Young Writers Society

    Who is your favorite U.S. president? Most people would probably say, Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. Some might say John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mine in particular is one many may not think much upon; Lyndon Baines Johnson.

    Born on August 27th, 1908 in mid-south Texas was perhaps one of the most interesting and fascinating individuals in the entire history of America. Not because he often began to dart around the White House to turn off lights in order to save electricity, earning the humorous nickname “Lightbulb Lyndon”, or because he was a major reason African-Americans have the rights and liberties they have today and yet, so often enjoyed casual use of the n-word, but because he was a complex enigma of a man of many mysteries in how he worked, and just what drove him to change the world forever.

    When they teach the history of African-Americans in school, there are always three names that are stressed as important; Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King Jr. But how many people were actually taught about Lyndon B. Johnson in history class? Not many, I would wager. Yet this is the man who was namely responsible for the end of segregation. That's right; it was this crooked-eared, old white guy from Texas who gave way to so many rights that African-Americans have today. King rose attention to the issue, Parks and Harriet paved the way to fix it, but it was Lyndon Johnson’s amazing congressional skill that passed the civil rights legislation we have today; John F. Kennedy may not have been able to actually do those things.

    But that wasn’t all he did. He outlawed poll taxes so African-Americans were not charged extra and made it so they were no longer forced into ridiculous literacy tests for the right to vote. He appointed the first ever African-American to the supreme court and the first ever African-American to the presidential cabinet.

    It was not just African-Americans he helped – he established the Job Corps to help the poorest of Americans receive job training. He cut taxes and introduced foot stamps to hundreds of thousands to people. He invented Medicaid and Medicare. He passed many landmark acts to help preserve our environment, namely the Air Quality Act and the Wilderness Protection Act. The War on Poverty. The Housing Act. The Freedom of Information Act. No president has ever passed as many landmark, life-improving legislation that we take for granted than President Lyndon Johnson.

    Yet, nobody considers him to be a great man. Nobody considers him to be anywhere near the greatest presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. All anyone remembers him for is the Vietnam War. He sent over half a million Americans over to Vietnam, overseeing the death of thousands and thousands every week due to a hopeless war, including women and young children. It all boiled down to ego – he couldn’t stand to be the first president to lose a war. Indeed, perhaps this was the driving factor behind the Vietnam War which brutalized the American economy for decades to come, and is seen as a huge, ugly stain on American history. Ultimately, Lyndon Johnson was a man obsessed with his legacy, and this perhaps had a driving factor on everything that he did.

    Some people believe that his rise to power wasn’t all luck – that eighty-seven people electing him to the senate, a handful of states electing him to the vice presidency, then the mysterious death of John F. Kennedy finally placing him in the oval office wasn’t all a coincidence. Perhaps all the great things he did for America were not out of the goodness of his heart, yet this overwhelming desire to be well-known and well-appreciated for years to become. Perhaps knowing his fumbling in Vietnam would destroy his legacy was the reason he took up heavy smoking after leaving office despite the objections of his doctors, abandoning all care for his own personal health and passing away of a heart attack in 1973.

    Most people will not say that Lyndon Johnson is their favorite president – but I will. Was he a good man who was ultimately underappreciated for all he did for America, and had his legacy destroy over not wanting to let go of Vietnam? Or was he a crooked, twisted individual who murdered and cheated his way into the presidency, only acting to satisfy his own ego and cement his legacy? I’d like to think the former, but I also feel there are few human beings in American history more interesting than the enigma known as Lyndon B. Johnson.