Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. After serving a long career in the US Congress, Johnson became the Vice President under John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) and later ascended to the 36th Presidency (1963–1969) after Kennedy's assassination.

Early years

Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1908 in a small farmhouse in a poor area on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Johnson and Rebekah Baines, had four more children: his sisters Rebekah (1910-1978), Josefa (1912-1961) and Lucia (1916-1997) and his brother Sam Houston (1914-1978). Johnson attended public schools and graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924.

In 1927 Johnson enrolled in Texas State University-San Marcos. Even though he participated in debate and campus politics, edited the school newspaper, and spent a year away from his studies teaching school, Johnson somehow managed to graduate in only 312 days.

Vice Presidency

Johnson's success in the Senate led to his name being widely mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. He was Texas' "favorite son" candidate at the party's national convention in 1956. In 1960, Lyndon 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 get Johnson on the ticket to help carry Southern voters.

In November 1960 the Kennedy/Johnson duo beat out Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., by a narrow margin. There were unsubstantiated accusations of vote fraud, especially in Illinois (home of the political machine run by Richard J. Daley) and Lyndon Johnson's home state of Texas.

Upon swearing in, Kennedy appointed Johnson to head the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, which led him to work with blacks and other minorities. During his tenure as Vice President, Johnson also took on some international missions, which gave him limited insights into foreign problems. He also sat on Cabinet and National Security meetings, giving him an insight into the presidency. Kennedy gave Johnson control over all presidential appointments involving Texans.

Johnson was crucially made chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science. When in April 1961 the USSR beat the US 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 would benefit Texas and southern states most directly so steered the recommendation towards a crash program for a manned lunar landing.

Presidency

Johnson was sworn-in as President on Air Force One in Dallas at Love Field Airport after the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. He was sworn in by federal judge Sarah T. Hughes, a very close friend of his family, making him the first president sworn in by a woman.

In his first year, Johnson faced conflicts with everyone from Senators to speechwriters who 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. 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. Johnson also hired Jerri Whittington, the first African-American White House secretary, and appointed Jack Valenti as his "special assistant."

An example of his strong arm tactics was 'The Treatment' this was where he saw people alone in a small adjoining room where he would pull his chair close to the guests and lean forward until his nose was inches away from the visitor's face. Members of Congress who Johnson wanted a vote from looked visibly shaken after their meeting with the President.

In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency in his own right with 61 percent of the vote and the widest popular margin in American history—more than 15,000,000 votes. However, 1964 was also the year that Johnson supported the racist Democratic delegates from Mississippi and denied the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. To appease the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) chaired by Dr. Aaron Henry with the intent of seating a passionate and charismatic leader of the Mississippi Freedom Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, the Democrats at the convention offered the MFDP an unsatisfactory compromise and the MFDP rejected it rather than appear conciliatory in the eyes of their "comrades". 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 the Reconstruction era. The election, though a success for the Democratic Party, marked the beginning of the long transformation of the Democrats' Solid South to a Republican bastion.

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 anti-poverty 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 Vietnam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end 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 initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for re-election (which candidacy was being seriously challenged by other Democrats). He said he was withdrawing as a candidate so he could devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace -- however, there was no significant progress in that direction.

Vietnam War

President Johnson had a dislike for the American war effort in Vietnam, which he had inherited from John Kennedy, but expanded considerably following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (less than 3 weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964 which had nominated Barry Goldwater for president). Though he would often privately curse the war, referring to it as his "bitch mistress," at the same time Johnson believed that America could not afford to look weak in the eyes of the world, and so he escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to 1968, which resulted in thousands of American deaths. At the same time, Johnson was afraid that too much focus on Vietnam would distract attention from his Great Society programs, so the levels of military escalation, while significant, were never enough to make any real headway in the war. Against his wishes, Johnson's presidency was soon dominated by the Vietnam War. As more and more American soldiers and civilians were killed in Vietnam, Johnson's popularity declined, particularly in the face of student protests. During these protests students would often chant the line, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?". In what was termed an October surprise, Johnson announced to the nation on October 31 1968 that he ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1 citing progress with the Paris peace talks.

Personal trivia

Lyndon Johnson was 6 ft 3 1/2 in (192 cm) tall, the second tallest president after Abraham Lincoln at 6 ft 4 in (193 cm).
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 poor man living on a paycheck and had a great deal of debt. In truth, Johnson was quite wealthy, but he did receive the portraits for free. The White House press corps would make 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.
Johnson seemed to crave personal approval. After delivering a major speech on civil rights, he called 32 people, all of whom he knew would greatly approve of his speech, to ask what they thought. All of these people, recorded for posterity in White House tapes, were overwhelmingly complimentary.
At his ranch in Texas, he was fond of taking visitors in the car while driving 90 miles an hour down country roads, drinking scotch from a paper cup.
His favorite soft drink was Fresca, which he drank constantly. He had a soda tap installed in the Oval Office.
Johnson, while using the lavatory, was known to call others in with him and use this forum for conversation.
All other American presidents born in the 20th century were all born after LBJ.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson

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