Lyndon B. Johnson

. In Robert A. Caro's 1989 book Means of Ascent, he argued that Johnson had rigged the election not only there but also at least 10,000 ballots in Bexar County alone.

In the federal court case arising from the election, Johnson hired Abe Fortas to represent him. Many of Johnson's lawyers argued among themselves, but Fortas provided clarity in the situation. Fortas knew that if Johnson lost the next appeal and then further appealed that to the Supreme Court of the United States there would not be enough time for him to be placed on the ballot. In a risky proposition, Fortas proposed moving to the "end game", whereby they would purposely lose the appeal by preparing a terrible draft and choosing a judge that they suspected would vote against them. Fortas then appealed Johnson's case to a justice of the Supreme Court. Fortas persuaded Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to judge the case. In dramatic fashion, while simultaneously the boxes in question were being opened and examined, Justice Black ruled to dissolve the federal injunction nullifying Johnson's runoff victory. Johnson went on to win the general election, but the Texas media sardonically nicknamed him "Landslide Lyndon", in reference to his bout with Stevenson. Caro notes that while Johnson first acknowledged the nickname, and sometimes used it, he grew weary of it, and grew angry upon its mention. Fortas was later appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by Johnson.

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

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

Johnson was appointed to the Armed Services Committee, and later in 1950, he helped create the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee. Johnson became its chairman and conducted investigations of defense costs and efficiency. These investigations tended to dig out old forgotten investigations and demand actions that were already being taken by the Truman Administration, although it can be said that the committee's investigations caused the changes. However, Johnson's brilliant handling of the press, the efficiency at which his committee issued new reports, and the fact that he ensured every report was endorsed unanimously by the committee all brought him headlines and national attention.

Senate Democratic leader

Vice Presidency

Order:	37th Vice President
Term of Office:	January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
Preceded by:	Richard Nixon
Succeeded by:	Hubert H. Humphrey
President:	John F. Kennedy
Political party:	Democratic

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

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

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

Presidential campaign

In the 1964 election, LBJ often appealed to the memory of JFK in his electoral campaign

On September 7, 1964 Johnson's campaign managers for the 1964 presidential election broadcast the "Daisy ad." It portrayed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, counting up to ten. Then a baritone voice took over, counted down from ten to zero and a nuclear bomb exploded. The message was that Goldwater meant nuclear death. Although it was soon pulled off the air, the commercial helped escalate the rhetoric of American politics to levels not seen before. Johnson won by a sweeping landslide that defeated many conservative Republican congressmen, giving Johnson a majority that could overcome the Conservative coalition.

Presidency 1963-1969

Policies

Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Alongside Johnson is Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of slain President John F. Kennedy.

Johnson's handling of the investigation into the murder of President Kennedy created a controversy that has continued for over 40 years. The accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was murdered by Jack Ruby within a day after being charged with the crime. Oswald denied the charges against him and claimed he was being framed for the murder. To investigate Kennedy's murder, Johnson created a special panel called the Warren Commission. This panel conducted hearings about the assassination and concluded that Oswald shot the President and did not conspire with anyone.

The Warren Commission's credibility started to collapse when various disturbing facts started to leak out. Further secret panels tried to plug the holes in the Commission's conclusions, until finally the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that President Kennedy was probably assassinated by a conspiracy consisting of Oswald and others.

Because Johnson sealed all the evidence collected by the Dallas police department, no further police investigation was pursued by the local authorities. This action and the secrecy of the Warren Commission led to a very low confidence level in the veracity of the Warren Commission's findings. A more recent government panel called the Assassination Records Review Board was formed by federal legislation to collect and publish the government records that relate to the assassination.

The commission noted in 1998 that Johnson became skeptical of some of the Warren Commission findings. See, Final Report Chapter One footnote 17. [link]

In his first year as President, Johnson faced conflicts with everyone from senators to speechwriters who all wanted to honor Kennedy's legacy but were reluctant to support new propositions by Johnson. Johnson used his famous charm and strong-arm tactics to push through his new policies, although detractors called this abusive bullying. In 1964, upon Johnson's request, Congress passed a tax-reduction law and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in association with the War on Poverty. He nominated civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to the positions of Solicitor General and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first African-American to serve in either capacity. In response to the civil rights movement, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively outlawed most forms of racial segregation. Legend has it that as he put down his pen Johnson told an aide, ''We have lost the South for a generation." [link]

President Johnson signs the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the 1964 election, Johnson won the presidency in his own right with 61 percent of the vote and the widest popular margin in American history—more than 15 million votes. However, 1964 was also the year that Johnson supported the conservative Democratic delegates from Mississippi and denied the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. To appease the MFDP, the convention offered an unsatisfactory compromise, and the MFDP rejected it. In the same year, Johnson lost the popular vote to Republican challenger Barry Goldwater in the Deep South states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, a region that had voted for Democrats since Reconstruction.

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

The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations. Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.

Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken … all of us, all over the world, into a new era …."

Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1964. Johnson's anti-poverty and anti-discrimination programs were met with massive rioting that burned out hundreds of black ghettos. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation but could not achieve law and order.

The other crisis arose from Vietnam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end the communist insurgency and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Vietnam in order to begin negotiations.

Vietnam War

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

Johnson feared that too much focus on Vietnam would distract attention from his Great Society programs. But after the Tet offensive of January 1968, his presidency was dominated by the Vietnam War more than ever. As more American soldiers died there, Johnson's popularity plummeted. College students and others protested, burned draft cards and chanted lines such as, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" By the final year of his presidency, Johnson could not travel anywhere without facing protests.

Then at the end of a March 31 speech, he shocked the nation when he announced he would not run for re-election: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President,"([Text and audio of speech]) just days after a poll announced that a mere 29% of the American Public supported the war. Also 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 Hanoi Government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks.

LBJ wasn't disqualified from running for a second term under the provisions of the 22nd Amendment because he had served less than 24 months of JFK's term. Had he stayed in the 1968 race and won, he would have been the longest-serving president since FDR, at 9 years.

Administration and Cabinet

Official White House portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson and his cabinet in 1968

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Lyndon B. Johnson	1963–1969
Vice President	None	1963–1965
	Hubert H. Humphrey	1965–1969
National Security Advisor	McGeorge Bundy	1963–1966
	Walt Rostow	1966–1969
C.I.A. Director	John McCone	1963–1965
	William Raborn	1965–1966
	Richard M. Helms	1966–1969
F.B.I. Director	J. Edgar Hoover	1963–1969
State	Dean Rusk	1963–1969
Treasury	C. Douglas Dillon	1963–1965
	Henry H. Fowler	1965–1968
	Joseph W. Barr	1968–1969
Defense	Robert S. McNamara	1963–1968
	Clark M. Clifford	1968–1969
Justice	Robert F. Kennedy	1963–1964
	Nicholas deB. Katzenbach	1964–1966
	Ramsey Clark	1966–1969
Postmaster General	John A. Gronouski	1963–1965
	Lawrence F. O'Brien	1965–1968
	W. Marvin Watson	1968–1969
Interior	Stewart L. Udall	1963–1969
Agriculture	Orville L. Freeman	1963–1969
Commerce	Luther H. Hodges	1963–1965
	John T. Connor	1965–1967
	Alexander B. Trowbridge	1967–1968
	Cyrus R. Smith	1968–1969
Labor	W. Willard Wirtz	1963–1967
HEW	Anthony J. Celebrezze	1963–1965
	John W. Gardner	1965–1968
	Wilbur J. Cohen	1968–1969
HUD	Robert Clifton Weaver	1966–1968
	Robert Coldwell Wood	1969
Transportation	Alan Stephenson Boyd	1967–1969

Supreme Court appointments

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

Retirement, death, and honors

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

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

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

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

Johnson was buried that afternoon at his ranch in Texas. The burial service was the first presidential burial to feature a eulogy, and the eulogies were delivered by former Texas Democratic governor John Connally, an LBJ protégé and fellow Texan, and by the minister who officiated the services, Reverend Billy Graham. Anita Bryant closed the services by singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," paying tribute to her friendship with the former President, at his own request. Connally's eulogy gripped millions of viewers around the world, recalling as it did the 1963 Kennedy assassination in which the governor was wounded, an event that elevated Johnson to the presidency. The state funeral, which was the last until Richard Nixon's in 1994, was part of a busy week for the Military District of Washington, which began with Nixon's second inauguration.Elsen, William A., "Ceremonial Group Had Busy 5 Weeks." The Washington Post, January 25, 1973.

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

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

Trivia

• Lyndon Johnson was 6 feet 3 inches (190 cm) tall and weighed about 216 pounds (98 kg), the second tallest President, behind Abraham Lincoln at 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall.
• He was baptized in the Pedernales River as a member of the Disciples of Christ in 1923.
• Johnson was famously frugal. Even as President, White House tapes recorded him asking a photographer to take his family portraits for free, saying he was a very poor man living on a weekly paycheck and had a very great deal of financial debt. In fact Johnson was a multimillionaire, but he still received the photographic portraits gratis. The White House press corps made jokes at his expense regarding his habit of turning off all lights in the White House when the rooms were not in use. Johnson's secretary revealed years later that he would wash and reuse Styrofoam cups. [Caro 2002]
• His favorite soft drink was Fresca, which he drank constantly. Johnson had a small control box installed in the writing desk in the small personal office adjacent to the Oval Office. This control box contained two buttons, marked "Coffee" and "Fresca". Pushing one of these buttons would summon Johnson's military aide bringing the appropriate drink.