Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Biography of Lyndon Johnson
Stonewall, Texas
Stonewall, Texas
Invasion of Salamaua - Lae
Lyndon Baines Johnson(English) Lyndon Baines Johnson) (August 27, 1908, Stonewall, Gillespie County, Texas - January 22, 1973, ibid.) - 36th President of the United States from the Democratic Party from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969.
Early years
Political career
Presidency period
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated, and from that day Johnson began serving as president. Johnson (riding in the same motorcade as the President) assumed the duties of President, taking the oath of office aboard Presidential Airplane 1 at Dallas Airfield just before departing for Washington.
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, President Johnson spoke at the White House and presented grim statistics on murders in the United States. Since 1885, he said, one out of every three American presidents has been assassinated, and one out of every five presidents has been assassinated.
One of President Johnson's messages to Congress stated that every 26 minutes in the United States there is one rape, every 5 minutes there is one robbery, every minute there is a car theft and every 28 seconds there is one theft. The state's material losses as a result of crime amount to $27 billion a year.
Domestic policy
One of Johnson's first initiatives was to create a "Great Society" in which there would be no poverty. Congress has allocated about a billion dollars for these purposes.
During Johnson's second term, issues related to the rights of black Americans began to escalate again. In August 1965, riots occurred in the black neighborhood of Los Angeles, resulting in the death of 35 people. The summer of 1967 saw the largest uprisings of the African-American population. 26 people died in Newark, New Jersey, and another 40 died in Detroit. On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated. After this, unrest among the black population began in 125 cities, including Washington.
Due to the Vietnam War, Johnson's popularity had dropped significantly by the fall congressional elections. Anti-war sentiment fueled the rise of the New Left youth movement (SDS, Yippies, etc.), which culminated in protests during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 1968.
Foreign policy
The main foreign policy event of Johnson's presidency was the Vietnam War. The United States supported the South Vietnamese government in its fight against the communist guerrillas of the MNLF, who in turn had the support of North Vietnam. In August 1964, following two incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam and secured a congressional resolution supporting any action the President deemed necessary to "repel attack on U.S. military forces and prevent further aggression" in the South Vietnamese. East Asia.
A space center in Houston is named in Johnson's honor. August 27 - Johnson's birthday - is declared a holiday in Texas, but government agencies do not interrupt their work, and other employers can choose whether to give employees a day off or not.
Johnson in culture
- In April 2011, the mini-series “The Kennedy Clan” premiered; the role of Johnson was played by actor Don Ellison.
- On August 16, 2013, the American film “The Butler” was released; the role of Johnson was played by actor Liev Schreiber.
- In 2016, the American film “To the Very End” was released; the role of Johnson was played by actor Bryan Cranston.
Write a review of the article "Johnson, Lyndon"
Notes
Literature
- Dobrynin A. F. Purely confidential. Ambassador to Washington under six US presidents (1962-1986). - M.: Author, 1996. - 688 p.: ill. - ISBN 5-85212-078-2
- Ivanyan E. A. From George Washington to George Bush: The White House and the Press. - M.: Politizdat, 1991. - 368 p. - ISBN 5-250-00985-9
- Daller R. Lyndon B. Johnson. Portrait of a President. London, Penguin Books Ltd., 2005.
- Jonathan R.T. Davidson, Kathryn M. Connor, Narvi Swartz. Mental Illness in US Presidents between 1776 and 1974: A Review of Biographical Sources. // en: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 2006. Vol. 194. P. 47 - 51.
Links
- The Great Unpopular President/Cold War. Personalities//www.coldwar.ru/johnson/lyndon_johnson.php
- Lyndon Baines Johnson/All about the USA//usa-info.com.ua/presidents/36_johnson.html
- Malinovskaya A. President Lyndon Johnson/US History. Course materials //www.ushistory.ru/esse/206-prezident-lindon-dzhonson.html
|
|
|
Excerpt characterizing Johnson, Lyndon- What, pretty? - he said with a wink.- Why are you shouting like that! “You’ll scare them,” Boris said. “I wasn’t expecting you today,” he added. – Yesterday, I just gave you a note through one of my acquaintances, Kutuzovsky’s adjutant, Bolkonsky. I didn’t think that he would deliver it to you so soon... Well, how are you? Already fired upon? – asked Boris. Rostov, without answering, shook the soldier’s St. George’s Cross hanging on the strings of his uniform, and, pointing to his tied hand, looked at Berg, smiling. “As you can see,” he said. - That's how it is, yes, yes! – Boris said, smiling, “and we also made a nice trip.” After all, you know, His Highness always rode with our regiment, so we had all the comforts and all the benefits. In Poland, what kind of receptions there were, what kind of dinners, balls - I can’t tell you. And the Tsarevich was very merciful to all our officers. And both friends told each other - one about their hussar revelry and military life, the other about the pleasures and benefits of serving under the command of high-ranking officials, etc. - Oh guard! - said Rostov. - Well, let’s go get some wine. Boris winced. “If you really want to,” he said. And, going up to the bed, he took out his wallet from under the clean pillows and ordered him to bring wine. “Yes, and give you the money and the letter,” he added. Rostov took the letter and, throwing the money on the sofa, leaned both hands on the table and began to read. He read a few lines and looked angrily at Berg. Having met his gaze, Rostov covered his face with the letter. “However, they sent you a fair amount of money,” said Berg, looking at the heavy wallet pressed into the sofa. “That’s how we make our way with a salary, Count.” I'll tell you about myself... “That’s it, my dear Berg,” said Rostov, “when you receive a letter from home and meet your man, whom you want to ask about everything, and I’ll be here, I’ll leave now so as not to disturb you.” Listen, please go somewhere, somewhere... to hell! - he shouted and immediately, grabbing him by the shoulder and looking tenderly into his face, apparently trying to soften the rudeness of his words, he added: - you know, don’t be angry; my dear, my dear, I say this from the bottom of my heart, as if it were an old friend of ours. “Oh, for mercy’s sake, Count, I understand very much,” said Berg, standing up and speaking to himself in a guttural voice. “You go to the owners: they called you,” added Boris. Berg put on a clean frock coat, without a stain or a speck, fluffed up his temples in front of the mirror, as Alexander Pavlovich wore, and, convinced by Rostov’s glance that his frock coat had been noticed, left the room with a pleasant smile. - Oh, what a brute I am, however! - Rostov said, reading the letter. - And what? - Oh, what a pig I am, however, that I never wrote and scared them so much. “Oh, what a pig I am,” he repeated, suddenly blushing. - Well, let’s go get some wine for Gavrilo! Well, okay, let's do it! - he said... In the letters of the relatives there was also a letter of recommendation to Prince Bagration, which, on the advice of Anna Mikhailovna, the old countess obtained through her friends and sent to her son, asking him to carry it for its intended purpose and use it. - This is nonsense! I really need it,” said Rostov, throwing the letter under the table. - Why did you leave it? – asked Boris. - Some kind of letter of recommendation, what the hell in the letter! - What the hell is in the letter? – Boris said, picking up and reading the inscription. – This letter is very necessary for you. “I don’t need anything, and I won’t go as an adjutant to anyone.” - Why? – asked Boris. - Lackey position! “You’re still the same dreamer, I see,” Boris said, shaking his head. – And you are still the same diplomat. Well, that’s not the point... Well, what are you talking about? - asked Rostov. - Yes, as you see. So far so good; but I admit, I would very much like to become an adjutant, and not remain at the front. - For what? - Because, having already started a career in military service, you should try to make, if possible, a brilliant career. - Yes, that’s how it is! - said Rostov, apparently thinking about something else. He looked intently and questioningly into his friend’s eyes, apparently searching in vain for a solution to some question. Old man Gavrilo brought wine. “Shouldn’t I send for Alphonse Karlych now?” - said Boris. - He will drink with you, but I can’t. - Let's go, let's go! Well, what is this nonsense? - Rostov said with a contemptuous smile. “He is a very, very good, honest and pleasant person,” said Boris. Rostov looked intently into Boris’s eyes again and sighed. Berg returned, and over a bottle of wine the conversation between the three officers became lively. The guardsmen told Rostov about their campaign, about how they were honored in Russia, Poland and abroad. They told about the words and deeds of their commander, the Grand Duke, and anecdotes about his kindness and temper. Berg, as usual, remained silent when the matter did not concern him personally, but on the occasion of anecdotes about the Grand Duke’s temper, he told with pleasure how in Galicia he managed to talk with the Grand Duke when he was driving around the shelves and was angry about the wrong movement. With a pleasant smile on his face, he told how the Grand Duke, very angry, rode up to him and shouted: “Arnauts!” (Arnauts was the crown prince’s favorite saying when he was angry) and demanded a company commander. “Would you believe it, Count, I wasn’t afraid of anything, because I knew that I was right.” You know, Count, without boasting, I can say that I know the regimental orders by heart and I also know the regulations, like the Our Father in heaven. Therefore, Count, I never have any omissions in my company. So my conscience is calm. I showed up. (Berg stood up and imagined how he appeared with his hand to the visor. Indeed, it was difficult to portray more respect and self-satisfaction in his face.) He pushed me, as they say, pushed, pushed; pushed not to the stomach, but to death, as they say; and “Arnauts,” and devils, and to Siberia,” Berg said, smiling shrewdly. “I know that I’m right, and that’s why I’m silent: isn’t it, Count?” “What, are you dumb, or what?” he screamed. I'm still silent. What do you think, Count? The next day there was no order: this is what it means not to get lost. So, Count,” said Berg, lighting his pipe and blowing some rings. “Yes, that’s nice,” Rostov said, smiling. But Boris, noticing that Rostov was about to laugh at Berg, skillfully deflected the conversation. He asked Rostov to tell us how and where he received the wound. Rostov was pleased with this, and he began to tell, becoming more and more animated as he spoke. He told them his Shengraben affair exactly as those who participated in them usually talk about battles, that is, as they would like it to have happened, as they had heard from other storytellers, as it was more beautiful to tell, but not at all the way it was. Rostov was a truthful young man; he would never deliberately tell a lie. He began to tell with the intention of telling everything exactly as it was, but imperceptibly, involuntarily and inevitably for himself, he turned into a lie. If he had told the truth to these listeners, who, like himself, had already heard stories about the attacks many times and formed a definite concept of what the attack was, and expected exactly the same story - or they would not have believed him, or, even worse, they would have thought that Rostov himself was to blame for the fact that what usually happens to storytellers of cavalry attacks did not happen to him. He couldn’t tell them so simply that they all rode at a trot, he fell off his horse, lost his arm and ran with all his might into the forest away from the Frenchman. In addition, in order to tell everything as it happened, it was necessary to make an effort on oneself to tell only what happened. Telling the truth is very difficult; and young people are rarely capable of this. They were waiting for the story of how he was burning all over the fire, not remembering himself, how he flew into the square like a storm; how he cut into it, chopped right and left; how the saber tasted the meat, and how he fell exhausted, and the like. And he told them all this. In the middle of his story, while he was saying: “You can’t imagine what a strange feeling of rage you experience during an attack,” Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, whom Boris was waiting for, entered the room. Prince Andrei, who loved patronizing relationships with young people, flattered by the fact that they turned to him for protection, and well disposed towards Boris, who knew how to please him the day before, wanted to fulfill the young man’s desire. Sent with papers from Kutuzov to the Tsarevich, he went to the young man, hoping to find him alone. Entering the room and seeing an army hussar telling the military adventures (the kind of people that Prince Andrei could not stand), he smiled affectionately at Boris, winced, narrowed his eyes at Rostov and, bowing slightly, sat down tiredly and lazily on the sofa. It was unpleasant for him that he found himself in bad society. Rostov flushed, realizing this. But it didn’t matter to him: it was a stranger. But, looking at Boris, he saw that he too seemed ashamed of the army hussar. Despite the unpleasant mocking tone of Prince Andrei, despite the general contempt that, from his army combat point of view, Rostov had for all these staff adjutants, among whom the newcomer was obviously counted, Rostov felt embarrassed, blushed and fell silent. Boris asked what news was at headquarters, and what, without immodesty, had been heard about our assumptions? “They will probably go forward,” Bolkonsky answered, apparently not wanting to talk more in front of strangers. Berg took the opportunity to ask with particular courtesy whether, as was heard, they would now issue double forage to army company commanders? To this, Prince Andrei answered with a smile that he could not judge such important state orders, and Berg laughed joyfully. “We’ll talk about your business later,” Prince Andrei turned to Boris again, and he looked back at Rostov. – You come to me after the review, we will do everything we can. And, looking around the room, he turned to Rostov, whose childish insurmountable embarrassment turning into embitterment he did not deign to notice, and said: – I think you were talking about the Shengraben case? Have you been there? “I was there,” Rostov said angrily, as if by doing so he wanted to insult the adjutant. Bolkonsky noticed the hussar’s condition and found it funny. He smiled slightly contemptuously. - Yes! there are many stories about this matter now! “Yes, stories,” Rostov spoke loudly, suddenly looking wildly at Boris and Bolkonsky, “yes, there are many stories, but our stories are the stories of those who were in the very fire of the enemy, our stories have weight, not stories of those staff guys who receive awards without doing anything. – Which one do you suppose I belong to? – Prince Andrei said calmly and smiling especially pleasantly. A strange feeling of embitterment and at the same time respect for the calmness of this figure was united at this time in Rostov’s soul. “I’m not talking about you,” he said, “I don’t know you and, I admit, I don’t want to know.” I'm talking about staff in general. “And I’ll tell you what,” Prince Andrei interrupted him with calm authority in his voice. “You want to insult me, and I am ready to agree with you that this is very easy to do if you do not have sufficient respect for yourself; but you must admit that both the time and place were chosen very badly for this. One of these days we will all have to be in a big, more serious duel, and besides, Drubetskoy, who says that he is your old friend, is not at all to blame for the fact that you had the misfortune of not liking my face. However,” he said, getting up, “you know my last name and know where to find me; but do not forget,” he added, “that I do not consider myself or you at all offended, and my advice, as a man older than you, is to leave this matter without consequences. So on Friday, after the show, I’m waiting for you, Drubetskoy; “goodbye,” Prince Andrei concluded and left, bowing to both. Rostov remembered what he needed to answer only when he had already left. And he was even more angry because he forgot to say this. Rostov immediately ordered his horse to be brought in and, having said a dry goodbye to Boris, went home. Should he go to the main apartment tomorrow and call this broken adjutant or, in fact, leave this matter like this? there was a question that tormented him all the way. Either he thought angrily about the pleasure with which he would see the fear of this small, weak and proud man under his pistol, then he felt with surprise that of all the people he knew, there was no one he would want to have as his friend. , like this adjutant he hated. On the next day of Boris’s meeting with Rostov, there was a review of Austrian and Russian troops, both fresh ones who came from Russia and those who returned from a campaign with Kutuzov. Both emperors, the Russian with the heir, the Tsarevich, and the Austrian with the Archduke, made this review of the allied army of 80 thousand. |
Lyndon Johnson, a famous politician of the United States of America, was born in 1908 and died in 1973. He was the 36th President of the United States and one of the most famous.
From 1963 to 1969, Johnson served as Vice President of the United States. Under his leadership, the government started the war in Vietnam and in 1965 began to worsen relations with the Dominican Republic.
During the reign of Lyndon Johnson, internal conflicts intensified. He proposed some changes to the civil rights law and became famous as a man without racial prejudice. Johnson succeeded in introducing amendments to the Civil Rights Act. In his personal life, he also showed himself to be an open-minded man, making an attractive black girl one of his mistresses.
Johnson dreamed of being like John Kennedy in everything, but he hid it, speaking disparagingly about his idol: “I casually had more women than him - at the cost of enormous effort!” He loved to flaunt his love victories, but at the same time he managed not to enter into conflicts with his wife.
In his youth, Lyndon entered San Marcos College, where he had no shortage of female society. Most of the students were girls, which ensured the future president a certain popularity. Johnson was visited several times by Sam Houston Johnson, and after a long time he recalled how, having gone to his brother’s apartment, he saw a completely naked Lyndon, who, looking at himself in the mirror, said: “Good old Jumbo needs a warm-up. Will he get someone tonight?”
Lyndon always readily told his friends about his relationships with the fairer sex, describing every intimate meeting in detail, but at the same time persistently pursuing his main goal. Coming from a low-income family, he needed to bring the heiress of a large fortune to the altar.
Some time later, he began a romantic relationship with Carol Davis, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. His happiness did not last long: the girl left him and married someone else. Extremely upset by this fact, Johnson tried again, becoming engaged to Kitty Clyde Ross, a wealthy heiress from Johnson City.
Dreaming of becoming a politician and devoting all his energy to this, Lyndon skillfully avoided any serious relationships with girls who did not meet his high demands. Nevertheless, he sometimes invited casual acquaintances to his home and had sexual relations with them.
Soon Lyndon was lucky: he met Claudia Bird Taylor. The public called her Lady Bird. The girl was the daughter and heiress of a famous American businessman. Their wedding took place in 1934. Largely thanks to the support of his wife, exactly 3 years later Johnson was elected to Congress. At the same time, he met his new mistress, Alice Glass, the woman of Charles Marsh.
Alice Glass regularly hosted parties at her new Virginia mansion, which they named Longley. This beautiful 18th-century building constantly accommodated many guests. Journalists and businessmen, politicians and artists were invited to receptions at Longley. Alice herself became involved in charitable activities, offering her help to Jewish emigrants. Johnson became her assistant.
Trying to hide their affair from Marsh, the lovers met on the grounds of the Mayflower and Allied Hotels. The young politician exposed himself to great risk. The march that supported him could in an instant become his worst enemy and provoke Lyndon's political downfall.
It can be assumed that Johnson's wife knew about her husband's affair, but chose not to interfere. When Lyndon was going on vacation to Longley, Lady Bird went to Texas or Washington, thereby freeing her husband's hands. One day Marsh found out about everything. The newspaper magnate caused a scandal and showed the politician the door, but soon came to his senses.
This story continued until 1967, when Alice married Marsh, refusing to support her former lover's Vietnam conflict.
A little later, it became known about another betrayal of Johnson’s wife. In 1948, Lyndon met Madeleine Brown, who worked at an advertising firm. They first met in 1948 at a party in Dallas. Madeleine, 24, said: “He looked at me like I was looking at an ice cream on a hot day.”
Brown gave birth to Lyndon's son, Stephen, and moved into the house Johnson bought for her. The entire time they were together, Johnson provided Madeleine with everything she needed: he paid for the servants, gave him cars and jewelry. They were lovers for 21 years. Coming to Texas, Johnson always met with his mistress, but carefully hid his illegitimate son from his wife and two older children, fearing complications.
However, Madeleine was not Lyndon's only mistress. The politician's intimate connections were very numerous and varied. Johnson shamelessly took advantage of his position, luring women into bed. And his wife knew very well about all the betrayals of her flighty husband.
The FBI special agents who were working on the high-ranking couple were sure that Lady Bird once saw her husband in the Oval Office with a naked secretary, but she reacted calmly: “This is just one of the properties of his nature.”
Claudia Taylor truly loved her husband very much, despite the man's rudeness and constant infidelities. Johnson publicly criticized her and ordered her around like a servant, but Taylor patiently endured all the president’s ridicule, believing that he was forcing others to improve themselves by his example: “Lyndon forces you to constantly improve. He expects more from people, spiritually and physically, than what they can give.”
Years later, she told reporters, justifying the politician’s weaknesses: “But understand: my husband loved people - in general. And half of them are women. Do you think I could protect him from half of humanity? I assure you, no one could cope with this task.”
Johnson constantly cheated on his wife, but in 1955 Claudia really realized how much he depended on her. Lyndon's heart practically gave out. Doctors diagnosed a heart attack. When Lady Bird was taking the famous senator to the hospital, he held her hand and quietly whispered: “Just sit next to me and hold my hand. I need to know that you are here while I fight my illness.” She cared for him for more than a month, waiting for his full recovery.
After some time, Johnson returned to work and carnal pleasures. In 1962 he traveled to India. Lyndon's companion was Jackie, Kennedy's sister, who was extremely pleased with the young “gallant gentleman.” They often met at receptions in the White House, and after the death of John Kennedy, his sister wrote a letter to Lyndon, thanking him for his attention and participation both during Jack’s life and now that he had become president.
But, spurred by envy, Johnson did not forget his desire to surpass the late president. He turned his attention to Kennedy's former staff and began with the stewardess of his private jet. Soon the girl became directly subordinate to Lyndon, taking the vacant position of secretary.
While checking the candidacy of a new employee, Hoover found interesting information from the girl’s biography. It turned out that in her senior year of school, the former flight attendant willingly undressed under the flashes of cameras. Compromising photographs lay on the president’s desk, which he took out in the morning and, fanning out, invited the girl to undress.
Johnson had 6 secretaries - beautiful girls, 5 of whom warmed his bed. His sexual appetite knew no bounds. He had fun on airplanes, on yachts, in his own office and in Texas, on his ranch, where one of the girls suddenly woke up hearing: “Move over. It's me, your president." Johnson made no secret of his fascination with the fair sex. Moreover, he offered to solve all the problems of his friends in one, as he believed, trouble-free way. When a friend of Lyndon complained to him about a female congressman who refused to support an important law for them, Johnson suggested that the politician discuss the issue with her in private and end the day in the bedroom, guaranteeing complete success. He himself easily resolved conflicts with the press, for example with a Washington Star journalist.
Johnson gathered around him the most beautiful girls in America, turning away with disgust from less attractive women: “I attach great importance to beauty. I can’t stand ugly cows or some fat cows – they’ll sit on their udders!”
His personal assistants readily delivered girls to the president’s apartment, upon whom his admiring gaze fell. George Reedy, aware of Lyndon's weakness, concluded: "He may be a redneck from Texas, but he has the habits of a Turkish sultan."
- Lovers
Alain Delon, the famous French film actor, was born on November 8, 1935 on the outskirts of Paris. Alain's parents were simple people: his father was a cinema manager, and his mother worked in a pharmacy. After his parents’ divorce, when Alain was five years old, he was sent to live in a boarding school, where...
Soviet state party leader. Member of the Communist Party (1917-1953). Since 1921 in leadership positions. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1938-1945). Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1953), Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers) of the USSR (1941-1953). Deputy of the Supreme Council (1937-1953), member of the Presidium of the Central Committee (Politburo)…
Real name - Novykh. A peasant of the Tobolsk province, who became famous for his “divinations” and “healings.” By providing assistance to the heir to the throne who was sick with hemophilia, he gained the unlimited trust of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Emperor Nicholas II. Killed by conspirators who considered Rasputin's influence disastrous for the monarchy. In 1905 he appeared at...
Napoleon Bonaparte, a native of Corsica from the Bonaparte dynasty, began military service in 1785 in the artillery with the rank of second lieutenant. During the French Revolution he was already in the rank of brigadier general. In 1799, he took part in the coup, taking the place of first consul, concentrating in...
The greatest Russian poet and writer, the founder of new Russian literature, the creator of the Russian literary language. Graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo (Alexandrovsky) Lyceum (1817). He was close to the Decembrists. In 1820, under the guise of official relocation, he was exiled to the south (Ekaterinoslav, Caucasus, Crimea, Chisinau, Odessa). In 1824...
Roman emperor (from 37) from the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the youngest son of Germanicus and Agrippina. He was distinguished by his extravagance (in the first year of his reign he squandered the entire treasury). The desire for unlimited power and the demand for honor for oneself as a god aroused the discontent of the Senate and the Praetorians. Killed by Praetorians. Guy...
Russian poet. Reformer of poetic language. He had a great influence on world poetry of the 20th century. Author of the plays "Mystery Buff" (1918), "The Bedbug" (1928), "Bathhouse" (1929), the poems "I Love" (1922), "About This" (1923), "Good!" (1927), etc.. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born on July 19, 1893 in...
Writer Elia Kazan, after the release of the film "A Streetcar Named Desire" starring Marlon Brando, said: "Marlon Brando is truly the best actor in the world... Beauty and character are an excruciating pain that will constantly haunt him..." With the arrival of Marlon Brando appeared in Hollywood...
Jimi Hendrix, real name James Marshall, is a legendary rock guitarist with a virtuosic guitar playing style. He had a strong influence on the development of rock music and jazz with his guitar playing technique. Jimi Hendrix is probably the first African American to achieve sex symbol status. Among young people, Jimi was personified with...
On November 18, 1960, Jean-Claude Camille Francois van Varenberg was born into an intelligent family, now he is known as Jean-Claude Van Damme. The action hero did not show any athletic inclinations as a child; he studied piano and classical dancing, and also drew well. A dramatic change occurred in his youth,...
Lyndon Johnson
"Lyndon Johnson"
36th President of the United States (1963-1969), from the Democratic Party. In 1961-1963 - Vice President of the United States. The Johnson government began an aggressive war in Vietnam and intervened in the Dominican Republic (1965). Domestic politics led to worsening social and racial conflicts.
Lyndon Johnson did not want to concede to John Kennedy in anything, including in love affairs. “I casually had more women than him - at the cost of enormous effort!” - he once said.
Johnson loved to boast about his many victories. But what is most surprising is that he was able to simultaneously maintain relationships with two permanent mistresses, date other women and not quarrel with his wife.
Johnson's career as a heartthrob began in his youth, when he was lucky enough to go to college in San Marcos, where there were three times as many female students as males, so having an affair was not difficult.
His brother, Sam Houston Johnson, recalled how he visited Lyndon in the apartment he rented while studying. Stepping out of the shower naked, Lyndon, with his eyes fixed on his manhood, said, “Good old Jumbo needs a workout. Is someone going to get him tonight?”
He willingly shared intimate details of his meetings with his friends, but at the same time he never lost sight of the main goal of his life. And in order to achieve this goal, he, the son of a poor farmer, needed to marry a girl from a wealthy family.
For some time he dated the daughter of a major businessman, Carol Davis. However, the girl became engaged to someone else, thereby putting an end to their romance.
Next up was Kitty Clyde Ross, daughter of the richest man in Johnson City.
From a young age, Johnson was interested in politics and, having started his political career, immersed himself in it headlong, so that there was almost no time left for more or less serious novels, so for relaxation he invited some waitress and spent the night with her.
One day, being too busy for traditional courtship, Johnson asked the girl who had just rejected him to introduce him to some friend.
"Lyndon Johnson"
She introduced him to Claudia Bird Taylor (everyone called her “Lady Bird”), the daughter of a successful businessman. In 1934 they got married.
Three years later, Johnson entered Congress. Around this time, he met Alice Glass, the mistress of newspaper magnate Charles Marsh, who abandoned his wife and children for her. Alice did not recognize the institution of marriage, which, however, did not stop her from giving Marsh two children.
Their eighteenth-century mansion in Virginia, named Longley, opened its doors to politicians and journalists.
Alice became involved in social activities - helping Jews emigrate from Germany. Johnson offered to help her. They became lovers, meeting at the Mayflower Hotel or the Allysinn Hotel.
Johnson took a big risk because Marsh was his political backer. His newspaper published materials in support of the young promising politician, and when Johnson realized that he could not live on the congressman's salary - ten thousand dollars a year - Marsh sold Johnson a plot of land for a reasonable fee. Lady Bird gave the money. This deal ensured their future material well-being.
Lady Bird probably knew about Johnson's relationship with Alice. When her husband had to spend a weekend in Longley, she would fly to Texas or do housework in Washington.
Eventually Marsh found out about everything. One evening, having become quite busy, he told Johnson to get out of his house. True, later, when Johnson finally returned, Marsh did not say a word.
This relationship lasted until 1967. Alice decided she could not support Johnson's war in Vietnam and married Marsh, but divorced him six years later.
Lyndon met Madeleine Brown at a social reception in Dallas in 1948, while he was a congressman.
"Lyndon Johnson"
She was twenty-four and worked as an assistant at an advertising firm. “He looked at me like I was looking at ice cream on a hot day,” Madeleine recalled. Thus began a romance that was destined to last twenty-one years.
Three years after their first meeting, Madeleine gave birth to Johnson's son, whom they named Stephen. According to Madeleine, she was attracted to Johnson primarily physically.
They diligently hid their relationship from Lady Bird and his two legitimate children. Johnson rented his mistress a small house, paid for a maid and other expenses, and gave her a new car every two years. Whenever Johnson came to Texas, he met with Madelaine.
During his vice presidency, Johnson became close to Kennedy's younger sister, Jean. In 1962, they traveled to India together. Jackie Kennedy also sympathized with Johnson, considering him a “gallant gentleman.” She willingly danced with him at balls in the White House.
After Kennedy's funeral, Jackie expressed her gratitude in writing to him for his good attitude - "both during Jack's life and now that you have become president."
Johnson even showed attention to the flight attendant on the Kennedy family plane. He later transferred her to his personal secretaries. Hoover provided Johnson with information discrediting the girl - photographs in which she, as a high school student, posed in the nude. In the morning, when the new employee entered the Oval Office, Johnson took out the photographs and began to carefully compare them with the original...
Johnson created his own harem of White House secretaries. He hired six secretaries and slept with five of them. He pleased his secretaries not only in the Oval Office, but also on his private jet and on the presidential yacht. One “pretty girl,” a White House secretary, made love to him on a desk in the Oval Office.
"Lyndon Johnson"
He took the other with him to the Johnson ranch in Texas. At night she was awakened by someone's touch. She opened her eyes and saw a man next to her. “Move over,” he said. “It’s me, your president.” The head of the Bureau of Women's Affairs in the Johnson administration, Esther Peterson, more than once lowered her eyes at Johnson's jokes with a "sexual slant."
One of the congressmen complained about his colleague, a woman named Greene, because of whom it was impossible to pass an important law. Johnson advised the congressman to spend the evening in bed with her, and then she would support any project. He recommended to his assistant to apply the same tactics to female journalists. Johnson himself had an intimate relationship with a Washington Star correspondent.
“I attach great importance to beauty,” he reasoned. “I can’t stand ugly people or any fat cows - they’ll sit on their udders!”
Johnson succeeded in passing amendments to the Civil Rights Act. In his personal life he also showed himself to be a man without prejudices. Among the women he conquered was a beautiful dark-skinned girl, Geraldine Whittington.
If Johnson caught sight of a pretty girl outside the White House, he would immediately become inflamed and send an assistant with orders to immediately find her.
“He may be a redneck from Texas,” political commentator George Reedy once said, “but he has the manners of a Turkish sultan.”
Lady Bird knew about her husband's amorous adventures. An FBI agent even claimed that she once found him making love to his secretary on the sofa in the Oval Office. Mrs. Johnson was philosophical about this: “It’s just one of the properties of his nature.”
At the heart of Lady Bird's highly unusual relationship with her husband was her thirst for self-improvement.
Many were surprised how she could continue to love this rude, unbridled man, who often allowed himself to criticize his wife in front of strangers, and even shout at her as if she were a servant, and also cheated on her. Some believed that it was all a matter of genes: Lady Bird's father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor, was the same "big guy from Texas." Lady Bird herself said: “Lyndon makes you constantly push yourself. He expects more from people, spiritually and physically, than what they can give.”
Of course, love cannot be reduced to any one scheme. Even though Lyndon left her more than once for other women, Lady Bird knew that she occupied the main place in his life. She became convinced of this one July day in 1955, when Senator Johnson suffered a massive heart attack. “Just sit next to me and hold my hand,” he said as she took him to the hospital. “I need to know that you are here while I fight my illness.” And she spent six weeks at his bedside.
A few years later, she convinced the television presenter: “Please understand: my husband loved people in general. And half of them were women. Do you think I could protect him from half of humanity? I assure you, no one could cope with this task.” .
18+, 2015, website, “Seventh Ocean Team”. Team coordinator:
We provide free publication on the site.
Publications on the site are the property of their respective owners and authors.
November 2011
The Associated Press reported that recently released tape recordings made in the Oval Office of the White House during Lyndon Baines Johnson's presidency show "the US president's personal and often emotional connection to Israel." It is emphasized that during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969), “the United States became the main diplomatic ally and the main supplier of arms for Israel.”
But the AP agency does not try very hard to highlight President Johnson's activities for the benefit of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Most scholars of the Arab-Israeli conflict talk about Johnson only as president during the 1967 Six-Day War. But few of them know about his actions taken to save Jews endangered during the Holocaust - activities that could have cost him expulsion from the US Congress and even imprisonment.
Indeed, the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” would be very useful in assessing the activities of this Texan, whose 100th birthday was celebrated in August 2008. It is no coincidence that one of the annual Jerusalem conferences dedicated a working week to the memory of Lyndon Johnson.
Historians have discovered that this man, as a young congressman in 1938 and 1939, arranged for visas to enter the United States for Jews living in Warsaw and apparently oversaw the illegal immigration of hundreds of Jews through the port of Galveston, Texas...
The main source for confirming Lyndon Johnson's pro-Jewish activities are the unpublished theses for the 1989 dissertation of University of Texas student Louis Homolak, "Prologue: The Background of L.B. Johnson's Foreign Policy Activities, 1908-1948." This activity of Johnson was confirmed by other historians in their interviews with the president's wife, members of his family and political associates. A review of Johnson's personal file shows that he inherited kindness toward the Jewish people from his family members. His aunt Jessie Johnson Hatcher was a member of the Zionist Organization of America. According to L. Homolak, Aunt Jesse fostered in her nephew for 50 years a sense of duty to provide all possible assistance to Jews. When Lyndon was a young man, he witnessed the compassion with which his politically active grandfather and father treated Leo Frank, the victim of the Atlanta blood libel. Jew Leo Frank was lynched by a mob in 1915, and the Texas Ku Klux Klan threatened to kill the Johnson family as well. The Johnsons later told friends that the family of the future US president was hiding in the basement of their house, while his father and uncles stood guard on the terrace with guns, fearing an attack by the Ku Klux Klansmen.
Johnson's press secretary later said that "the president often cited the lynching of Leo Frank as the source of his opposition to anti-Semitism and isolationism."
Already in 1934 - four years before Chamberlain's Munich deal with Hitler - Johnson was greatly alarmed by the danger of growing Nazism and gave a collection of essays, Nazism: The Assault on Civilization, to 21-year-old Claudia Taylor, whom he was courting at the time and who later became his wife. It was a kind of engagement gift for the newlyweds.
Five days after he became a congressman in 1937, L. Johnson broke with the Dixiecrats (a 1948 breakaway faction of the Democratic Party) and supported an immigration bill that would naturalize illegal aliens - mainly Jews from Lithuania and Poland.
In 1938, Johnson was told about a young Austrian Jewish musician who was facing deportation from the United States. Using a cunning trick, the future president sent him to the American consulate in Havana to obtain a residence permit there. Erich Leinsdorf, world-famous musician and conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, owes his salvation to Johnson. That same year, Lyndon Johnson warned his Jewish friend Jim Nova that European Jews were in danger of extermination. “We need to get as many Jews out of Germany and Poland as possible,” was Johnson’s intentions. Somehow he managed to obtain a stack of signed immigration documents, which were soon used to send 42 Jews out of Warsaw. But this was, of course, not enough. According to historian James M. Smallwood, Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle “hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as a port of entry. For a lot of money it was possible to buy fake passports and fake visas to Cuba, Mexico and other Latin American countries. Johnson illegally smuggled cargo barges and planes carrying Jews into Texas. He hid them in the premises of the Texas National Youth Administration. Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, and possibly more."
During World War II, Lyndon Johnson joined the Novas in the small town of Austin, raising $65,000 in war bonds. According to L. Homolak, Nowy and Johnson then collected “an impressive sum for weapons for the Jewish underground in Palestine.” One source cited by this historian reports that "Nowy and Johnson smuggled by sea heavy crates marked 'Texas Grapefruits' containing weapons for the Jewish underground in Palestine."
On June 4, 1945, Lyndon Johnson visited the former Nazi concentration camp of Dachau. As Smallwood reports, Johnson's wife, already mentioned, later recalled that when her husband returned home, "he was still shaking, dazed and overwhelmed with an overwhelming disgust and incredible horror at what he saw there."
A decade later, while Johnson was a member of the Senate, he blocked the Eisenhower administration's efforts to impose sanctions on Israel following the 1956 Sinai Campaign. “This indefatigable Johnson never stopped pressuring the American administration,” wrote Isaiah L. Koenan, then head of AIPAC. As Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson consistently blocked the anti-Israel initiatives of his fellow Democrat William Fulbright, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Johnson's closest advisers during this period included several strong pro-Israel lawyers, including Benjamin Cohen (who had mediated between Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Chaim Weizmann 30 years earlier) and Aba Fortas, the legendary Washington "insider."
Johnson's friendly attitude towards the Jewish people continued throughout his presidency. Shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Lyndon Johnson, who became US President, told an Israeli diplomat: “You have lost a very great friend, but you have gained an even greater friend.” A month after Johnson replaced Kennedy in the Oval Office, he organized the December 1963 dedication ceremony for the Agudath Achim synagogue in Austin. His longtime comrade Novy opened the ceremony by addressing Johnson in absentia: “We cannot thank the current President of the United States enough for all those Jews he rescued from Germany during the Nazi period.”
Claudia Taylor-Johnson later described that day as follows: “People, one after another, came up to me, touched my sleeve and said: “I would not have come here today if this ceremony had not been dedicated to your husband. He helped me get out of the German ring." Ms. Johnson put it more subtly: “For life, the fate of the Jews was intertwined with the fate of Lyndon.”
The prelude to the 1967 war for Israel was a terrible period when the US State Department, headed by Dean Rusk (US Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969), traditionally unfriendly towards Israel, insisted on an even-handed policy despite Arab threats and acts of aggression. Johnson had no such illusions. At the end of that war, he rather harshly placed all the blame on Egypt. “If a simple act of recklessness is more responsible for the outbreak of hostilities than any other, then it was Egypt's arbitrary and dangerously announced decision that the Straits of Tiran would be closed” (to Israeli ships and cargo fleet). Kennedy was the first president to approve the sale of defensive American weapons to Israel, especially Tomahawk anti-aircraft missiles. But L. Johnson approved the sale of tanks and offensive missiles to Israel, all vital after the Six Day War, when France froze arms supplies to Israel.
“I certainly want to be careful not to focus only on little Israel,” Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg, according to tape recordings recently released by the White House. But when, shortly after the 1967 war, the Soviet head of the Council of Ministers, Alexei Kosygin, asked Johnson at the Glassboro summit why the United States supported Israel when there were 80 million Arabs and only 3 million Jews, the president answered in plain Texan style: “Because it is right.” .
The approval of UN Resolution No. 242 in November 1967 took place under the searching gaze of L. Johnson. The vote for "secure and recognized borders" was critical. The American and British authors of this resolution opposed the return to Israel of all the territories conquered in this war. In September 1968, Johnson explained: “We are not the kind of people to dictate where other states should draw the boundaries between themselves that will guarantee the greatest security to each of them. However, it is clear that a return to the situation before the 1967 Six-Day War will not bring peace. It must be safe there, and boundaries must be recognized there. Some such lines must be agreed upon with the neighbors involved in the conflict.”
Goldberg later noted that "UN Resolution 242 in no way addresses the fate of Jerusalem, and this omission was deliberate." This historic diplomacy was carried out under the leadership of President Johnson. Goldberg was at this conversation, which took place in the presidential library: “I have to say about Johnson. He gave me a lot of personal support."
Robert David Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College, wrote in the New York Sun that Johnson's policies "were rooted in personal concepts—his friendship with Zionist leaders, his belief that America had a moral obligation to support Israel's security." , and from his understanding of Israel as a country on the cutting edge. It was very reminiscent of his home state of Texas. His personal views led L. Johnson to speak out in defense of Israel when he felt that the US Department of Defense was not adequately assessing Israel’s diplomatic or military needs.”
In historical context, the American emergency air bridge to Israel in 1973, continued diplomatic support, economic and military assistance, and strategic ties between the two countries all provide confidence and may well bear fruit from the seeds sown by Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Jerusalem Post
The attitude towards the figure of Lyndon Johnson in American and world history is ambiguous. Some believe that he was a great man and an outstanding politician, others see the thirty-sixth President of the United States as a power-obsessed figure who adapts to any circumstances. Kennedy's successor had a hard time shaking off the constant comparisons, but Lyndon Johnson's domestic policies helped boost his ratings. Everyone has ruined relations in the foreign policy arena.
Childhood and youth
Lyndon B. Johnson was born at the end of August 1908 in Texas. Lyndon's father was a farmer, and his mother, Rebecca Baines, built a journalistic career before her marriage, but left the profession to raise children. Lyndon B. Johnson often spoke about the hardships he endured as a child. This was a clear exaggeration, since the family was not in poverty. However, parents raising five children had to count every cent. When Lyndon grew up, they took out several loans so that their son could get an education at a teacher's college.
During his years of study, the future politician showed his abilities in practice in the city of Cotull. Success in a segregated school in a small Texas town marked the beginning of his successful career in politics. The young teacher coped well with his duties, which attracted the attention of the administration and managers. When Richard Kleber, a large rancher and MP, was looking for a secretary to work in the capital in 1931, he paid attention to the energetic Johnson.
Beginning of a political career
After serving two years as a congressional secretary, Lyndon Johnson was appointed Youth Administration Commissioner for the State of Texas. He was elected to the House of Representatives from the state's tenth congressional district and received an appointment to a congressional committee. So Lyndon B. Johnson became an active supporter of the announced New Deal. Before World War II, he assisted Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in resettlement in the United States.
Lyndon Johnson entered his first election race in 1941. He applied for a position in the Senate. Roosevelt supported him, but Johnson came in second among twenty-nine candidates. The following year, the young politician was appointed to the House Committee on Naval Affairs, and in 1947 he became a member of the Armaments Committee. Lyndon Johnson participated in the work of a special group on military policy.
In the Senate, Johnson became close with the influential Democrat R. Russell from Georgia. As a result, he received two posts: he was appointed to the Committee on Trade (foreign and interstate) and to the Committee on Armaments. In 1951 he was elected deputy leader of the party, and in 1955 he became its head. In 1954 he was re-elected to the Senate.
A few years later, Lyndon Johnson decided to run for the party presidency. Harold Hunt provided him with active support. A few days before the national convocation, Johnson officially announced his candidacy. He was soundly defeated in the first round and then lost to John Kennedy and was appointed vice president in 1960.
Tragic entry into office
On Friday, November 22, 1963, the thirty-fifth President of the United States was mortally wounded by a rifle while riding in a motorcade with his wife Jacqueline during a visit to Dallas to prepare for the next presidential election. The first bullet hit JFK in the back, went through the neck, and through the right wrist and left thigh of John Connally, who was sitting in front. The second bullet hit the president in the head, making a fairly large exit hole (parts of the brain scattered throughout the cabin).
After his death, Lyndon Johnson automatically became president. Interesting fact: only a few hours passed from the moment Kennedy died until Johnson took office. He took the oath of office aboard the presidential plane at the Dallas airport before flying to the capital and immediately began his new duties.
In Lyndon Johnson's famous swearing-in photo, he is surrounded by three women. On the right stands the widowed woman, who remains in her fatal pink suit, stained with blood. Her right glove was hardened by her husband's blood. To the left of the president is his own wife, nicknamed Lady Bird. Judge Sarah Hughes stands in front of him, Bible in hand. She became the only person to take the oath of office from the president.
Presidency period
Lyndon Johnson began his presidency with a speech after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He announced grim crime statistics in the United States. Johnson said that since 1885, each of the three US presidents has had an assassination attempt and one in five has been assassinated. The message to Congress said that almost every thirty minutes in the country there is one rape, every five minutes - a robbery, every minute - a car theft, every twenty-eight seconds - one theft. The state's material losses from crime amount to $27 billion a year.
In the 1964 elections, Lyndon Johnson was elected President of the United States by a significant margin. This has not happened since James Monroe won the presidential election in 1820. At the same time, the support of the Democratic Party in the South - whites dissatisfied with the abolition of segregation - voted for Republican Barry Goldwater for the first time in the last century. Goldwater, with his far-right views, was presented to Americans as a threat to peace, which only played into Johnson's hands.
Domestic policy
US President Lyndon Johnson began his tenure by strengthening social policies and improving the lives of ordinary Americans. In the first official statement from the government, which was made on November 8, 1964, he announced the beginning of the war on poverty. The Great Society included a series of major social reforms aimed at eliminating racial segregation and poverty. The program promised profound changes in health care and education systems, solutions to transportation problems, and other important changes.
The significance of Lyndon Johnson's reforms in domestic politics cannot be disputed even by his ardent opponents. The Civil Rights Act gave southern Americans of color the opportunity to vote regardless of gender. Health insurance and additional benefits were established, social insurance payments and subsidies for low-income families were increased. Measures were actively taken to combat water and air pollution, and road work was extensively carried out.
The Great Society building program was later abandoned due to US intervention in the Vietnam War. At this time, problems related to the rights of blacks began to escalate. In 1965, there were riots in Los Angeles that left thirty-five people dead. Two years later, the largest demonstrations of the African-American population took place. Twenty-six people died in New Jersey and forty in New Jersey. In 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, black unrest began.
Claudia Johnson, the first lady of the United States, was actively involved in improving cities and preserving the state's natural resources during her husband's presidency. After her husband's death, she took up entrepreneurship.
Johnson's foreign policy
The main event in the foreign policy arena during Lyndon Johnson's presidency was the fighting in Vietnam. The United States supported the government of South Vietnam in the fight against communist-minded guerrillas who enjoyed the support of the northern part of the country. In the late summer of 1964, the President ordered strikes against North Vietnam to prevent further aggression in Southeast Asia.
In 1964, the US government overthrew the unwanted regime of João Goulart in Brazil. The following year, under the Johnson Doctrine, US troops were sent to the Dominican Republic. The president justified the intervention by saying that the communists were trying to control the rebel movement. At the same time, it was decided to increase the American contingent in Vietnam to 540 thousand soldiers (under Kennedy there were 20 thousand).
In the summer of 1967, a diplomatic meeting took place between Johnson and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, A. Kosygin, in New Jersey. The following year, an American reconnaissance vessel with a crew of eighty-two people was captured off the coast of the DPRK. A week later, guerrillas simultaneously attacked cities and important installations in South Vietnam. The largest city of Hue was captured, and partisans entered the territory of the American embassy. This attack cast doubt on American reports of success in Vietnam. The commander of American forces asked to send an additional 206 thousand troops to Vietnam.
1968 elections
Due to his low public approval ratings, Johnson did not run for office in the 1968 election. He could have been nominated from the Democratic Party, who was killed in June of that year. Another candidate, Eugene McCarthy, was also not nominated. The Democrats nominated Humphrey, but the Republican won. After Nixon's inauguration, Johnson went to his own ranch in Texas.
After the presidency
After his presidency, Lyndon Johnson retired from politics, wrote memoirs, and occasionally gave lectures to students at the University of Texas. In 1972, he sharply criticized the anti-war Democratic candidate George McGovern, although he had previously supported the politician.
The thirty-sixth president died on January 22, 1973, in his hometown. Lyndon Johnson's cause of death was a heart attack. Johnson's widow, who is better known, passed away in 2007. US President Lyndon Johnson's birthday has been declared a holiday in Texas, but government agencies are open, and private entrepreneurs can choose whether to give employees an extra day off or not.
Johnson in culture
In 2002, a film about Lyndon Johnson called “The Path to War” was released, where the role of the president was played by Michael Gambon. In 2011, Johnson’s image could be seen in the mini-series “The Kennedy Clan.” The role of Johnson was played by Woody Harrelson (the film LBJ, 2017), John Carroll Lynch (Jackie, 2016), Liev Schreiber (The Butler, 2013).