Johnson Presidency example essay topic

"The President of the United States is dead". These are the words which rocked the world, and the words which propelled Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Presidency after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Indeed, after the assassination of the "Prince of America" the most powerful position in America was "transferred to this "conservative" Texan, this master, political manipulator, peerless "boss of the Senate". Truly, Johnson was an exceptional President, and the time was right for a man of his political views to make an appearance in American politics. Unfortunately, to be the President of the United States, one must possess not only incredible domestic governing skills, which Lyndon Johnson did possess, one must also possess the ability to interact with foreign nations, which Johnson was unable to do on the most basic levels. Johnson's Presidency was one of unprecedented social growth, and unbearable national embarrassment from a foreign relations viewpoint.

Johnson was born in the small town of Stonewall, Texas in 1908 to a poverty stricken family, as his father had failed to make a profit on their small farm, despite early success. After he completed school, he drifted around doing odd jobs as his grades were not high enough to secure a place for him in College, but he did return to Southwestern State Teachers College in 1927. He taught for a short time, but his true ambition lie in politics, and he ran for Congress when he was 28 and won by aligning himself 100% with Roosevelt. He held this position until 1948 when he was elected to the US Senate. He held various positions as a Senator until in 1960 he was elected Vice President of the United States with John F. Kennedy as President in one of the closest Presidential races in history. Then, on November 22, 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th President of the United States due to JFK's assassination.

Johnson's time in the spotlight had come. Not everyone believed that he could do the job, and the outlook of the nation as a whole was one of disbelief, indeed "not only had Camelot (which is what people often called Kennedy's Presidency) dissolved, but Mordred was in command" The entire first few months of his Presidency were overshadowed by the simple fact that "He wasn't Kennedy", and he could never replace the man that America, indeed the world, had fallen in love with. His first few months in office were overshadowed by Kennedy. While campaigning for social reform, he was visiting an Appalachian family, and while leaving their home he "noticed two pictures on the wall. One was Jesus Christ on the cross. The other was John Kennedy.

I felt as if I'd been slapped in the face". In his own words, he states his dislike of the way he "acquired" the Presidency, "I always felt sorry for Harry Truman and the way he got the Presidency, but at least his man wasn't murdered". However, loved or not, Johnson had a job to do, and he intended to do it the best he could. His primary focus of his early Presidency, indeed his entire Presidency, was the focus on Domestic problems first and foremost.

His first real objective as President came into light during a January 8, 1964 State of the Union Address, when he announced that his administration, "declares unconditional war on poverty in America" This was to be one of the greatest accomplishments that the Johnson Presidency would ever achieve - as Johnson would dedicate millions of dollars and a huge effort to raising the over all standard of living for lower class Americans. There is much speculation as to why Johnson was such a crusader for the improvement of social welfare, but most place it on the fact that it was because he knew the hardships of growing up poor that he wanted to prevent other people from dealing with poverty the way he had to. To aid in his fight against poverty, he created a new agency called the Office of Economic Opportunity, or the OEO. On March 16, 1964, Johnson stated in a message to Congress that the OEO would "direct and coordinate youth programs, community action programs, antipoverty programs in rural areas, small business incentive loans, and work experience programs in an effort to alleviate poverty" as well, provide "aid to children in need, aid to migratory workers, and job training for about four hundred thousand disadvantaged young men" His political savvy, and his own self confidence, can be clearly seen in the fact that when his bill was passed (which it did on August 7, 1964) he had placed the cost of these programs and the OEO into the budget which he had sent to Congress in January.

His support for these programs came from every aspect of American society, and in his war against poverty he even had supporters among the "well-to-do" families. Leonard Hall, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, said "He is the only President to have prosperity and poverty going for him at the same time" The second, and perhaps more far-reaching action that Johnson took to improve the over-all domestic scene of the United States was his civil rights actions of 1964. His new civil rights bill was built on the foundation of the Kennedy civil rights bill of 1963 - but Johnson didn't want it to get "watered down" to get it to pass into law. He wanted his bill to pass intact, and without modification, so he did what he thought was the worst folly a politician can make - he refused to compromise.

He had seen other politicians try to pass similar bills / laws /acts, but all of them ended up getting modified in some way which, while improving overall conditions, left out the most important clauses or ideas which lessened their effectiveness in an effort to aid their passing by Congress. "I (Johnson) had seen this "moderating" process at work for many years. I had seen it happen in 1957. I had seen it happen in 1960. I did not want to see it happen again".

The bill that Johnson had in mind was one of national desegregation. Having spent his early years teaching Mexican-American children, he saw how segregation could harm youth, and the nation as a whole. As well, without national desegregation, chances are that his "war on poverty" would not have the far reaching effects that he so desired, as most of the money would be directed towards white society and finding employment for white people, even though it was the minority denominations that needed the money the most. In a speech to congress, Johnson pleaded with both Democrats and Republicans to desegregate the nation and stated, "I urge you... to enact a civil rights law so that we can move forward to eliminate from this nation every trace of discrimination and oppression that is based upon race or color. There can be no greater source of strength to this nation both at home and abroad". It is interesting that he mentions foreign nations in his speech about desegregating the United States, as this speech was given in the middle of the Cold War and American segregation was seen as a source of weakness and embarrassment to a nation that was opposed to oppression, and prided itself on a policy of "freedom and justice for all".

Indeed, how can American foreign policy enforce democracy and equality, when members of its own society are not allowed to enter public and private businesses? After Johnson's Civil Right's bill passed in 1964 (after spending some time in Congress, as it was greatly opposed by the Southern Republican states), Johnson looked ahead to his 1965 bill with optimism by saying "I want all those other things - buses, restaurants, all of that - but the right to vote with no ifs, ands, or buts, that's the key. When the Negroes get that, they " ll have every politician, north and south, east and west, kissing their ass, begging for their support". This bill, the Voting Rights Act, was passed in 1965 - as well as other bills including Medicare and the Immigration Act. These two bills, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are probably the two most important pieces of American Government legislature since the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln. The first real foreign crisis in office for Johnson was the Panama Canal crisis in January 1964.

This crisis consisted of riots and violence in the area around the Panama Canal, which the Americans controlled due to the same treaty that allowed them to build the canal in the first place. What caused the tension was the fact that there was such a disparity between the wealth of the Panamanian locals and the Americans living in "The Zone" - the area controlled by the American government. As well, the main trigger of the riots and violence, which caused $2 million in damages, was the fact that American high school students refused to fly the Panamanian flag along with the American flag. Violence ensued, people were killed, and political ties were severed. Johnson played the role of the greedy oppressor, which was his usual way when dealing with foreign nations. "I'm not going to be pushed around by a country no bigger than St. Louis".

President Johnson refused to negotiate, even though elections were 9 months away and his domestic political stance was "equality for all" - which apparently didn't apply to other nations that the United States could influence. Johnson announced that even if peace was restored "he had no intention of negotiating a new treaty, although he would be willing to "discuss" the "possibility" of a new treaty". In the end, Johnson managed to get the Panamanian people to stop rioting and return to peaceful relations with the United States by praising them before the world as "defenders of democracy" and the fact that Panama and the United Stats had supported each other in both domestic and foreign conflict. A true politician, Johnson resolved the Panama Canal crisis without making any concessions at all. "He had been doing it all his life, and he knew that in exchange for words - only words - many men would make concessions, yield their will to his, enhance his power". These maneuvers made him wildly popular in the United States, and won him acclaim from the worldwide community for his focus on social conditions and their improvement.

Indeed, it made him so popular that when he was up for re-election, he won in a landslide victory in which he defeated Republican Barry Goldwater with the highest percentage of the total popular vote in history at 61%. Unfortunately for Johnson, there was one foreign problem that he could not talk himself out of - Vietnam. The Vietnam War brought out the worst in Johnson. His failure to deal effectively with the conflict partly rested on his character flaws: his belief that he could overcome every obstacle and his impulse to view criticism of his policies as personal attacks, which he would then overcome by increasing his efforts to make his policies succeed.

Johnson fought in Vietnam for many reasons. He genuinely believed it was essential to hold the line in Vietnam against Communist advance - otherwise; the United States would (potentially) face the loss of all of Southeast Asia to a hostile ideology through the "Domino effect" which he was a firm believer in. He also believed that a failure to stop the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in South Vietnam would embolden Moscow and Peking and heighten the likelihood of another larger, possibly nuclear, war between the two Communist powers and the United States. Vietnam was truly Johnson's undoing - not because he advocated the inclusion of American soldiers to stop the advance of Communism in Southeast Asia, but because of the fact that before the 1964 election he said he wouldn't "send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys should be doing themselves " but once he was elected President for another - full - term, he quickly reversed his decision, because what the American public did not know was that he would enact the same policies that Barry Goldwater (his Presidential competition) had advocated for, and lost because of. This apparently bold-faced policy switching truly damaged Johnson's credibility in the eyes of Americans, and this was not helped by the fact that increasing numbers of soldiers were being shipped to Vietnam, and increasing numbers were returning in body bags.

In conclusion, Lyndon Baines Johnson fully deserves his reputation as being the "poverty" President. His domestic policies were truly revolutionary in American politics. No other President before or after him has accomplished as much for the cause of civil rights as he managed to accomplish in 5 years, or indeed in a full two terms. His efforts to increase the amount of money the Federal Government spent on social welfare and social assistance made him the most popular President in American history at the time of his election in 1964. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War became his ultimate downfall - he could not bully the North Vietnamese into submitting to his will the way he was able to bully the Panamanian Government during the Canal Crisis in 1964. The fact that he couldn't influence the Vietnamese turned from a conflict between the United States (which supported a limited conflict to prevent the spread of Communism) and Vietnam, into a conflict between Johnson personally and Vietnam - a war he could not hope to win.

The fact that the United States had never lost a war probably influenced his decisions to increase the war effort, even though a large part of the population did not support such an escalation, because Johnson did not want to be the one President who had "run away" from a foreign enemy. If Johnson had continued to pursue domestic goals, rather than try to spread his influence to foreign nations (as he had promised voters) he probably would have had a better second half to his term as President - instead, anti-war protestors lined Pennsylvania Avenue and chanted for his removal from office. Truly, he was a purely domestic President, as foreign affairs and diplomacy were completely alien to him, and as such, he did not run for a second term in office - which both surprised, and relieved, the American people.