japanese air base at Lae on the conquered part of the island of New Guinea. The military commanders felt that there was no need for outside observers — underscoring Roosevelt's point — but Johnson insisted. Japanese Zero fighter planes attacked the B-26 on which he flew during the mission, and upon returning to Melbourne and reporting back to MacArthur, the General awarded the Congressman and the other surviving observer the Silver Star, the military's third-highest medal.

Based on his observations, Johnson reported to Roosevelt, the Navy leaders, and to Congress that conditions were deplorable and totally unacceptable. Using all his persuasive skills Johnson argued that the Pacific theatre urgently needed a higher priority and a bigger share of war supplies. In his opinion, the warplanes sent there, for example, were "far inferior" to Japanese planes, and overall troop morale was bad. On July 16, he told Forrestal the Pacific Fleet had a "critical" need for 6800 additional experienced men. Johnson prepared a twelve-point program to upgrade the entire effort in the region, stressing "greater cooperation and coordination within the various commands and between the different war theatres." House leadership responded by making Johnson chairman of a high-powered subcommittee of the Naval Affairs committee. With a mission similar to that of the Truman Committee in the Senate, he probed into the peacetime "business as usual" inefficiencies that permeated the entire naval war, and demanded admirals shape up and get the job done. Johnson went too far when he proposed a bill that would crack down on the draft exemptions of shipyard workers if they had too many abstentions. Organized labor blocked the bill immediately and denounced Johnson. Although some of his hard-driving tactics ruffled feathers and made enemies, Johnson's mission had a significant impact in upgrading the South Pacific theater in Washington's calculations and in helping along the entire naval war effort.

Some of his political enemies charged that Johnson's efforts during the war and immediately afterward were trivial and self-promoting. A month after this incident, President Roosevelt ordered members of Congress serving in the military to return to their offices. Of eight members then serving, four agreed to resign from the armed forces; four resigned from Congress. Johnson returned to Washington, and continued to serve in the House of Representatives through 1949. As Johnson's biographer concludes, "The mission was a temporary exposure to danger calculated to satisfy Johnson's personal and political wishes, but it also represented a genuine effort on his part, however misplaced, to improve the lot of America's fighting men."

Senate years

In 1948, Johnson again ran for the Senate, this time successfully. This election was highly controversial: a three-way Democratic Party primary left Johnson in a run-off with former governor Coke Stevenson.Stevenson was a popular former governor. Johnson was hindered during the campaign due to an illness caused by a kidney stone. In an effort to catch Stevenson, Johnson was able to finance his own personal helicopter dubbed "The Flying Windmill". The then-new device was able to draw crowds around the state while Johnson personally attacked his opponent. Johnson campaigned very hard and won by only 87 votes out of a million cast. Stevenson Stevenson contested the vote count. There were allegations that Johnson's campaign manager, John Connally, was connected with 202 ballots in Duval County that had curiously been cast in alphabetical order. . In Robert A. Caro's 1989 book Means of Ascent, he argued that Johnson had rigged the election not only there but also at least 10,000 ballots in Bexar County alone. In the federal court case arising from the election, Johnson hired Abe Fortas to represent him. Fortas persuaded U.S. Supreme Court justice Hugo Black to dissolve the federal injunction nullifying Johnson's runoff victory. Johnson went on to win the general election, but the Texas media sardonically nicknamed him "Landslide Lyndon" in reference to his bout with Stevenson. Fortas was later appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by Johnson.

After winning the disputed Democratic nomination, Johnson defeated Republican Jack Porter, 702,985 (66.7 percent) to 349,665 (33.3 percent). Coke Stevenson never forgot his loss to Johnson. In 1960, Coke Stevenson endorsed the Nixon-Lodge electors against the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in Texas. In 1964, Stevenson supported Republican Barry M. Goldwater over favorite-son Texan Johnson.

Once in the Senate, Johnson immediately sought power. Johnson was known among his colleagues for his highly successful "courtships" of older senators, especially Senator Richard Russell, patrician leader of the Conservative coalition and arguably the most powerful man in the Senate. Johnson, always at his best when working one-on-one, proceeded to gain Russell's favor in the same way as he had "courted" Speaker Sam Rayburn and gained his crucial support in the House.

Johnson was appointed to the Armed Services Committee, and later in 1950, he helped create the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee. Johnson became its chairman and conducted a number of investigations of defense costs and efficiency. These investigations—couched in headline-grabbing phraseology but largely devoid of substance—tended to recycle old investigations and demand actions that were already being taken by the Truman administration. However, Johnson's brilliant strategic leaks, his overall manipulation of the press, the incredible speed at which his committee issued the "new" reports, and the fact that he ensured every report was endorsed unanimously by the committee all got him headlines and national attention.

Senate Democratic leader

In 1953, he was chosen by his fellow Democrats to be the minority leader. Thus, he became the youngest man ever named to the post by either major political party. One of his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in appointment to a committee, while retaining it in terms of chairmanships. In 1954, Johnson was re-elected to the Senate and became Majority Leader after the Democrats reclaimed a majority of Senate seats. As leader of his party in the Senate, his duties included scheduling legislation and helping to pass measures favored by the Democrats. He, Rayburn and President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked smoothly together, in passing Eisenhower's domestic and foreign agenda. Historians Caro and Dallek consider him the most effective Senate Majority Leader in history.

Vice Presidency

Johnson's success in the Senate made him a possible Democratic presidential candidate. He was Texas' "favorite son" candidate at the party's national convention in 1956. In 1960, Johnson received 409 votes on the first and only ballot at the Democratic convention which nominated John F. Kennedy.

During the convention, Kennedy designated Johnson as his choice for vice president. Some later reports (such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) say that Kennedy offered the position to Johnson as a courtesy and did not expect him to accept. Others (such as W. Marvin Watson) say that the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win the 1960 election against Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. and needed Johnson on the ticket to help carry Southern states.

While he ran for vice president with John F. Kennedy, Johnson also sought a third term in the U.S. Senate. Texas law was changed to permit him to run for two offices at the same time. Johnson was reelected senator, with 1,306,605 votes (58 percent) to Republican John G. Tower's 927,653 (41.1 percent). After the election though, Johnson was powerless. Kennedy and his senior advisors rarely consulted the Texan and prevented him from assuming the vital role that the previous Vice President, Richard Nixon, had played in energizing the state parties. Kennedy appointed him to nominal jobs such as head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, through which he worked with blacks and other minorities. Johnson took on numerous minor diplomatic missions, which gave him limited insights into international issues. He was allowed to observe Cabinet and National Security meetings. Kennedy did give Johnson control over all presidential appointments involving Texas. The best position was chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science. When in April 1961 the Soviets beat the U.S. with the first manned spaceflight Kennedy tasked Johnson with coming up with a 'scientific bonanza' that would prove world leadership. Johnson knew that Project Apollo and an enlarged NASA were feasible, so he steered the recommendation towards a crash program for landing an American on the moon.

Presidential Campaign

File:Lbj1964.jpg

LBJ campaign button appeals to memory of JFK, 1964

On September 7, 1964 Johnson's campaign managers for the 1964 presidential election broadcast the "Daisy ad." It portrayed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, counting up to ten. Then a baritone voice took over, counted down from ten to zero and a nuclear bomb exploded. The message was that Goldwater meant nuclear death. The commercial helped escalate the rhetoric of American politics. Johnson won by a sweeping landslide that defeated many conservative Republican congressmen, giving Johnson a majority that could overcome the Conservative coalition.

Presidency 1963-1969

Policies

In his first year as President, Johnson faced conflicts with everyone from Senators to speechwriters who wanted to honor Kennedy's legacy, but were reluctant to support new propositions by Johnson. Johnson used his famous charm and strong-arm tactics to push through his new policies. In 1964, upon Johnson's request, Congress passed a tax-reduction law and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in association with the War on Poverty. Johnson also hired Jerri Whittington, the first African-American White House secretary, and appointed Jack Valenti as his "special assistant."

President Johnson signs the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

An example of his strong arm tactics was 'The Treatment'; this was where he saw people alone in a small adjoining room where he would pull his chair close to the guests and lean forward until his nose was inches away from the visitor's face. Members of Congress from whom Johnson wanted a vote looked visibly shaken after their meeting with the President.

In the 1964 election, Johnson won the Presidency in his own right with 61 percent of the vote and the widest popular margin in American history—more than 15,000,000 votes. No President before or since has received a greater percentage of the popular vote. However, 1964 was also the year that Johnson supported the conservative Democratic delegates from Mississippi and denied the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. To appease the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) the convention offered the MFDP an unsatisfactory compromise and the MFDP rejected it. In the same year, Johnson lost the popular vote to Republican challenger Barry Goldwater in the Deep South states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, a region that had voted for Democrats since Reconstruction.

President Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Harry Truman and his wife, Bess are on far right

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 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 anti-poverty 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. Several changes were made during the Johnson administration to relieve the hostile political atmosphere. In response to the civil rights movement, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively outlawed most forms of racial segregation, and the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, which dramatically changed US immigration policy. He also nominated former civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall, who had argued and won the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, to the positions of Solicitor General and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first African-American to serve in either capacity.

The other crisis arose from Vietnam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end the Communist insurgency 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 Vietnam in order to begin negotiations.

In a surprising move, Johnson withdrew as a candidate for re-election (which candidacy was being seriously challenged by other Democrats). He said he was withdrawing so he could devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace.

Vietnam War

President Johnson disliked the American military effort in Vietnam, which he had inherited from Kennedy but expanded considerably following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (less than 3 weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964 which had nominated Barry Goldwater for president).

File:RwrSep64LBJ.jpg

LBJ visits Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon in September, 1964.

Though he would often privately curse the war, referring to it as his "bitch mistress," at the same time Johnson believed that America could not afford to look weak in the eyes of the world, and so he escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to 1968, which resulted in thousands of American deaths - In two weeks in May 1968 alone, American deaths numbered 1,800, and casualties at 18,000. In one speech, he said of the Vietnam conflict "If we allow Vietnam to fall, tomorrow we’ll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Francisco" - alluding to Eisenhower's 'Domino Theory'.

However, Johnson was afraid that too much focus on Vietnam would distract attention from his Great Society programs, so the levels of military escalation, while significant, were never enough to make any real headway in the war. Against his wishes, Johnson's presidency was soon dominated by the Vietnam War. As more and more American soldiers and civilians were killed in Vietnam, Johnson's popularity declined, particularly in the face of student protests. During these protests, students would often burn their draft cards and chant the line, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids will you kill today?". In what was termed an October surprise, Johnson announced to the nation on October 31, 1968 that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1, should the Hanoi Government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks. At the end of his earlier March 31 speech he had shocked the country by telling them he would not run for re-election, saying: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president,"(Text and audio of speech) just several days after a poll announced that a mere 29% of the American Public supported the war.

During the final year of his presidency, Johnson couldn't travel anywhere without facing protests, particularly over the war.

Administration and Cabinet

All of the cabinet members when Johnson became president in 1963 had been serving under John F. Kennedy previously.

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Lyndon B. Johnson	1963–1969
Vice President	Hubert H. Humphrey	1965–1969
State	Dean Rusk	1963–1969
Treasury	C. Douglas Dillon	1963–1965
	Henry H. Fowler	1965–1968
	Joseph W. Barr	1968–1969
Defense	Robert S. McNamara	1963–1968
	Clark M. Clifford	1968–1969
Justice	Robert F. Kennedy	1963–1964
	Nicholas deB. Katzenbach	1964–1966
	Ramsey Clark	1966–1969
Postmaster General	John A. Gronouski	1963–1965
	Lawrence F. O'Brien	1965–1968
	W. Marvin Watson	1968–1969
Interior	Stewart L. Udall	1963–1969
Agriculture	Orville L. Freeman	1963–1969
Commerce	Luther H. Hodges	1963–1965
	John T. Connor	1965–1967
	Alexander B. Trowbridge	1967–1968
	Cyrus R. Smith	1968–1969
Labor	W. Willard Wirtz	1963–1967
Health, Education, and Welfare	Anthony J. Celebrezze	1963–1965
	John W. Gardner	1965–1968
	Wilbur J. Cohen	1968–1969
Housing and Urban Development	Robert Clifton Weaver	1966–1968
	Robert Coldwell Wood	1969–1969
Transportation	Alan Stephenson Boyd	1967–1969

Supreme Court appointments

Johnson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Abe Fortas - 1965
  • Fortas was also nominated to be Chief Justice of the United States in 1968, but he withdrew
• Thurgood Marshall - 1967
  • Marshall was the first African-American to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

Retirement, death, and honors

File:Johnson Lyndon CoatofArms.jpg

The coat of arms of President Johnson, as granted by the American College of Heraldry and Arms

Under the 22nd Amendment, Johnson was still eligible for a second full term, having served less than two years of Kennedy's term. However, on March 31, 1968, after the Tet Offensive, a narrow victory over Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary, the entry of Robert Kennedy into the presidential race, and new lows in the opinion polls, he announced, in an address to the nation, that he would no longer seek nomination for the presidency. He cited the growing division within the country over the war as his reason. The Democratic nomination eventually went to Johnson's Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was later defeated in the 1968 election by Richard M. Nixon. As of 2006, LBJ remains the only president (after the 22nd amendment's ratification) eligible to have served more than 8 years. If he had remained in the race in 1968 and won, he would have been the second longest-serving president, having served nine years. It should also be noted that his term would have expired on January 20, 1973, two days before his death.

After leaving the presidency in 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Johnson City, Texas. In 1971, he published his memoirs, The Vantage Point. That year, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, which is the most visited presidential library in the nation—over a quarter million visitors per year—opened on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public to form the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, with the proviso that the ranch "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile relic of the past".

Johnson died at 4:33 PM on January 22, 1973 from a third heart attack at his ranch, at the age of 64. His health was ruined by years of heavy smoking and stress, and the former President had severe heart disease. He was found in his bed, reaching for his phone. Johnson was honored with a state funeral in which Texas Congressman J.J. Pickle and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk eulogized him at the Capitol.

The final services took place on January 25. The funeral was held at the National City Christian Church (in Washington, D.C.), where he worshipped often when president. The service, in which foreign dignitaries, led by former Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato, attended, was the first presidential funeral to feature a eulogy. They came from former White House Chief of Staff, and Postmaster General W. Marvin Watson, and the church's rector, Rev. Dr. George Davis, a very close friend of the Johnsons who officiated the services in Washington. Though he attended the service, Nixon, who presided over the funeral, did not speak, as customary for presidents during presidential funerals, but both eulogists turned to him as they spoke and lauded him for his tributes to the former president, as Rusk had the day before.

Johnson was buried that afternoon at his ranch in Texas. The eulogies were delivered by former Texas Democratic governor John Connally, an LBJ protégé and fellow Texan, and by the minister who officiated the services, Rev. Billy Graham. Anita Bryant closed the services by singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," paying tribute to her friendship with the former president, at his own request. Connally's eulogy gripped millions of viewers around the world, recalling as it did the 1963 Kennedy assassination in which the governor was wounded, a tragic event that elevated Johnson to the presidency. The state funeral, which was the last until Ronald Reagan's in 2004, was part of a busy week for the Military District of Washington, which began with Nixon's second inauguration.

The Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Texas created a legal state holiday to be observed on August 27 to mark LBJ's birthday. It is known as Lyndon Baines Johnson Day. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac was dedicated on September 27, 1974.

LBJ was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980.

Personal life

Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Yuki sitting near the Pedernales River

During his tenure as Richard Kleberg's legislative secretary, Johnson met Claudia Alta Taylor (generally known as Lady Bird), a young woman from Karnack, Texas. After a short 24 hour courtship, Johnson proposed, and the two were married on November 17, 1934. The couple later had two daughters, Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and Luci Baines Johnson, born in 1947. Johnson enjoyed giving people and animals his own initials; his daughters' given names are examples, as was his dog Little Beagle Johnson.

File:Grandson.jpg

LBJ and his grandson, Patrick Lyndon Nugent in August 1968

Trivia

• Lyndon Johnson was 6 ft 3 1/2 in (192 cm) tall and weighed about 216 pounds, the second tallest president (Lincoln was the tallest).
• He was baptized in the Pedernales River as a member of the Disciples of Christ in 1923.
• Johnson was famously frugal. Even as President, White House tapes recorded him asking a photographer to take his family portraits for free, saying he was a very poor man living on a weekly paycheck and had a very great deal of financial debt. In fact Johnson was a multimillionaire, but he still received the photographic portraits without having to pay a cent. The White House press corps would make jokes at his expense regarding his habit of turning off all lights in the White House when the rooms were not in use. Johnson's secretary revealed years later that he would wash and reuse Styrofoam cups.^{[citation needed]}
• Johnson seemed to crave personal approval. After delivering a major speech on civil rights, he called 32 people, all of whom he knew would greatly approve of his speech, to ask what they thought. All of these people, recorded for posterity in White House tapes, were overwhelmingly complimentary.^{[citation needed]}
• His favorite soft drink was Fresca, which he drank constantly. Johnson had a small control box installed in the writing desk in the small personal office adjacent to the Oval Office. This control box contained two buttons, marked "Coffee" and "Fresca". Pushing one of these buttons would summon Johnson's military aide bringing the appropriate drink.
• Johnson, while using the White House bathroom, was known to insist that others accompany him and continue to discuss official matters, take dictation, or another convenient pretense. This was one of Johnson's many tactics for asserting psychological power over others.
• Lake Granite Shoals, a reservoir of the Colorado River in central Texas was renamed Lake LBJ in 1965 in honor of the sitting president.
• The only American president to have ever visited Malaysia (1966). In Labu, state of Negeri Sembilan the village called FELDA L.B. Johnson was named after him during his visit to the village, with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysian first prime minister.
• The first American president to visit Turkey
• Robert F. Kennedy greatly disliked Johnson and the feeling was mutual. Robert felt that Johnson was not worthy of the vice presidency, while Johnson merely regarded Robert as "Jack's Little Brother", a spoiled brat who was riding his older brother's coat tails to success.[Dallek 2004 p 139]
• Considered an egotist by some, Johnson even named his dog LBJ, Little Beagle Johnson.
• His ego and vanity were enormous. Once while meeting the Pope, he was given a priceless piece of art and, in return, gave the Pope a bust of himself.
• LBJ's notorious ego most likely stemmed from his own feelings of inadequacy. The poverty of his youth led him to feel insufficient, especially when compared to the East Coast elite (namely the Kennedy brothers). He masked his own insecurities with a show of bravado. It has also been speculated that LBJ was clinically paranoid.
• LBJ in 1908 was chronologically the first American president born in the 20th century (Kennedy was born later).
• Two Austin, Texas area broadcast radio stations using the call sign KLBJ, (590 kHz AM and 97.3 MHz FM), were once owned by the Johnson family before being sold to other commercial interests. The Johnsons also owned the first broadcast television station in the Austin area, KTBC (channel 7).

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Primary sources

• Beschloss Michael R. Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964. 1997. transcribed recordings of LBJ's phone calls
• Califano Joseph A., Jr. The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson., 1991. by a cabinet member
• Gallup, George H. ed, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971, volume 3: 1959-1971. 1972. summary of poll data
• Johnson Lyndon B. The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency, 1963-1969 1971. LBJ's memoirs
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson. 10 vols. GPO , 1965-70. all speeches and official statements

General biographies

• Robert A. Caro. The Years of Lyndon Johnson. 3 volumes as of 2005:

1. The Path to Power (1982),
2. Means of Ascent (1990),
3. Master of the Senate (2002).

• Dallek, Robert. Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960 (1991)
• Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (1998)
• Dallek, Robert. Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (2004), 400-page abridged version of his 2 volume biography
• Kearns Goodwin, Doris. Lyndon Johnson & the American Dream. (1977)
• Reedy, George Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir (1982) ISBN 0836266102

Presidential years

• Bruce E. Altschuler; LBJ and the Polls University Presses of Florida, 1990
• Bernstein, Irving. Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson 1994.
• Bornet, Vaughn Davis. The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. 1983
• Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 1: Foreign Policy, the Great Society and the White House. 1981.
• Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 2: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science. 1987.
• Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 3: LBJ at Home and Abroad. 1994.
• Firestone, Bernard J., and Robert C. Vogt, eds. Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Uses of Power. (1988), essays
• Gould, Lewis L. Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment. 1988.
• Lichtenstein, Nelson, ed. Political Profiles: The Johnson Years. 1976. biographies of 400+ key politicians
• Mann, Robert. The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights. 1996.
• Redford, Emmette S., and Marlan Blissett. Organizing the Executive Branch: The Johnson Presidency. 1981.
• Shesol, Jeff. Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Shaped a Decade 1997.
• White, Theodore H. The Making of the President, 1964 1965.
• Zarefsky, David. President Johnson's War on Poverty 1986.

Vietnam

• Barrett, David Marshall. Advice and Dissent: An Organizational Analysis of the Evolution of Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam Advisory System, 1965-1968. (University of Notre Dame, 1990)
• Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam (1991)
• Brands, H. W. The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power (1997)
• Casey, Francis Michael. The Vietnam Policy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson in Response to the Theory of the Protracted Conflict as Applied in the Politics of Indochina: A Case Study of Threat Perception and Assessment in the Crisis Management Process of a Pluralistic Society. (Claremont Graduate School, 1976)
• Cherwitz, Richard Arnold. The Rhetoric of the Gulf of Tonkin: A Study of the Crisis Speaking of President Lyndon B. Johnson. (University of Iowa, 1978)
• Goodnight, Lisa Jo. The Conservative Voice of a Liberal President: An Analysis of Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Rhetoric. (Purdue University, 1993)
• Kaiser, David E. American tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the origins of the Vietnam War. (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000) ISBN 0674002253
• Logevall, Fredrik Bengt Johan. Fear to Negotiate: Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, 1963-1965. (Yale University, 1993)
• Turner, Kathleen Jane. The Effect of Presidential-Press Interaction on Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam War Rhetoric. (Purdue University, 1978)
• Vandiver, Frank E. Shadows of Vietnam: Lyndon Johnson's Wars (1997)

External links

• Lyndon B. Johnson Library
• The 1960's Week-By-Week - Follows Lyndon Johnson through the 1960's. Includes press conferences and other news
• White House biography
• Handbook of Texas entry
• LBJ's secret White House recordings @ University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs
• Lyndon B. Johnson, article on educatetheusa.com.
• Inaugural Address
• Audio recordings of Johnson's speeches
• Lyndon Johnson Biography
• White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on LBJ, NPR Weekend Edition audio archives
• LBJ's silver star
• Walter Jenkins Scandal
• Lyndon Johnson at Find-A-Grave
• Works by Lyndon B. Johnson. Project Gutenberg

Preceded by: James P. Buchanan	U.S. Representative for Texas's 10th district 1937 – 1949	Succeeded by: Homer Thornberry
Preceded by: W. Lee O'Daniel	United States Senator (Class 2) from Texas 1949 – 1961	Succeeded by: William Blakley
Preceded by: Francis J. Myers	U.S. Senate Majority Whip 1951 – 1953	Succeeded by: Leverett Saltonstall
Preceded by: H. Styles Bridges	U.S. Senate Minority Leader 1953 – 1955	Succeeded by: William F. Knowland
Preceded by: William F. Knowland	U.S. Senate Majority Leader 1955 – 1961	Succeeded by: Michael J. Mansfield
Preceded by: Estes Kefauver	Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate 1960 (won)	Succeeded by: Hubert H. Humphrey
Preceded by: Richard Nixon	Vice President of the United States January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963	Succeeded by: Hubert H. Humphrey
Preceded by: John F. Kennedy	President of the United States November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969	Succeeded by: Richard Nixon
Preceded by: John F. Kennedy	Democratic Party Presidential Nominee 1964 (won)	Succeeded by: Hubert H. Humphrey

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Lyndon Baines Johnson  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Lyndon Baines Johnson"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.