The attitude to the figure of Lyndon Johnson in American and world history is ambiguous. Some believe that he was a great man and an outstanding politician, while others see the thirty-sixth president of the United States as a power-obsessed figure who adapts to any circumstances. Kennedy's successor found it difficult to get rid of constant comparisons, but Lyndon Johnson’s domestic policies helped boost his ranking. All spoiled relations in the foreign arena.
Childhood and youth
Lyndon B. Johnson was born in late August 1908 in Texas. Samuel Johnson, Jr., Lyndon's father, was engaged in farming, and his mother, Rebecca Baines, built a journalistic career before her marriage, but left the profession to raise children. Lyndon B. Johnson often spoke of the hardships he had to endure in his childhood. This was a clear exaggeration, since the family was not in poverty. However, the parents who raised five children had to count every cent. When Lyndon grew up, they took several loans so that his son could get an education at a teacher training college.
During his studies, the future politician showed his abilities in practice in the city of Cotull. Success in the segregation school of a small Texas town marked the beginning of his successful career in politics. The young teacher coped well with his duties, which attracted the attention of the administration and leaders. When the owner of a large ranch and MP Richard Kleber in 1931 was looking for a secretary to work in the capital, he drew attention to the energetic Johnson.
The beginning of a political career
After serving two years as congressional secretary, Lyndon Johnson was appointed Texas State Youth Administration Commissioner. He was elected to the House of Representatives from the state’s tenth constituency and was appointed to the Congress Committee. So Lyndon B. Johnson became an active supporter of the announced New Deal. Before World War II, he assisted Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in resettlement to the United States of America.
Lyndon Johnson entered his first election race in 1941. Pretended to a post in the Senate. He was supported by Roosevelt, but Johnson finished second among twenty-nine candidates. The following year, the young politician was appointed to the House of Representatives Committee on Navy Affairs, and in 1947 became a member of the Arms Committee. Lyndon Johnson participated in the work of the special group on the conduct of military policy.
In the Senate, Johnson became close to the influential Democrat R. Russell of Georgia. As a result, he received two posts: he was appointed to the committee on trade (external and interstate) and to the committee on armaments. In 1951, he was elected deputy party leader, in 1955, he became its head. In 1954, he was re-elected to the Senate.
A few years later, Lyndon Johnson decided to fight for the post of president of the party. Active support was provided to him by Harold Hunt. A few days before the national convocation, Johnson formally nominated himself. In the first round, he suffered a serious defeat, and then lost to John F. Kennedy and was appointed vice president in 1960.
Tragic entry
On Friday, November 22, 1963, the thirty-fifth president of the United States was mortally wounded from a rifle when Jacqueline and his wife rode in a motorcade during a visit to Dallas to prepare for the next presidential election. The first bullet hit John F. Kennedy’s back, passing through the neck, as well as through John Connally’s right wrist and left thigh, sitting in front. The second bullet hit the president in the head, making an exit hole of a sufficiently large size (parts of the brain scattered around the cabin).
After the death of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson automatically became president. An interesting fact: from the moment Kennedy died until Johnson took office, only a few hours passed. He took the oath on board the president's plane at Dallas airport before flying to the capital and immediately took up his new duties.
In the famous photo from the oath of Lyndon Johnson, three women are surrounded. To the right is the widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, she remained in her fateful pink suit, stained with blood. Her right glove hardened from her husband’s blood. To the left of the president is his own wife, nicknamed Lady Bird. Judge Sarah Hughes is standing in front of him with a Bible in his hand. She became the only person to take the oath of office of the president.
Presidency
Lyndon Johnson began his presidency with a speech after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He announced gloomy US crime statistics. Johnson said that since 1885, each of the three presidents of the United States has been assassinated, and one in five has been killed. The message to Congress said that almost every thirty minutes the country committed one rape, every five minutes - a robbery, every minute - a car theft, every twenty-eight seconds - one theft. The state’s material losses from crime amount to $ 27 billion a year.
In the 1964 election, Lyndon Johnson was by far elected President of the United States. This has not happened since the victory of James Monroe in the presidential election in 1820. At the same time, the support of the Democratic Party in the South - white, dissatisfied with the abolition of segregation - voted for the first time in the last century for Republican Barry Goldwater. Goldwater, with his extreme right-wing views, seemed to the Americans as a threat to peace, which only played into Johnson's favor.
Domestic policy
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson began his post by strengthening social policies and improving the lives of ordinary Americans. In the first official statement from the government on November 8, 1964, he announced the start of the war on poverty. The Great Society course included a series of serious social reforms aimed at eliminating racial segregation and poverty. The program promised profound changes in medical care and education systems, the solution of transport problems and other important changes.
The importance of Lyndon Johnson's reforms in domestic politics cannot be argued even by his ardent opponents. Civilians of the South colored law made it possible to vote regardless of gender. Health insurance and supplementary benefits were established, and social insurance payments and subsidies to low-income families increased. Active measures were taken to combat water and air pollution, road works were widely deployed.
Later, the Great Society construction program was closed due to US intervention in the Vietnam War. At this time, the aggravation of problems related to the rights of blacks began. In 1965, there was riot in Los Angeles that killed thirty-five people. Two years later, the largest performances of the African American population took place. In the state of New Jersey twenty-six people were killed, in Detroit (Michigan) - forty. In 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, black riots broke out.
Claudia Johnson, the first lady of the United States, during the presidency of her husband was actively involved in urban improvement and conservation of the state’s natural resources. After the death of her husband, she took up entrepreneurship.
Johnson's foreign policy
The main event in the foreign policy arena during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson was the fighting in Vietnam. The United States supported the government of South Vietnam in the fight against communist guerrillas, supported by the northern part of the country. In late summer 1964, the president ordered attacks on North Vietnam to prevent further aggression in southeast Asia.
In 1964, the US government overthrew the ugly regime of Juan Goulart in Brazil. The following year, within the framework of the Johnson Doctrine, US troops were sent to the Dominican Republic. The president justified the intervention by saying that the Communists tried to control the movement of the rebels. Then it was decided to increase the American contingent in Vietnam to 540 thousand soldiers (under Kennedy there were 20 thousand).
In the summer of 1967, a diplomatic meeting was held between Johnson and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union A. Kosygin in New Jersey. The following year, the capture of an American reconnaissance ship with a crew of eighty-two people off the coast of the DPRK took place. A week later, partisans simultaneously attacked cities and important sites in South Vietnam. The largest city of Hue was captured, partisans infiltrated the territory of the American embassy. This attack called into question the reports of Americans on the successes achieved in Vietnam. The commander of the American troops asked to send an additional 206 thousand troops to Vietnam.
1968 election
Because of his low rating among the population, Johnson did not run for office in the 1968 election. Robert Kennedy, who was killed in June of that year, could be nominated from the Democratic Party. Another candidate was not nominated - Eugene McCarthy. Democrats nominated Humphrey, but Republican Richard Nixon won. After Nixon's inauguration, Johnson went to his own ranch in Texas.
After the presidency
After the presidency, Lyndon Johnson resigned from politics, wrote memoirs, and occasionally gave lectures to students at the University of Texas. In 1972, he sharply criticized the anti-war Democratic candidate George McGovern, although he had previously supported politics.
The thirty-sixth president died on January 21, 1973 in his hometown. The cause of Lyndon Johnson's death was a heart attack. Johnson's widow, better known as Lady Bird, passed away in 2007. US President Lyndon Johnson's birthday is declared festive in Texas, but government agencies work, and private entrepreneurs can choose whether to give employees an extra day off.
