Born August 27, 1908
Gillespie County, Texas
Died January 22, 1973
San Antonio, Texas

U.S. president, vice president, senator

Lyndon B. Johnson suddenly became president during one of the darkest times in U.S. history—following the assassination of the popular John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63; see entry). Johnson proceeded to fight hard for the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but is best remembered for serving during the tumultuous period of the Vietnam War (1954–75). In his 1986 book Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson, historian Paul K. Conkin said Johnson "was confused and almost helpless." The personal toll on the president "was almost overwhelming. He had aged ten years in only two and was now visibly an old man, shaken, ineffective, almost beleaguered in a White House surrounded daily by angry...