| History By Day |
| Lyndon B. Johnson |
| History by Day - Copyright 2009 |
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Johnson was born in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped
settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest
Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned
compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent.
In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal
platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor, whom he had
married in 1934.
During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a
Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the
Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the
following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained
passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures.
In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F. Kennedy's running mate, was elected Vice
President. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as
President.
First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time
of his death--a new civil rights bill and a tax cut. Next he urged the Nation "to build a great
society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor." In
1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular
margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes.
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 delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times
augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations. Millions of elderly
people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.
Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had
championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December
1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new
era. . . . "
Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the
beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black
ghettos troubled the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against
segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution.
The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end Communist aggression
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 Viet Nam in order to initiate
negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for
re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for
peace.
When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them successful, but
died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22nd, 1973.
Born on August 27th, 1908, Lyndon
B. Johnson was the 36th President
of the United States.
"A Great Society" for the American
people and their fellow men
elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon
B. Johnson. In his first years of
office he obtained passage of one
of the most extensive legislative
programs in the Nation's history.
Maintaining collective security, he
carried on the rapidly growing
struggle to restrain Communist
encroachment in Viet Nam.
B. Johnson was the 36th President
of the United States.
"A Great Society" for the American
people and their fellow men
elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon
B. Johnson. In his first years of
office he obtained passage of one
of the most extensive legislative
programs in the Nation's history.
Maintaining collective security, he
carried on the rapidly growing
struggle to restrain Communist
encroachment in Viet Nam.