President Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the most important Presidents in American history. His Presidential legacy is mixed. He made great contributions in areas of civil rights, environmental protection, health care, immigration, and other areas. Yet, one of the worst parts of his legacy was not just about his bad policy of defending the Vietnam War. It was also his overall foreign policy being extremist, hawkish, and reactionary in opposition to a more progressive, sober-minded foreign policy agenda. LBJ not only aided with hawkish political leaders, but he executed reactionary policies in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and other places in the world. To understand fully a person's life, you have to conclusively evaluate his or her life chronologically from the beginning to the end. August 27, 1908, was when Lyndon Baines Johnson was born to Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines Johnson. LBJ was the oldest of his siblings. By 1928, he graduated from Johnson City High School. Early on in his career, he attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University). Later, he tutored and taught Mexican American students at a school in Cotulla. First hand, he saw racism and prejudice against Hispanic and Black Americans. By 1930, LBJ graduated from college and taught at Peasall High School and then later Sam Houston High School.
By 1931, Lyndon Baines Johnson served as House of Representative Richard M. Kleberg's legislative secretary. On November 17, 1934, he married Claudia Atla Taylor, or known as "Lady Bird" Claudia. Many people know that LBJ was a World War II veteran when he was appointed as Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1940. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt greatly respected LBJ, and vice versa. By 1941, Lyndon Baines Johnson lost to the incumbent Governor of Texas W. Lee O'Daniel in the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. By December 1941, Representative Lyndon B. Johnson reported to duty to serve in the U.S. Navy. In 1942, FDR sent Johnson to the Southwest Pacific, and he reported to General Douglas MacArthur. On July 17, 1942, Lyndon Johnson returned to Washington, D.C. after he was released from active combat. By 1944, his first daughter, Lynda Bird, was born. His 2nd daughter was born in 1947, and her name is Luci Baines. Lyndon Johnson was Commander of the Navy on October 19, 1949, and he ended his time in the Navy Reserve by January 18, 1964. In 1948, there was a contested Senate. Lyndon Baines Johnson won this time around against the Republican Jack Porter. His victory exised in controversy in the Democratic primary came against Coke Stevenson. LBJ was selected Senate Majority Whip in 1951. Also, he was the Senate Minority Leader in 1952. By 1954, he was elected Senate Majority Leader following the Democrats taking of the Senate. LBJ ran for President in 1950. He lost the Democratic Party nomination to the young Senate from Massachusetts named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK had 806. It was a tough and, at times, personal campaign. Kennedy made him his running mate in the 1960 Presidential election. The reason was that John F. Kennedy was smart to want to gain Southern states, especially in Texas.
RFK didn't want LBJ to be the Vice President because of personal reasons. LBJ and RFK didn't like each other. It was personal as Lyndon Johnson bragged about calling RFK's father, Joseph Kennedy as an appeaser. RFK called LBJ a ruthless animal, and LBJ called RFK names as well. Vice President Lyndon Johnson always wanted to be President early on. His role as Vice President was the representative of the President's policies. He spoke and did engagements. One of his most famous speeches as Vice President was when LBJ gave a speech at Gettysburg to call for equality to black people, even before President John F. Kennedy's historic June 11, 1963 speech advocating for the same thing. After John F. Kennedy's evil assassination on November 22, 1963, LBJ was President now. He was the 36th President. On November 29, 1963, LBJ renamed the Apollo Launch Operations Center as the John F. Kennedy Space Center; the Cape Canaveral launch facilities became Cape Kennedy until 1973. In 1964, he not only defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in a landslide election. Barry Goldwater was so extreme that he wanted to stop federal civil rights legislation and possibly use nuclear weapons in North Vietnam. President Johnson promoted a plan to end poverty in America. He fought to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. The irony is that for years before the 1960s, LBJ voted against every civil rights bill ever introduced on the Hill in favor of states' rights. He changed his mind because he could never be a Democratic President opposing federal civil rights legislation. Times were changing. 1964 was the year of the birth of LBJ's The Great Society. The Great Society was a federal government program to fund investments to help American society. He defeated Goldwater by a margin of close to 16 million popular votes. In 1965, he signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Also, he signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 being one of the most progressive forms of legislation in human history. The new law helped to expand human rights to black people and all Americans. It came after the Selma voting rights movement existed in Alabama. It was the peak of the support of the Civil Rights Movement. Afterward, the Watts rebellion happened in 1965. In 1965, President Johnson supported the overthrow in Brazil and forced out George Papandreou in Greece in 1965. These are reactionary policies. The Greek ambassador protested this development, and LBJ replied to the ambassador in these words, "Then listen to me Mr. Ambassador: F___ your Parliament and your Constitution. America is the elephant. They may just get whacked by the elephant's trunk, whacked good...We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about Democracy, Parliament, and Constitutions, he, his Parliament, and his Constitution may not last very long," (William Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History, pg. 244). So, it is clear, that President Johnson was a complete extremist on international issues. While, President John F. Kennedy wanted to go about promoting nationalism in Congo, Indochina, the Middle East, and Indonesia to make these nations independent, LBJ did the opposite. Kennedy was working on modes of detente with Cuba and the USSR by 1963. This was hated by the military-industrial complex. Then, you have the far-right backlash growing in 1966. Republicans gained power in Congress and in other institutions of power nationwide. The Vietnam War has grown even more during the Johnson administration. LBJ was stubborn to support a near-permanent military presence to fight North Vietnam, when a peaceful negotiated settlement is the best way to end that war.
By the year of 1967, President Lyndon Baines Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he appointed Robert C. Weaver to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. After the evil assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to fight housing discrimination. By October 22, 1968, he signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. By this time, his approval ratings drop as the anti-Vietnam War movement increased. Many people want the war to end, and LBJ refuses to do so. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey (his Vice President) lost the 1968 Presidential election to Richard M. Nixon. Humphrey almost won the race, but he announced a plan for peace talks late in his campaign. By January 1969, President Lyndon Johnson leaves the White House, and in 1970, he had many heart attacks. He supports the liberal Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972, who was George McGovern. LBJ was concerned about the Democratic Party being too left, but the neoliberals would gain power later on. After 1972, the Democratic Party would shift to the right, and the Republican Party would be even more far-right. Nixon won re-election, and LBJ passed away in 1973. LBJ fought heart disease, and he continued to smoke cigarettes constantly. Lyndon Baines Johnson could have been one of the greatest Presidents in history, but his extremist foreign policy ended his Presidency rapidly. He combined many legitimate legislative reforms along with supporting a bad Vietnam War policy stubbornly.
The era of the Presidency from the end of WWI to the peak of Cold War tensions saw amazing developments. During that time, there were both working-class movements for economic justice, the decline of economic inequality, and movements for social change. Also, this time saw the far right wing backlash that wanted corporations to reverse the gains of struggle. History teaches us logically that progress only comes by human struggle and resistance against evils including injustice in our world. That time saw super anti-communist paranoia in the realm of McCarthyism that violated untold lives of human civil liberties (in contradiction to the right of free speech as found in the First Amendment). This era saw the Democratic Party reach huge power making up of black people, union workers, other workers, women, ethnic minorities, and other human beings. The contradiction of the time was that while many legitimate laws existed to help people, oppression was widespread against black people and other marganlized communities. The Cold War was so violent that near nuclear war happened between America and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was an era of massive change like the Allied defeat of the Axis Powers during World War II, the Korean War, the rise including fall of Joseph McCarthy, and the early start of the Vietnam War. Presidents from Herbert Hoover to John F. Kennedy witnessed so much, but it would be a long way to go in seeing the Dream of human equality to be realized in America plus the world. After this era, the world saw Johnson, Nixon, and others who saw the conclusion of the Cold War. Cultural changes continued along with economic problems. Political polarization increased along with the continued progressive fight for freedom too.
We live in many uncertain times to be honest. There are stagflation and recession concerns. Stagflation is an economic reality where stagnant economic growth is mixed with high inflation. Inflation being high increases the prices of foods, homes, cars, and other items or resources. Stagflation happened in the late 60's and early 70's, and Nixon made the controversial price controls. That is why how the economy is during the late summer and early fall of 2022 will determine who will win the House and the Senate after the 2022 election. Many stakes are high. We have high oil prices too. Davos is having a high level economic meeting too, and there are more calls to advocate regulations of the new crypto market. One of the most important news is that many of us thought that the Reagan Revolution would end. It is gone which is good news. The bad news is that the Reagan Revolution is replaced by the reactionary, fascist Trump movement (or MAGA) spreading in America. About 1/3 of Americans at least are full on MAGA. This movement is overtly bigoted and racist without any pretense of tolerance. Its supporters hate democratic rights for black people, women, the disabled, and other minorities. They seek to ban anti-racism books, deprive the rights of human beings, advance voter suppression laws, endorse obscene anti-immigrant policies, and desire a theocratic, nationalist state basically speaking. Many preachers in favor of this heresy of Trumpism make a mockery of God by defending Trump (who curses out even peaceful protesters, was accused of sexual assault against women, refuse to ask God for forgiveness, involved in stirring up an attempt coup d'etat against the American government, and is a habitutal liar). We also have neo-liberal centrists who want the status quo instead of revolutionary change to help humanity too.
The opposition to Trumpism is real. The propagandists of Trump are real too with people like DeSantis, Hawley, Cruz, Gosar, and Carlson daily making up lies and seeking ruination of democracy. Many Republicans even believe in the racist replacement theory lie (which believes in a conspiracy that elites want to intentionally eliminate white people for political purposes). We have to call out racism and fascism too. This Trumpism and far right extremism are the biggest threats of our lives in our generation. There is no other way to put it.
The Ukraine war continues after Russia established an unjust invasion of Ukraine. We are in solidarity with freedom loving people everywhere. This war has brought up more extremists. There are 2 major types of these people. One type supports Putin unconditionally and the other group tries to sugarcoat the errors of NATO. Both groups forget that Ukraine should have its independence without the status quo. There is a hypocrisy among both of these extremists. The extremists, who want to minimize the war crimes of Putin, are very silent on Russia' authoritarian regime and even China's censorship of the Internet (including China's restrictive religious freedom policies). The extremists, who worship NATO, omit that many factions of the U.S. government do in fact fund the authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia, some nations in Central America, and the US/NATO invasion of Libya (that was not only unjust but harmed many of the black Libyan population of Libya). Many in the West have more empathy for Ukrainian refugees than other refugees of color. The United States wants Putin to be tried for war crimes as he should, but many U.S. imperialists should always be placed on war crimes for their roles in the invasion if Iraq, drone strikes, torture in various camp sites, and the destruction of Libya. The West grants Ukrainian war refugees asylum in America (which is just), but some in the West refuge to give the same protections to Africans, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans, and Southwest Asian people. We are opposed to imperialism. That means that Putin is wrong for his criminal invasion of Ukraine and Western war crimes are wrong too. It is right to condemn the far right racist Avoz Battalion and the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group too. That represents moral consistency. At the end of the day, it benefits no one to have a long drawn out war in Ukraine. Economic destruction, extra food shortages, more civilian deaths, and more choas will come about. The only solution is a peaceful, negotiated settlement, and Ukraine being an independent nation without being a client state to America or Russia. In America, we must oppose the fascism by the GOP in America too.
Recently, filmmaker Oliver Stone made a film JFK: Destiny Betrayed. That is about setting the record straight about many misconceptions about John F. Kennedy made by the far right and some in the liberal establishment. The big myth about John F. Kennedy is that he was planned to expand military involvement in the Vietnam War in the level of President Johnson. We know this to be not true. We know that Kennedy was already starting to plan to withdrawal all U.S. troops from Vietnam by 1965 via NSAM 263. After Kennedy's assassination, LBJ reversed NSAM 265. McNamara admitted in the film Fog of War that Kennedy was planning to withdrawal from Vietnam. JFK wanted all responsibility for the conflict over to South Vietnam. Kennedy overruled objections to the withdrawal plan by people who are National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and Joint Chiefs Chairman Max Taylor. Taylor agreed with the escalation of military involvement in the Vietnam conflict. LBJ objected the withdrawal plan of Kennedy by his own words. It's very clear what the truth is. President John F. Kennedy's more opened minded views on Africa and Indonesia are proven in books of JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia by Greg Poulgrain (in 2020) and Philip Meuhlenbeck's Betting on the Africans (2012). John K. Galbraith was an economic scholar who advised Kennedy to withdrawal from Vietnam as did even Douglas MacArthur. John F. Kennedy wanted to aid nations, even if they were neutral during the Cold War. John Foster Dulles didn't want this concept of neutrality at all.
By Timothy
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