England School

Investigation President Johnson

US civics

Name Jorge Calix

Teacher Ms Nubia Torres

Grade 11th A

Tegucigalpa MDC 1/4/2022

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Nov. 27, 1963, five days after the assassination,

Johnson asked for support in completing Kennedy's stalled agenda. He hailed Kennedy as "the

greatest leader of our time" and said, "Let us begin. Let us continue."

He didn't match FDR in his legislative success during his first 100 days in 1963, but eventually he

exceeded Roosevelt in the extent to which he expanded federal power in society. He also won a

massive landslide in his 1964 campaign, which LBJ felt vindicated his leadership.

In those first days in 1963, he succeeded in the all-important goal of boosting the nation's

confidence. "By contrast with Mr. Obama," wrote historian Robert Dallek in the New York Times

Jan. 23, 2009, "Johnson had no mandate to govern except for being vice president. No one expected

a Southern politician to suddenly replace the youngest man ever elected to the White House. . . .

Johnson understood that his greatest initial challenge was to provide reassurance—to convince not

just Americans but people around the world, who looked to the United States for leadership in the

cold war, that he could measure up to the standard JFK had set as an effective president at home

and abroad."

Johnson had been a consummate legislative deal maker before Kennedy chose him to balance the

ticket as his vice presidential running mate in 1960. But Johnson, a longtime senator from Texas,

was never a member of Kennedy's inner circle. Many liberal Democrats were skeptical of him as a

Southerner and Washington operator when he succeeded Kennedy. But Johnson "was able to turn

the country's grief into a commitment to a moral crusade," presidential scholar Jeffrey Tulis has

written. It took him longer than 100 days, but he set Congress on the path to passing the Civil Rights

Act of 1964, as well as a tax cut and Medicare. Actually, he sought to pass more legislation, help

more people, lift more Americans out of poverty, and become more of a historic figure than FDR.

And in some ways he succeeded, under a program he called the Great Society.

"In many ways Johnson was inadequate to the demands of the modern presidency, especially as a

public educator," wrote political scientists Sidney Milkis and Michael Nelson in "The American

Presidency: Origins & Development 1776-1998." "Unlike other twentieth-century presidents who

wanted to remake the nation, LBJ neglected, even scorned, the 'bully pulpit.' Yet Johnson

profoundly influenced the modern presidency in other ways. He more than maintained the power

and independence of the executive office. Regrettably, his failings also brought into serious

question—for the first time since the 1930s—the widespread assumption that the national interest is
served whenever the president dominates the affairs of state. The disillusionment with executive

power that commenced late in Johnson's tenure actually began to unravel some of the conditions

that had given rise to the modern presidency."

As the Vietnam War escalated, with soaring costs in lives and resources, and as the nation's

domestic divisions intensified over Johnson's ambitious social programs, the president's popularity

sank. He declined to run for re-election in 1968 and left office a very unpopular man.

But in the beginning, he seemed to be a force of nature. In an interview with three network

television journalists March 15, 1964, Johnson assessed his first 100 days. "The first priority," he said,

"was to try to display to the world that we could have continuity and transition, that the program

of President Kennedy would be carried on, that there was no need for them to be disturbed and

fearful that our constitutional system had been endangered. To demonstrate to the people of this

country that although their leader had fallen, and we had a new president, that we must have

unity and we must close ranks, and we must work together for the good of all America and the

world."