Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Devin Gaylord
1/2/18
Mr. Gannon
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
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
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
2
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
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
"Lyndon B. Johnson: Foreign Affairs." Miller Center. July 18, 2017. Accessed January 02, 2018.
https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/foreign-affairs.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/lyndon-b-johnson/
Schuman, Michael. Lyndon B. Johnson. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1998