On November 22, 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson (commonly called LBJ) was inaugurated after JFK's assassination. His presidency was the time of massive change in American society. Civil rights, health care, poverty, and perhaps the most infamous of all, Vietnam. It is my belief that one of the America's best, and arguably one of the worst presidents, is forgotten to the public. LBJ ran the nation after the last president to be assassinated, and the first to resign. In the chaos of post 1963, it's easy to forget this man, but I believe his legacy is too important for that.
Lyndon Johnson strongly believed in the Great Society, a grand plan for the massive transformation and improvement in the lives of the average American. His accomplishments in this field is astounding to me. But then Vietnam happened. He plunged the nation into a brutal war of attrition in a far away land most people never even knew existed. And this is my point right here: The Vietnam War overshadowed LBJ's presidency. Whatever he did on the legislative front was always overshadowed by Vietnam, and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.
Here's a list of the significant legislation passed during his tenure:
Among the most important are all the Civil Rights laws plus the Food Stamp Act, 1965 Immigration Reform Act (which overturned decades of racist immigration policies) and the Freedom of Information Act.
On the other front, he quickly expanded operations in Vietnam, leading to 543,000 American troops fighting in Vietnam in 1968. Then you have the cultural phenomenons of the 1960s: The counter-culture movement/hippies, increase in drug usage, and (what at the time) was called the "ghetto riots". All of these presented so many challenges to a conservative society. Hippies and drug users aimed for a more liberal society, while the disastrous series of riots in the 60s destroyed many black and impoverished areas. LBJ appointed a commission in a period known as the Long, Hot summer of 1967, to address the core issues of the riots. 1967's summer months saw 157 riots alone. You had the Watts Riots in 65, Detroit in 67, and the Police and National Guardsmen beating people in the streets.. Chicago had a horrible case of this in August 1968, when the police started beating peaceful Vietnam War protesters.
With the information I presented here, I must ask: Is LBJ an underrated/overrated president? Am I wrong in saying he's forgotten?
Personally, I think LBJ definitely was in the shadow of Kennedy and Nixon. And perhaps the worst tragedy of all is that Nixon started the War on Drugs, which, from my limited sources, LBJ was opposed to. We can see just how bad this impacted communities across the country
