Lyndon Baines Johnson Essay, Research Paper
Lyndon Baines Johnson
( 1908-1973 )
Johnson was born on Aug. 27, 1908, near Johnson City, Tex. , the eldest boy of
Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr. , and Rebekah Baines Johnson. His male parent, a fighting husbandman and
cowss speculator in the hill state of Texas, provided merely an unsure income for his
household. Politically active, Sam Johnson served five footings in the Texas legislative assembly. His
female parent had varied cultural involvements and placed high value on instruction ; she was ferociously
ambitious for her kids. Johnson attended public schools in Johnson City and received
a B.S. grade from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos. He so
taught for a twelvemonth in Houston before traveling to Washington in 1931 as secretary to a
democratic Texas congresswoman, Richard M. Kleberg. During the following 4 old ages Johnson
developed a broad web of political contacts in Washington, D.C. On Nov. 17, 1934,
he married Claudia Alta Taylor, known as & # 8220 ; Lady Bird. & # 8221 ; A warm, intelligent, ambitious
adult female, she was a great plus to Johnson & # 8217 ; s calling. They had two girls, Lynda Byrd,
born in 1944, and Luci Baines, born in 1947. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered the
White House. Johnson greatly admired the president, who named him, at age 27, to head
the National Youth Administration in Texas. This occupation, which Johnson held from 1935
to 1937, entailed assisting immature people obtain employment and schooling. It confirmed
Johnson & # 8217 ; s religion in the positive potency of authorities and won for him a group of
protagonists in Texas.
In 1937, Johnson sought and won a Texas place in Congress, where he championed
public works, renewal, and public power plans. When war came to Europe he
backed Roosevelt & # 8217 ; s attempts to help the Allies. During World War II he served a brief circuit
of active responsibility with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific ( 1941-42 ) but returned to Capitol Hill
when Roosevelt recalled members of Congress from active responsibility. Johnson continued to
support Roosevelt & # 8217 ; s military and foreign-policy plans. During the 1940s, Johnson and
his married woman developed profitable concern ventures, including a wireless station, in Texas.
In 1948 he ran for the U.S. Senate, winning the Democratic party primary by merely
87 ballots. ( This was his 2nd attempt ; in 1941 he had run for the Senate and lost to a
conservative opposition. ) The resistance accused him of fraud and tagged him & # 8220 ; Landslide
Lyndon. & # 8221 ; Although challenged, unsuccessfully, in the tribunals, he took office in 1949.
Johnson moved rapidly into the Senate hierarchy. In 1953 he won the occupation of Senate
Democratic leader. The following twelvemonth he was easy re-elected as senator and returned to
Washington as bulk leader, a station he held for the following 6 old ages despite a serious bosom
onslaught in 1955. The Texan proved to be a shrewd, adept Senate leader. A consistent
opposition of civil rights statute law until 1957, he developed first-class personal
relationships with powerful conservative Southerners. A difficult worker, he impressed
co-workers with his attending to the inside informations of statute law and his willingness to
via media.
In the late fiftiess, Johnson began to believe earnestly of running for the presidential term in
1960. His record had been reasonably conservative, nevertheless. Many Democratic progressives
resented his friendly association with the Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower ;
others considered him a tool of affluent Southwestern gas and oil involvements. Either to
soften this image as a conservative or in response to inner strong belief, Johnson moved
somewhat to the left on some domestic issues, particularly on civil rights Torahs, which he
supported in 1957 and 1960. Although these Torahs proved uneffective, Johnson had
demonstrated that he was a really resourceful Senate leader.
To many northern Democrats, nevertheless, Johnson remained a sectional campaigner.
The presidential nomination of 1960 went to Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Kennedy, a northern Roman Catholic, so selected Johnson as his running mate to
balance the Democratic ticket. In November 1960 the Democrats defeated the
Republican campaigners, Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, by a narrow border.
Johnson was appointed by Kennedy to head the President & # 8217 ; s Committee on Equal
Employment Opportunities, a station that enabled him to work on behalf of inkinesss and other
minorities. As vice-president, he besides undertook some missions abroad, which offered
him some limited penetrations into international jobs.
The blackwash of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, elevated Johnson
to the White House, where he rapidly proved a consummate, reassuring leader in the kingdom
of domestic personal businesss. In 1964, Congress passed a tax-reduction jurisprudence that promised to
promote economic growing and the Economic Opportunity Act, which launched the
plan called the War on Poverty. Johnson was particularly adept in procuring a strong
Civil Rights Act in 1964. In the old ages to come it proved to be a critical beginning of legal
authorization against racial and sexual favoritism. In 1964 the Republicans nominated
Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona as their presidential campaigner. Goldwater was
an utmost conservative in domestic policy and an advocator of strong military action to
protect American involvements in Vietnam. Johnson had increased the figure of U.S.
military forces at that place from 16,000 at the clip of Kennedy & # 8217 ; s blackwash to about
25,000 a twelvemonth subsequently. Contrasted to Goldwater, nevertheless, he seemed a theoretical account of restraint.
Johnson, with Hubert H. Humphrey as his running mate, ran a subdued run and
overwhelmed Goldwater in the election. The Arizonan won merely his place province and five
others in the Deep South.
Johnson & # 8217 ; s victory in 1964 gave him a authorization for the Great Society, as he called
his domestic plan. Congress responded by go throughing the MEDICARE plan, which
provided wellness services to the aged, O.K.ing federal assistance to simple and secondary
instruction, supplementing the War on Poverty, and making the Department of Housing
and Urban Development. It besides passed another of import civil rights jurisprudence & # 8212 ; the Voting
Rights Act of 1965.
At this point Johnson began the rapid deepening of U.S. engagement in Vietnam ; as
early as February 1965, U.S. planes began to bomb North Vietnam. American troop
strength in Vietnam increased to more than 180,000 by the terminal of the twelvemonth and to 500,000
by 1968. Many influences led Johnson to such a policy. Among them were personal
factors such as his temperamental activism, religion in U.S. military power, and staunch
anti-communism. These qualities besides led him to step in militarily in the Dominican
Republic & # 8212 ; allegedly to halt a Communist coup d’etat & # 8212 ; in April 1965. Like many
Americans who recalled the & # 8220 ; calming & # 8221 ; of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Johnson
thought the United States must be steadfast or incur a loss of credibleness.
While the state became profoundly involved in Vietnam, racial tenseness sharpened at
place, climaxing in widespread urban race public violences between 1965 and 1968. The
dislocation of the interracial civil rights motion, together with the imperfectnesss of
some of Johnson & # 8217 ; s Great Society plans, resulted in Republican additions in the 1966
elections and efficaciously thwarted Johnson & # 8217 ; s hope s for farther congressional cooperation.
It was the policy of military escalation in Vietnam, nevertheless, that proved to be
Johnson & # 8217 ; s undoing as president. It deflected attending from domestic concerns, resulted in
crisp rising prices, and prompted lifting unfavorable judgment, particularly among immature, draft-aged people.
Escalation besides failed to win the war. The drawn-out battle made Johnson even more
close, dogmatic, and allergic to unfavorable judgment. His normally certain political inherent aptitudes
were neglecting.
The New Hampshire presidential primary of 1968, in which the anti-war campaigner
Eugene McCarthy made a strong screening, revealed the dwindling of Johnson & # 8217 ; s support.
Some of Johnson & # 8217 ; s closest advisers now began to advocate a de-escalation policy in
Vietnam. Confronted by mounting resistance, Johnson made two surprise
proclamations on Mar. 31, 1968: he would halt the bombardment in most of North Vietnam
and seek a negotiated terminal to the war, and he would no t run for re-election.
Johnson & # 8217 ; s influence thenceforth remained strong plenty to order the nomination of
Vice-President Humphrey, who had supported the war, as the Democratic presidential
campaigner for the 1968 election. Although Johnson stopped all bombardment of the North on
November 1, he failed to do existent grants at the peace tabular array, and the war dragged
on. Humphrey lost in a close race with the Republican campaigner, Richard M. Nixon.
After stepping down from the presidential term in January 1969, Johnson returned to his
spread in Texas. There he and his Plutos prepared his memoirs, which were published in
1971 as The Vantage Point: Positions of the Presidency, 1963-1969. He besides
supervised building of the Johnson presidential library in Austin. Johnson died on
Jan. 22, 1973, 5 yearss before the decision of the pact by which the United States
withdrew from Vietnam.
Bibliography
Mentions
Evans, Rowland, and Novak, Robert, Lyndon B. Johnson, The Exercise of Power: Angstrom
Political Biography ( 1966 ) ;
Geyelin, Philip, Lyndon B. Johnson and the World ( 1966 ) ;
Goldman, Eric F. , The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson ( 1969 ) ;
Kearns, Doris, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ( 1976 ) .
