Lyndon B Johnson and His presidency

Devin Gaylord

1/2/18

Mr. Gannon

APUSH Term paper

Block 4
Lyndon B Johnson was the 36th President of The United States. He ran as John F. Kennedy’s

vice president after JFK won the election in 1961. LBJ was the vice president for 2 years and

then in 1963 when JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, LBJ was sworn in and was

committed to building “ A Great Society”1. LBJ was one of the youngest Senate majority leaders

to ever take office. Johnson took the office in 1963 with the mentality to finish what JFK wanted

done before he was killed. That included passing a new civil rights bill and a major tax cut to be

passed through congress. Johnson again wanted to make sure that the “Great Society” that JFK

wanted so badly was put into full effect to ensure that it would work. Following his 1963

swearing in, in 1964 he ran for reelection against Barry Goldwater. LBJ had a lot of positive

support being the democratic incumbent following JFK which is the reason he had so much

support. Johnson won the election with a 486-52 electoral college win. Johnson wasn’t the most

impressive president but because of Kennedy’s support and him being the vice president he

basically was given the presidency. His support of being a democratic southerner from Texas

really helped him as well.

There were a few problems during his presidency that really reflects his quote of “We are not

going to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys

ought to be doing themselves. This quote is referring to the Vietnam War and how LBJ wasn't

sure on how to approach the war and wasn’t the best to be put in that spot. Lyndon Johnson's
1
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/lyndon-b-johnson/
quote was a reflection of his presidency and that even though he did have a good popularity

rating he wasn’t the best candidate for the presidency. The main point is that there was many

other problems in The United States that should’ve been first priority over a foreign war. The

civil rights movement was booming at this time and even though many people liked the idea of

the Vietnam war. because of the policy of containment to stop the Russians from spreading

communism across the world. 2

Lyndon Johnson campaigned in 1964 on a peaceful platform and had no intentions on going to

war in Vietnam. He felt that we shouldn’t get tied down with Asian conflicts unless the situation

grows and doesn’t settle down. In 1965 he did send troops into Vietnam as part of Rolling

Thunder. Lyndon Johnson didn’t feel that the Vietnam war was necessary. Most of Johnson's

decisions and bills proposed were mostly proposed off of things that Kennedy wanted done

during his presidency. America liked the idea of Vietnam in the beginning when Johnson had

sent the troops to start in 1965, the main problem with this though was he had said that they

wouldn’t go to war with in Vietnam. This started to cause distrust in the United States

government after the government started covering up things about the war and what was actually

happening in Vietnam. This problem continued even after Johnson onto Nixon with the distrust

in the government. Even though he ended up getting the U.S. out of the war he got into watergate

which is a totally different topic. This though overall shows how the government started to

become untrustworthy.

The civil rights movement was the main focus point on Johnson’s agenda after Kennedy died in

office. This had to be the main emphasis for Johnson because everything else in his presidency
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https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/foreign-affairs
wasn’t going good for him. The civil rights act passed in 1964 got rid of segregation for good

and gave the blacks the most rights they’ve ever had.3. The most important thing that came from

this was the popularity that Lyndon Johnson gained from the passage of this bill. The nation even

the south somewhat agreed with the bill that was passed. Johnson overcame the disadvantage

that Kennedy had of no southern support when he first proposed the bill in 1961. The passage of

this bill was pretty sketchy due to the fact of how Johnson acted towards the voters of the bill.

Johnson used his handshake technique to get close to people and intimidate them into voting.

This was used by Johnson in many different scenarios and is really the reason why he got

“support” and bills were passed. Johnson during his presidency was indeed a good president

during some points. He was the starter of the medicaid Medicare4 and head start programs which

were a big cause of economic growth and prosperity during Johnson’s time. Of all the major

things in Johnson’s presidency the worst part was his lying about the Vietnam war and covering

it up making it seem like the war was a good idea. Johnson just didn’t wanna be the president

remembered for letting Asia get taken over by communism which would’ve made him seem like

the worst president. Since he did cover up Vietnam and make it seem like it was a good war they

should fight it wasn’t and when Americans found out that Johnson was covering the war up they

weren’t happy. This situation caused 2 problems for Johnson and the United States government,

one being that the government couldn’t be trusted anymore because they obviously lied to nearly

all of the citizens about the war just so Johnson could’ve attempted to get a good reputation and

have a chance at re election and another presidency. This gave the citizens all the reason to gain

distrust in the government because they weren’t being given the truth about something the

president swore he said was a good thing for the economy and the United States as a overall.

3
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
4
http://mentalfloss.com/article/18463/lbj-president-who-marked-his-territory
Lyndon Johnson vowed he would be the greatest president to ever serve. He figured that since he

was the predecessor to JFK and he had all the credit from Kennedy’s plans and bills.

Lyndon Johnson was one of the shadiest presidents that has served to that point in time. (Nixon

was the shadiest in my opinion). Johnson’s plan for great reform was well recognized in the face

of the American people they felt security in the president because he vowed that communism

would not spread following the presidents in front of him. The United States was in a big worry

about communism spreading throughout the world after and during the Cold War. They feared

the domino theory that if one country falls to communism that countries around the same area

would fall to communism as well. Winston gave his iron curtain speech during this time which

really emphasizes the fact that the Russians could not push communism on Southern European

countries because there was an iron curtain over Europe starting in Germany and going north

was the communist countries that had been overtaken by the Russians.

Now as you can see, Lyndon B Johnson the 36th president of the United States was a good and

somewhat successful president but he did have a very shady and negative side to him. The most

important thing to remember about him was the start of Medicaid, Medicare and the programs

that would help the country better off since these programs were long Time programs. The

importance of these were they were the first medical care plans that entered the United States

Congress to be passed ever. Johnson over all had the high approval rating because of Kennedy

which is a given, but he did keep the high rating through his first 2 years of the presidency which

did end up getting him re-elected. After his re election if went downhill for him from there as he

was accused of tampering voting, the Vietnam war cover up became known which lowered his
approval rating a lot, and finally with the distrust in the government basically ruined his whole

chance of running for re-election again.

History.com Staff. "Civil Rights Act." History.com. 2010. Accessed January 02, 2018.

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act.

"LBJ: The President Who Marked His Territory." Mental Floss. April 18, 2008. Accessed

January 02, 2018. http://mentalfloss.com/article/18463/lbj-president-who-marked-his-territory

Lyndon B. Johnson: 1963-1969. New York: KTO Pr, 1978

"Lyndon B. Johnson: Foreign Affairs." Miller Center. July 18, 2017. Accessed January 02, 2018.

https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/foreign-affairs.

"Lyndon B. Johnson." The White House. Accessed January 02, 2018.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/lyndon-b-johnson/
Schuman, Michael. Lyndon B. Johnson. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1998