Lyndon Baines Johnson served as vice president under John F. Kennedy. After Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson became president and oversaw the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. Image courtesy of LBJlibrary.org
In recent weeks, much of the US media attention has been focused on President Joe Biden’s age and whether he will withdraw from the re-election race.
Biden has maintained he will not do so despite growing calls from within his own party and from Hollywood Democratic fundraisers, including George Clooney.
He continues to maintain that he is the best candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.
He said that “only God Almighty” could convince him.
But if he changes his mind, Biden would not be the first president to do so.
The last sitting president to do this would have been Lyndon Baines Johnson, better known as LBJ.
But what happened, and why did LBJ not seek reelection?
Let’s take a closer look:
Who was LBJ?
First, a quick look at LBJ.
LBJ was born in Texas on August 27, 1908.
Johnson, a moderate Democrat, served as vice president under John F. Kennedy.
A charismatic man and a brilliant speaker, Kennedy came from the famous Kennedy family.
He came to power in 1960 after a close election victory over Richard M. Nixon.
However, in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Johnson then became commander in chief.
Johnson played a vital role in calming an anxious nation in the chaotic days following Kennedy’s betrayal.
President Johnson, speaking to a joint session of Congress, invoked the memory of President Kennedy to urge passage of the Civil Rights Act.
The passage of this landmark bill could be considered President Johnson’s greatest achievement.
Johnson retained the presidency in 1964, defeating Republican Barry Goldwater.
Johnson’s victory was truly epic.
He received more than 61 percent of the vote, the largest percentage of the vote in the history of a U.S. presidential election.
More importantly, Johnson won the Electoral College vote by a landslide over Goldwater.
Johnson received 486 electoral votes compared to Goldwater’s only 52.
By the start of 1968, LBJ had achieved several other major accomplishments.
LBJ had begun the quest to create the “Great Society.”
He declared a war on poverty and pushed through a sweeping legislative agenda that included Medicare.
In 1964 he pushed through massive tax cuts for corporations and citizens.
But many were shocked when Johnson decided not to run for reelection.
what happened?
Why LBJ decided not to run again
In one word? Vietnam.
The American quagmire remains the standard by which all other quagmires are judged to this day.
President Johnson had received authorization from Congress to send troops into the Vietnam War, which he had inherited from his predecessor, President Kennedy, but which was becoming increasingly unpopular.
America, too, was experiencing divisions along lines of race, class, ideology, gender and age.
Things got worse when America’s Vietnamese enemies launched the Tet Offensive on January 30, 1968.
The Vietnam War would be the nail in Johnson’s political coffin.
According to the Bill of Rights Institute website, the Tet Offensive forever changed the way Americans view war.
Previously, half of those surveyed said the U.S. was making progress toward ending the war successfully.
After the attacks, just a third of people polled said so.
Meanwhile, nearly half of the poll respondents said the United States should never have invaded Vietnam in the first place.
Opinion on the issue of war was divided within the Democratic Party.
Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of the assassinated president, a former U.S. attorney general who was said to have despised President Johnson, said, “Our enemies, wielding savage attacks at will throughout South Vietnam, have at last shattered the mask of official illusions under which we hid the true state of affairs even from ourselves.”
Kennedy added that the United States “does not appear capable of defeating our adversaries or breaking their will, at least not without a much larger, longer-term and more costly effort.”
Senator Eugene McCarthy, who had announced his intention to run against President Johnson in the primary election, shocked many by nearly defeating the incumbent president in the first presidential primary in New Hampshire.
McCarthy was a voice for the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy also announced his candidacy for the presidential election.
Johnson shocked the world twice on March 31, 1968.
First, he announced an end to the bombing of North Vietnam.
And he announced that he would not seek reelection.
“At a time when America’s sons toil in our far-flung fields, when America’s future is at stake at home, when our hopes for peace and the world are daily endangered, I do not believe that I should spend an hour of my time, or a day, on personal partisan activities or any other duty than the great duties of this office — the Presidency of your country. Therefore, I will not seek or accept my party’s nomination for another term as your President,” Johnson said.
However, some argue that the Vietnam War was not President Johnson’s only concern.
“This is a historic moment for President Trump,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. CNN LBJ was similarly concerned about his health.
“There is a misconception that President Johnson gave up on reelection solely because of the growing controversy and division over the Vietnam War. While that may have played a role, his primary concern was his health,” Updegrove said.
“He had nearly died from a heart attack in 1955 and had a family history of fatal heart disease. He did not want the country to experience a crisis similar to the sudden death of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 or the crippling stroke of President Woodrow Wilson in 1919,” he added.
What happened next?
What happened next was a total disaster for the Democrats.
In April, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had provided moral support to President Johnson in passing the Civil Rights Act, was assassinated.
Riots broke out in cities across the United States, forcing President Johnson to send in the National Guard.
Like his brother, Robert F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullet just a few months later.
At the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August 1968, they chose to nominate Hubert Humphrey as their candidate over McCarthy, a staunch anti-war voice who was far more popular.
The incident came amid brutal street fighting between protesters and Chicago police outside the convention site, sending a signal that the Democratic Party is divided and the country is out of control.
Meanwhile, the Republicans elected a familiar face, Nixon, as president.
Nixon touted a “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War.
He also declared himself the “law and order” candidate, appealing to voters frightened by the unrest they have endured and the violence they have witnessed.
Nixon then defeated Humphreys in the 1968 election with only slight support from independent candidate and segregationist George Wallace.
Nixon received only 43.4% of the popular vote but 301 electoral votes.
Humphreys, on the other hand, received only 191 electoral votes.
Wallace won 46 electoral votes by winning several southern states.
Will history repeat itself?
only time will tell.
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