During his tenure as secretary, Johnson met Claudia Alta Taylor
(generally known as Lady Bird), a young woman from Karnack, Texas.
After only a short period of dating, the two were married on November
17, 1934. Johnson actually proposed to her within 24 hours of meeting
her. The couple later had two daughters, Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and
Luci, born in 1947. It should be noted that Johnson loved to give
everything his own initials. His daughters' given names are examples,
as was his dog later in life (Little Beagle Johnson).
War record
Most capsule biographies of American Presidents of the latter half of
the twentieth century include a single line about their respective
service during World War II. Many of those about LBJ reflect the line
given for the year 1942 in Johnson Library online biography: "Johnson
received the Silver Star from General Douglas MacArthur for gallantry
in action during an aerial combat mission over hostile positions in
New Guinea on June 9."
On June 20, 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth bill was introduced to Congress
to institute the first peacetime draft. The very next day Congressman
Johnson received his appointment in the Naval Reserve, which would
exempt him from the draft ? signed into law in September as the
Selective service and training act of 1940, initiated in November.
After America entered the war a year later, Johnson asked
Undersecretary of the Navy James Forrestal for a noncombatant
assignment-- and was sent to inspect the shipyard facilities in Texas
and on the West Coast.
By the spring, Johnson?s constituents in Texas were eager to hear
about their Congressman's activities on the war front. In addition, he
was looking to fulfill his 1940 campaign pledge to "fight in the
trenches" should America enter the war, so he again pressed his
contacts in the Administration to find a new assignment-- this time,
closer to a combat zone. President Roosevelt needed his own reports on
what conditions were like in the Southwest Pacific--he felt
information that flowed up the military chain of command needed to be
supplemented by a highly trusted political aide. From a suggestion by
Forrestal, President Roosevelt assigned Johnson to a three-man survey
team of the Southwest Pacific. Johnson left for Melbourne and reported
to General Douglas MacArthur. The observers were sent to Garbutt Field
in Queensland, home of the 22nd Bomb Group. The bombers' missions
targeted the Japanese air base at Lae on the conquered part of the
island of New Guinea. The military commanders felt that there was no
need for outside observers--which underscored Roosevelt's point--but
Johnson insisted. The B-26 he flew on was attacked by Japanese Zero
fighter-planes during the mission, and upon returning to Melbourne and
reporting back to MacArthur, the General awarded the Congressman and
the other surviving observer the Silver Star, the military's
third-highest medal. Johnson reported back to Roosevelt, to the Navy
leaders, and to Congress, that conditions were deplorable--totally
unacceptable. Using all his persuasive skills Johnson argued the
theatre urgently needed a higher priority and a bigger share of war
supplies. The warplanes sent there, for example, were "far inferior"
to Japanese planes, and morale was bad. On July 16, he told Navy Under
Secretary Forrestal the Pacific Fleet had a "critical" need for 6800
additional experienced men. Johnson prepared a twelve-point program to
upgrade the entire effort in the region, stressing "greater
cooperation and coordination within the various commands and between
the different war theatres." Congress responded by making Johnson
chairman of a high-powered subcommittee of the Naval Affairs
committee. With a mission similar to that of the Truman Committee in
the Senate, he probed into the peacetime "business as usual"
inefficiencies that permeated the entire naval war, and demanded
admirals shape up and get the job done. Johnson went too far when he
proposed a bill that would crack down on the draft exemptions of
shipyard workers if they had too many abstentions. Organized labor
blocked the bill immediately and denounced Johnson. Johnson's mission
thus had a significant impact in upgrading the South Pacific theater
in Washington's calculations, and in helping along the entire naval
war effort.
Some political enemies charged that Johnson's efforts during the war
were trivial and his self-promotion afterward was inappropriate. A
month after this incident, President Roosevelt ordered members of
Congress serving in the military to return to their offices. Of eight
members then serving, four agreed to resign from the armed forces;
four resigned from Congress. Johnson returned to Washington, and
continued to serve in the House of Representatives through 1949. As
Johnson's leading biographer concludes, "The mission was a temporary
exposure to danger calculated to satisfy Johnson's personal and
political wishes, but it also represented a genuine effort on his
part, however misplaced, to improve the lot of America's fighting
men." [Dallek, Lone Star Rising 237]
Vietnam War
President Johnson had a dislike for the American war effort in
Vietnam, which he had inherited from Kennedy, but expanded
considerably following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (less than 3 weeks
after the Republican Convention of 1964 which had nominated Barry
Goldwater for president). Though he would often privately curse the
war, referring to it as his "bitch mistress," at the same time Johnson
believed that America could not afford to look weak in the eyes of the
world, and so he escalated the war effort continuously from 1964 to
1968, which resulted in thousands of American deaths. In one speech,
he said of the Vietnam conflict "If we allow Vietnam to fall, tomorrow
we?ll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Francisco" -
alluding to Eisenhower's 'Domino Theory'.
At the same time, Johnson was afraid that too much focus on Vietnam
would distract attention from his Great Society programs, so the
levels of military escalation, while significant, were never enough to
make any real headway in the war. Against his wishes, Johnson's
presidency was soon dominated by the Vietnam War. As more and more
American soldiers and civilians were killed in Vietnam, Johnson's
popularity declined, particularly in the face of student protests.
During these protests, students would often burn their draft cards and
chant the line, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids will you kill today?".
In what was termed an October surprise, Johnson announced to the
nation on October 31, 1968 that he had ordered a complete cessation of
"all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective
November 1 citing progress with the Paris peace talks. At the end of
his earlier March 31 speech he had shocked the country by telling them
he would not run for re-election, saying: "I shall not seek, and I
will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your
president." (Text and audio of speech)
During the final year of his presidency, Johnson couldn't travel
anywhere without facing protests, particularly over the war. |
