ABSTRACT

Lyndon Baines Johnson became president with dignity in the face of tragedy. The task of any democratic leader was to try to create unity among Northern liberals and Southern conservatives on domestic issues. Lyndon Baines Johnson wanted to get race problems off the back of the South for the sake of justice but also to bring the South fully back into the nation. Keynesian economic theory brought answers to the problems of slow economic growth, but offered uncertain benefits to the poor if people were not already integrated into labor markets. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all worried that Southeast Asia would be lost to communism if South Vietnam were to fall. The civil rights bill, which focused on the desegregation of public accommodations, was designed in the Justice Department. Administration leadership was formally assumed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, working closely with Humphrey, Mansfield, and Dirksen, with Johnson in the background.