Lyndon Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1901 to Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines Johnson. The nearby town was named after the Johnson family because of the family’s successful business of farming and ranching, but then his father lost the farm due to financial difficulties when Lyndon was in his teenage years. When he went to Southwest Texas State Teachers College, he participated in debates and campus politics. His work for minorities began in 1928 when he became a teacher, and his political ambitions had already taken form. He had a strong sense of justice and valued education for minorities, especially for Mexicans and black people, recalling them to be ‘lashed by prejudice’ and ‘buried half-alive in illiteracy’, he believed their only way out was by education, by bribing and cajoling his pupils, he was adored by them. Lyndon won an appointment as legislative secretary to Richard Kleberg, a Texas democratic congressman, and moved to Washington DC, building a network of congressmen, lobbyists and other types of people, including President Franklin Roosevelt, to learn more about the political process. When he went back to his home state, he became the Texas director of the National Youth Administration (NYA), a program that helps youngsters find jobs or volunteer work during the great depression.
His political career took off when he was elected to the US house of representatives in 1937, and was re-elected 5 times after that because of his intellectuality and hard work. He also joined the military once the US entered WW2 to serve as a lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war, he was elected to the US senate and became the youngest person ever to serve as minority leader of the Senate. His ability to unite his party behind important legislation made him an important figure in Washington DC. |
Johnson was overwhelmed by John F Kennedy’s energy and youth, and Kennedy realized when he was nominated for president, that he needed support from southern democrats who backed up Lyndon Johnson.
Johnson was then invited to be vice president to John F Kennedy as his running mate, and they formed a very strong friendship, which attracted southern democrats to vote for Kennedy and led Kennedy to victory. But at the time that Kennedy was shot and killed, the future POTUS became president later that day aboard Air force one, and promised the grieving nation that he will make Kennedy’s vision a reality. He was devastated by the event, and was recalled to have ‘changed into a completely different person’. In office, he created programs specifically built for minorities, to help eliminate things like unemployment and discrimination. He created the Medicare and Medicaid programs, thanks to his own ambitious legislative. He also created new programmes that focus on education, crime and air & water pollution. He signed the historical documents of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and Voting Rights Act in 1965, whilst aiming to reach his vision for the country, he proved to everyone that he had a strong sense of justice and improved the lives of millions of americans while also benefitting the economy. |
While his presidential years were striking, his late failure after his loss in the Vietnam war swallowed his reputation and damaged it. Like other past presidents, he wanted to prevent North Vietnamese communists from taking over the southern government of Vietnam, which was supported by the U.S, because of his belief that the national security of his country depended on containing the spread of communism around the world. Him, alongside Robert Mcnamara, an american business executive whose major role was also his involvement in the cold war, strategized and analyzed plans, and with the Mcnamara’s speciality, they were able to determine the efficiency of fighting, like knowing how to maximize the use of weapons.
In a recorded phone call, Mcnamara is heard to have allegedly wanted to return the troops back to the US, while Lyndon Johnson was disagreeing and thought his idea was ridiculous, Robert then changed his idea and agreed with Lyndon. And as part of Johnson’s effort, he escalated the number of US military troops in Vietnam, contradicting Robert Mcnamara’s first proposal. The number of troops changed from 16000 to 500000 since 1963, but that did not change the difficult climate of the war. The north Vietnamese and the National liberation Front kept winning, even after all of Johnson’s efforts. He was highly criticized for his decision to continue the U.S.’s involvement in the war, which is one of the reasons why he didn’t seek a second term as president. The conflict in Vietnam became worse as time passed, and he didn’t gain anything but anger and frustration from it, hence, he knew that he would not be able to achieve what he promised for the american people. |
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