Lynden johnson

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Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969CabinetSee listPartyDemocraticElection1964SeatWhite Househr style="background:#eee; height:5px; clear:both; margin:0 0 8px;">

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This article is part of
a series aboutLyndon B. Johnson

Early life
Family
Electoral history
Public image
Memorials
Bibliography

Senator from Texas

Senate career

37th Vice President of the United States

Transition
Tenure
Kennedy administration
- Inauguration

36th President of the United States

Presidency
- timeline
Executive actions
Cannabis policy
Foreign policy
- Johnson Doctrine
- international trips
Cabinet appointments
Judicial appointments
- Supreme Court candidates
- controversy

First term

First inauguration

Let Us Continue
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Transportation Act (1964)
Food Stamp Act (1964)
War on poverty

Timeline
- '63
- '64

Second term

Second inauguration

Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Child Nutrition Act
Non-Discrimination in Federal contracts
Civil Rights Act (1968)

Timeline
- '65
- '66
- '67
- '68–'69

Presidential and Vice presidential campaigns

1960
- primaries
- convention
- campaign
- election

1964
- primaries
- convention
- campaign
- election

1968
- campaign

Post-presidency

Presidential library
Death

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Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as the 36th president of the United States began on November 22, 1963 following the assassination of President Kennedy and ended on January 20, 1969. He had been vice president for 1,036 days when he succeeded to the presidency. A Democrat from Texas, he ran for and won a full four-year term in the 1964 election, winning in a landslide over Republican opponent Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Johnson did not run for a second full term in the 1968 presidential election. He was succeeded by Republican Richard Nixon. His presidency marked the high tide of modern liberalism in the United States.

Johnson expanded upon the New Deal with the Great Society, a series of domestic legislative programs to help the poor and downtrodden. After taking office, he won passage of a major tax cut, the Clean Air Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After the 1964 election, Johnson passed even more sweeping reforms. The Social Security Amendments of 1965 created two government-run healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting, and its passage enfranchised millions of Southern African-Americans. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" and established several programs designed to aid the impoverished. He also presided over major increases in federal funding to education and the end of a period of restrictive immigration laws.

In foreign affairs, Johnson's presidency was dominated by the Cold War and the Vietnam War. He pursued conciliatory policies with the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the détente of the 1970s. He was nonetheless committed to a policy of containment, and he escalated the U.S. presence in Vietnam in order to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 soldiers in 1963 to over 500,000 in 1968. Growing anger with the war stimulated a large antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U.S. and abroad. Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965. While he began his presidency with widespread approval, public support for Johnson declined as the war dragged on and domestic unrest across the nation increased. At the same time, the New Deal coalition that had unified the Democratic Party dissolved, and Johnson's support base eroded with it.

Though eligible for another term, Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek renomination. His preferred successor, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, won the Democratic nomination but was defeated by Nixon in the general election. Though he left office with low approval ratings, polls of historians and political scientists tend to have Johnson ranked as an above-average president. His domestic programs transformed the United States and the role of the federal government, and many of his programs remain in effect today. Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War remains broadly unpopular, but his civil rights initiatives are nearly-universally praised for their role in removing barriers to racial equality.

Ramsey Clark was the last surviving member of Johnson's cabinet, who died on April 9, 2021.

Accession

Further information: First inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson and Assassination of John F. Kennedy See also: Presidency of John F. Kennedy

Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One

Johnson represented Texas in the United States Senate from 1949 to 1961, and served as the Democratic leader in the Senate beginning in 1953.[1] He sought the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, but was defeated by John F. Kennedy. Hoping to shore up support in the South and West, Kennedy asked Johnson to serve as his running mate, and Johnson agreed to join the ticket. In the 1960 presidential election, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket narrowly defeated the Republican ticket led by Vice President Richard Nixon.[2] Johnson played a frustrating role as a powerless vice president, rarely consulted except specific issues such as the space program.[3]

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dallas.[4] Later that day, Johnson took the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One.[5] Johnson was convinced of the need to make an immediate show of transition of power after the assassination to provide stability to a grieving nation. He and the Secret Service, not knowing whether the assassin acted alone or as part of a broader conspiracy, felt compelled to return rapidly to Washington, D.C. Johnson's rush to return to Washington was greeted by some with assertions that he was in too much haste to assume power.[4]

Taking up Kennedy's legacy, Johnson declared that "no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long."[6] The wave of national grief following the assassination gave enormous momentum to Johnson's legislative agenda. On November 29, 1963, Johnson issued an executive order renaming NASA's Launch Operations Center at Merritt Island, Florida, as the Kennedy Space Center, and the nearby launch facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as Cape Kennedy.[7]

In response to the public demand for answers and the growing number of conspiracy theories, Johnson established a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, known as the Warren Commission, to investigate Kennedy's assassination.[8] The commission conducted extensive research and hearings and unanimously concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination.[9] Since the commission's official report was released in September 1964, other federal and municipal investigations have been conducted, most of which support the conclusions reached in the Warren Commission report. Nonetheless, a significant percentage of Americans polled still indicate a belief in some sort of conspiracy.[10][11]

Administration

The Johnson CabinetOfficeNameTermPresidentLyndon B. Johnson1963–1969Vice Presidentnone1963–1965Hubert Humphrey1965–1969Secretary of StateDean Rusk1963–1969Secretary of the TreasuryC. Douglas Dillon1963–1965Henry H. Fowler1965–1968Joseph W. Barr1968–1969Secretary of DefenseRobert McNamara1963–1968Clark Clifford1968–1969Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy1963–1964Nicholas Katzenbach1964–1966Ramsey Clark1966–1969Postmaster GeneralJohn A. Gronouski1963–1965Larry O'Brien1965–1968W. Marvin Watson1968–1969Secretary of the InteriorStewart Udall1963–1969Secretary of AgricultureOrville Freeman1963–1969Secretary of CommerceLuther H. Hodges1963–1965John T. Connor1965–1967Alexander Trowbridge1967–1968C. R. Smith1968–1969Secretary of LaborW. Willard Wirtz1963–1969Secretary of Health,
Education, and WelfareAnthony J. Celebrezze1963–1965John W. Gardner1965–1968Wilbur J. Cohen1968–1969Secretary of Housing and
Urban DevelopmentRobert C. Weaver1966–1968Robert Coldwell Wood1969Secretary of TransportationAlan S. Boyd1967–1969Ambassador to the United NationsAdlai Stevenson II1963–1965Arthur Goldberg1965–1968George Ball1968James Russell Wiggins1968–1969

Johnson at a July 1965 Cabinet meeting

When Johnson assumed office following President Kennedy's death, he asked the existing Cabinet to remain in office.[12] Despite his notoriously poor relationship with the new president, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy stayed on as Attorney General until September 1964, when he resigned to run for the U.S. Senate.[13] Four of the Kennedy cabinet members Johnson inherited—Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman, and Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz—served until the end of Johnson's presidency.[14] Other Kennedy holdovers, including Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, left office during Johnson's tenure. After the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1965, Johnson appointed Robert C. Weaver as the head of that department, making Weaver the first African-American cabinet secretary in U.S. history.[15]

Johnson concentrated decision-making in his greatly expanded White House staff.[16][17][18] Many of the most prominent Kennedy staff appointees, including Ted Sorensen and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., left soon after Kennedy's death. Other Kennedy staffers, including National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and Larry O'Brien, played important roles in the Johnson administration.[19] Johnson did not have an official White House Chief of Staff. Initially, his long-time administrative assistant Walter Jenkins presided over the day-to-day operations at the White House.[20] Bill Moyers, the youngest member of Johnson's staff, was hired at the outset of Johnson's presidency. Moyers quickly rose into the front ranks of the president's aides and acted informally as the president's chief of staff after the departure of Jenkins.[21] George Reedy, another long-serving aide, assumed the post of White House Press Secretary,[22] while Horace Busby, a valued aide to Johnson at various points in his political career, served primarily as a speech writer and political analyst.[23] Other notable Johnson staffers include Jack Valenti, George Christian, Joseph A. Califano Jr., Richard N. Goodwin, and W. Marvin Watson.[24]

Vice presidency

The office of vice president remained vacant during Johnson's first (425-day partial) term, as at the time there was no way to fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. Johnson selected Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, a leading liberal, as his running mate in the 1964 election, and Humphrey served as vice president throughout Johnson's second term.[25]

Led by Senator Birch Bayh and Representative Emanuel Celler, Congress, on July 5, 1965, approved an amendment to the Constitution addressing succession to the presidency and establishing procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the vice president, and for responding to presidential disabilities. It was ratified by the requisite number of states on February 10, 1967, becoming the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[26]

Judicial appointments

Further information: Lyndon B. Johnson Supreme Court candidates, Lyndon B. Johnson judicial appointments, and Lyndon B. Johnson judicial appointment controversies

Appointed by Johnson in 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American on the Supreme Court

Johnson made two appointments to the Supreme Court while in office. Anticipating court challenges to his legislative measures, Johnson thought it would be advantageous to have a close confidant on the Supreme Court who could provide him with inside information, and chose prominent attorney and close friend Abe Fortas to fill that role. He created an opening on the court by convincing Justice Goldberg to become United States Ambassador to the United Nations.[27] When a second vacancy arose in 1967, Johnson appointed Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall to the Court, and Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.[28] In 1968, Johnson nominated Fortas to succeed retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren and nominated Homer Thornberry to succeed Fortas as an associate justice. Fortas's nomination was defeated by senators opposed to his liberal views and close association with the president.[29] Marshall would be a consistent liberal voice on the Court until his retirement in 1991, but Fortas stepped down from the Supreme Court in 1969.[30]

In addition to his Supreme Court appointments, Johnson appointed 40 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 126 judges to the United States district courts. Here too he had a number of judicial appointment controversies, with one appellate and three district court nominees not being confirmed by the U.S. Senate before his presidency ended.

Domestic affairs

Great Society domestic program

Despite his political prowess and previous service as Senate Majority Leader, Johnson had largely been sidelined in the Kennedy administration. He took office determined to secure the passage of Kennedy's unfinished domestic agenda, which, for the most part, had remained bottled-up in various congressional committees.[31][32] Many of the liberal initiatives favored by Kennedy and Johnson had been blocked for decades by a conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats; on the night Johnson became president, he asked an aide, "do you realize that every issue that is on my desk tonight was on my desk when I came to Congress in 1937?"[33] By early 1964, Johnson had begun to use the name "Great Society" to describe his domestic program; the term was coined by Richard Goodwin, and drawn from Eric Goldman's observation that the title of Walter Lippman's book The Good Society best captured the totality of president's agenda. Johnson's Great Society program encompassed movements of urban renewal, modern transportation, clean environment, anti-poverty, healthcare reform, crime control, and educational reform.[34] To ensure the passage of his programs, Johnson placed an unprecedented emphasis on relations with Congress.[35]

Taxation and budget

Federal finances and GDP during Johnson's presidency[36] Fiscal
Year Receipts Outlays Surplus/
Deficit GDP Debt as a %
of GDP[37] 1964 112.6 118.5 –5.9 661.7 38.8 1965 116.8 118.2 –1.4 709.3 36.8 1966 130.8 134.5 –3.7 780.5 33.8 1967 148.8 157.5 –8.6 836.5 31.9 1968 153.0 178.1 –25.2 897.6 32.3 1969 186.9 183.6 3.2 980.3 28.4 Ref. [38] [39] [40]

Influenced by the Keynesian school of economics, Kennedy had proposed a tax cut designed to stimulate consumer demand and lower unemployment.[41] Kennedy's bill was passed by the House, but faced opposition from Harry Byrd, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.[42] After Johnson took office and agreed to decrease the total federal budget to under $100 billion, Byrd dropped his opposition, clearing the way for the passage of the Revenue Act of 1964.[43] Signed into law on February 26, 1964, the act cut individual income tax rates across the board by approximately 20 percent, cut the top marginal tax rate from 91 to 70 percent, and slightly reduced corporate tax rates.[44] Passage of the long-stalled tax cut facilitated efforts to move ahead on civil rights legislation.[45]

Despite a period of strong economic growth,[46] heavy spending on the Vietnam War and on domestic programs contributed to a rising budget deficit, as well as a period of inflation that would continue into the 1970s.[47] Between fiscal years 1966 and 1967, the budget deficit more than doubled to $8.6 billion, and it continued to grow in fiscal year 1968.[48] To counter this growing budget deficit, Johnson reluctantly signed a second tax bill, the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968, which included a mix of tax increases and spending cuts, producing a budget surplus for fiscal year 1969.[49][50]

Civil rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Main article: Civil Rights Act of 1964

Johnson meeting with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. (left), Whitney Young, and James Farmer in 1964

Though a product of the South and a protege of segregationist Senator Richard Russell Jr., Johnson had long been personally sympathetic to the Civil Rights Movement.[51] By the time he took office as president, he had come to favor passage of the first major civil rights bill since the Reconstruction Era.[52] Kennedy had submitted a major civil rights bill that would ban segregation in public institutions, but it remained before Congress when Johnson assumed the presidency.[53] Johnson sought not only to win passage of the bill, but also to prevent Congress from stripping the most important provisions of the bill and passing another watered-down civil rights bill, as it had done in the 1950s.[54] He opened his January 8, 1964, State of the Union address with a public challenge to Congress, stating, "let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined."[42] Biographer Randall B. Woods writes that Johnson effectively used appeals to Judeo-Christian ethics to garner support for the civil rights law, stating that "LBJ wrapped white America in a moral straight jacket. How could individuals who fervently, continuously, and overwhelmingly identified themselves with a merciful and just God continue to condone racial discrimination, police brutality, and segregation?"[55]

In order for Johnson's civil rights bill to reach the House floor for a vote, the president needed to find a way to circumvent Representative Howard W. Smith, the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Johnson and his allies convinced uncommitted Republicans and Democrats to support a discharge petition, which would force the bill onto the House floor.[42][56] Facing the possibility of being bypassed by a discharge petition, the House Rules Committee approved the civil rights bill and moved it to the floor of the full House.[57] Possibly in an attempt to derail the bill,[58] Smith added an amendment to the bill that would ban gender discrimination in employment.[59] Despite the inclusion of the gender discrimination provision, the House passed the civil rights bill by a vote of 290–110 on February 10, 1964.[60] 152 Democrats and 136 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while the majority of the opposition came from 88 Democrats representing states that had seceded during the Civil War.[61]

Johnson convinced Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to put the House bill directly into consideration by the full Senate, bypassing the Senate Judiciary Committee and its segregationist chairman James Eastland.[62] Since bottling up the civil rights bill in a committee was no longer an option, the anti-civil rights senators were left with the filibuster as their only remaining tool. Overcoming the filibuster required the support of at least 20 Republicans, who were growing less supportive of the bill due to the fact that the party's leading presidential contender, Senator Barry Goldwater, opposed the bill.[63] Johnson and the conservative Dirksen reached a compromise in which Dirksen agreed to support the bill, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's enforcement powers were weakened.[64] After months of debate, the Senate voted for closure in a 71–29 vote, narrowly clearing the 67-vote threshold then required to break filibusters.[65] Though most of the opposition came from Southern Democrats, Senator Goldwater and five other Republicans also voted against ending the filibuster.[65] On June 19, the Senate voted to 73–27 in favor of the bill, sending it to the president.[66]

Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2. The act banned racial segregation in public accommodations, banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or religion,[a] and strengthened the federal government's power to investigate racial and gender employment discrimination.[67] Legend has it that, while signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Johnson told an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation," as he anticipated coming backlash from Southern whites against the Democratic Party.[68] The Civil Rights Act was later upheld by the Supreme Court in cases such as Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States.[42]

Voting Rights Act

Main article: Voting Rights Act of 1965

After the end of Reconstruction, most Southern states enacted laws designed to disenfranchise and marginalize black citizens from politics so far as practicable without violating the Fifteenth Amendment. Even with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the January 1964 ratification of the 24th Amendment, which banned poll taxes, many states continued to effectively disenfranchise African-Americans through mechanisms such as "white primaries" and literacy tests.[69][70] Shortly after the 1964 elections, Johnson privately instructed Attorney General Katzenbach to draft "the goddamndest, toughest voting rights act that you can."[71] He did not, however, publicly push for the legislation at that time; his advisers warned him of political costs for vigorously pursuing a voting rights bill so soon after Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act, and Johnson was concerned that championing voting rights would endanger his other Great Society reforms by angering Southern Democrats in Congress.[71]

President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965

Soon after the 1964 election, civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began a push for federal action to protect the voting rights of racial minorities.[70] On March 7, 1965, these organizations began the Selma to Montgomery marches in which Selma residents proceeded to march to Alabama's capital, Montgomery, to highlight voting rights issues and present Governor George Wallace with their grievances. On the first march, demonstrators were stopped by state and county police, who shot tear gas into the crowd and trampled protesters. Televised footage of the scene, which became known as "Bloody Sunday", generated outrage across the country.[72] In response to the rapidly increasing political pressure upon him, Johnson decided to immediately send voting rights legislation to Congress, and to address the American people in a speech before a Joint session of Congress. He began:

.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause. ... Rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For, with a country as with a person, 'what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'[72][73]

Johnson and Dirksen established a strong bipartisan alliance in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, precluding the possibility of a Senate filibuster defeating the bill. In August 1965, the House approved the bill by a vote of 333 to 85, and Senate passed the bill by a vote of 79 to 18.[74] The landmark legislation, which Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965, outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of Southern blacks to vote for the first time. In accordance with the act, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia were subjected to the procedure of preclearance in 1965.[75] The results were significant; between the years of 1968 and 1980, the number of Southern black elected state and federal officeholders nearly doubled.[73] In Mississippi, the voter registration rate of African Americans rose from 6.7 percent to 59.8 percent between 1964 and 1967, a reflection of a broader increase in African-American voter registration rates.[76]

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Johnson with Boston Mayor John F. Collins (1960–1968). On April 11, 1968, Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968 including Titles VIII and IX introduced by Massachusetts U.S. Senator Edward Brooke prohibiting discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Main article: Civil Rights Act of 1968

In April 1966, Johnson submitted a bill to Congress that barred house owners from refusing to enter into agreements on the basis of race; the bill immediately garnered opposition from many of the Northerners who had supported the last two major civil rights bills.[77] Though a version of the bill passed the House, it failed to win Senate approval, marking Johnson's first major legislative defeat.[78] The law gained new impetus after the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil unrest across the country following King's death.[79] With newly urgent attention from the Johnson administration and Democratic Speaker of the House John William McCormack, the bill passed Congress on April 10 and was quickly signed into law by Johnson.[79][80] The Fair Housing Act, a component of the bill, outlawed several forms of housing discrimination and effectively allowed many African Americans to move to the suburbs.[81]

War on Poverty

The 1962 publication of The Other America had helped to raise the profile of poverty as a public issue, and the Kennedy administration had begun formulating an anti-poverty initiative.[82] Johnson built on this initiative, and in his 1964 State of the Union Address stated, "this administration today, here and now, declares an unconditional war on poverty in America."[83] In April 1964, Johnson proposed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which would create the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to oversee local Community Action Agencies charged with dispensing aid to those in poverty.[84] The act would also create the Job Corps, a work-training program, and AmeriCorps VISTA, a domestic version of the Peace Corps.[85] The bill reflected Johnson's belief that the government could best help the impoverished by providing them with economic opportunities.[86] Johnson was able to win the support of enough conservative Democrats to pass the bill, which he signed on August 20, 1964.[87] Under the leadership of Sargent Shriver, the OEO developed programs like Head Start and Neighborhood Legal Services.[88] Johnson also convinced Congress to approve the Food Stamp Act of 1964, which made permanent the food stamp pilot programs that had been initiated by President Kennedy.[89]

In August 1965, Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 into law. The legislation, which he called "the single most important breakthrough" in federal housing policy since the 1920s, greatly expanded funding for existing federal housing programs, and added new programs to provide rent subsidies for the elderly and disabled; housing rehabilitation grants to poor homeowners; provisions for veterans to make very low down-payments to obtain mortgages; new authority for families qualifying for public housing to be placed in empty private housing (along with subsidies to landlords); and matching grants to localities for the construction of water and sewer facilities, construction of community centers in low-income areas, and urban beautification.[90][91] Four weeks later, on September 9, the president signed legislation establishing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.[92]

Johnson took an additional step in the War on Poverty with an urban renewal effort, presenting to Congress in January 1966 the "Demonstration Cities Program." To be eligible a city would need to demonstrate its readiness to "arrest blight and decay and make substantial impact on the development of its entire city." Johnson requested an investment of $400 million per year totaling $2.4 billion. In late 1966, Congress passed a substantially reduced program costing $900 million, which Johnson later called the Model Cities Program.[93] In August 1968, Johnson passed an even larger funding package, designed for expanding aid to cities, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. The program extended upon the 1965 legislation, but created two new housing finance programs designed for moderate-income families, Section 235 and 236, and vastly expanded support for public housing and urban renewal.

As a result of Johnson's War on Poverty, as well as a strong economy, the nationwide poverty rate fell from 20 percent in 1964 to 12 percent in 1974.[46] In the long run, statistical analysis shows that the Official Poverty Rate fell from 19.5 percent in 1963 to 12.3 percent in 2017. However, using a broader definition that includes cash income, taxes, and major in-kind transfers and inflation rates, the "Full-income Poverty Rate" based on President Johnson's standards fell from 19.5 percent to 2.3 percent over that period.[94]

Education

Johnson, whose own ticket out of poverty was a public education in Texas, fervently believed that education was a cure for ignorance and poverty.[95] Education funding in the 1960s was especially tight due to the demographic challenges posed by the large Baby Boomer generation, but Congress had repeatedly rejected increased federal financing for public schools.[96] Buoyed by his landslide victory in the 1964 election, in early 1965 Johnson proposed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would double federal spending on education from $4 billion to $8 billion.[97] The bill quickly passed both houses of Congress by wide margins.[98] ESEA increased funding to all school districts, but directed more money going to districts that had large proportions of students from poor families.[99] The bill offered funding to parochial schools indirectly, but prevented school districts that practiced segregation from receiving federal funding. The federal share of education spending rose from 3 percent in 1958 to 10 percent in 1965, and continued to grow after 1965.[100] The act also contributed to a major increase in the pace of desegregation, as the share of Southern African-American students attending integrated schools rose from two percent in 1964 to 32 percent in 1968.[101]

Johnson's second major education program was the Higher Education Act of 1965, which focused on funding for lower income students, including grants, work-study money, and government loans. College graduation rates boomed after the passage of the act, with the percentage of college graduates tripling from 1964 to 2013.[81] Johnson also signed a third important education bill in 1965, establishing the Head Start program to provide grants for preschools.[102]

Medicare and Medicaid

Main article: Social Security Amendments of 1965

Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 while seated next to former President Harry S. Truman

Since 1957, many Democrats had advocated for the government to cover the cost of hospital visits for seniors, but the American Medical Association and fiscal conservatives opposed a government role in health insurance.[103] By 1965, half of Americans over the age of 65 did not have health insurance.[104] Johnson supported the passage of the King-Anderson Bill, which would establish a Medicare program for older patients administered by the Social Security Administration and financed by payroll taxes.[105] Wilbur Mills, chairman of the key House Ways and Means Committee, had long opposed such reforms, but the election of 1964 had defeated many allies of the AMA and shown that the public supported some version of public medical care.[106]

Mills and Johnson administration official Wilbur J. Cohen crafted a three-part healthcare bill consisting of Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, and Medicaid. Medicare Part A covered up to ninety days of hospitalization (minus a deductible) for all Social Security recipients, Medicare Part B provided voluntary medical insurance to seniors for physician visits, and Medicaid established a program of state-provided health insurance for indigents.[107] The bill quickly won the approval of both houses of Congress, and Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law on July 30, 1965.[108] Johnson gave the first two Medicare cards to former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess after signing the Medicare bill at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.[109] Although some doctors attempted to prevent the implementation of Medicare by boycotting it, it eventually became a widely accepted program.[110] By 1976, Medicare and Medicaid covered one-fifth of the population, but large segments of the United States still did not have medical insurance.[111]

Environment

See also: Environmental movement in the United States

The 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson brought new attention to environmentalism and the danger that pollution posed to public health.[112] Johnson retained Kennedy's staunchly pro-environment Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, and signed into law numerous bills designed to protect the environment.[113] He signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1963, which had been proposed by Kennedy. The Clean Air Act set emission standards for stationary emitters of air pollutants and directed federal funding to air quality research.[114] In 1965, the act was amended by the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, which directed the federal government to establish and enforce national standards for controlling the emission of pollutants from new motor vehicles and engines.[115] In 1967, Johnson and Senator Edmund Muskie led passage of the Air Quality Act of 1967, which increased federal subsidies for state and local pollution control programs.[116]

During his time as President, Johnson signed over 300 conservation measures into law, forming the legal basis of the modern environmental movement.[117] In September 1964, Johnson signed a law establishing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which aids the purchase of land used for federal and state parks. That same month, he signed the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System.[118] In 1965, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson took the lead in calling for passage of the Highway Beautification Act.[119] That same year, Muskie led passage of the Water Quality Act of 1965, though conservatives stripped a provision of the act that would have given the federal government the authority to set clean water standards.[120]

Immigration

Johnson himself did not rank immigration as a high priority, but congressional Democrats, led by Emanuel Celler, passed the sweeping Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The act repealed the National Origins Formula, which had restricted emigration from countries outside of Western Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The law did not greatly increase the number of immigrants who would be allowed into the country each year (approximately 300,000), but it did provide for a family reunification provision that allowed for some immigrants to enter the country regardless of the overall number of immigrants. Largely because of the family reunification provision, the overall level of immigration increased far above what had been expected. Those who wrote the law expected that it would lead to more immigration from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe, as well as relatively minor upticks in immigration from Asia and Africa. Contrary to these expectations, the main source of immigrants shifted away from Europe; by 1976, more than half of legal immigrants came from Mexico, the Philippines, Korea, Cuba, Taiwan, India, or the Dominican Republic.[121] The percentage of foreign-born in the United States increased from 5 percent in 1965 to 14 percent in 2016.[122] Johnson also signed the Cuban Adjustment Act, which granted Cuban refugees an easier path to permanent residency and citizenship.[123]

Transportation

During the mid-1960s, various consumer protection activists and safety experts began making the case to Congress and the American people that more needed to be done to make roads less dangerous and vehicles more safe.[124] This sentiment crystallized into conviction following the 1965 publication of Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader. Early in the following year, Congress held a series of highly publicized hearings regarding highway safety, and ultimately approved two bills—the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (NTMVSA) and the Highway Safety Act (HSA)—which the president signed into law on September 9, thus making the federal government responsible for setting and enforcing auto and road safety standards.[124] The HSA required each state to implement a safety program supporting driver education and improved licensing and auto inspection; it also strengthened the existing National Driver Register operated by the Bureau of Public Roads.[125] The NTMVSA set federal motor vehicle safety standards, requiring safety features such as seat belts for every passenger, impact-absorbing steering wheels, rupture-resistant fuel tanks, and side-view mirrors.[124]

In March 1966, Johnson asked Congress to establish a Cabinet-level department that would coordinate and manage federal transportation programs, provide leadership in the resolution of transportation problems, and develop national transportation policies and programs.[126] This new transportation department would bring together the Commerce Department's Office of Transportation, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Aviation Agency, the Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The bill passed both houses of Congress after some negotiation over navigation projects and maritime interests, and Johnson signed the Department of Transportation Act into law on October 15, 1966.[127] Altogether, 31 previously scattered agencies were brought under the Department of Transportation, in what was the biggest reorganization of the federal government since the National Security Act of 1947.[126]

Domestic unrest

Anti-Vietnam War movement

Main article: Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War

A female demonstrator offers a flower to a soldier during a 1967 anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia.

The American public was generally supportive of the Johnson administration's rapid escalation of U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam in late 1964.[128] Johnson closely watched the public opinion polls,[129] which after 1964 generally showed that the public was consistently 40–50 percent hawkish (in favor of stronger military measures) and 10–25 percent dovish (in favor of negotiation and disengagement). Johnson quickly found himself pressed between hawks and doves; as his aides told him, "both hawks and doves [are frustrated with the war] ... and take it out on you."[130] Many anti-war activists identified as members of the "New Left," a broad political movement that distrusted both contemporary mainstream liberalism and Marxism.[131] Although other groups and individuals attacked the Vietnam War for various reasons, student activists emerged as the most vocal component of the anti-war movement. Membership of Students for a Democratic Society, a major New Left student group opposed to Johnson's foreign policy, tripled during 1965.[132]

Despite campus protests, the war remained generally popular throughout 1965 and 1966.[133] Following the January 1967 publication of a photo-essay by William F. Pepper depicting some of the injuries inflicted on Vietnamese children by the U.S. bombing campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the war publicly for the first time.[134] King and New Left activist Benjamin Spock led an Anti-Vietnam War march on April 15, 1967, in which 400,000 people walked from New York City's Central Park to the headquarters of the United Nations.[135] On June 23, 1967, while the president was addressing a Democratic fundraiser at The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, police forcibly dispersed about 10,000 peaceful Vietnam War demonstrators marching in front of the hotel.[136] A Gallup poll in July 1967 showed that 52 percent of the country disapproved of Johnson's handling of the war,[137] and Johnson rarely campaigned in public after the Century Plaza Hotel incident.[138] Convinced that Communists had infiltrated the anti-war movement, Johnson authorized what became known as Operation CHAOS, an illegal CIA domestic spying operation, but the CIA did not find evidence of Communist influence in the anti-war movement.[139]

Urban riots

See also: List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States § 1960–1969

Soldiers direct traffic away from an area of South Central Los Angeles burning during the 1965 Watts riot.

The nation experienced a series of "long hot summers" of civil unrest during the Johnson years. They started in 1964 with riots in Harlem and the Watts district of Los Angeles both of which were fueled by accusations of police brutality against minority residents.[140] In 1967, in what is known as the "Long hot summer of 1967," 159 riots erupted across the United States. The 1967 Newark riots left 26 dead and 1,500 injured, while the 1967 Detroit riot resulted in 43 deaths, 2250 injuries, 4,000 arrests, and millions of dollars worth of property damage.[141] Whites and blacks took part in the riots, but most of the rioters were African Americans who objected to discrimination in housing, employment, and education.[142]

The riots confounded many civil rights activists of both races due to the recent passage of major civil rights legislation. They also caused a backlash among Northern whites, many of whom stopped supporting civil rights causes.[143] Johnson formed an advisory commission, informally known as the Kerner Commission, to explore the causes behind the recurring outbreaks of urban civil disorder.[144] The commission's 1968 report suggested legislative measures to promote racial integration and alleviate poverty and concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal."[145] The president, fixated on the Vietnam War and keenly aware of budgetary constraints, barely acknowledged the report.[141]

One month after the release of the Kerner Commission's report, the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. sparked another wave of violent protests in more than 130 cities across the country.[146] A few days later, in a candid comment made to press secretary George Christian concerning the endemic social unrest in the nation's cities, Johnson remarked, "What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off."[147] Congress, meanwhile, passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, which increased funding for law enforcement agencies and authorized wiretapping in certain situations. Johnson considered vetoing the bill, but the apparent popularity of the bill convinced him to sign it.[148]

Other issues

Cultural initiatives

Johnson created a new role for the federal government in supporting the arts, humanities, and public broadcasting. To support humanists and artists, his administration set up the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.[149] In 1967, Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act to create educational television programs.[150] The government had set aside radio bands for educational non-profits in the 1950s, and the Federal Communications Commission under President Kennedy had awarded the first federal grants to educational television stations, but Johnson sought to create a vibrant public television that would promote local diversity as well as educational programs.[150] The legislation, which was based on the findings of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, created a decentralized network of public television stations.[150]

Space program

Further information: Space Race and Space policy of the United States

President Johnson and Vice President Spiro Agnew witnessing the liftoff of Apollo 11.

Johnson (center left) and Vice President Spiro Agnew (center right; with sunglasses) witness the liftoff of Apollo 11.

While Johnson was in office, NASA conducted the Gemini manned space program, developed the Saturn V rocket, and prepared to make the first manned Apollo program flights. On January 27, 1967, the nation was stunned when the entire crew of Apollo 1—Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—died in a cabin fire during a spacecraft test on the launch pad, stopping the program in its tracks. Rather than appointing another Warren-style commission, Johnson accepted Administrator James E. Webb's request that NASA be permitted to conduct its own investigation, holding itself accountable to Congress and the president.[151] The agency convened the Apollo 204 Accident Review Board to determine the cause of the fire, and both houses of Congress conducted their own committee inquiries scrutinizing NASA's investigation. Through it all, the president's support for NASA never wavered.[152] The program rebounded, and by the end of Johnson's term, two manned missions, Apollo 7 and Apollo 8 (the first to orbit the Moon), had been successfully completed. Six months after leaving office, Johnson attended the launch of Apollo 11, the first Moon landing mission.[153]

Gun control

Following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as mass shootings such as the one perpetrated by Charles Whitman, Johnson pushed for a major gun control law.[154] On October 22, 1968, Lyndon Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968, one of the largest and farthest-reaching federal gun control laws in American history. The measure prohibited convicted felons, drug users, and the mentally ill from purchasing handguns and raised record-keeping and licensing requirements.[155] Johnson had sought to require the licensing of gun owners and the registration of all firearms, but could not convince Congress to pass a stronger bill.[156]

Tobacco advertising

In January 1964, Surgeon General Luther Terry issued a detailed report on smoking and lung cancer. The report "hit the country like a bombshell," Terry later said, becoming "front page news and a lead story on every radio and television station in the United States and many abroad." Terry's report prompted Congress to pass the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act in July 1965, requiring cigarette manufacturers to place a warning label on the side of cigarette packs stating: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health."[157][158]

Foreign affairs

Main article: Foreign policy of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration

Johnson's key foreign policy advisors were Dean Rusk, George Ball, McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow, Robert McNamara and (at the end) Clark Clifford.[159] According to historian David Fromkin:

Johnson was not a "hidden hand" president like Eisenhower, who appeared to let his cabinet make policy while in fact doing so him self. L.B.J. was what he seemed at the time: a president ill at ease in foreign policy who chose to rely on the judgment of the Kennedy team he inherited....When his advisers disagreed, would try to split the difference between them. He acted as a majority leader, reconciling diverse points of view within his own camp rather than making decisions on the merits of the issue. He wanted to quell dissent, and he was a master at it.[160]

All historians agree that Vietnam dominated the administration's foreign policy and all agree the policy was a political disaster on the home front. Most agree that it was a diplomatic disaster, although some say that it was successful in avoiding the loss of more allies. Unexpectedly, North Vietnam after it conquered the South became a major adversary of China, stopping China's expansion to the south in the way that Washington had hoped in vain that South Vietnam would do.[161] In other areas the achievements were limited. Historian Jonathan Colman says that was because Vietnam dominated the attention; the USSR was gaining military parity; Washington's allies more becoming more independent (e.g. France) or were getting weaker (Britain); and the American economy was unable to meet Johnson's demands that it supply both guns and butter.[162]

Cold War

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin (left) next to Johnson during the Glassboro Summit Conference

Johnson took office during the Cold War, a prolonged state of very heavily armed tension between the United States and its allies on the one side and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other. Johnson was committed to containment policy that called upon the U.S. to block Communist expansion of the sort that was taking place in Vietnam, but he lacked Kennedy's knowledge and enthusiasm for foreign policy, and prioritized domestic reforms over major initiatives in foreign affairs.[163]

Though actively engaged in containment in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, Johnson made it a priority to seek arms control deals with Moscow.[164] The Soviet Union also sought closer relations to the United States during the mid-to-late 1960s, partly due to the increasingly worse Sino-Soviet split. Johnson attempted to reduce tensions with China by easing restrictions on trade, but the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution ended hopes of a greater rapprochement.[165] Johnson was concerned with averting the possibility of nuclear war, and he sought to reduce tensions in Europe.[166] The Johnson administration pursued arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, signing the Outer Space Treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and laid the foundation for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.[164] Johnson held a largely amicable meeting with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at the Glassboro Summit Conference in 1967, and in July 1968 the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in which each signatory agreed not to help other countries develop or acquire nuclear weapons. A planned nuclear disarmament summit between the United States and the Soviet Union was scuttled after Soviet forces violently suppressed the Prague Spring, an attempted democratization of Czechoslovakia.[167]

Vietnam

Further information: United States in the Vietnam War § Americanization

Background and Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

At the end of World War II, Vietnamese revolutionaries under Communist leader Ho Chi Minh sought to gain independence from France. By 1954 the French had been defeated and wanted out. The 1954 Geneva Agreements partitioned Vietnam with the U.S. supporting South Vietnam and the Communists taking control of North Vietnam. The Vietnam War began in 1955 as Communist forces started operating in South Vietnam. President Eisenhower sought to prevent the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. He and Kennedy dispatched American military advisers to South Vietnam, and by the time Johnson took office, there were 16,700 American military personnel in South Vietnam.[168] Despite some misgivings, Johnson ultimately came to support escalation of the U.S. role in Vietnam.[169] He feared that the fall of Vietnam would hurt Democratic credibility on national security issues.[170][171] Like the vast majority of American leaders in the mid-1960s, he was determined to prevent the spread of Communism.[172]

In August 1964, ambiguous evidence suggested two U.S. destroyers had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in international waters 40 miles (64 km) from the Vietnamese coast in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although Johnson very much wanted to keep discussions about Vietnam out of the 1964 election campaign, he felt forced to respond to the supposed Communist aggression. He obtained from the Congress the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964. The resolution gave blanket congressional approval for use of military force to repel future attacks.[173]

1965–1966

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Westmoreland in Vietnam 1965

Slowly and quietly Johnson waited until early 1965 before starting a eight-week bombing campaign against North Vietnam. It had little apparent effect.[174] In a campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder the U.S. would continue to bomb North Vietnam until late 1968, dropping 864,000 tons of bombs over three and a half years. Operation Rolling Thunder[175] In March 1965, McGeorge Bundy called for American ground operations. Johnson agreed and also quietly changed the mission from defensive to offensive operations.[176]

In late July, McNamara and Johnson's top advisors recommended an increase in U.S. soldiers from 75,000 to over 200,000.[177] Johnson agreed but felt boxed in by unpalatable choices. If he sent additional troops he would be attacked as an interventionist, and if he did not, he thought he risked being impeached.[178] Under the command of General Westmoreland, U.S. forces increasingly engaged in search and destroy operations in South Vietnam.[179] By October 1965, there were over 200,000 troops deployed in Vietnam.[180] Most of these soldiers were drafted after leaving high school, and disproportionately came from poor families. College students could obtain deferments.[181]

Throughout 1965, few members of Congress or the administration openly criticized Johnson's handling of the war, though some, like George Ball, warned against expanding the U.S. presence in Vietnam.[182] In early 1966, Robert Kennedy harshly criticized Johnson's bombing campaign, stating that the U.S. may be headed "on a road from which there is no turning back, a road that leads to catastrophe for all mankind."[183] Soon thereafter, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator James William Fulbright, held televised hearings examining the administration's Vietnam policy.[184] Impatience with the president and doubts about his war strategy continued to grow on Capitol Hill. In June 1966, Senator Richard Russell, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, reflecting the coarsening of the national mood, declared it was time to "get it over or get out."[185]

By late 1966, multiple sources began to report progress was being made against the North Vietnamese logistics and infrastructure; Johnson was urged from every corner to begin peace discussions. The gap with Hanoi, however, was an unbridgeable demand on both sides for a unilateral end to bombing and withdrawal of forces. Westmoreland and McNamara then recommended a concerted program to promote pacification; Johnson formally placed this effort under military control in October.[186] Johnson grew more and more anxious about justifying war casualties, and talked of the need for decisive victory, despite the unpopularity of the cause.[187] By the end of 1966, it was clear that the air campaign and the pacification effort had both failed, and Johnson agreed to McNamara's new recommendation to add 70,000 troops in 1967 to the 400,000 previously committed. Heeding the CIA's recommendations, Johnson also increased bombings against North Vietnam.[188] The bombing escalation ended secret talks being held with North Vietnam, but U.S. leaders did not consider North Vietnamese intentions in those talks to be genuine.[189]

1967 and the Tet Offensive

Johnson meets with a group of foreign policy advisors, collectively called "the Wise Men," discuss the Vietnam War effort.

By the middle of 1967 nearly 70,000 Americans had been killed or wounded in the war, which was being commonly described in the news media and elsewhere as a "stalemate."[190] Nonetheless, Johnson agreed to an increase of 55,000 troops, bringing the total to 525,000.[191] In August, Johnson, with the Joint Chiefs' support, decided to expand the air campaign and exempted only Hanoi, Haiphong and a buffer zone with China from the target list.[192] Later that month McNamara told a Senate subcommittee that an expanded air campaign would not bring Hanoi to the peace table. The Joint Chiefs were astounded, and threatened mass resignation; McNamara was summoned to the White House for a three-hour dressing down; nevertheless, Johnson had received reports from the CIA confirming McNamara's analysis at least in part. In the meantime an election establishing a constitutional government in the South was concluded and provided hope for peace talks.[193]

With the war arguably in a stalemate and in light of the widespread disapproval of the conflict, Johnson convened a group of veteran government foreign policy experts, informally known as "the Wise Men": Dean Acheson, Gen. Omar Bradley, George Ball, Mac Bundy, Arthur Dean, Douglas Dillon, Abe Fortas, Averell Harriman, Henry Cabot Lodge, Robert Murphy and Max Taylor.[194] They unanimously opposed leaving Vietnam, and encouraged Johnson to "stay the course."[195] Afterward, on November 17, in a nationally televised address, the president assured the American public, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." Less than two weeks later, an emotional Robert McNamara announced his resignation as Defense Secretary. Behind closed doors, he had begun regularly expressing doubts over Johnson's war strategy, angering the president. He joined a growing list of Johnson's top aides who resigned over the war, including Bill Moyers, McGeorge Bundy, and George Ball.[183][196]

On January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese began the Tet offensive against South Vietnam's five largest cities. While the Tet offensive failed militarily, it was a psychological victory, definitively turning American public opinion against the war effort. In February 1968, influential news anchor Walter Cronkite expressed on the air that the conflict was deadlocked and that additional fighting would change nothing. Johnson reacted, saying "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America".[197] Indeed, demoralization about the war was everywhere; 26 percent then approved of Johnson's handling of Vietnam, while 63 percent disapproved.[198]

Post-Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive convinced senior leaders of the Johnson administration, including the "Wise Men" and new Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, that further escalation of troop levels would not help bring an end to the war. Johnson was initially reluctant to follow this advice, but ultimately agreed to allow a partial bombing halt and to signal his willingness to engage in peace talks.[199] On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced that he would halt the bombing in North Vietnam, while at the same time announcing that he would not seek re-election.[200] He also escalated U.S. military operations in South Vietnam in order to consolidate control of as much of the countryside as possible before the onset of serious peace talks.[201] Talks began in Paris in May, but failed to yield any results.[202] Two of the major obstacles in negotiations were the unwillingness of the United States to allow the Viet Cong to take part in the South Vietnamese government, and the unwillingness of North Vietnam to recognize the legitimacy of South Vietnam.[203] In October 1968, when the parties came close to an agreement on a bombing halt, Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon intervened with the South Vietnamese, promising better terms so as to delay a settlement on the issue until after the election.[204] Johnson sought a continuation of talks after the 1968 election, but the North Vietnamese argued about procedural matters until after Nixon took office.[205]

Johnson once summed up his perspective of the Vietnam War as follows:

I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved‍—‌the Great Society‍—‌in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs.... But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.[206]

Middle East

Latin America

Under the direction of Assistant Secretary of State Thomas C. Mann, the United States placed an emphasis on Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, which provided economic aid to Latin America. Like Kennedy, Johnson sought to isolate Cuba, which was under the rule of the Soviet-aligned Fidel Castro. In 1965, the Dominican Civil War broke out between the government of President Donald Reid Cabral and supporters of former President Juan Bosch.[208] On the advice of Abe Fortas, Johnson dispatched over 20,000 Marines to the Dominican Republic.[209] Their role was not take sides but to evacuate American citizens and restore order. The U.S. also helped arrange an agreement providing for new elections. Johnson's use of force in ending the civil war alienated many in Latin America, and the region's importance to the administration receded as Johnson's foreign policy became increasingly dominated by the Vietnam War.[208]

Britain and Western Europe

Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister from 1964 to 1970, believed in a strong "Special Relationship" with the United States and wanted to highlight his dealings with the White House to strengthen his own prestige as a statesman. President Lyndon Johnson disliked Wilson, and ignored any "special" relationship.[210] Johnson needed and asked for help to maintain American prestige, but Wilson offered only lukewarm verbal support for the Vietnam War.[211] Wilson and Johnson also differed sharply on British economic weakness and its declining status as a world power. Historian Jonathan Colman concludes it made for the most unsatisfactory "special" relationship in the 20th century.[212]

As the economies of Western Europe recovered, European leaders increasingly sought to recast the alliance as a partnership of equals. This trend, along with Johnson's conciliatory policy towards the Soviet Union and his escalation of the Vietnam War, led to fractures within NATO. Johnson's request that NATO leaders send even token forces to South Vietnam were denied by leaders who lacked a strategic interest in the region. West Germany and especially France pursued independent foreign policies, and in 1966 French President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO. The withdrawal of France, along with West German and British defense cuts, substantially weakened NATO, but the alliance remained intact. Johnson refrained from criticizing de Gaulle and he resisted calls to reduce U.S. troop levels on the continent.[213]

South Asia

Johnson met with President of Pakistan Ayub Khan.

Since 1954, the American alliance with Pakistan had caused India to move closer to the Soviet Union. Johnson hoped that a more evenhanded policy towards both countries would soften the tensions in South Asia and bring both nations closer to the United States. He ended the traditional American division of South Asia into 'allies' and 'neutrals' and sought to develop good relations with both India and Pakistan by supplying arms and money to both while maintaining neutrality in their intense border feuds. His policy pushed Pakistan closer to Communist China and India closer to the Soviet Union.[214] Johnson also started to cultivate warm personal relations with Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India and President Ayub Khan of Pakistan. However, he inflamed anti-American sentiments in both countries when he cancelled the visits of both leaders to Washington.[215]

List of international trips

Johnson made eleven international trips to twenty countries during his presidency.[216] He flew 523,000 miles aboard Air Force One while in office. One of the most unusual international trips in presidential history occurred before Christmas in 1967. The President began the trip by going to the memorial service for Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, who had disappeared in a swimming accident and was presumed drowned. The White House did not reveal in advance to the press that the President would make the first round-the-world presidential trip. The trip was 26,959 miles completed in only 112.5 hours (4.7 days). Air Force One crossed the equator twice, stopped in Travis Air Force Base, Calif., then Honolulu, Pago Pago, Canberra, Melbourne, Vietnam, Karachi and Rome.

Countries visited by Johnson during his presidency. Dates Country Locations Details 1 September 16, 1964

Canada Vancouver Informal visit. Met with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in ceremonies related to the Columbia River Treaty. 2 April 14–15, 1966

Mexico Mexico, D.F. Informal visit. Met with President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. 3 August 21–22, 1966

Canada Campobello Island,
Chamcook Laid cornerstone at Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Conferred informally with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. 4 October 19–20, 1966

New Zealand Wellington State visit. Met with Prime Minister Keith Holyoake. October 20–23, 1966

Australia Canberra,
Melbourne,
Sydney,
Brisbane,
Townsville State visit. Met with Governor-General Richard Casey and Prime Minister Harold Holt. Intended as a "thank-you" visit for the Australian government's solid support for the Vietnam War effort, the president and first lady were greeted by demonstrations from anti-war protesters.[217] October 24–26, 1966

Philippines Manila,
Los Baños,
Corregidor Attended a summit with the heads of State and government of Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Vietnam, and Thailand.[218] The meeting ended with pronouncements to stand fast against communist aggression and to promote ideals of democracy and development in Vietnam and across Asia.[219] October 26, 1966

South Vietnam Cam Ranh Bay Visited U.S. military personnel. October 27–30, 1966

Thailand Bangkok State visit. Met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej. October 30–31, 1966

Malaysia Kuala Lumpur State visit. Met with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman October 31 –
November 2, 1966

South Korea Seoul,
Suwon State visit. Met with President Park Chung-hee and Prime Minister Chung Il-kwon. Addressed National Assembly. 5 December 3, 1966

Mexico Ciudad Acuña Informal meeting with President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Inspected construction of Amistad Dam. 6 April 11–14, 1967

Uruguay Punta del Este Summit meeting with Latin American heads of state. April 14, 1967

Suriname Paramaribo Refueling stop en route from Uruguay. 7 April 23–26, 1967

West Germany Bonn Attended the funeral of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and conversed with various heads of state. 8 May 25, 1967

Canada Montreal,
Ottawa Met with Governor General Roland Michener. Attended Expo 67. Conferred informally with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. 9 October 28, 1967

Mexico Ciudad Juarez Attended transfer of El Chamizal from the U.S. to Mexico. Conferred with President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. 10 December 21–22, 1967

Australia Canberra Attended the funeral of Prime Minister Harold Holt.[217] Conferred with other attending heads of state. December 23, 1967

Thailand Khorat Visited U.S. military personnel. December 23, 1967

South Vietnam Cam Ranh Bay Visited U.S. military personnel. Addressing the troops, Johnson declares "...all the challenges have been met. The enemy is not beaten, but he knows that he has met his master in the field."[183] December 23, 1967

Pakistan Karachi Met with President Ayub Khan. December 23, 1967

Italy Rome Met with President Giuseppe Saragat and Prime Minister Aldo Moro. December 23, 1967

Vatican City Apostolic Palace Audience with Pope Paul VI. 11 July 6–8, 1968

El Salvador San Salvador Attended the Conference of Presidents of the Central American Republics. July 8, 1968

Nicaragua Managua Informal visit. Met with President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. July 8, 1968

Costa Rica San José Informal visit. Met with President José Joaquín Trejos Fernández. July 8, 1968

Honduras San Pedro Sula Informal visit. Met with President Oswaldo López Arellano. July 8, 1968

Guatemala Guatemala City Informal visit. Met with President Julio César Méndez Montenegro.

Elections during the Johnson presidency

Election of 1964

Main articles: Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 presidential campaign and 1964 United States presidential election Further information: 1964 United States Senate elections and 1964 United States House of Representatives elections

Graph of Johnson's Gallup approval ratings

Segregationist Governor George C. Wallace entered several 1964 Democratic presidential primaries, taking a large share of the vote in several states before announcing that he would seek the presidency as an independent or member of a third party. Meanwhile, the Republican Party saw a contested series of primaries between conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona and liberal Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Rockefeller had appeared to be the front-runner at one point, but a divorce badly damaged his candidacy. Goldwater emerged as the prohibitive favorite in June 1964, and he was formally nominated at the July 1964 Republican National Convention. After the nomination of Goldwater, Wallace heeded the requests of Southern conservatives to withdraw from the race.[220]

The 1964 Democratic National Convention re-nominated Johnson and celebrated his accomplishments after less than one year in office.[221] Early in the campaign, Robert F. Kennedy was a widely popular choice to run as Johnson's vice presidential running mate, but Johnson and Kennedy had never liked one another.[222] Hubert Humphrey was ultimately selected as Johnson's running mate, as the Johnson campaign hoped that Humphrey would strengthen the ticket in the Midwest and industrial Northeast.[128] Johnson, knowing full well the degree of frustration inherent in the office of vice president, put Humphrey through a gauntlet of interviews to guarantee his absolute loyalty and having made the decision, he kept the announcement from the press until the last moment to maximize media speculation and coverage.[223] At the end of the Democratic Convention, polls showed Johnson in a comfortable position to obtain re-election.[224]

1964 presidential election results

Goldwater was perhaps the most conservative major party nominee since the passage of the New Deal, and Johnson and Goldwater both sought to portray the election as a choice between a liberal and a conservative;.[225] Early in the 1964 presidential campaign, Goldwater had appeared to be a strong contender, as his support in the South threatened to flip Southern states to the Republican Party. However, Goldwater lost momentum as the campaign progressed. On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign managers broadcast the "Daisy ad," which successfully portrayed Goldwater as a dangerous warmonger.[226] The combination of an effective ad campaign, Goldwater's perceived extremism, the Goldwater campaign's poor organization, and Johnson's popularity led Democrats to a major election victory.[227] Johnson won the presidency by a landslide with 61.05 percent of the vote, the largest share of the popular vote won by any presidential candidate since the 1820 presidential election. In the Electoral College, Johnson defeated Goldwater by margin of 486 to 52.[228] Goldwater's only victories were in his home state of Arizona and five states in the Deep South.[229] In the concurrent congressional elections, the Democratic Party grew its majority in both the House and the Senate.[230] The huge election victory emboldened Johnson to propose liberal legislation in the 89th United States Congress.[231]

Regardless of Goldwater's background (his father was born in the Judaic community but left it and became an Episcopalian), Johnson won a large majority of the Jewish vote. It was a liberal constituency that gave strong support to the Great Society.[232]

Mid-term elections of 1966

Further information: 1966 United States Senate elections and 1966 United States House of Representatives elections

Johnson's coalition of big businessmen, trade unions, liberal intellectuals, white ethnic minorities, and blacks began to disintegrate before the 1966 election. Trade unions did not do as well as corporations during the Johnson years. Social welfare did poorly because Americans preferred reduction in taxes to social improvements. The Great Society was further weakened by reactions against urban violence (by white ethnics) and against the Vietnam War (by intellectuals and students).[233] Republicans campaigned on law and order concerns stemming from urban riots, Johnson's conduct of the Vietnam War, and on the sluggish economy; they warned of looming inflation and growing federal deficits.[234]

In the midterm elections, Democrats lost 47 seats in the House to the Republicans, and also three in the Senate. Nevertheless, the Democrats retained majority control of both House and Senate. The losses hit the party's liberal wing hardest, which in turn decreased Johnson's ability to push his agenda through Congress.[235] The elections also helped the Republicans rehabilitate their image after their disastrous 1964 campaign.[230]

Election of 1968

Main articles: 1968 United States presidential election and Presidential transition of Richard Nixon

Presidential primaries

As he had served less than two years of President Kennedy's term, Johnson was constitutionally eligible for election to a second full term in the 1968 presidential election under the provisions of the 22nd Amendment.[236][237] However, beginning in 1966, the press sensed a "credibility gap" between what Johnson was saying in press conferences and what was happening on the ground in Vietnam, which led to much less favorable coverage.[238] By year's end, the Democratic governor of Missouri, Warren E. Hearnes, warned that "frustration over Vietnam; too much federal spending and... taxation; no great public support for your Great Society programs; and ... public disenchantment with the civil rights programs" had eroded the president's standing. There were bright spots; in January 1967, Johnson boasted that wages were the highest in history, unemployment was at a 13-year low, and corporate profits and farm incomes were greater than ever. Asked to explain why he was unpopular, Johnson responded, "I am a dominating personality, and when I get things done I don't always please all the people."[239]

As the 1968 election approached, Johnson began to lose control of the Democratic Party, which was splitting into four factions. The first group consisted of Johnson and Humphrey, labor unions, and local party bosses (led by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley). The second group consisted of antiwar students and intellectuals who coalesced behind Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota in an effort to "dump Johnson." The third group included Catholics, Hispanics and African Americans, who rallied behind Robert Kennedy. The fourth group consisted of traditionally segregationist white Southerners like George C. Wallace.[240] Despite Johnson's growing unpopularity, conventional wisdom held that it would be impossible to deny re-nomination to a sitting president.[241] Nonetheless, McCarthy came in a surprisingly close second in the March 12 New Hampshire primary, the first Democratic primary in the 1968 campaign. McCarthy's victory was widely seen as indicative of the strength of the anti-war movement in the Democratic Party, and Kennedy joined the race on March 16.[129] At the end of a March 31 speech, Johnson shocked the nation when he announced he would not run for re-election by concluding with the line: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."[242] The next day, his approval ratings increased from 36 percent to 49 percent.[243]

President Johnson meets with Richard Nixon in July 1968

Historians have debated the factors that led to Johnson's surprise decision. Shesol says Johnson wanted out of the White House but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative he decided to leave.[244] Woods writes that Johnson realized he needed to leave in order for the nation to heal.[245] Dallek says that Johnson had no further domestic goals, and realized that his personality had eroded his popularity. His health was not good, and he was preoccupied with the Kennedy campaign; his wife was pressing for his retirement and his base of support continued to shrink. Leaving the race would allow him to pose as a peacemaker.[246] Bennett, however, says Johnson "had been forced out of a reelection race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia."[247] Johnson may also have hoped that the convention would ultimately choose to draft him back into the race.[248]

Humphrey entered the race after Johnson's withdrawal, making the 1968 Democratic primaries a three-way contest between Humphrey, Kennedy, and McCarthy. Kennedy cut into McCarthy's liberal and anti-war base, while also winning the support of the poor and working class. He won a series of primary victories, but was assassinated in June by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab nationalist.[249] With Johnson's support, Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago in late August. The violent clashes in Chicago between anti-war protesters marred the convention.[250] After the convention, polls showed Humphrey losing the general election by 20 points.[251]

General election

1968 presidential election results

Humphrey faced two major opponents in the 1968 general election campaign. The Republicans nominated former Vice President Richard Nixon, and Nixon selected Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate. Nixon attacked the Great Society and the Supreme Court, and indicated that he would bring peace in Vietnam.[252] With the support of Strom Thurmond and other Southern Republicans, Nixon pursued a Southern Strategy that focused on winning the support of Southern white voters who had been alienated by the Johnson administration's actions on civil rights.[253] Humphrey's other major challenger, George Wallace, ran as the candidate of the American Independent Party, receiving support from the Ku Klux Klan and far-right groups like the John Birch Society. Wallace's strongest backing came from pro-segregation Southerners, but he also appealed to white working class areas in the North with his "law and order" campaign. As a third party candidate, Wallace did not believe that he could win the presidency, but he hoped to win enough electoral votes to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives.[254]

Humphrey's polling numbers improved after a September 30 speech in which he broke with Johnson's war policy, calling for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam.[251] In what was termed the 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 North Vietnamese government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks. However, Nixon won the election, narrowly edging Humphrey with a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote.[251] Wallace captured 13.5 percent of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes. Nixon capitalized on discontent over civil rights to break the Democratic Party's hold on the South. He also performed well in the states west of the Mississippi River, due in part to rising resentment against the federal government in those states. Both the South and the West would be important components of the GOP electoral coalition in subsequent elections.[255] Despite Nixon's victory in the 1968 presidential election, Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress.[256]

Historical reputation

Historians argue that Johnson's presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era, and Johnson is ranked favorably by many historians.[257][258] Johnson's presidency left a lasting mark on the United States, transforming the United States with the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid, various anti-poverty measures, environmental protections, educational funding, and other federal programs.[259] The civil rights legislation passed under Johnson are nearly-universally praised for their role in removing barriers to racial equality.[259] A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Johnson as the tenth best president.[260] A 2017 C-Span poll of historians also ranked Johnson as the tenth best president.[261] Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War remains broadly unpopular, and, much as it did during his tenure, often overshadows his domestic accomplishments.[262][263] A 2006 poll of historians ranked Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War as the third-worst mistake made by a sitting president.[264] Historian Kent Germany writes that, "the legacies of death, renewal, and opportunity attached to the Johnson administration are ironic, confusing, and uncertain. They will likely remain that way."[265] Germany explains:

The man who was elected to the White House by one of the widest margins in U.S. history and pushed through as much legislation as any other American politician now seems to be remembered best by the public for succeeding an assassinated hero, steering the country into a quagmire in Vietnam, cheating on his saintly wife, exposing his stitched-up belly, using profanity, picking up dogs by their ears, swimming naked with advisers in the White House pool, and emptying his bowels while conducting official business. Of all those issues, Johnson's reputation suffers the most from his management of the Vietnam War, something that has overshadowed his civil rights and domestic policy accomplishments and caused Johnson himself to regret his handling of "the woman I really loved--the Great Society."[266]

Johnson's persuasiveness and understanding of Congress helped him to pass remarkable flurry of legislation and gained him a reputation as a legislative master.[262] Johnson was aided by his party's large congressional majorities and a public that was receptive to new federal programs,[267] but he also faced a Congress dominated by the powerful conservative coalition of southern Democrats and Republicans, who had successfully blocked most liberal legislation since the start of World War II.[268] Though Johnson established many lasting programs, other aspects of the Great Society, including the Office of Economic Opportunity, were later abolished.[259] The perceived failures of the Vietnam War nurtured disillusionment with government, and the New Deal coalition fell apart in large part due to tensions over the Vietnam War and the 1968 election.[259][170] Republicans won five of six presidential elections after Johnson left office. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 vowing to undo the Great Society, though he and other Republicans were unable to repeal many of Johnson's programs.[259]

Fredrik Logevall argues "there still seems much to recommend the 'orthodox' view that [Johnson] was a parochial and unimaginative foreign policy thinker, a man vulnerable to cliches about international affairs and lacking interest in the world beyond America's shores."[269] Many historians emphasize Johnson's provincialism. The “been in Texas too long” school of interpretation was coined in the Warren I. Cohen and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker anthology, Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World to describe the consensus of historians who see Johnson as a politician with a narrow vision.[270] One smaller group of scholars, called the "Longhorn School", argues that—apart from Vietnam—Johnson had a fairly good record in foreign policy.[271] Many of the "Longhorn School" are students of Robert Dallek, who has argued that "the jury is still out on Johnson as a foreign policy leader".[272] By contrast, Nicholas Evan Sarantakes argues:

When it comes to foreign policy and world affairs, Lyndon Johnson is remembered as a disaster. That was the popular view of him when he left office and it has remained the dominant view in the years since, be it with the general public or with historians. There is good reason for this view and it can be reduced to one word: Vietnam.[273]

Notes

References

^ Patterson (1996), pp. 525–530. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 436–439. ^ Bornet (1983), pp. 4-5 ^ a b Dallek (1998), pp. 49–51. ^ .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotesmw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Morison, Samuel Eliot (1965). 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"Evaluating the Success of President Johnson's War on Poverty: Revisiting the Historical Record Using a Full-Income Poverty Measure." AEI Paper Studies (American Enterprise Institute, 2019), online. ^ Bernstein (1996), pp. 183–213. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 174–176. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 195–198. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 200–201. ^ Bernstein (1996), p. 195. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 569–571. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 653. ^ Zelizer (2015), p. 184. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 186–189. ^ Patterson (1996), p. 573. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 184–185. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 191–192. ^ Zeitz (2018), p. 157 ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 199–200. ^ Patricia P. Martin and David A. Weaver. "Social Security: A Program and Policy History," Social Security Bulletin, volume 66, no. 1 (2005), see also online version. ^ Zeitz (2018), pp. 158, 162 ^ Patterson (1996), p. 574–575. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 198–201 ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 197, 203 ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 213–214 ^ Adelman, S. Allan (Fall 1970). "Control of Motor Vehicle Emissions: State or Federal Responsibility?". Catholic University Law Review. Washington, D.C.: Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America. 20 (1): 157–170. Retrieved June 18, 2017. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 214–215 ^ https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/upload/environmentcs2.pdf|title=Lyndon B. Johnson and the Environment|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=March 24, 2022}} ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 204–207 ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 208–209 ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 211–212 ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 577–578. ^ "Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065". Pew Research Center. September 28, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ Kestin, Sally; O'Matz, Megan; Maines, John; Eaton, Tracy (January 8, 2015). "Plundering America". Sun Sentinel. 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ISBN 0-618-08825-3. ^ Patterson (1996), p. 651. ^ Woods (2006), pp. 563–68; Dallek (1998), pp. 196–202. ^ a b c Clark, Charles S. (September 18, 1992). "Public Broadcasting: Will political attacks and new technologies force big changes?". No. 35. CQ Press. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ "James E. Webb – NASA Administrator, February 14, 1961 – October 7, 1968". History.NASA.gov. NASA. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. ^ Logsdon, John M. "Ten Presidents and NASA". NASA. Retrieved June 17, 2017. ^ Elaine E. Liston (1999). Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1998. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, John F. Kennedy Space Center. p. 165. ^ Rothman, Lily (September 15, 2014). "How Little Has Changed on Gun Control Since 1967". Time. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ "History of gun-control legislation". The Washington Post. December 22, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ Jones, Tim (December 26, 2015). "JFK assassination sowed seeds of failure for gun-control efforts". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ "50 Years Of Tobacco Control". Princeton, New Jersey: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Archived from the original on July 11, 2017. Retrieved June 18, 2017. ^ "The Reports of the Surgeon General: The 1964 Report on Smoking and Health". Bethesda, Maryland: U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved June 18, 2017. ^ David Fromkin, “Lyndon Johnson and Foreign Policy: What the New Documents Show.” Foreign Affairs 74#1 (1995), pp. 161–170 at pp. 163 online ^ Fromkin, pp. 163, 168 ^ David Fromkin, (1995), pp. 162, 165–166. ^ Jonathan Colman, The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963–1969 (Edinburgh UP, 2010) pp. 104, 204–207. ^ Herring (2008), pp. 729–730 ^ a b H. W. Brands, ed. (1999). The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson: Beyond Vietnam. Texas AM University Press. pp. 19–20. ISBN 9780890968734. ^ Herring (2008), pp. 730–732 ^ Schwartz, Thomas Alan (2003). Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam. Harvard University Press. pp. 19–20. Retrieved August 23, 2016. lyndon johnson prelude to detente. ^ Herring (2008), pp. 755–757 ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 289, 293 ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 600–601. ^ a b Cohen, Michael (February 17, 2015). "How Vietnam Haunts the Democrats". Politico. Retrieved August 22, 2016. ^ Zelizer (2015), p. 146. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 604–605. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 144–155. ^ Patterson (1996), pp 608–610, 612. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), p. 309 ^ Dallek (1998), p. 255. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 612–613. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 272–277. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), p. 307 ^ Dallek (1998), p. 284. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 615–616. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 304–305, 308 ^ a b c "The War in Vietnam: Escalation Phase". Santa Barbara, California: The American Presidency Project. Retrieved July 11, 2017. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 369. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 364. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 381. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 386. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 386–388. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 390. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 470–471. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 473. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 477. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 478–479. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 494. ^ Glass, Andrew (March 25, 2010). "Johnson meets with 'The Wise Men,' March 25, 1968". Arlington, Virginia: Politico. Retrieved July 11, 2017. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 495. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 505–506. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 509. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 683–684. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 513. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 684–685. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 538–541, 564. ^ Patterson (1996), p. 703. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 584–585. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 597. ^ "Quotation by Lyndon Baines Johnson". dictionary.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2013. ^ Herring (2008), pp. 746–751 ^ a b Herring (2008), pp. 732–736 ^ Alan McPherson, "Misled by himself: What the Johnson tapes reveal about the Dominican intervention of 1965." Latin American Research Review (2003) 38#2: 127-146. online ^ Marc Tiley, "Britain, Vietnam and the Special Relationship." History Today 63.12 (2013). ^ Rhiannon Vickers, "Harold Wilson, the British Labour Party, and the War in Vietnam." Journal of Cold War Studies 10#2 (2008): 41-70. ^ Jonathan Colman, A 'Special Relationship'? Harold Wilson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Anglo-American Relations 'At the Summit', 1964-68 (2004) ^ Herring (2008), pp. 742–744 ^ Anita Inder Singh, "The Limits of 'Super Power': The United States and South Asia" International History Review (1992) 14#1 pp. 98-108. ^ H. W. Brands (1995). The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 132–35. ISBN 978-0-19-507888-6. ^ "Travels of President Lyndon B. Johnson". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. ^ a b Humphries, David (November 12, 2011). "LBJ came all the way – but few followed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia. Retrieved December 3, 2013. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 383. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 384. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 547–550. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 154–155. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 135–137. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 157–59. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 155–156. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 151–152. ^ Dallek (1998), p. 170. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 155–159. ^ Leip, David. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 560–561. ^ a b Cook, Rhodes (April 29, 2010). "Midterms Past: The '66 Parallel". Sabato's Crystal Ball. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Center for Politics. Retrieved June 20, 2017. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 161–162. ^ Marc Dollinger, "The other War: American Jews, Lyndon Johnson, and the Great Society." American Jewish History 89#4 (2001) pp. 437 . online. ^ Robert Lekachman, "Death of a Slogan--The Great Society 1967." Commentary 43.1 (1967): 56 . ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 249–265. ^ Busch, Andrew E. (1999). Horses in Midstream: U.S. Midterm Elections and Their Consequences, 1894–1998. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 94–100. ISBN 0822975076. ^ "Johnson Can Seek Two Full Terms". The Washington Post. November 24, 1963. p. A2. ^ Moore, William (November 24, 1963). "Law Permits 2 Full Terms for Johnson". The Chicago Tribune. p. 7. ^ Rouse, Robert (March 15, 2006). "Happy Anniversary to the first scheduled presidential press conference – 93 years young!". American Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 23, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2016. ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 391–396; quotes on pp. 391 and 396. ^ Gould, Lewis L. (2010). 1968: The Election That Changed America. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 978-1566638623. Retrieved October 25, 2015. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), p. 343 ^ "Remarks on Decision not to Seek Re-Election (March 31, 1968)". The Miller Center, University of Virginia. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2013. ^ Updegrove, Mark K. (2012). Indomitable will: LBJ in the presidency (1st ed.). New York: Crown. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-307-88771-9. ^ Jeff Shesol (1998). Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade. W W Norton. pp. 545–47. Retrieved October 25, 2015. ^ Woods (2006), pp. 834–835 ^ Dallek (1998), pp. 518–525. ^ Anthony J. Bennett (2013). The Race for the White House from Reagan to Clinton: Reforming Old Systems, Building New Coalitions. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 160. ISBN 9781137268600. Retrieved October 25, 2015. ^ Nelson, Justin A. (December 2000). "Drafting Lyndon Johnson: The President's Secret Role in the 1968 Democratic Convention". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 30 (4): 688–713. doi:10.1111/j.0360-4918.2000.00139.x. JSTOR 27552141. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 691–693. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 694–697. ^ a b c Sabato, Larry (March 16, 2016). "The Ball of Confusion That Was 1968". Sabato's Crystal Ball. Retrieved August 22, 2016. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 700–702. ^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 352–353 ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 697–699. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 706–707. ^ Patterson (1996), pp. 704–705. ^ Dallek, Robert. "Presidency: How Do Historians Evaluate the Administration of Lyndon Johnson?". History News Network. Retrieved June 17, 2010. ^ "Survey of Presidential Leadership – Lyndon Johnson". C-SPAN. Archived from the original on February 9, 2011. Retrieved June 17, 2010. ^ a b c d e Tumulty, Karen (May 17, 2014). "The Great Society at 50". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 21, 2016. ^ Rottinghaus, Brandon; Vaughn, Justin S. (February 19, 2018). "How Does Trump Stack Up Against the Best — and Worst — Presidents?". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2018. ^ "Presidential Historians Survey 2017". C-Span. Retrieved May 14, 2018. ^ a b Rothstein, Edward (April 8, 2014). "Legacy Evolving at a Presidential Library". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2016. ^ Tumulty, Karen (April 8, 2014). "LBJ's presidency gets another look as civil rights law marks its 50th anniversary". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 21, 2016. ^ "Scholars rate worst presidential errors". USA Today. AP. February 18, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2018. ^ Germany, Kent (October 4, 2016). "Lyndon B. Johnson: Impact and Legacy". Miller Center. University of Virginia. Retrieved May 16, 2018. ^ Kent B. Germany, "Historians and the Many Lyndon Johnsons: A Review Essay" Journal of Southern History (2009) 75#4 pp 1001-1028 at p. 1005. in JSTOR ^ Nyhan, Brendan (May 22, 2014). "Why Comparisons Between L.B.J. and Obama Can Mislead". The New York Times. Retrieved August 21, 2016. ^ Zelizer (2015), pp. 3–5. ^ Review by Fredrik Logevall, The American Historical Review (Feb 2001) 106#1 p. 217. ^ Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, "Lyndon B. Johnson and the World," in Mitchell B. Lerner, ed. (2012). A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson. ISBN 9781444333893. pp 487-502, quoting p. 490. ^ Sarantakes, "Lyndon B. Johnson and the World," pp 488-90. ^ H. W. Brands, ed. (1999). The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson: Beyond Vietnam. Texas AM UP. p. 8. ISBN 9780890968734. ^ Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, "Lyndon B. Johnson and the World," in Mitchell B. Lerner, ed. (2012). A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson. ISBN 9781444333893. pp 487-502, quoting p. 487.

Works cited

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Bernstein, Irving (1996). Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195063127.
Bornet, Vaughn Davis (1983). The Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700602421.
Caro, Robert (2012). The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0375713255.
Dallek, Robert (1998). Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513238-0.
Herring, George C. (2008). From Colony to Superpower; U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507822-0.
Mackenzie, G. Calvin; Weisbrot, Robert (2008). The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s. Penguin Press. ISBN 9781594201707.
May, Gary (2013). Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy (Kindle ed.). Basic Books. pp. 47–52. ISBN 978-0-465-01846-8.
Patterson, James (1996). Grand Expectations: The United States 19451974. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195117974.
Woods, Randall (2006). LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0684834580.
Zeitz, Joshua (2018). Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson's White House. Penguin. ISBN 9780525428787.
Zelizer, Julian (2015). The Fierce Urgency of Now. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1594204340.

1963

November 22 – Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Johnson becomes the president of the United States. He is sworn in on Air Force One while the plane is still in Dallas, with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy at his side.
November 27 – President Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress calling on legislators to fulfill Kennedy's legacy and pass civil rights and tax legislation.
December 17 – Clean Air Act

1964

1965

January 1 – The White House announces that President Johnson has ordered an inquiry by the government into increases in selective steel prices.[1]
January 3 – President Johnson attends church services and visits the grave of the late President John F. Kennedy.[2]
January 4 – President Johnson delivers the 1965 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress, launching the Great Society program and saying additional ideas will be sent to Congress within six weeks.[3]
January 20 – Johnson is sworn into his full term as President of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.
July 30 – Social Security Amendments of 1965

1966

January 6 – The text of a telegram by President Johnson to Carl Sandburg is released on the bulletin board in the White House's Press Room.[4]
January 6 – The text of a telegram by President Johnson to the ailing Chester Nimitz is released on the bulletin board in the Press Room.[5]
January 7 – President Johnson issues a statement on the members of the Advisory Council on Insured Loans to Students.[6]
January 7 – President Johnson issues Proclamation 3696, a termination of increased duty on clinical thermometers imports.[7]
January 10 – President Johnson releases a statement mourning the death of Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri.[8]
January 10 – In a statement, President Johnson announces the appointment of James L. Goddard for Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.[9]
January 11 – President Johnson issues Executive Order 11265, amending a prior executive order to establish the National Defense.[10]
January 12 – President Johnson delivers the 1966 State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.[11]
January 13 – President Johnson holds his fifty-third news conference in the Fish Room during the afternoon. President Johnson answers questions from reporters on the District of Columbia, Vietnam, Housing and Urban Development Department, women in military service, and continuation of American peace efforts.[12]
October 15 – Black Panther Party is established.
November 1 – President Johnson attends the dedication of Johnson Hill in Korea.[13]
November 1 – President Johnson arrives at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, delivering remarks on his last visit to the state and states his satisfaction with the state's choice of representatives in Congress.[14]
November 1 – President Johnson delivers remarks to American and Korean service members on American involvement in World War II and contemporary foreign policy issues in the Mess Hall, Camp Stanley.[15]
November 2 – President Johnson delivers remarks at Dulles International Airport on the four goals the seven nations that conferred during the Manila Conference agreed to and his views on developments abroad outside of American involvement.[16]
November 2 – President Johnson signs the Fish Protein Concentrate Act into law in the Ballroom at the Anchorage Westward Hotel. Johnson says the legislation "will make it possible to apply the results of research from the laboratory to the economic large-scale production of a wholesome, nutritious protein concentrate."[17]
November 2 – President Johnson addresses the Korean National Assembly reflecting on American intervention in the Korean War and speaks on advancements being taken on by the region under the leadership of President Park Chung-hee.[18]
November 3 – The White House announces President Johnson will undergo abdominal and throat surgery within the following fifteen days.[19]
November 3 – President Johnson signs two bills authorizing over 10 billion in federal aid for education, adding that the legislation represents an investment in America's youth.[20]
November 3 – American spokesmen confirm American warships have relocated to the shipping channels off the coast of North Vietnam along with the US forces and shore batteries having exchanged fire.[21]
November 30 – In a letter to Chairman of the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children Meredith Wilson, President Johnson states his appreciation for the report on the summer education programs for disadvantaged children and actions relating to it being taken by the administration.[22]
November 30 – In a statement, President Johnson says the reorganization of the Bureau of Prisons "results from our concern over the high rate of crime among previous offenders and our determination to do something about it" and notes figures that support the notion that reducing repeat offenders will decrease the crime rate.[23]

1967

Further information: Timeline of the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency (1967)

1968–1969

Further information: Timeline of the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency (1968–1969)

References

.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman} ^ .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotesmw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}"Johnson Orders Steel Probe". Chicago Tribune. January 2, 1965. ^ "Johnson Ends Work on Talk to Congress". Chicago Tribune. January 4, 1965. ^ "The President's Program: Urges Soviet Leaders to Visit U.S." Chicago Tribune. January 5, 1965. ^ 2 - The President's Telegram Greeting Carl Sandburg on His 88th Birthday. (January 6, 1966) ^ 1 - The President's Telegram to Admiral Nimitz on Hearing of His Illness. (January 6, 1966) ^ 3 - Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Appointment of Members of the Advisory Council on Insured Loans to Students. (January 7, 1966) ^ Proclamation 3696—Termination of Increased Duty on Imports of Clinical Thermometers (January 7, 1966) ^ 5 - Statement by the President on the Death of Prime Minister Shastri of India. (January 10, 1966) ^ 4 - Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Appointment of Dr. James L. Goddard as Commissioner of Food and Drugs. (January 10, 1966) ^ Executive Order 11265—Amending Executive Order No. 10448, Establishing the National Defense (January 11, 1966) ^ 6 - Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union. (January 12, 1966) ^ 8 - The President's News Conference (January 13, 1966) ^ 564 - Remarks at the Dedication of Johnson Hill, Tae-an Myun Agriculture Demonstration Center, Suwon, Korea. (November 1, 1966) ^ 567 - Remarks Upon Arrival at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage. Alaska. (November 1, 1966) ^ 563 - Remarks to American and Korean Servicemen at Camp Stanley, Korea. (November 1, 1966) ^ 570 - Remarks at Dulles International Airport Upon Returning From the Asian-Pacific Trip. (November 2, 1966) ^ 569 - Remarks in Anchorage Upon Signing the Fish Protein Concentrate Act. (November 2, 1966) ^ 565 - Remarks Before the Korean National Assembly, Seoul, Korea. (November 2, 1966) ^ LBJ schedules operation, NW trip is over (November 3, 1966) ^ President signs school aid bill (November 3, 1966) ^ U.S. warships fire at N. Viet shore batteries (November 3, 1966) ^ 632 - Letter in Response to a Report on the Federally Assisted Summer School Programs for Disadvantaged Children. (November 30, 1966) ^ 633 - Statement by the President on Announcing a Reorganization of the Bureau of Prisons. (November 30, 1966)

External links

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library Timeline
Miller Center Johnson Presidential Timeline

Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President of the United States (1963–1969)
37th Vice President of the United States (1961–1963)
U.S. Senator from Texas (1949–1961)
U.S. Representative for TX-10 (1937–1949)

Presidency

1963 inauguration
Let Us Continue
1965 inauguration
Great Society (Model Cities Program)
Architectural Barriers Act
Child Nutrition Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Coinage Act of 1965
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
- Head Start Program
- Job Corps
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Civil Rights Act of 1968
- Fair Housing Act
Food Stamp Act of 1964
Glassboro Summit
Gun Control Act of 1968
Higher Education Act of 1965
- Upward Bound
- TRIO
- Teacher Corps
Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Johnson Doctrine
- Dominican Republic occupation
Medicare
Medicaid
Meritorious Service Medal
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
Non-Discrimination in Federal contracts
- Executive Order 11375
Older Americans Act
Operation CHAOS
Outer Space Treaty
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
Foreign policy
Vietnam War
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
- "Credibility gap"
VISTA
24th Amendment Voting Rights Act of 1965
War on poverty
White House Conference on Civil Rights
Cannabis policy
White House preservation
State of the Union Address, 1966
1968
Cabinet
Judicial appointments
- Supreme Court
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Johnson desk
Executive Orders
Presidential Proclamations

Life

Early years and career
Operation Texas
Texas Broadcasting Company
Johnson Amendment
Bashir Ahmad

Legacy and
memorials

Bibliography
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Lyndon Baines Johnson Day
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Memorial Grove on the Potomac
U.S. Postage stamp

Elections

United States House of Representatives special elections, 1937
1938 United States House of Representatives elections
1940
1942
1944
1946
United States Senate special elections, 1941
1948 United States Senate elections
1954
1960
Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1960
1964
- campaign
1968
Democratic National Convention 1956
1960
1964
1960 United States presidential election
1964

Public image

Lyndon B. Johnson in popular culture
Daisy advertisement
Johnson cult
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
LBJ (1991 television film)
Path to War (2002 film)
All the Way (2012 play, 2016 film)
Selma (2014 film)
LBJ (2017 film)

Family

Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (wife)
Lynda Bird Johnson Robb (daughter)
Luci Baines Johnson (daughter)
Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. (father)
Sam Houston Johnson (brother)
Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr. (grandfather)
Joseph Wilson Baines (grandfather)
George Washington Baines (great-grandfather)
Chuck Robb (son-in-law)

← John F. Kennedy
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_the_Lyndon_B._Johnson_presidencyoldid=1085913054"
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a series aboutLyndon B. Johnson

Early life
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Senate career

37th Vice President of the United States

Transition
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36th President of the United States

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First term

First inauguration

Let Us Continue
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Transportation Act (1964)
Food Stamp Act (1964)
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Timeline
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Second term

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Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
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Civil Rights Act (1968)

Timeline
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Presidential and Vice presidential campaigns

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1964
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1968
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Post-presidency

Presidential library
Death

The Lyndon B. Johnson bibliography includes major books and articles about President Lyndon B. Johnson, his life, and presidential administration. Kent B. Germany in his review of the historiography noted in 2009 that Johnson has been the subject of 250 Ph.D. dissertations, well over one hundred books, and many scholarly articles. The New York Times and the Washington Post published 7600 articles on him during his presidency.[1] Only a select subgroup are listed here, chiefly those reviewed by the major scholarly journals. Germany emphasizes the decline of Johnson's reputation:

The man who was elected to the White House by one of the widest margins in U.S. history and pushed through as much legislation as any other American politician now seems to be remembered best by the public for succeeding an assassinated hero, steering the country into a quagmire in Vietnam, cheating on his saintly wife, exposing his stitched-up belly, using profanity, picking up dogs by their ears, swimming naked with advisers in the White House pool, and emptying his bowels while conducting official business. Of all those issues, Johnson's reputation suffers the most from his management of the Vietnam War, something that has overshadowed his civil rights and domestic policy accomplishments and caused Johnson himself to regret his handling of "the woman I really loved--the Great Society."[2]

Secondary sources

Lerner, Mitchell B. A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson (2012), 29 scholarly articles with an emphasis on historiography excerpt

Biographies

.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}External video

Booknotes interview with Robert Caro on Means of Ascent, April 29, 1990, C-SPAN

Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson (4 volumes as of 2012): The Path to Power (1982); Means of Ascent (1990); Master of the Senate (2002); The Passage of Power (2012). The most detailed biography, extends to early 1964.

External video

Booknotes interview with Robert Dallek on Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960, September 22, 1991, C-SPAN

Dallek, Robert. Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960 (1991); Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (1998); also: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (2004). A 400-page abridged version of his 2 volume scholarly biography.
Fernlund, Kevin J. Lyndon B. Johnson and Modern America (Vol. 25 of The Oklahoma Western Biographies). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotesmw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}ISBN 978-0-8061-4077-3. Short study of Johnson's career, with an emphasis on Texas and the American West (175 pages).
Kearns Goodwin, Doris. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1977). A character study.
Lerner, Mitchell B. A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson (2012), Scholarly essays on all aspects of Johnson's career
Woods, Randall. LBJ: Architect of American Ambition (2006). A highly detailed scholarly biography (1000 pages).

Presidential years

Altschuler, Bruce E.; LBJ and the Polls U 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
Burns, Richard Dean and Joseph M. Siracusa. The A to Z of the Kennedy–Johnson Era (2009)
Cross, James C. Around the World with LBJ. 2008, ISBN 978-0-292-71768-8
Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 1: Foreign Policy, the Great Society and the White House. 1981; essays by scholars; excerpt
Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 2: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science. 1987; essays by scholars
Divine, Robert A., ed. The Johnson Years. Vol. 3: LBJ at Home and Abroad. 1994; essays by scholars
Ellis, Sylvia. Freedom's Pragmatist: Lyndon Johnson and Civil Rights. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2013.
Finley, Keith M. Delaying the Dream: Southern Senators and the Fight Against Civil Rights, 1938-1965 (Baton Rouge, LSU Press, 2008).
Firestone, Bernard J., and Robert C. Vogt, eds. Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Uses of Power. (1988); essays by scholars

External video

Booknotes interview with Jeff Shesol on Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy and the Feud that Defined a Decade, November 30, 1997, C-SPAN

Gould, Lewis L. Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment. 1988.

Hodgson, Godfrey. JFK and LBJ: The Last Two Great Presidents (Yale UP, 2015) excerpt

Kalman, Laura. The Long Reach of the Sixties: LBJ, Nixon, and the Making of the Contemporary Supreme Court (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Kesler, Charles, Alexander Riley, and Christopher Ellis. "Rethinking the Great Society and the LBJ Presidency: Charles Kesler." in Reflecting on the 1960s at 50 (Routledge, 2020) pp. 54-66.

Lichtenstein, Nelson, ed. Political Profiles: The Johnson Years. 1976. short biographies of 400 key politicians.
Longley, Kyle. LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval (2018) excerpt

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.
Unger, Irwin The Best of Intentions: the triumphs and failures of the Great Society under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon: Doubleday, 1996 ISBN 0-385-46833-4
White, Theodore H. The Making of the President, 1964 1965.

Woods, Randall B. Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon B. Johnson, the Great Society, and the Limits of Liberalism (2016), 480pp., a scholarly history.
Zarefsky, David. President Johnson's War On Poverty: Rhetoric and History (2nd ed. 2005). excerpt
Zeitz, Joshua. Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson's White House (2018) excerpt
Zelizer, Julian E. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society (2015) excerpt

Foreign policy

Andrew, Christopher. For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush (1995), pp 307–49.
Brands, H. W. The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power (1997)
Brands, H. W. The foreign policies of Lyndon Johnson : beyond Vietnam (1999) online

Cohen, Warren I., and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, eds. Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World: American Foreign Policy 1963-1968 (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Colman, Jonathan. The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963–1969 (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) 231 pp. [* Colman, Jonathan. The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963–1969 (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) 231 pp. online

Gavin, Francis J. and Mark Atwood Lawrence, eds. Beyond the Cold War: Lyndon Johnson and the New Global Challenges of the 1960s ((Oxford University Press, 2014) 301 pp.
Kunz, Diane B. ed. The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign Relations During the 1960s (1994)
Preston, Thomas. The President and His Inner Circle: Leadership Style and the Advisory Process in Foreign Affairs (2001)

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) online
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 University, 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 0-674-00225-3
Logevall, Fredrik Bengt Johan. Fear to Negotiate: Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, 1963–1965. (Yale University, 1993)
Schandler, Herbert Y. Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam: The unmaking of a president (Princeton University Press, 2014)
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)

Historiography

Germany, Kent B. "Historians and the Many Lyndon Johnsons: A Review Essay" Journal of Southern History (2009) 75#4 pp 1001–1028. in JSTOR
Lerner, Mitchell B. A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson (2012), 29 scholarly articles with an emphasis on historiography excerpt

Primary sources

Avner, Yehuda The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership (2010). Chapter 14, Deep in the Heart of Texas, ISBN 978-1-59264-278-6
Barrett David M. "Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Papers: A Documentary Collection" (1997). Documents from LBJ Library and other archives.
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 former aide.
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 volumes, GPO, 1965–70). All speeches and official statements.
Reedy, George, Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir (1982), ISBN 0-8362-6610-2. A memoir by the press secretary.
Smith, Simon C., ed. The Wilson–Johnson Correspondence, 1964–69 (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2015), Correspondence with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson; a primary source

Notes

^ Kent B. Germany, "Historians and the Many Lyndon Johnsons: A Review Essay" Journal of Southern History (2009) 75#4 pp 1001-1028. in JSTOR ^ Germany, 2009 p 1005 .mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox-styles .navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow{padding:0.25em 1em;line-height:1.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group{white-space:nowrap;text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{background-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list{line-height:1.5em;border-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list-with-group{text-align:left;border-left-width:2px;border-left-style:solid}.mw-parser-output tr tr>.navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output tr tr>.navbox-group,.mw-parser-output tr tr>.navbox-image,.mw-parser-output tr tr>.navbox-list{border-top:2px solid #fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title{background-color:#ccf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-title{background-color:#ddf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-abovebelow{background-color:#e6e6ff}.mw-parser-output .navbox-even{background-color:#f7f7f7}.mw-parser-output .navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}

Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President of the United States (1963–1969)
37th Vice President of the United States (1961–1963)
U.S. Senator from Texas (1949–1961)
U.S. Representative for TX-10 (1937–1949)

Presidency

1963 inauguration
Let Us Continue
1965 inauguration
Great Society (Model Cities Program)
Architectural Barriers Act
Child Nutrition Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Coinage Act of 1965
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
- Head Start Program
- Job Corps
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Civil Rights Act of 1968
- Fair Housing Act
Food Stamp Act of 1964
Glassboro Summit
Gun Control Act of 1968
Higher Education Act of 1965
- Upward Bound
- TRIO
- Teacher Corps
Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Johnson Doctrine
- Dominican Republic occupation
Medicare
Medicaid
Meritorious Service Medal
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
Non-Discrimination in Federal contracts
- Executive Order 11375
Older Americans Act
Operation CHAOS
Outer Space Treaty
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
Foreign policy
Vietnam War
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
- "Credibility gap"
VISTA
24th Amendment Voting Rights Act of 1965
War on poverty
White House Conference on Civil Rights
Cannabis policy
White House preservation
State of the Union Address, 1966
1968
Cabinet
Judicial appointments
- Supreme Court
- controversies
Johnson desk
Executive Orders
Presidential Proclamations

Life

Early years and career
Operation Texas
Texas Broadcasting Company
Johnson Amendment
Bashir Ahmad

Legacy and
memorials

Bibliography
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Lyndon Baines Johnson Day
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Memorial Grove on the Potomac
U.S. Postage stamp

Elections

United States House of Representatives special elections, 1937
1938 United States House of Representatives elections
1940
1942
1944
1946
United States Senate special elections, 1941
1948 United States Senate elections
1954
1960
Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1960
1964
- campaign
1968
Democratic National Convention 1956
1960
1964
1960 United States presidential election
1964

Public image

Lyndon B. Johnson in popular culture
Daisy advertisement
Johnson cult
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
LBJ (1991 television film)
Path to War (2002 film)
All the Way (2012 play, 2016 film)
Selma (2014 film)
LBJ (2017 film)

Family

Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (wife)
Lynda Bird Johnson Robb (daughter)
Luci Baines Johnson (daughter)
Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. (father)
Sam Houston Johnson (brother)
Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr. (grandfather)
Joseph Wilson Baines (grandfather)
George Washington Baines (great-grandfather)
Chuck Robb (son-in-law)

← John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon →

Category

Bibliographies of presidents of the United States

Washington
J. Adams
Jefferson
Madison
Monroe
J. Q. Adams
Jackson
Van Buren
Lincoln
A. Johnson
Grant
McKinley
T. Roosevelt
Taft
Wilson
Hoover
F. D. Roosevelt
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
L. B. Johnson
Nixon
Carter
Reagan
G. H. W. Bush
Clinton
G. W. Bush
Obama
Trump

Category ·

Commons ·

Author pages Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bibliography_of_Lyndon_B._Johnsonoldid=1075641872"

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Lynden johnson

Accession

Administration

Vice presidency

Judicial appointments

Domestic affairs

Great Society domestic program

Taxation and budget

Civil rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act

Civil Rights Act of 1968

War on Poverty

Education

Medicare and Medicaid

Environment

Immigration

Transportation

Domestic unrest

Anti-Vietnam War movement

Urban riots

Other issues

Cultural initiatives

Space program

Gun control

Tobacco advertising

Foreign affairs

Cold War

Vietnam

Background and Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1965–1966

1967 and the Tet Offensive

Post-Tet Offensive

Middle East

Latin America

Britain and Western Europe

South Asia

List of international trips

Elections during the Johnson presidency

Election of 1964

Mid-term elections of 1966

Election of 1968

Presidential primaries

General election

Historical reputation

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

Foreign policy

Vietnam

Historiography

Primary sources

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968–1969

References

External links

Secondary sources

Biographies

Presidential years

Foreign policy

Vietnam

Historiography

Primary sources

Notes

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