Lyndon Johnson 36th President of the USA Date of Birth: 27.08.1908 Country: USA

Biography of Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States. He was born near Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1908. Johnson attended school in Johnson City and the Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos. He taught public speaking and debate at Sam Houston High School in Houston.

In 1931, Robert Kleberg, one of the owners of the King Ranch in Texas, ran for Congress in a special election. After winning, he recommended Johnson to be his secretary in Washington. Johnson showed a great interest in understanding the workings of Congress and made contacts with influential politicians. In August 1935, he was appointed the Texas Director of the National Youth Administration. In 1937, Johnson successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 10th congressional district of Texas, where he supported President Roosevelt's New Deal policies. His support caught the attention of the President, who appointed Johnson to influential committees in Congress. In 1941, he launched his first campaign for the Senate but was not successful.

In December 1941, Johnson volunteered for military service and served in the active duty until July 1942, when he was recalled to Washington. He became a member of the House Naval Affairs Committee and in 1947, he joined the Armed Services Committee. Johnson also served on special committees on military policy and atomic energy. In 1948, he ran for the Senate again and won. In the Senate, Johnson became close with influential Democrat Richard Russell from Georgia and earned important appointments in the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Foreign Trade and Interstate Commerce. In 1951, he was elected as the assistant leader and in 1955, as the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1954.

In 1960, Johnson decided to run for President as a candidate of the Democratic Party. Although he suffered a significant defeat in the primaries, he was chosen by John F. Kennedy as his running mate. Johnson surprised many by accepting the offer. Kennedy's victory in the close election was attributed to Johnson's presence on the ticket. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson took the oath of office on the plane at the Dallas airport. With his experience in Washington, Johnson acted quickly and decisively. Within five days, he urged Congress to pass legislation that was part of Kennedy's "New Frontier" program. Congress approved tax cuts of $11 billion and the Civil Rights Act. In his State of the Union address, Johnson introduced his own legislative initiative, the War on Poverty. Congress allocated $948 million to implement this program.

Johnson also showed determination in international affairs. He faced anti-American uprising in Panama in January 1964 and resolved the crisis by personally reaching out to the President of Panama and promising to review the situation regarding the Panama Canal. In February, Fidel Castro cut off the water supply to the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Instead of sending troops, Johnson ordered water to be shipped by boat from the U.S. He also took measures to cool down the situation caused by the Turkish threat of invasion in Cyprus. The main event of his presidency was the Vietnam War. As Vice President, Johnson was against sending American troops to Vietnam. However, by mid-1964, the communist forces in Vietnam were close to victory. In July, Johnson sent an additional 5,000 troops to Vietnam. In August, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin near the coast of North Vietnam. Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes and obtained congressional support for further action in Southeast Asia.

In August 1964, Johnson was nominated as the Democratic candidate for President. He chose Senator Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota as his running mate in the election against Republican candidates, Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona and Congressman William E. Miller from New York. On November 3, Johnson won the election by a record-breaking margin of 15,951,000 votes. This victory increased the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives by 38 seats and added two seats to the Democratic majority in the Senate. In 1965, Johnson introduced twice as many bills as in 1964, and Congress approved two-thirds of them, including the Medicare program, which provided medical assistance to the elderly and those in need, record-breaking appropriations of $4 billion for education, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protected the rights of African Americans, and a more liberal immigration law. Congress also approved the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (and a year later, the Department of Transportation). In 1966, Johnson achieved the passage of measures to create a "teacher corps," provide housing subsidies to needy families, establish "model cities" programs, combat water and air pollution, build improved highways, increase social security payments, and implement new measures in the fields of medical and vocational rehabilitation. As the first Southerner in the White House since the days of Andrew Johnson, the president emphasized his commitment to civil rights by appointing African Americans to his Cabinet, the Supreme Court, and the Federal Reserve Board.

However, the Vietnam War and the widespread civil unrest among African Americans undermined public trust in Johnson. In February 1965, after Viet Cong raids on American military bases, the president authorized bombings of North Vietnam. Instead of admitting the escalation, Johnson claimed that the bombings were merely a response to Viet Cong actions. In April 1965, he sent troops to the Dominican Republic to prevent a communist takeover. In the summer of 1965, Johnson made the decision to significantly increase the number of ground troops in Vietnam, sending over 100,000 additional soldiers. The number of U.S. forces in Vietnam grew from 300 "advisors" during the Eisenhower administration to 540,000 troops. Voices of opposition to the war grew louder, arguing that the resources needed for the war were being taken away from domestic issues. The protests intensified after the six-day riots in August 1965, which resulted in the death of 35 people in Watts, a predominantly African American neighborhood in Los Angeles.

In his 1966 State of the Union address, the president insisted that a prosperous American economy could provide guns for Vietnam and butter for the Great Society. However, by the start of the fall elections, Johnson's popularity had plummeted to the point where many Democratic candidates feared his involvement in their campaigns. In November, Democrats lost 47 seats in the House of Representatives and 3 seats in the Senate, although they still controlled both chambers of Congress. In January 1967, when the president addressed the new and less compliant Congress, he requested temporary 6% tax increase to finance war expenses and reduce inflation. For a year and a half, Johnson failed to achieve this, and then had to settle for a 10% surcharge but agreed to an overall reduction of federal spending by $6 billion.

The summer of 1967 was marked by the largest African American uprisings. In Newark, New Jersey, 26 people died, and in Detroit, 40 were killed; many were injured and left homeless.

In June, Johnson had a high-level meeting with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey, which paved the way for the signing of the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a goal that the president had been pursuing for three years. The meeting with Kosygin boosted Johnson's approval ratings, but within two months, his popularity dropped to the lowest level of his presidency - 39%. After Senator Eugene McCarthy from Minnesota announced his candidacy for the presidency on November 30, 1967, opposition to Johnson's renomination intensified.

On January 23, North Korea seized the American intelligence ship USS Pueblo with a crew of 82. This incident sparked new criticism from both the right and the left. A week later, about 50,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers launched surprise attacks on Saigon and 30 provincial centers in South Vietnam, even infiltrating the U.S. embassy. These attacks raised serious doubts about the reports of progress in Vietnam from American officials and military leaders. As a result of the attacks, General William Westmoreland, the commander of American forces in Vietnam, requested an additional 206,000 troops. On March 31, 1968, the president announced that he had ordered the bombing of 90% of North Vietnam to stop. He proposed that Vietnam take a reciprocal step and agree to a peace conference. Preliminary talks did not begin until May 10 in Paris and did not address serious issues until October 31, when Johnson halted all bombing north of the 17th parallel. In his address to the nation on March 31, the president also announced that he would not seek re-election.

On April 4, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, leading to riots in 125 cities across the country, particularly in the capital. On June 5, immediately after winning the California primary, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. In August, clashes between Chicago police and Johnson's opponents occurred at the Democratic National Convention, resulting in the beating and arrest of many bystanders. During the last months of his presidency, Johnson continued his attempts to make progress in easing tensions with the Soviet Union. He hoped to visit Moscow to begin negotiations on limiting anti-ballistic missile systems. However, on August 20, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia with 200,000 troops, and the U.S.-Soviet talks were postponed indefinitely, while the U.S. Senate delayed the ratification of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Immediately after Richard Nixon's inauguration on January 20, Johnson returned to his ranch in Texas, where he wrote memoirs and occasionally lectured at the University of Texas. Johnson passed away in San Antonio, Texas on January 22, 1973.