Lyndon Johnson Biography - Presidency

Under the tragic events of the assassination of one of America’s most beloved Presidents, JFK, Johnson was eager to start his presidency efficiently, and well, careful to not make any mistakes or cause any more distress to an already distressed American public after the frightful events of November 22nd. Johnson found it integral to keep many of the people that Kennedy appointed to work within his community at the White House, which may have helped the American public cope with the death of their President, and to secure the minds of the political society and its members.

While Johnson did not approve of Kennedy’s tactics when not conferring with him over important international issues, he still considered Kennedy as a great political figure, and was keen to do justice to his memory and investigation of his untimely death.

Johnson started up a board of investigators who worked under the title of the Warren Commission, who constantly involved themselves in the investigation and the interrogation of any witness or suspect within the range of Kennedy’s assassination. The Commission decided that it was indeed Lee Harvey Oswald who committed the act of assassination, however many of the public did not agree with the investigation and many conspiracy theories have surfaced for decades after the unfortunate event.

In 1964, Johnson was faced with another presidential election which he won by a landslide of votes. It has been suggested that this was due to the fact with how Johnson faced the untimely death of JFK, and his keep with continuity and not ‘disturbing the peace’ within the already well oiled political community in Washington.

His campaign often reminisced to the time of JFK, and used his image, some might agree far too often to remain tasteful, in order to gain popularity, and remind America of being the Vice President and JFK’s right hand man.

His campaigns also abused the fact that during this time many Americans were terrified of the prospect of nuclear war. Many of the ads submitted to television stations were considered too controversial, and too frightening to many of the public.

People against Johnson’s ideologies often theorized that he was using the threat of Nuclear War and his apparent mending of foreign situations, into scaring people into voting for him.

This was one of the many times that people have suggested that Johnson was forceful and dominating in order to get to his position.

During his election campaign, there were many black American activists that requested that there be seats available to the black members of politics, and the voters in America. Not being a man with any reason to be against the African Americans, he offered two seats which eventually lead to losing white voters in the pro-black-slavery areas like Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi.

This was not the only time Lyndon Johnson had lead his support to the black community. He also nominated Thurgood Marshall for the position of the African American Associate Justice, of the Supreme Court. Such an act earned Johnson a great position in many people’s hearts for helping and encouraging Americans to overcome their prejudices and treat everyone like equals.

Johnson soon began to employ his previous passions towards the revitalisation of the American health care system, and employing the poor and improving the living conditions of those unfortunate enough to live below the poverty line within America.

And so Johnson’s Great Society plan was brought to life, in which he initiated the act of creating a Medicare system for the elderly, and the Medicaid system for the poor. These two systems improved living conditions greatly.

Also a part of the Great Society policy, was to improve education and help eradicate the lack of education leading to the lack of appropriate health care and poor living conditions.

Beautification of the land and preservation of important areas were part of the platform, and conversely urban renewal which revived the old and desolate areas which were once populated into thriving high density living areas.

Despite the great work that Lyndon Johnson was doing for the entire community, he also had a very defense like agenda, in the sense he was still concerned with national security and the situation that was escalating in Vietnam.

During his time as President, Johnson began to increase the number of soldiers in Vietnam from a few thousand, to half a million.

Such an act caused public backlash among the many citizens against the Vietnam War, and a public outcry for unnecessarily taking away soldiers that could be of use in other areas. Due to the implication of draft cards, the act of being sent to Vietnam was compulsory unless in the case of a medical implication.

Many of the people drafted were in fact students, of a young age and incredible intelligence, which was then wasted on the casualties of the Vietnam War.

Many soldiers came back severely injured, many of which claimed that the injuries were not of necessary cause, in the sense that there were already enough soldiers fighting the battle in Vietnam.

Due to such allegations, Johnson’s popularity began to decline and the numbers of supporters were beginning to grow sparse.

The Democratic Party had started to split into several groups concerned with different policies and ideas, and under such pressure no member wished to run against the President in 1968, due to not wanting to gain unfavourable mention. Due to the different sections, each of the sections began to dislike the other ones, effectively splitting up the party to completely different other ideologies.

Due to the stress caused by the turmoil evident in the Democratic Party, he decided to not run for election, as declared on the 31st of March 1968. Richard Nixon was his successor whose term was short lived due to many controversies evident.

Johnson later lived out the last few years of his life in his hometown Stonewall with his family, where he later died from heart disease, after suffering numerous heart attacks previously.

While Johnson may have been considered a fantastic president for the amount of work he did for the community, in terms of creating Medicare and providing help and education for people below the poverty line he may also be considered less than adequate after failing to see the need to keep American troops in America, and ending the unnecessary blood shed that continued on for far too long in Vietnam.

A strong and powerful president, Lyndon Johnson will be remembered for his dominating personality, but his ability to care for the community when they’re in need.