Thirty-sixth president of the United States of America, 22 November, 1963 - 20 January, 1969.
Served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 10 April 1937 - 3 January 1949.
First member of Congress to enlist in the armed forces in World War II; served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific.
In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader.
Served in the U.S. Senate, 3 January 1949 - 3 January 1961. Had been simultaneously elected vice-president and reelected to the Senate in November 1960; resigned from the Senate to become vice president on 20 January 1961.
In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had one of the widest popular margin in American history--more than 15,000,000 votes. To date, no candidate, Democrat or Republican, has managed to best his 1964 electoral result (Richard Nixon, however, did come close and won 60.7% of the popular vote).
Daughters: Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson.
Graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
Father-in-law of Chuck Robb (husband of daughter Lynda).
Pictured on a commemorative four-cent postage label issued by the (now defunct) Independent Postal System of America in 1973.
He was the only President born and raised in Texas (both Presidents George Bush , the elder, and George W. Bush , the younger, were born in New England; Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Texas, but raised in Kansas).
He was interred at the LBJ Ranch in Blanco County, Texas.
Vice President of The United States (20 January 1961 - 22 November 1963).
During his 1964 campaign, he portrayed his opponent Barry Goldwater as a warmonger who, if elected president, would start a nuclear war. He ran the infamous "Daisy" ad, which featured a girl counting daisy petals, followed by a countdown and a mushroom cloud. This attack ad was believed to have helped him defeat Goldwater in a landslide.
Robert F. Kennedy , the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy who was JFKs Attorney General and then a Senator from New York, harbored a strong dislike for Johnson, a feeling that was mutual.
A heavy smoker, Johnson had already suffered a major heart attack before becoming President at the age of 55.
He was an admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was rumored he did not attend the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965 because Churchill had not attended Roosevelts funeral twenty years earlier. Officially Johnson did not attend because he had a heavy cold.
His television ads ended with the slogan, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."
His 1964 presidential campaign slogans included: "All the way with LBJ", and "LBJ for the USA."
A frequent anti-war chant was, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"
Before he announced he would not run for reelection in 1968, his opponent, Richard Nixon declared his intention to seek the GOP nomination. Critics called a choice between Nixon and Johnson "a choice between obscenity and vulgarity!".
One of his final public appearances was the state funeral of Harry S. Truman , less than a month before his own death.
Started smoking again after he left the White House in 1969, and put on weight. In April 1972 he suffered a third heart attack, but would not give up his old habits. "Im an old man", he once explained, "so whats the difference? My body it just aging in its own way.".
At 63 1/2", he was the second tallest President of the United States, being half an inch shorter than Abraham Lincoln. However Johnsons peak height is disputed, and some people believe he was a fraction under 63".
After he retired from the presidency, CBS-TV paid him $100,000 per television interview in a package deal which included the publication of his memoirs by a CBS subsidiary, Holt, Reinhart & Winston.
In his last will and testament, he left his portion of property jointly owned with his wife Lady Bird, an estate estimated to be worth $20 million in trust in equal shares to his two daughters.
Was the last US president of the 20th Century to smoke cigarettes. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford smoked pipes; Ronald Reagan and George Bush were nonsmokers; Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton smoked an occasional cigar.
Worked as a schoolteacher before entering politics.
The only U.S. President to attempt to end national poverty.
His favorite actress was Laraine Day but she caused him great disappointment when he discovered she was a staunch Republican.
Johnson and his wife marched in JFKs funeral procession despite being told not to by the Secret Service and the FBI, in fear of a second assassination. He was later paraphrased as saying he "could do, should do, would do, and did" march in the procession.
It took him several hours to realize he was experiencing his first heart attack.
He went to a one-room school that only had one teacher. His graduating class (which he was president of) only had six people.
During his time as a member of the House of Representatives, he oversaw Operation Texas, a covert mission which relocated hundreds of Jews from Europe and brought them to Texas.
His time in extremely poor schools in bad neighborhoods, both as a teacher and a student, is what inspired him to make Education a major priority in his political career.
One of his favorite songs was Simon & Garfunkels Bridge over Troubled water.
Johnson was the only living former President when he died.
One day after he died, a ceasefire in Vietnam was reached.
Johnson was very angry about the UKs refusal to send any soldiers to Vietnam, even threatening to bankrupt the British economy. In December 1964 he asked Harold Wilson to send a token division. However it would have been impossible for the UK to support the conflict after the Suez Crisis, and because public opinion was almost universally opposed to US involvement in Vietnam.
Smoked 60 cigarettes a day until having a near-fatal heart attack in 1955.
John F. Kennedy , fearful of Johnsons support of civil rights, sent him to Norway the day of Martin Luther King s famed March on Washington. Kennedy biographer Arthur Schlesinger said that Kennedys best spirit was largely absent that day.
Played by Michael Gambon in Path to War , Liev Schreiber in The Butler (2013/I) , Tom Wilkinson in Selma and Bryan Cranston in All the Way .
During the Suez Crisis he tried to prevent the US government from criticizing the Israeli invasion of the Sinai peninsula.
He was of English, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, German, and small amounts of Swiss-German, Scottish, Welsh, and Dutch, ancestry.
(January, 1973) Per President Johnsons request, Billy Graham preached the eulogy and Anita Bryant sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic at his funeral burial service in Stonewall, Texas.
"I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad. . . .
We preach the virtues of democracy abroad. We must practice its duties,here at home. Voting is the first duty of democracy.
[to his biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin] I will not let you take me,backward in time to Vietnam. Fifty thousand American boys are dead.
Nothing we can say will change that fact. Your idea that I could have,chosen otherwise rests upon complete ignorance. For if I had chosen,otherwise, I would have been responsible for starting World War III.
[on assuming the Presidency, November 22, 1963] I took the oath. I,became president. But for millions of Americans I was still,illegitimate - a pretender to the throne, an illegal usurper. And then,there were the bigots and the dividers and the Eastern intellectuals,who were waiting to knock me down before I could even begin to stand,up. The whole thing was almost unbearable.
Presidents are lonely people, and the only ones they are really sure of,all the time are their womenfolk. President Nixon and I have something,else in common. We can always depend on our womenfolk. Just as Mrs.
Johnson has been by my side every step of the way, so has Mrs. Nixon.
The difference between being a member of the Senate and a member of the,House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.
We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away to do,what Asian boys ought to be dong for themselves.
There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is only,an American problem.
[to University of Michigan graduates, May 1964] The Great Society rests,on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and,racial injustice. . But that is just the beginning.
[first presidential command, on Air Force One, November 22, 1963] Lets,get this goddam thing airborne.
America has not always been kind to its artists and scholars. Somehow the scientists always seem to get the penthouse while the arts and humanities get the basement. .
