Lyndon B. Johnson
The mid-twentieth century in American political life was shaped by figures who rose through the machinery of Congress before reaching the White House. Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of those figures, born on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, and a citizen of the United States throughout his life.
Johnson's path ran through education and public service in roughly equal measure. He attended Lyndon B. Johnson High School and went on to study at Texas State University, later receiving education at Georgetown University Law Center. Before his political career took hold, he also worked as a teacher. When he did turn to politics, he did so as a Democrat representing Texas, serving in both houses of the U.S. Congress before ascending to the executive branch. He served as vice president under John F. Kennedy from 1961 until 1963, at which point he assumed the presidency following Kennedy's assassination.
His military service during the Second World War brought him a number of decorations, including the Silver Star, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Those honors reflect a period of his life that ran alongside his congressional career rather than interrupting it entirely. Johnson died on January 22, 1973, having lived through one of the more turbulent stretches of American political history.
On the question of recognition, Johnson accumulated distinctions that extended well beyond his military record. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the higher civilian honors available in the United States, as well as the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award, which recognizes contributions to public health and public service. The Library of Congress catalogs him under the authorized label "Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973," a designation that places his work firmly within the institutional record of American political life. The Lasker-Bloomberg award, in particular, marks him as someone whose time in office was connected, at least in the judgment of that honor's selectors, to matters of public welfare.
Quotes by Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson's insights on:
What's necessary to keep one's wife happy. First, let her think she is having her own way. Second, let her have it.
This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.
Hug your friends tight, but your enemies tighter - hug 'em so tight they can't wiggle
The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman, and each nation must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem.
We must not only protect the countryside and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities.
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.
Already a congressman, to a mentor “I hope sometime you run across something you think I can do well 24 hours per day.
Of course, I may go into a strange bedroom every now and then that I don’t want you to write about, but otherwise you can write everything.
When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.