LBJ: His Life and Times

Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, just a little ways away from Johnson City in Central Texas. As Johnson grew up, he felt some of the effects of rural poverty. He attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University – San Marcos), and Johnson sometimes taught students of Mexican descent, teaching him compassion for the less fortunate.

In 1934, Johnson married his wife, the former Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, whom would help him on his 1937 campaign for the House of Representatives. His campaign was successful on his New Deal platform.

During a brief time as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II, Johnson won a Silver Star in the South Pacific. He was later elected to Senate after six terms in the House in 1948, and in 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader. In 1954, when the Democrats had won control, Johnson became the youngest Majority Leader. Dwight D. Eisenhower even worked closely with Johnson due to his rare skills.

John F. Kennedy chose Johnson as his running mate for the presidential election of 1960. Johnson became the Vice President when he and Kennedy won the election, and was sworn into office as President in 1963 when Kennedy was assassinated.

After Kennedy had been assassinated, Johnson’s first priority was to get the bills passed that Kennedy had left behind or that had been unable have been passed, such as a new civil rights bill and tax cut. Once he had achieved some of these tasks, he began focusing on creating “A Great Society.” In 1964, Johnson won the presidential election with 61 percent and by the largest popular vote margin in American history. The margin was over 15,000,000 votes. In January 1965, Johnson made The Great Society his main priority. With The Great Society, there would be aid to education, attack on disease, urban renewal, civil rights laws, and aid for the poor and underdeveloped communities. He was able to get Congress to pass many of his laws by using the name of John F. Kennedy. Congress would sometimes make a change or add to the laws however. Many elderly people found help in the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.

With Johnson as President, the U.S. made great strides toward a better country. The country made amazing headway in the exploration of space with Johnson supporting the NASA program from the very beginning. Despite the great achievements that were being accomplished, two major crises were tearing the country apart. Even though Johnson had been able to get anti-poverty and anti-discrimination programs started, unrest and riots in black ghettos troubled the nation. He managed to do everything that he could against segregation and to keep order in the U.S., but there was not an early solution to help the troubled country. The other crisis was the war in Vietnam. Johnson put forth the effort to stop all Communist aggression and to end the fighting, but it continued. By 1968, he had limited the bombings of North Vietnam in hope to begin peace negotiations because of the large controversy about the war back in the States. Johnson also withdrew as a candidate for the presidential election in 1968 to solely search for peace. Nixon would become president the following term.

After Johnson left office, peace talks were well on there way. He would not live to see them be successful and end the war though because on January 22, 1973, Johnson died of a severe heart attack at his ranch in Texas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d_24rNoPDU

Here is the website that the information above is from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/LyndonJohnson

Watch the video of Johnson’s inauguration and tell me what part you found most moving and why? In addition, what do you think was the best thing that Johnson did while he was in office? Explain your reasoning.

Tim Tavenner
Period 4