"I WILL DO MY BEST. I ASK FOR YOUR HELP, & GOD'S"

LBJ TAKES PRESIDENTIAL OATH,  JFK LIES IN REPOSE IN EAST ROOM 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 23, 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson, 36 President of the United States "ran the government from his old Vice-Presidential office across the street from the White House."

LBJ's predecessor, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated the previous day in Dallas, Texas.  JFK's body "lay in repose in the East Room."

Mr. Johnson had taken the oath of office aboard AF1 in Dallas less than two hours after President Kennedy was pronounced dead.  In a brief speech at Andrews Air Force Base upon arrival in Washington, LBJ said...

"I will do my best.  I ask for your help and God's."

At the White House situation room, LBJ met with McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser & later met with Dean Rusk, Secretary of State & Bob McNamara, Secretary of Defense, in his old v-p office.

Back in Dallas,  Lee Harvey Oswald continued to deny the charges of murder of a police officer & the President of the United States.

JFK+50 NOTE

President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1 p.m (CST).  President Johnson took the oath of office at 2:25 p.m. (CST).  While customary to take the oath of office "asap" LBJ for all practical purposes became POTUS at 1 p.m. (CST).  

Lee Harvey Oswald was shot &  killed on Sunday morning, Nov 24, 1963.  He not only never admitted guilt, LHO told reporters "I'm just a patsy."

SOURCE

"President Johnson Takes Over, Kennedy Lies In White House," by Garnett D. Horner, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., November 23, 1963.

 LBJ Takes Oath Aboard AF1

Dallas, Texas

Nov 22 1963

Photo by Cecil W. Stoughton

www.lbjlibrary.net/

"I JUST SAW MY 1ST 10 GALLON HAT ON A RACK OUTSIDE THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE"

LBJ OCCUPIES OVAL OFFICE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 26, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson officially occupied the Oval Office for the first time since being sworn in after the death of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd.  The new president had been working out of his suite in the Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

After more than 1000 days of Camelot, there was a noticeable change in the West Wing.   One Kennedy aide said..."I just saw my first ten-gallon hat on a hat rack outside the President's office."

President Kennedy's personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, was gone replaced by LBJ's personal secretary, Juanita Roberts* and her staff.  The door which led into the Oval Office had always stood open when JFK was president, but now it was shut tight.

JFK's famous rocker, his naval paintings, and the Resolute desk were in the Oval Office no more.  A large painting of Lyndon B. Johnson now hung prominently in the West Wing. 

*Juanita Duggan Roberts (1913-1983) was born in Port Arthur, TX & graduated from Texas Women's University in 1933.  She was one of the 1st WAC officers to be promoted to Colonel during WWII.  JDR signed on with LBJ's congressional staff in 1953, served as LBJ's personal secretary & confidant, & was a key organizer of the LBJ Library.

SOURCES

"Juanita Roberts, LBJ Aide, Dies," The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com 

"Thanksgiving, 1963, The long weekend that defined LBJ's presidency," by Josh Zeitz, November 26, 2015, Politico Magazine, www.politico.com 

 

LBJ in Oval Office

August 3 1967

Photo by Yoichi Okamoto

LBJ Museum & Library Image

"LET US CONTINUE TO SUPPLEMENT THE JFK PROGRAM"

LBJ ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION

Atlantic City, New Jersey (JFK+50) On August 26, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States here in Atlantic City.

Mr. Johnson assumed the Presidency upon the death of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

The President said...

"The gladness of this high occasion cannot mask the sorrow which shares our hearts.  So let us...rededicate ourselves to keeping burning the golden torch which John Fitzgerald Kennedy set aflame."

LBJ went on to declare that Democrats should not stop to rest...

"until we have written into the law of the land all the suggestions that made up the John Fitzgerald Kennedy program.  And then let us continue to supplement that program with the kind of laws he would have us write."

Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President of the United States

Portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff

White House Photo

LBJ SEEKS TO MEASURE UP TO JFK'S STANDARD

LBJ TO CONTINUE JFK'S LEGACY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 26, 1963, the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, began his day as Chief Executive following the burial of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, with a goal in mind.

Kenneth T. Walsh writes that LBJ "sought to capitalize on Kennedy's murder by moving swiftly to continue his legacy."  In his first address to Congress as president the following day, President Johnson said...

"On the 20th day of January, in 1961, John F. Kennedy (said) "Let us begin!"  In this moment of new resolve, I would say...Let us continue!"

LBJ, who considered himself a New Dealer and served in the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, almost immediately pressed Congress to pass the Kennedy legislative program "to honor the martyred president."

Historian Robert Dallek tells us that LBJ believed his greatest immediate challenge as POTUS "was to provide reassurance...that he could measure up to the standard JFK had set."

SOURCE

"The First 100 Days:  Lyndon Johnson Fulfilled Kennedy's Legacy," by Kenneth T. Walsh, US News and World Report, March 5, 2009, www.usnews.com/

LBJ, MLK Jr., Whitney Young

 and James Farmer

January 18, 1964

Photo by Yoichi Okamoto

LBJ Library & Museum Image

LIKE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON DIES 

Stonewall, Texas (JFK+50) Forty-five years ago, January 22, 1973, Lyndon B. Johnson*, 36th President of the United States, passed away at the LBJ Ranch here in Stonewall.

The date of LBJ's death was two days after the end of President Richard M. Nixon's first term, the term that LBJ might have completed.  Mr. Johnson did not seek the renomination of the Democratic Party for the Presidency in 1968.

The former president had suffered three major heart attacks.  The first came in 1955, but despite warnings from his physicians, LBJ reportedly continued chain smoking, overeating, and drinking too much.

LBJ was in his bedroom at the time of the last heart attack and was pronounced dead at 4:33 p.m. (CST).  In his last days, Mr. Johnson was said to be "tormented"  by the failure of the Vietnam War. 

Historian Michael Beschloss writes...


"Feeling like an unappreciated outcast, (LBJ) often depressed, repeatedly listened to Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'.**

*Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was born in Stonewall, TX & earned his B.A. at Texas State University.  LBJ served in the US Navy during WWII & was one of only 4 people to serve as President, Vice-President, U.S. Representative & Senate Majority Leader.

*'Bridge Over Troubled Water', written by Paul Simon & sung by Art Garfunkel, was recorded on Jan. 26, 1970. Within 2 days it was #1 on the charts and stayed there for 6 weeks.   Elvis recorded the song in Nashville on June 5, 1970.  Rolling Stone magazine rated it #47 in the '500 Greatest Songs of All Time'.

SOURCE

"LBJ Agonized Over His Legacy," by Michael Beschloss, www.pbs.org, December 4, 2012.

Lyndon Baines Johnson

August 1972

LBJ Library Photo

JFK CHOOSES LBJ

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2009

THEY'LL SAY IT WAS THE SMARTEST THING YOU EVER DID

Los Angeles, California (JFK50) Today Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump has reportedly narrowed his choice of a running mate down to three.  56 years ago, July 14, 1960, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy announced Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas as his VP selection.

Mr. Trump's selection may or may not turn out to be a surprise, but JFK's choice of LBJ even surprised members of his own staff.  JFK's personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, would write that shortly after JFK had received the presidential nomination, the Senator gave her the following message to deliver to Senator Johnson...

"Dear Lyndon...I would like to talk to you in your room tomorrow morning at 10:00..."

Despite this message, Mrs. Lincoln says that there had "never (been) any talk in the office that Mr. Johnson was to be the running mate."  

She believed JFK 's meeting with LBJ was not to offer him a place on the ticket, but "to discuss with him the southern leaders' meeting scheduled for later that day."

Mrs. Lincoln writes that JFK was forced to offer the Vice-Presidency to LBJ only after "news leaks" suggested that he would.  She added that Mr. Kennedy did not expect Lyndon to accept the offer.

When JFK returned from the meeting, he told his secretary that LBJ had not rejected the offer, but had expressed an interest in it.  By 4 p.m., Senator Kennedy made the announcement that Lyndon B. Johnson would be his running mate.

In his book "Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero," Chris Matthews writes that JFK's decision to offer a place on the ticket to LBJ "was a model of cold-blooded politics... a Massachusetts Democrat could not win the presidency without
the support of the "once reliable Democratic South."

Speaker Sam Rayburn passed along the word to the Kennedy people that if a spot on the ticket was offered, LBJ would not turn it down.  It wasn't really that simple. JFK later told Pierre Salinger...

 "I don't think anybody will ever really know how this all came about."

It has been well publicized that despite criticism in some quarters of LBJ's selection, JFK's father liked the idea.  Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. told his son...

"Don't worry, Jack, in 2 weeks they'll say it's the smartest thing you ever did."

SOURCES

"Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero," by Chris Matthews, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2011.

"Kennedy & Johnson," by Evelyn Lincoln, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1968.

JFK and LBJ at the White House

August 31, 1961

Photo by Abbie Rowe, NPS

JFK Library Photo

              

FIRST TELEVISED STATE OF UNION AT NIGHT

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1818

LBJ DELIVERS FIRST NIGHTTIME TELEVISED STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-one years ago this evening, January 4, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the first nighttime televised State of the Union address to a joint session of the United States Congress.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had given the first nighttime (non-televised) state of the union address in 1936.

LBJ began by saying..

"200 years ago, in 1765,  Nine  assembled colonies joined together to demand freedom from arbitrary power.  Tonight...in 1965, we begin a new quest for union. 

We seek the unity of man with the world that he has built--with the knowledge that can save or destroy him--with the cities which can stimulate or stifle him--with the wealth & the machines which can enrich or menace his spirit."

The President continued...

"The unity we seek cannot realize its full promise in isolation.  Our concern and interest....extend to every corner of a dwindling planet.  We were never meant to be an oasis of liberty and abundance in a worldwide desert of disappointing dreams.  

Our nation was created to help strike away the chains of ignorance & misery and tyranny wherever they keep man less than God means him to be."

LBJ's message included proposals for a set of domestic programs designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice known as "The Great Society".

The term "Great Society" was coined by JFK/LBJ speechwriter Richard N. Goodwin.

LBJ Gives State of the Union Address

 January 4, 1965

House of Representatives Photo