There is no U.S. president that I have more mixed feelings about than Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ assumed the presidency in 1963 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was 13 at the time. He would remain president for most of my teenage years. I was approaching the age of 18, which at the time meant conscription, the draft, a possible unwanted tour of Vietnam. LBJ inherited that war but he perpetuated and escalated it. I hated him for it. At protest marches against the war we would chant, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
It took quite awhile for me to appreciate the things that LBJ did. His presidency included more landmark progressive legislation than anyone else I can think of. He signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. During his administration Medicare and Medicaid were created, legislation was passed addressing fair housing, immigration reform, clean air and clean water.
The LBJ Museum and Library on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin addresses the enigma of LBJ, albeit in an ever so gentle way. The war is presented from the viewpoint of the president. More than once I saw the quote, “I can’t win it, and I can’t get out.” It’s the latter part of that sentence than many of us would take issue with.
LBJ did this:
He enabled this:
But then there’s this:
And yet this quote is as appropriate today as it was in 1965:
From start to finish:
The campaigns:
LBJ the cartoon:
off the leash 
a self-made man
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Thanks for this informative post about President Lyndon Johnson. How tragic that his great legacy would always be intertwined with the Vietnam War!
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I loved this post. Just like you , I had mixed feelings about LBJ. I remember feeling happy about his stand on Civil Rights and he was a Southerner, just like my family . I loved his family, in fact my beagle puppy was named after his daughter, Luci Baines. But then there was Vietnam and how can you forget that . He was a very compassionate man, and it’s a shame our politicians today are nothing like him.
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Agreed. He seemed a decent man and considering what we’ve got now, there’s something to be said for that.
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Thanks for the history lesson, Ken. I really had no Modena he did that much for a more progressive society!🙏
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Great post, thank you!
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Informative thnx to share, indianmedia potrate lbj a negative image j.f.k a hero
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That’s true here as well. But many of the ‘New Frontier’ social programs that JFK is associated with were actually enacted under Johnson.In part the perception is a result of the fact that Kennedy was a dynamic, young president while Johnson seemed more of a career politician.
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Thnx 🙂🙂🙏
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Excellent overview of LBJ, Ken. He was incredibly effective as a career politician who knew how to influence a reluctant Congress to support sweeping constructive reforms.
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