A-Level notes on LBJ (Johnson). I got an A* in A Level history and I used a range of resources to compile these notes.
Includes
-Johnsons background and election
-Great Society
-Impacts of the Kennedy Legacy
-Economic Developments
Foreign Policy: Vietnam War, relations between USA and its Wes...
An adapted extract from Rowland Evans and Robert Novak’s 1966 book: Lyndon B Johnson:
The exercise of Power. Evans and Novak were US syndicated journalists and television
partners. Evans is reputed to have been great friends with JFK. They wrote books on LBJ,
Nixon and Regan
Johnson’s method for getting his way became known as ‘the Johnson treatment’ and took the
form of supplication, accusation, persuasion, endurance scorn, tears, complaints, the hint of a
threat. It was all these together. It ran the range of human emotions. Its speed and force were
breath-taking, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson
anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face was a scare
millimetre from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling.
From his pockets poured clippings and memos, statics. Mimicry humour, and the genius of
analogy made the ‘treatment’ an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned
and helpless.
Quotes:
• He described Vietnam as “that damn little pissant country” and as being
“raggedly-ass little fourth-rate"
• His vie on appeasing an enemy was: “if you let a bully come into your yard
one day, the next day he’ll be up on your porch and the day after that he’ll rape
your wife in your own bed”
• He commented on foreigners: “The trouble with foreigners is that they’re not
like the folks you were reared with”
• He was determined to be the boss: he told his advisors he wanted a “kiss-my-
ass-at-high-noon-in-Marcy's-window and tell me it smells like roses” loyalty
, • On becoming President following Kennedys assassination he said: “I swore to
myself I would carry on. I would continue for my partner who had gone down
ahead of me.”
Factors:
• Arrogant
• Johnson treatment using to dominate others
• Vice-president for Kennedy
• Impulsive
• disdainful of others
• bullish
• threatening
• Manipulative
• Human emotions
• Tall
• Bully
• Conservative
• Racist
• Well respected
• Taking over from a popular president
• Democrat
• From Texas
• Pledged to fulfil Kennedys presidency
• Had been in poverty
• Charismatic
, • Problem solving analysis
• Ego
• Felt inferior and Overreacted in People's faces
• Meeting in conventional places
• Raised underprivileged
• Equality
• Medical, environment, head start, consumer protection and civil rights
• War on poverty- cut by a half
• Vietnam
• Mobilized reserved, doubled troops from 65000 to 130000 (sent 100,000)
more military
• Civil rights (originally Truman's containment policy)
• Tet Offensive
• Opposition from Robert Kennedy
• Did not run for another residency
• Wanted peace in Vietnam but failed
• Was not from the ivy league
• Was a teacher before politics
• Not really interested in foreign policy
Timeline:
1908: Born in Texas
1934: married ‘Lady Bird’
1937-61: congressman then senator
1961-3: Vice president
1963: Became president after Kennedy’s assassination
, 1964: Elected president
1968: Did not run for re-election
1969: retired to Texas
1973: Died
• Teacher in 1929
• Congressional aide (1931-5)
• Texas state director for President Roosevelts National Youth Administration
(1935-7)
• Congressman (1937-49)
• Senator (1949-61)
• Vice President (1961-3)
• President (1963-9)
• Loved power for his own sake and what it enabled him to do for others
• Master of the American legislative process while in senate obtained an
unprecedented quantity of social reform legislation as president
• Not all his great societal programmes were successful, but his civil rights
legislation and Medicare in particular improved many lives
• 1965 increasingly focused the Vietnam war
• Escalated us involvement and consequently became (and remains
exceptionally unpopular, but it could be argued that he was a victim of what
historians have called the ‘commitment trap’ set by his predecessors
• Presidency accompanied unprecedented protests, sexual liberalisation and
countercultural movements, all of which were given ample media coverage
• Voters associated much of this tumult with Johnson and his policies
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