President Johnson is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier

[Pyro]

President Johnson is Dead
Turbulent Times in the New Frontier

~Table of Contents~
Introduction: That's the Way It Was
Chapter One: American Guardsman
Chapter Two: Ask Not

~Completed Election Results~ (Spoilers!)
Election of 1960


Johnson with Vice President Kennedy and Sec. McNamara in Palm Beach, 1963

Prologue: Dallas, Texas

Local television service in Dallas had suddenly been interrupted.
Visibly shaken and out of breath, network director Jay Watson delivered the shocking report.

"About ten or fifteen minutes ago, a tragic thing from all indications at this point has happened in the city of Dallas. Let me quote to you this. A bulletin, this is from the United Press, from Dallas. President Johnson and Governor John Connolly have been cut down by assassin's bullets in downtown Dallas. They were riding an open automobile when the shots were fired."
Jay Watson, WFAA

When the news broke, millions of Americans stood paralyzed by their radio and television sets. Onlookers in Dallas, excited and eagerly awaiting sight of the presidential motorcade on this brief visit, panicked as the shots first rang out. Federal agents stormed the crowds, searching for the assailant. Dallas police tracked down and arrested an agitated schoolbook depository worker suspected of firing the shots. As this man was taken into custody, an all-together separate contingent of local officers found and arrested a second suspect nearer to the scene of the shooting.

Although medical professionals worked speedily and tirelessly, President Lyndon Johnson was pronounced dead at 12:45 CST. Press Secretary Bill Moyors announced this harrowing outcome to a sea of reporters and local journalists. The First Lady had been delivering her final lines to the Dallas Gold Star Mothers Organization when she was quietly informed of the events which had transpired. Ms. Johnson was rushed to the hospital where, upon arrival, she collapsed out of grief.

The news cycle ran for 72 hours straight following the initial announcement. Anchors breathlessly stumbled over their words as they struggled to convey the magnitude of the assassination. Walter Cronkite on CBS TV held a steady tone in bringing the news together, but even he had trouble comprehending, and more so putting into words, exactly how the nation ought to move forward. President Johnson, albeit a controversial figure throughout his tenure, was beloved by a great deal of the nation. His experience with Congress had become an insurmountable boost in accomplishing his multi-point plan for a greater society. Now, the torch was forcibly ripped from Johnson's grasp and handed to another. Though time seemed frozen, the clocks ticked forward.

"... so help me God."
36th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Air Force One, Dallas Love Field

7.18 Edit: Added Ch2

[Pyro]

Senator Lyndon Johnson (D-TX), 1950

Introduction: That's the Way It Was

 
  On the fifteenth memorial commemorating the tragic loss of President Lyndon Johnson, CBS aired a brief documentary program following its regular showing of WKRP in Cincinnati. Simply titled, L.B.J., the Robin Lehman piece touched on various high-profile moments in the life of the late president, starting with his ascendancy in Congress. The uncredited narrator bombastically explained, "Senator Lyndon Johnson attained the title of Majority Whip in 1951, serving for several years thereafter."

  In a hotly contested Senate election in 1948, Johnson defeated former Texan Governor Coke Stevenson. A muddled process through and through, this controversial and debatably unfair primary bout resulted in Johnson taking his first real steps into the swamp of party politics. He won favor with the Old Guard of Southern Democrats, notably Georgian Senator Richard Russell, and as the CBS narrator told true, this would propel him into national spotlight as the Majority Whip.

  Senator Johnson remarkably excelled at organizing his Democratic colleagues from this moment on, and did so without the slightest cause for concern. In mid-summer 1958, a reporter from the Washington Post exclaimed, "The influence of the Democratic wing of Congress is held less far less so by Senator McFarland, but the Majority Whip, Senator Johnson. McFarland sat observantly in this latest session as Johnson effectively passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act all his own. The influence of the senator from Texas may only be matched by that of Sam Rayburn in the House."

  As President Eisenhower neared the end of his final term, murmurs of the primary season made their way through Washington. Of this complex moment in political history, the CBS program only had this remark to say. "There was one clear choice for the Democrats: Lyndon Johnson. He conquered the Legislative Branch, and now he was on to the Executive to take the reigns in the White House. Before long, loyal Democrats rallied around Johnson straight to the fateful party convention in Los Angeles where he selected little-known junior Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts as his running mate."

  Ultimately, the conclusion reached in this segment does indeed match historical ends. However, those living from that era look soberly at 1960 sans rose-tinted glasses. LBJ supporter and Texas Governor to-be, John Connally, Jr., was present at the 1960 Convention and pieced the story together in an interview from "Johnson In Memoriam: The Power of Passage."

  Connally was recorded stating, "The convention in L.A. carried over the strain of the primary. Humphrey got washed by Jack in Wisconsin, and that Kennedy racked up the delegates from there on out. First New Jersey, the Pennsylvania, Indiana. Once Nebraska rolled around in May, that was the moment we finally managed to get through to him. [Johnson] started on the campaign trail just in time to pick up about 40 or 45% of that Nebraskan delegation. It was a shocker for the Kennedy-ites [laughter] to see a Southern Democrat leap forward like he did, but that's the way it was with Lyndon."

  

"Johnson has emerged as a close second in Nebraska, out-performing polls by an astounding figure."
ABC Radio Broadcast, May 11th, 1960
  

"Sen. Johnson wins Majority of Delegates in West Virginia. Sen. Kennedy narrowly takes Maryland."
Chicago Tribune, May 18th, 1960

[Pyro]

Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, July 1960

  John F. Kennedy's loss in West Virginia had been devastating to the morale of his campaign. A victory there was vital in ensuring the whole of the party that his candidacy was feasible in heavily protestant, though traditionally Democratic, states. Historians debate on how significant of an issue religion had been in this particular contest, but universally understood is how this crushing defeat on May 10th set the course for the remainder of the race. The loss not only adversely affected his confidence, but it dampened funding and narrowed demographic support.

  The Kennedy staff lost a great deal of financing to the Johnson Campaign following West Virginia, but retained a generous amount to march forth through to the remaining primary bouts. Typically, moderates, blue-collar workers, and voters over 40 years of age vastly preferred Senator Johnson in each of these primaries, while younger and more diverse constituencies favored Kennedy. Studies taken during this election process demonstrated a succinct fervor amongst Kennedy supporters who believed that the future of the party, as well as the country, hinged on their candidate's win over Johnson. As one Wyatt Miller of Maryland put it in an interview with the local Star Democrat publication, "There's this vibrancy and persona to Kennedy that you'd never feel with a Johnson-type."

  Oregon, with its primary taking place shortly following Maryland, ended in a narrow win for Johnson. His tight-knit team of seasoned politicos and staffers had played the national field with former candidate Adlai Stevenson, and some carried on with President Truman. The Johnson Campaign had an abundance of on-hand capital and did not hold back in aggressively capturing swing communities with media spots and stump speeches.

  LBJ's campaigning had not been anti-Kennedy in any remote regard, instead focusing on broad coalition-building. Senator Johnson proclaimed that, if elected, he would lay the groundwork for new domestic programs intended to provide a voice for those most disadvantaged in America: the poor, sick, and elderly. This combined with a promise to match the accelerating military might of the Soviet Union took much of the wind from his competitor's sails. Kennedy, much to the chagrin of his advisers, refused to turn bluntly negative against Johnson (the former's brother, Robert Kennedy, suggested highlighting LBJ's indifference to racial equality, but John Kennedy declined).

  Faced with dual losses, the candidate took a suggestion from his father. To an extent, Kennedy turned to localized Democratic leaders in states like New York and Minnesota. Spending sleepless nights on drawn-out calls with bosses, figureheads and legislators, both John and Robert Kennedy pushed until that last minute to rack up the delegate count as high as possible. He had likely hoped that these delegations would back his campaign instead of Johnson's. Party Strategist Robert F. Murphy, then-serving as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, reflected in 1962 on John Kennedy's Post-Oregon plan.

  "[Kennedy] had not known President Johnson the way we do now. Jack was a newcomer facing off against a giant. As Johnson built up the delegates from Tallahassee to Trenton, Kennedy understood he had one shot at keeping his ducks in line: that First Ballot. Should he have been awarded top place on the initial roll call, I believe the New York delegation would have followed suit - meaning an opening of the floodgates, so to speak. California was that last battleground, and in order to have a real chance at gathering the Western vote, he needed to either outright win or come close. Pat Brown ended up on the ballot, and the man refused have his name be removed, even though we all understood he had no intention of actively seeking the party nod. He won the majority of those votes, and let me tell you those were Kennedy votes."
 
  As Murphy explains, when the fate of the nomination is uncertain, the results of the first ballot could make all the difference in building momentum. Johnson, winning an easy victory in Florida and managing second in California, possessed enough bound delegates to cut heartily into Kennedy's total. As thus, even with his tallied score in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, John Kennedy would ultimately fail to breakthrough the necessary threshold to secure the nomination. A majority of Western delegates lost any tepid confidence they felt for Kennedy and confirmed Johnson as the nominee on the second ballot.

DEMOCRATIC BALLOT: PRES		1st Call		2nd Call		1,523 DELEGATES
Lyndon B. Johnson		643		985
John F. Kennedy		620		524
Adlai Stevenson		80		6
Robert B. Meyner		54		2
Stuart Symington		52		1
Hubert Humphrey		41		0
Others/Blank		33		5

"Our party and our Nation must and shall extend the hand of compassion and the hand of affection and love to the old and the sick and the hungry. For who among us dares to betray the command, 'Thou shalt open thine hand--unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.'"
Excerpt from 1960 Democratic Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson's Acceptance Speech, July 13th, 1960

[Pyro]

The Democratic and Republican Tickets for 1960

  Defeating his greatest political rival since Coke Stevenson, Senator Johnson finally won his presidential nomination. With the first step of the process complete, his eyes now turned to the general election. Taking down an unknown Massachusetts senator was one thing, but proving his worth to the American public to an extent great enough to win an electoral plurality was an entirely new matter to be dealt with. Johnson's team had its share of ideas in mind for how best to implement a straight New Deal-er campaign moving forward, however this strategy had ultimately proved unsuccessful when former Governor Adlai Stevenson utilized it in his 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns.

  "The message [of a presidential campaign], if detached from the candidate, cannot alone garner votes," historian Theodore H. White wrote in The Making of the President. "Thomas Dewey certainly professed all of the correct talking points, yet Harry Truman won his second term. Adlai Stevenson had promoted an esteemed domestic policy, yet lost in adjoining landslides to President Eisenhower. Moving toward the 1960 election, general polling favored the Republican candidate. These seemingly frivolous things, likability and character, must not be disregarded in this context."

  As thus, even prior to his convention win, Johnson focused to a higher degree on the electoral map than his predecessors. Presenting a poor performance would most certainly bring about a repeat of the past two cycles, and the chance of locking himself in the South was indeed a possibility. Unlike in '52 or '56, Johnson possessed two critical advantages unobtainable by Stevenson. First, Dwight Eisenhower would not be eligible to run for president in 1960. Second, a general awareness that the nation was becoming complacent, in regards to the economic and scientific rise of the Soviet Union, turned incumbency a touch more toxic than prior years.

  Choosing the correct vice presidential candidate was of vital consequence, and had the potential to turn the electoral map in Johnson's favor. John Connally remarked that, in 1960, "Johnson absolutely required a guarantee for a regional advantage beyond the far South. Preferably, in the Midwest where July polls had been closer than in, say, New York. That was the thought process during the convention: a regional boost, not demographics."

  Close aids to the senator relented in ensuing years that Kennedy had not been on Johnson's short-list whatsoever. This list included friendlier, well-known Democratic figures like Senator Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator Gore from Tennessee. Gore could have secured votes from those hedging liberal Republicans while Humphrey seemed the perfect piece in attaining the Midwest. Aside from geographic assistance, Johnson too fancied a confidant at his side, even if the two were to disagree on issues of political circumstance.

  Kennedy had none of this. He was not a well-known figure moving beyond his primary supporters and, as one aid explained in a private interview, Johnson felt uneasy trusting Kennedy as a true companion. John Kennedy, the Johnson team would discover, also had not been in perfect health. Struggling with Addison's Disease, Kennedy took medicine constantly in order to alleviate his symptoms. With all of this in mind, however, Johnson's Campaign Manager, Walter Jenkins, insisted on him. Connally stated, "[Kennedy], in Walter's mind, was the key for winning in 1960. In theory, and if his charismatic style was advertised properly, he would win with Catholics, the under 30s, and the whole of New England. Humphrey did lose the Midwest to Kennedy, after all."

  At last, Johnson made the call, and, somewhat reluctantly, admitted that his primary opponent did have the potential to sway non-voters and assist in acquiring those high-value Northern states come November. Kennedy was thereby selected as the vice presidential nominee for the Democrats. Understanding the latter's personality and background, LBJ made it a point to keep Kennedy literally behind him at all times in order to avoid, as Johnson put it, "presidential conflation."

DEMOCRATIC BALLOT: VICE		1st Call		1,523 DELEGATES
John F. Kennedy		Unanimous, By Acclamation

  Days following the Democratic Convention, the Republican Party met in the Chicago International Amphitheater and selected their unopposed nominee, Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Ever-Statesman-like and eager to start his executive tenure, Nixon presented himself as a man already accustomed to administrative politicking. His acceptance speech lambasted the Democrats' platform as financially irresponsible and their focus on foreign policy transparent. He drove hard and fast at Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, hardly taking a breath to chew apart his interpretation of Communism.

   Nixon exited the gate raring to get moving with the general campaign. Both Kennedy and Johnson observed Nixon's mannerisms in his major speech and, each having been familiar with the vice president for several years, they had strategies in mind from the get-go. Assistant Communications Aide, Samuel Forrest, recalled in an interview for a Johnson Presidential Biography that the Texan's attitude toward Nixon was not akin to Kennedy's. For, while, "Kennedy observed this articulate adversary," Johnson only saw, "an entitled, querulous brat." Forrest exclaimed, "Johnson smiled at one point in Nixon's speech during an unobtrusive stutter, one I hadn't caught at the time, and said to me, 'We're going to wipe the floor with this s**t stain."

"Senator Johnson, the Democratic nominee, plans to challenge Vice President Nixon to a televised debate on the issues of the campaign. The Vice President is reported to be inclined to reject the Johnson proposal on the ground that a personal debate would be unwise."
The Washington Post, July 25th, 1960

[Pyro]

Vice President Richard Nixon visited by Senator Johnson, Walter Reed Hospital, August 1960

  Storming into the '60 Campaign, the Johnson team presented its candidate as one fighting for a new, secure direction for the nation. Along with championing his proposed expansion of domestic programs and providing for labor protections, Johnson took advantage of Soviet scaremongering and profusely highlighted the need for a renewed "international prestige" for the United States. Johnson argued that the country had fallen behind in scientific and military technological investments, thereby setting the stage for a world dominated by Soviet industry.

  Nixon ignored much of the criticism deriving from the Johnson Campaign in the heat of the August-September season with intent on conglomerating his own narrative. The vice president embarked on his infamous 50-State Tour following the Republican Convention. Though it sounded a surefire means to double-down on the '52 and '56 landslide victories, in the end it proved disastrous. The vice president spent many weeks on this goodwill tour, speaking in deeply Democratic states like Georgia, while Johnson and Kennedy took this valuable time to captivate swing state voters. Nixon then injured his knee on a car door in North Carolina: ending him up in a local hospital, plaguing his posture for ensuing months and providing fodder to the Johnson Campaign which had already sought to paint Nixon as clumsy and irresponsible.

  Johnson's chief struggle was, as he and those close to him knew, connecting with Northern Democrats. The Texan senator had a plain manner of speaking invaluable with attracting moderates and a fair deal of traditional Democrats, yet lacked the spark embedded in those like Kennedy and, to an extent, Nixon. In no other location was this phenomenon clearer than at a late summer campaign stop in Monticello, Illinois. When walking from his car to a small auditorium to present a speech to local business leaders, a young man approached Senator Johnson and inquired, seven or eight times, as to the candidate's record on civil rights. Samuel Forrest recalled, "The right move would have been to calmly interact with the man, or even pivot to his support for the '57 Bill, but he instead lost his cool."

  The press dramatized the engagement in their coverage of the moment with headlines such as, "Tempers Flare in Monticello" and "Johnson Lashes Out at Illinois Youth." In all truth, the Democratic nominee did most certainly raise his voice at the young man to move aside, and Nixon reveled in this shift of focus. The reverberations of the event had been far less damaging to the candidate's character than it did shed light on Johnson's past objection to civil rights legislation. Right at this time it turned out, surely by coincidence, that Nixon finally accepted Johnson's offer for a televised debate. In the vice president's mind, Johnson was at his weakest and all he had to do was drill the point home to complete the score. For Johnson, this was an opportunity in the reverse.

  On September 26th, 1960, sitting before several hot stage lights appeared two figures, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. Motioned by the host to begin, the Democratic opponent first stood and presented his opening statement. Collected and confident, Johnson would articulate, "The question we must face in the 1960s is that of America's independence. Will the United States maintain its industrial independence and superiority as the productive power of the Soviet Union rises unchallenged as it stands today? Our struggle with Mr. Khrushchev is one of survival. This is a time when you must select the voice of leadership who had encountered the problems of bringing men together, bringing countries together. This is one of our most trying hours."

  Nixon then stood to put forward his statement. Appearing gaunt and grey on television, the Republican candidate seemed ill-prepared for the event. As would be the custom for the vice president in this debate, he would purposely dodge the accusations of industrial and military weakness asserted by his challenger and instead applaud the achievements of the Eisenhower administration whilst criticizing the Democratic platform. "Whether it's in the field of housing, or health, or medical care, or schools, or the development of electric power we have programs which we believe will move America, move her forward and build on the wonderful record that we have made over these past seven and a half years. I costed out the cost of the Democratic platform. It runs a minimum of $13.2 billion a year more than we are presently spending to a maximum of $18 billion more than we are presently spending."

    Prior to this first, of a total of four, debates, Johnson ran approximately four to five points behind Nixon in national polling of registered voters. Following this commanding initial performance, polling had Johnson tied with Nixon. Both television viewers and radio listeners of the debate professed to have vastly preferred the majority leader over the vice president. Even Nixon supporters shook their heads over the dreadful performance of their candidate. Nixon's unsettling perspiration alone would have tipped the debate, but Johnson had brought his A-Game. October now nearing its end, the race had turned from Republican-leaning to a definitive tossup.

"President Eisenhower Campaigns for Nixon in Manhattan. New Yorkers Line Madison Ave."
The New York Times, October 30th, 1960

"Senator Johnson is now reported to have contacted Governor Vandiver and Judge J. Oscar Mitchell. How this connects to the recent announcement of Reverend Martin Luther King's release from the Georgia State Prison on a $2,000 bond appeal is unclear at this time."
NBC News, October 31st, 1960

[Pyro]

LBJ Casts His Vote, November 8th 1960

  In the final ten days prior to the election, each candidate sought to break new ground and move past the dreaded tossup vote forecast by national pollsters. President Eisenhower embarked on a long overdue campaigning tour with the vice president, solidifying those traditional Republican voters. Up to this point the president had not taken the opportunity to fight alongside his second-in-command as prior presidents had, but, by the last week of October, the immensely popular incumbent conducted a last-minute push to elect Mr. Nixon.

  Senator Johnson had opted to phoning two central figures in the recent Martin Luther King ordeal. The civil rights leader had been imprisoned for a brief span of time in Georgia without given the option of bail. Johnson, for discernment heavily disputed by historians and contemporaries alike, made the carefully crafted decision to call both Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver and Judge J. Mitchell to inquire as to the details of the situation. Campaign aids argued for years thereafter that Johnson felt compassion for King and had been compelled to take action in his case. Critics point to the idea that LBJ's choice may have been directed by political astuteness (winning over black districts). For whatever the reason may be, King was released on bail the following morning. Johnson denied that he had played any substantial role in the case, but did state that Mitchell made the correct choice in changing his mind.

  For the sake of clarity, the Johnson Campaign had been thoroughly divided on the merits of this move. John Connally, among a fair amount of others within the team, believed that this act was in error, and Johnson should have let the situation play out on its own. Others, including Walter Jenkins and the Kennedys, commended the candidate's move. Moving forward, even if Johnson risked his security in the Southern states, what mattered most was that Nixon was now known as the candidate who sat on his hands. Johnson, alternatively, was the candidate who acted. As Jenkins would declare to the campaign staff, "This is the unlocking of the Midwest. Move Illinois to tossup." With the exception of those Democrats fiercely opposed to civil rights reform and the practices of Dr. King, this played well in nearly every single demographic.

  Election Day moved quickly. Polling stations from coast to coast witnessed an overcrowded unseen in years, with dozens reporting all-time record turnout. Each candidate was photographed casting their ballots, and then each returned to their campaign headquarters to begin the longest election night since 1948. When the vote-counting began, at last, the press reported state-by-state results.

  John Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, as well as Rhode Island, were called for the Democrats early in the night, just as Maine and Vermont swung hard in favor of Nixon. Johnson carried Connecticut with an uncomfortably close margin, likely due in part to the incumbent U.S. Ambassador to Spain and former Connecticut governor, John D. Lodge, who actively endorsed and campaigned for Nixon. The Republicans won a minor victory in taking New Hampshire for the fourth consecutive presidential election.

  New York had been called fairly early in the night for Senator Johnson, as were Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia. Kentucky and Missouri were too won narrowly by the Democratic contender. The entire stretch of the Central-South United States, including the "Electoral Goldmine" of Texas, stuck with Johnson, regardless of the MLK affair. Virginia, a true battleground state going into this particular election, see-sawed back and forth for hours until its eventual call for Nixon with a margin of roughly 2.2%.

  The state of New Jersey, albeit uncalled until three hours following the poll closures, was won by Nixon by less than one percent of the vote. Michigan and Minnesota had been won by Senator Johnson, while Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa were each won by Vice President Nixon. Ohio ended its count 53-46 in favor of Nixon. In Pennsylvania and Illinois, polling stations in dozens of districts recorded virtual ties, leading to the networks refusing to call these two states for either candidate. The total stood at 263-100 in favor of Johnson.

NBC Broadcasts the Election Results Live, November 8th, 1960

  At the moment the networks remarked on the closeness of those two uncalled Midwestern states, the tide turned somewhat as the Western Republican wave fueled Nixon's Electoral total up to 212. He had picked up all remaining states with thundering margins: with the exception of Nevada (called for Johnson). California, though its votes demonstrated a fair match by Johnson, was surprisingly called early for Nixon with a margin of over three percent. With the clocks on the East Coast ringing in at 12:00 AM, The Democratic candidate required one of those final states in order to be selected president. Nixon needed both of them.

  Illinois flipped back and forth between the candidates for several hours until it made its final flip to the Nixon column at 1:00 AM. Although Chicago  had come in dramatically for the Johnson/Kennedy ticket, the rural and suburban parts of the state were a landslide for the vice president. Illinois had been won by Nixon, 50.1% to 49.6%. 266-239. All eyes turned to Pennsylvania.

  In the Keystone State, as had occurred with Illinois, the cities had been moving in favor for the Democratic ticket while the rural districts went for Nixon (each about 65-35). Unlike in Illinois, however, suburbia was not so full-fledged in its support for Nixon. In towns on the outskirts of Philadelphia like Penn Wynne and Chesterbrook, Johnson held, on average, a steady 48% to Nixon's 52%. The Republican candidate required a far higher average for these smaller towns in order to take the state's 32 Electoral Votes. As Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sided commandingly with Johnson, the sheer numbers were just not there for Nixon. When the count had been finalized on the morning of November 9th, the State of Pennsylvania reported a Johnson victory: 49.5% to 49.1%.

"Lyndon Johnson has been elected. He will be the 35th President of the United States."
CBS Broadcast, November 9th, 1960

[Pyro]

The Election of 1960: Final Results

[Pyro]

Thank you everyone for the comments! Glad to see you seem to be enjoying it!

Will this be continued?

Yes! Will have the next part up tonight.

[Pyro]

1960 Congressional Elections  

Senate
Democratic: 63 (-2)
Republican: 37 (+2)

House
Democratic: 260 (-23)
Republican: 177 (+24)

 Senate Leadership

Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Sen. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL)

 House of Representatives Leadership

Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
Minority Leader Charles Halleck (R-IN)

  In spite of Lyndon Johnson's electoral victory, the Congressional wave of 1960 brought in far more Republicans than anticipated. Although the Democrats retained a majority in each house of Congress, their lead had waned down significantly. Republicans gained much of this lead from voters in the Midwest and West: including a 7-seat bump from Indiana. The Senate remained, for the most part, stable, with Republicans picking up two seats. As with the House election, the Democrats held tightly onto their existing seats.

  Senators McNamara (D-MI) and Metcalf (D-MT) succeeded in just barely in defending their seats from Republican opponents, and the same held true for the incumbent North Dakotan governor John Davis (R-ND) in his senatorial victory over Democratic lawyer Quentin Burdick. Senator J. Allen Frear, Jr. has lost his re-election campaign to popular Governor J. Caleb Boggs. Frear campaigned well in his mission to preserve his incumbency, but failed to connect the same dots as Johnson and Kennedy had on the national level. This left the door open for Governor Boggs, somewhat of a populist and certainly a liberal Republican, to storm onto the stage and exit with a 51% win.

  In one of the more embarrassing moments for the Democrats of 1960, the retiring Senator Joseph O'Mahoney (D-WY) witnessed his chosen successor, a young lawyer named Raymond Whitaker, lose in a disastrous race to a Republican challenger. O'Mahoney had worked in the U.S. Senate since the days of Franklin Roosevelt, and had played his due part in advocating for the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Upon suffering a stroke, O'Mahoney delegated the nomination to Mr. Whitaker. Whitaker ran as a moderate against WWII veteran Edwin Thomson, ending with a 57-42 win for the latter. As it turned out, Mr. Thomson would suffer a fatal heart attack prior to taking office, thereby leading to the (eventual) succession of one Milward Simpson from the Wyoming governorship to the Senate.

  

Senators Elected in 1960 (Class 2)
John Sparkman (D-AL): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Bob Bartlett (D-AK): Democratic Hold w/ 62%
John L. McClellan (D-AR): Democratic Hold, Unopposed
Gordon Allott (R-CO): Republican Hold w/ 54%
J. Caleb Boggs (R-DE): Republican Gain w/ 50%
Richard Russell, Jr. (D-GA): Democratic Hold, Unopposed
Henry C. Dworshak (R-ID): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Paul Douglas (D-IL): Democratic Hold w/ 52%
Jack Miller (R-IA): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Andrew F. Schoeppel (R-KS): Republican Hold w/ 55%
John S. Cooper (R-KY): Republican Hold w/ 59%
Allen J. Ellender (D-LA): Democratic Hold, Unopposed
Margaret C. Smith (R-ME): Republican Hold w/ 62%
Leverett Saltonstall (R-MA): Republican Hold w/ 56%
Patric V. McNamara (D-MI): Democratic Hold w/ 50%
Hubert Humphrey (D-MN): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
James O. Eastland (D-MS): Democratic Hold, Unopposed
Edward V. Long (D-MO) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Lee Metcalf (D-MT): Democratic Hold w/ 50%
Carl T. Curtis (R-NE): Republican Hold w/ 59%
Styles Bridges (R-NH): Republican Hold w/ 60%
Clifford P. Case (R-NJ): Republican Hold w/ 56%
Clinton P. Anderson (D-NM): Democratic Hold w/ 60%
B. Everett Jordan (D-NC): Democratic Hold w/ 61%
John E. Davis (R-ND): Republican Hold w/ 50%
Robert S. Kerr (D-OK): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Maurine B. Neuberger (D-OR): Democratic Hold w/ 54%
Claiborne Pell (D-RI): Democratic Hold w/ 68%
Strom Thurmond (D-SC): Democratic Hold, Unopposed
Karl E. Mundt (R-SD): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Estes Kefauver (D-TN): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX): Democratic Hold w/ 58%
A. Willis Robertson (D-VA): Democratic Hold w/ 80%
Jennings Randolph (D-WV): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Edwin Keith Thomson (R-WY): Republican Gain w/ 57%

[Pyro]

Johnson and Kennedy: First Public Appearance Post-Election

  With the votes counted, it was now clear by all accounts that the Democratic ticket won out the day. 289 to 239: the Electoral Vote was clear. Johnson, Kennedy and the Democrats' overall appeal turned out to be the decisive factor with this tossup race, along with an unmistakable lackluster enthusiasm for Nixon in Pennsylvania.

  Vice President Nixon conceded when Pennsylvania had finally been called on November 9th. He had refused to consider the idea of initiating a recount in the Quaker State nor elsewhere. A handful of key Republican senators, including one Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) insisted that under the terms of "fair play", Nixon would and should have walked away with this contest. Goldwater and others put forth that Catholic precincts were generally over-represented, and that this factor had greatly assisted the Johnson/Kennedy ticket. However, with few reported counts of voter fraud in these "tossup" states to boost this claim, Nixon refused the advice of Goldwater and that of his campaign staff, officially bowing out sans scruples.

  President-elect Johnson took a commanding hold on the direction of his staff in the interregnum period inter-spliced between the election and January's inauguration. He opted to significantly downsize his regional staff following Election Day, declining to offer permanent employment to the majority of these campaign workers. His closest aids, in addition to a key selection of the national Johnson Campaign leaders, were privately offered positions in the Johnson Administration. Though critical historians may point to this phenomena as a sign of Johnson enclosing himself within an "Executive Bubble", as Theodore White stated, one may also attribute this as a precautionary measure in response to the closeness of the election. Taking into consideration the slim majority in the presidential race and the even-tempered upsurge of Republicans in Congress, the new president could not in fair terms deem this a mandate worthy of employing his entire volunteer staff.

  In those weeks approaching Inauguration Day, as Johnson carefully reviewed his cabinet options and the language of his inaugural speech, President Eisenhower announced that the United States would sever diplomatic relations with Cuba. This tepid relationship between the Eisenhower Administration and that of Fidel Castro broke down amidst the latter's moves to nationalize U.S.-owned private industry. Eisenhower gradually pushed tougher trade restrictions on the island throughout the second half of 1959 and 1960. More so, the president ceased all Cuban imports and secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to train Cuban refugees as a force to overthrow the Castro government.

  These countermeasures from the American government resulted in late 1960 with Cuba's consolidation of trade relations with the USSR. With that, Eisenhower ordered the Havana embassy closed. This new tension in Cuba was in place to play out in the first months of the incoming Johnson Administration. He hardly desired any major foreign policy dilemma this early in his tenure, yet Eisenhower's policy forced this upon him. Johnson, appropriating Kennedy's line from the primary race, professed unease that the Cuban people were forced into this situation due to the U.S.-supported Batista regime.

  As mentioned for a brief moment in Robin Lehman's L.B.J., "As Ike issued the embargo on Communist Cuba, the next president would seek to set a novel tone. No, President Johnson had no intention on going soft on Communism, but unlike his retiring predecessor, took responsibility for setting the stage for the Cuban Revolution. Taking a page from the Marshall Plan, he declared, America must lend its hand, not a fist, if it sought to convince the people of Cuba that the side of freedom is just." President Johnson, shortly after taking office, authorized the import and export of food stuffs and medicine to the island, though kept in place all existing trade stoppages as to reprimand Fidel Castro's seizing of private land and business. "Yes, we must speak softy," the film goes on, "but never forget that stick."

"For the inaugural ceremony, the forecast appears to be party cloudy with a slight chance of showers."
D.C. Radio Weather Broadcast, January 18th, 1961

[Pyro]

Lyndon Baines Johnson, 35th President of the United States  

Chapter One: American Guardsman: The Master of Washington

  Lyndon Johnson took his Oath of Office as planned on January 20th before Chief Justice Earl Warren and a crowd of millions. He oversaw the grand festivities which had attracted men and women from administration's past, including former presidents Truman and Eisenhower, former vice presidents John Garner and Richard Nixon, and near all sitting and surviving Congresspersons. Artists, actors and other varied celebrities attended the event as well, from Author John Steinbeck to Businessman George Kara.

  In the much-anticipated inaugural address, Johnson spoke at length to the virtues of the 'American Ideal.' He offered a plea for the success of "liberty atop tyranny" and professed admiration for those Constitutional rights granting such liberties. The new president assured the international community that the United States would continue to play its part in preserving the prestige of democratic governments opposed to those which seek to unravel human rights - clearly a nod at the United Nations and a side-swipe at Cuba and the Soviet Union. "We seek no dominion over our fellow man, but man's dominion over tyranny and misery."

  In seeking to unite the country behind his message, Johnson exclaimed that all must work hand-in-hand for the "increased bounty of all". This served to pivot to the core of his speech, in which the president declared that, "In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry." He brought to the table what would become known as the "Great Society", a series of domestic programs which sought to advance upon the gains made in Theodore Roosevelt's "Fair Deal" and F.D.R.'s "New Deal" packages. For the present time, in the present speech, the president remarked on the injustices of homelessness, illiteracy and food shortages, stating his intent to work toward the end of these obstacles.

  In its entirety, the event had been received well, and experienced higher attendance than either of Eisenhower's inaugural ceremonies. A nor'easter fell just before January 20th, leading to temperatures dipping well below freezing. Wet surfaces had interrupted some of the grandeur and fanfare of typical inaugurations. The main White House parade took place as intended, although Johnson elected to be driven straight to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave that evening and thus avoided much of the traffic conglomerating around D.C. It was here where the new president, accompanied by Walter Jenkins and John Connally, constructed his presidential cabinet and upper administration. The Kennedys attended the glamorous and glitzy ballroom dances on behalf of the president as Johnson finalized the plan for his Hundred Days.

The Johnson Cabinet

Office		Name
President		Lyndon B. Johnson
Vice President		John F. Kennedy
Sec. of State		J. William Fulbright
Sec. of Treasury		Henry H. Fowler
Sec. of Defense		Stuart Symington
Attorney General		Robert W. Hemphill
Postmaster General		Lawrence F. O'Brien
Sec. of Interior		Stewart Udall
Sec. of Agriculture		Joseph A. Califano
Sec. of Commerce		Robert McNamara
Sec. of Labor		W. Willard Wirtz
Sec. of Health, Edu., Welfare		S. Douglass Cater

Eisenhower Final State of the Union Address Warns of "Military-Industrial Complex"
The Washington Post, January 18th, 1961

President Johnson Sworn In As President, Calls for an End to Poverty
The New York Times, January 21st, 1961

[Pyro]

So is Connally elected Governor of Texas in 1960 instead of 1962, or...?

In 1961, Connally is not yet governor just as OTL. ITTL he has worked within the Johnson Campaign from its outset and encompasses sort of an advisory role to now-President Johnson.

[Pyro]

So is Connally elected Governor of Texas in 1960 instead of 1962, or...?

In 1961, Connally is not yet governor just as OTL. ITTL he has worked within the Johnson Campaign from its outset and encompasses sort of an advisory role to now-President Johnson.

Ah. One of your updates used the phrase "Governor to be" and I was curious if he had entered the race for Governor two years early. Is he Chief of Staff, or a less formal title (presumably something like "Adviser to the President")? It would also be interesting if being more directly involved in an administration might delay or defer Connally's OTL switch to the GOP.

So John Connally is going to be running for and winning the Texas governorship in '62, meaning by 1963 he will be the Texas Governor. As of this point in the timeline, in 1961, he holds no elected office, and his title would be along the lines of "Senior Advisor". The reason for the transition to the gubernatorial race will be made clearer as we move further ahead. Chief of Staff is going to Walter Jenkins =)

[Pyro]

President Johnson Signs the Occupational Opportunity Act into Law, July 4th 1961

  The Editor of the Monthly Review Press, Marxist Harry Braverman, remarked on the first days of the Johnson Administration in a pamphlet published in 1962. "The program espoused by the Democrats, all such fantastic conceptions: A guarantee of health services and the elimination of homelessness. Rectifying the lowest lows of bourgeois democracy. Historically deafened liberal publishers leaped to defend President Lyndon Johnson from the moment he stepped into office and appointed corporate insiders and Dixiecrats to his cabinet. McNamara, the President of Ford Motors, now became Commerce Secretary. Senator Fulbright, a shining champion of segregation, was now to dictate and appraise the merits of other nations."

  Accompanied by a Democratic Congress, the president had little trouble confirming each of his cabinet choices, and when his administration filled out, sought to build his presidential stature. "He craved admiration like none other I knew," Samuel Forrest stated in his 1980 interview. "Lyndon's ego drove him to seek a sort of greatness. For all of his misgivings, Eisenhower would undoubtedly be remembered for bettering the country, just as Truman and Roosevelt had. [Johnson] wanted that very same treatment for himself, and took any route to find it."

  From those first weeks in office, President Johnson met with several dozen Democratic Congressmen one after the next. He had full intent on delivering an electric shock to the party machine and re-awakening the New Deal Coalition which had long since rusted over. According to those who met with the president in this initial burst of activity, he maneuvered and organized his colleagues just as ably as he had done as Senate Leader. On ensuring Congress follow the will of the president, Connally was quoted in The Making of the President with the following statement. "If they had qualms with the policy, we would present it in a different tone. If they had an issue with the appropriations, we'd re-word it. If they stood against the president on some tepid moral standing, well, it comes down to whether or not you'd consider loyalty immoral."

  President Johnson submitted several substantial domestic proposals to Congress, beginning in March of 1961. Each of these initiatives intended to, without rustling the feathers of the amicable business class, combat poverty and provide more suitable conditions for those surviving on low or no income. The Occupational Opportunity Act of 1961, passed along partisan lines with no mutineers, funded the 'Jobs Corps' to contribute education and employment training for young adults. It also offered new college grants and the Work Study program for those in lower income brackets, and established VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) to recruit and refer volunteers interested in combating poverty to local organizations.

  Considering the present state of the economy, somewhat battered from a recent recession but stable overall, this has been deemed a "moderate" bill by legislative historians. As such, one may conclude that Johnson was merely dipping his toe in the water and had yet to jump in decisively. Within four months of its introduction, this first portion of Johnson's 'Great Society' was signed by the president and made into law. Passed alongside this first landmark legislative leap had been a massive $10 billion tax cut: reducing the top tax rate from 90% to 65%. This indicated an insurmountable truth iconic of American government in the 1960s: providing financial resources for these domestic programs would originate from existing programs, leading to initiatives like VISTA receiving only 1/10th of its recommended funding.

  Conservative Republicans lashed at the president's programs for their "excessive, inefficient cost", with some on the Goldwater end of the party lambasting these first moves as "pure socialistic in intention". A closer look revealed, however, that Johnson's proposals were hardly unfriendly to those businesses which had attended Johnson and Kennedy's plentiful fundraising dinners. Inland Steel and Texaco lobbied fiercely for the election of Johnson to the presidency, knowing full well what a Democratic administration would seek to accomplish. None of the programs championed by President Johnson in his tenure had an objective of granting basic economic needs to poor Americans, but rather would offer, "a hand up, and not a handout."

  The social and economic ills of the 1950s, made clear with a burgeoning movement for racial equality and an increasingly despondent labor force, pushed Democrats to address these issues, lest they lose legitimacy. Pair this with the enormously influential private sector, and one would receive precisely what Congress passed in 1961. In relation to forming a coherent solution for urban poverty, the president stated, "American business has a large stake in resolving the problems of urbanization. For cities are the place where the markets for the businessman's products are. Cities are the places where commerce and trade - manufacturing and distribution take place. Our cities have been built on a partnership between government and private business."

  From the span of 1961-62, President Johnson signed off on many more "tip-toe" measures, expanding federal bodies to be better-equipped to deal with ongoing welfare programs, public education, arts and humanities support and urban transportation. This enraged the conservative minority, which soon accused Johnson of expanding the federal government well beyond its reach, overstepping the rights of states. Essentially, they were correct. Much of the reform initiatives presented in the Great Society trampled the input of state governments: this had been especially true with VISTA. For now, to the benefit of the new incumbent, as Congress pushed to ratify these programs, press headlines shifted focus to foreign affairs.

Johnson SOTU: The Richest Nation on Earth Can Afford to Win the War on Poverty
The Chicago Tribune, January 31st, 1961

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin has now reached orbit. [...] The Soviets have launched the first man in space.
CBS News, April 12th, 1961

[Pyro]

Secretary of State J. William Fulbright, 1960s

  "Although the Johnson Administration was composed of the best and brightest men in politics at that point in time," Theodore White wrote, "let there be no doubt that (figurative) sparring was not an uncommon practice on Pennsylvania Avenue. On domestic affairs, from his first days in office, Johnson knew his plan front-and-back. It was not an easy affair influencing the president when it came to his Great Society project, and this mostly resulted in gratuitous shouting overheard throughout the West Wing. Of all accounted for in the White House, the Chief of Staff alone had managed to persuade Johnson in delaying introduction of his medical legislation. Congress only began debating the national insurance conundrum in 1963. [...] This new president took input sparingly, but listened to his advisers selectively on the business of foreign affairs."

  Lyndon Johnson understood the game of foreign policy, and apparently had discussed a great deal of it in meetings with outgoing President Eisenhower in the transitional period. These initiations set the foundation for Johnson's thinking moving forward, however it hardly set the basis for his overall strategy. The president, along with much of his country, grew unnerved over the expansion of Communism in the Caribbean. As covered prior, Johnson had little interest, and nothing to gain, in fanning the flames. After he announced the negation of a full embargo, the president faced a divided cabinet on how to proceed.

  State Secretary Fulbright consistently urged the president to move as one with the United Nations and NATO in pursuing an end to Communist influence in the Western Hemisphere. One of the few supporters of international law in the Johnson Cabinet, Fulbright would quickly find himself in the minority: outvoted by other interests in the room. The president did, according to the former senator in his later years, listen to each and every word he said, and carefully weighed his options in regards to state and foreign affairs. It was due in part to Fulbright's insistence that Johnson authorized the Growth Alliance in May 1961: an aid and volunteer program for Latin American institutions.

  A second, often louder, voice in the room would be the imposing Defense Secretary, Stuart Symington. The former Missourian senator and Air Force Secretary became the voice of the military sector to President Johnson. Symington continuously pressured the president for an increase to national defense spending as the means to catch up to the accelerating progress of the Soviet Union, to which, for the most part, Johnson agreed. When it came to matters of international relations, the president also relied on Gordon Blake, the Director of the National Security Agency, and Stephen Ailes, National Security Advisor.

  The only other figure ever holding any influence with Johnson's early foreign agenda had been the C.I.A. Director, Allen Dulles. Serving under Eisenhower since 1953, Dulles observed and cooperated in one of the most dramatic shifts in power to the military and security industries in American history. Moving far beyond Korea, the unbounded intelligence community sought clandestine ends to all foreign entities which may prove damaging to American interests. The TPAJAX Project in Iran and Operation PBSUCCESS in Guatemala, as revealed in now-declassified documentation, demonstrated the power of the United States intelligence apparatus. As the new president would be briefed, the U.S. had involved itself in these activities for decades, and had no intention of stopping.

  The C.I.A. now intended on pursuing a new project, this time in Cuba. As Dulles advised to President Johnson on January 28th, 1961, the intelligence community had recruited anti-Castro Cuban exiles and were presently training them for a covert mission to overthrow the Castro regime. Led by one Manuel Artime, Brigade 2506 would land on the island and, according to Dulles, the Cuban people would rise up against the Communist government and collectively coordinate a counter-revolution.

  Dulles later refused to recollect on the specificity of that evening, but second-hand accounts recall the president, skeptical, inquiring as to the legitimacy of that claim. Dulles assured Johnson that his sources in Cuba were reliable, and when Artime landed, the Cubans would revolt en masse. Johnson questioned Dulles on the loyalty of those recruited exiles, and asked if they were being tracked to ensure there be no loose talk. Dulles told the president that the exiles had been trained sufficiently, dodging the question. The president paused and read over, once more, the materials handed to him by the director before throwing them back in Dulles' hands. Accounts vary as per Johnson's wording, but it had been along the lines of, "If you don't give me something worthy to wipe my ass within 48 hours, I want you out of here." This, essentially, is the origin of The Cuban Project.

"The award for Best Picture goes to... Alfred Hitchcock for 'Psycho'!"
Audrey Hepburn at the 33rd Academy Awards, ABC Television, April 17th, 1961

Johnson, Symington Seeks End to Hostilities in Laotian War, Ceasefire Accepted by Communists
The Washington Post, April 30th, 1961

[Pyro]

A Freedom Riders Bus Goes Up in Flames, May 1961

  "Lyndon had been president for just about four months before the ball of yarn first unraveled? Today we see one side exclaiming, exaggerating, the greatness that was our 35th, but his handling of domestic affairs ended up as bungled as his diplomatic endeavors. One, you have an intelligence community at war with itself over how to handle not only Cuba, but what was then a very possible coup in Paris. Two, an underfunded and flagrantly ignored space program. And three, an administration woefully unprepared to deal with the Negro activists." Republican Robert Finch of Arizona, then only known for serving as Nixon's campaign manager, provided this take of Johnson's first summer in a 1969 local radio interview. Finch's point of view was hardly uncommon for conservative, and even some moderate, Republicans of the era.

  On May 5th, Allen Dulles submitted his resignation letter to President Johnson. In an intense sequence of events, the president learned from Secretary Fulbright that the failed Algiers putsch, a military coup attempt against France's Charles De Gaulle, had had backing by the C.I.A. Fulbright had only learned about this from an article published in "L'Express" accusing the generals' plot of having direct backing by the United States' intelligence machine. Fulbright explained that he had no information whether or not Dulles' instructed his agents to pursue this objective, and an inflamed Johnson retorted that he did not authorize such an act. "Lyndon was not one to take insubordination lightly, as, in truth, no president should," John Connally remarked. "The hand of the American government had moved without the executive's consent. He had to place a phone call to De Gaulle and basically offer military support if he required it, which, as one would plainly imagine, he declined out of distrust. I will never quite understand the motive of Dulles in doing what he had done, but I have never seen a man submit a resignation letter so fast in my entire life."

  May 6th brought new troubling developments to the administration when news broke that the American spacecraft Mercury-Redstone 3 had failed to launch. An utterly embarrassing newsflash for the incumbency and the nation's scientific community, the craft's inability to ignite from the launching pad demonstrated stark contrast to the successful Soviet launch of the Vostok. As the scientists learned from further investigation, a number of minor, preventable variables had disrupted the launch. The rocket underwent testing for an additional three weeks before, at last, it experienced its auspicious run, manned by astronaut Alan Shepard, on May 22nd. The president ordered an assessment be conducted on why the space vessel did not meet its requirements, and in that process learned of the space program's meager budget in proportion to the magnitude of its goals. With the disruption of Mercury-Redstone fresh in their minds, Congress near-unanimously passed a measure doubling NASA's funding. However, the PR debacle had played out, and this served to, albeit unfairly, reinforce Johnson's original campaign line regarding Soviet advances in science far surpassing that of the United States.

  In 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in Boynton v. Virginia that racial segregation in public transportation violated the Interstate Commerce Act. This ruling explicitly avoided any Constitutional questions and did not set any parameters for how to enforce the decision. Thus began the initiative of the Freedom Riders: civil rights activists who rode interstate transit into Southern states in order to test the enforcement of Boynton. These men and women traveled on buses formerly designed with segregated seating, and made it a point to seat at least a single black rider in front (seats usually reserved for white passengers) and several interracial couples throughout. The Freedom Riders first embarked on May the 4th, and one of the first recorded incidents took place on May 14th.

  A Freedom Riders bus was blockaded, tires slashed, and then fire-bombed by Klansmen whilst making its way through Northeastern Alabama. Riders were fiercely beaten when they attempted to exit the smoking vehicle, all while highway patrolmen observed and did not lift a finger. Birmingham policemen Bull Connor and Tom Cook organized this violence and they had full intention to escalate as necessary. President Johnson, not without a plan in mind for this turn of events, instructed Attorney General Robert Hemphill to intervene in the matter to ensure the law be followed. Hemphill, personally wary of integration, nonetheless agreed with the president and proceeded to call Governor John Patterson (D-AL). The Attorney General voiced Johnson's displeasure with the governor's inaction on the matter, and warned that if the riders were threatened once more, the president would not hesitate to call on federal law enforcement. Governor Patterson, having absolutely no intention on aiding in the mission of the Freedom Riders, only stated that the activists were instigating violent action.

  Patterson refused to change his tone when a white mob attacked a group of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, beating them unconscious with bats and pipes as police watched on the sidelines. Reporters and photographers were also particularly targeted in the Montgomery mob. Local and state police, as tolerated by Governor Patterson, did nothing to stop the violence, and paramedics even refused to aid the wounded. President Johnson wasted no time in calling on the Alabama National Guard to protect all Freedom Riders present in the state. The guard arrived in time to disperse a growing mob outside of a Baptist church packed with riders and their supporters. Several speakers within the church, including Reverend Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth, expressed their relief with the president's call, yet warned that this was only the very start of a long journey for liberation.

Johnson: State Governments Must Adhere to Federal Law
Commerce Commission Has Issued De-Segregation Order
The Washington Post, May 24th, 1961

Johnson Embarks to Vienna to Meet with Khrushchev, Kennedy Hosts Sukarno in D.C.
The Los Angeles Times, June 3rd, 1961

[Pyro]

President Johnson Welcomed by First Deputy Chairman Alexei Kosygin in Vienna, June 4th, 1961

  Tensions between the U.S. and Russia had increased rapidly over the course of the Eisenhower presidency, and the Cold War rhetoric had only sharpened under Johnson. The president's purported gap in military spending and advancement between the two nations, a claim later debunked by financial records, had accomplished little aside drumming up fear. Continuous, albeit failed, attempts at toppling the present power in Cuba also put the Soviets on edge. The single most perplexing issue of the time had been Germany: a nation split in two.

  The German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, underwent a significant diminishing in its population over the last fifteen years as its people emigrated from East to West Berlin. Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of East Germany, worried of this development, fought to close the border between the two halves of Berlin. Khrushchev thereby sought to, as one objective in the Vienna Summit, to secure a separate East German peace treaty with the support of the United States. This arrangement, as Johnson understood, would not only violate the four-power agreement signed post-WWII, but could threaten the influence of the U.S. in Berlin.

  The United States president, following his introduction with Deputy Chairman Alexei Kosygin, greeted Khrushchev at his motorcade, and apparent from the get-go was the sheer size difference between these two men. Johnson, slim with a height of 6'4", towered over the portly, 5'3" Soviet leader. The Texan had actually met with Khrushchev in 1959 when the latter visited D.C., and Johnson, although hardly hitting it off with the premier, did not have as rough a time as Nixon did with the very same visit. Theodore White recalled in his biography, "Khrushchev mentioned he could hardly stand to listen to LBJ's speeches. Johnson replied that Khrushchev would be an excellent senator."

  When the stage was set, the two global leaders sat on opposing sides of a coffee table with an interpreter and their closest advisers. The entire engagement had been filmed. Khrushchev initially began with a broad, ideologically-driven, statement accusing the United States of ignoring the reality of Communist institutions and demanding these institutions be allowed to develop freely. Johnson, amiable as can be in these circumstances, retorted that Khrushchev and he had taken the long-winded trouble of making their way down to Vienna, and it would be a mistake to waste time on frivolous ideological digs. The Soviet leader, detecting a loss to his initiative, returned stating, "[Our desire is] to sign with the GDR. [...] This would not prejudice the interests of the United States, the UK or France. With Berlin there can be no compromise." Johnson swung back, declaring that the United States must maintain its position in Berlin for the security of the German people, and that a separate treaty twisted the balance of power in place. Khrushchev would soon go on with, "no force in the world would prevent the USSR from signing a peace treaty," yet Johnson stood firm, countering, "The force of the world most certainly will, if you make it so."

  With no progress being made in regards to the Berlin issue, the two moved on to Laos. It took the president several attempts before his opponent put aside Germany and, the moment he did, Johnson made sure the topic was not brought up again. In regards to Laos, under Eisenhower the United States played a direct role in backing a corrupt royalist government as a means to deter the Communist Pathet Lao, supported heavily by North Vietnam. Several million dollars had been siphoned to this effort, and Johnson did not fancy the notion of reducing involvement. He and Secretary Symington worked on an April ceasefire deal in order to buy time to assess over the situation, but by the time of the summit , the agreement had been broken by Pathet Lao forces and fighting resumed.

  President Johnson worked to convince Khrushchev that nothing could be accomplished in the region, for either side, unless he receive a commitment from the premier that the Soviet Union would end supply lines to the guerrilla forces. The Soviet leader, perhaps more so than Johnson had, feared the development of a proxy war between the superpowers in Laos. Still, he asserted that only due to the efforts of the United States in that region over the past ten years was Laos in such a state of turmoil. The president would not, as he did allow himself to do in regards to the Batista regime in Cuba, relent that his country played any meaningful or substantial role in propping up either side in the conflict. The two eventually settled on a neutrality agreement: each power backing off from Laos and, therefore, allowing the future of the region to be determined by the Laotians themselves. It is of note that this agreement was non-binding.
 
  The conference extended through the next morning as President Johnson and Premier Khrushchev worked on a final detail. Detente. Although each figure disagreed enormously on ideology, philosophy and the direction of the planet, they did manage to find common ground (following several hours of contentious debate) in the assertion that mutually assured destruction would end without a winner. This move would serve to set off anger from hardliners on each end of the spectrum, infuriating Secretary Symington, Stephen Ailes, and the Joint Chiefs on the American end while deepening divides on the Politburo. However, the Test Ban Treaty (TBT) of 1961, drafted and signed at the Vienna Summit, became the first meaningful move to cut down on the nuclear arms race in its prohibition of thermonuclear detonation tests.

   The summit came to a close that afternoon. For President Johnson, as John Connally later espoused, "Vienna lent a dose of unmitigated victory. A sense of satisfaction he hadn't had since the election." Premier Nikita Khrushchev left despondent. Frustrated in his failing to secure a solid answer on Berlin, Khruschev re-tooled his tactics. Ulbricht ordered the border closed on August 12th and his forces immediately installed barbed wire entanglements along the city's dividing line. Neither side won out on the Berlin issue, yet the closing of the border would, for the time being, cool tensions and remove the threat of military intervention.

BERLIN WALL: Reds Seal Off East Berlin to Block Refugees
Forces Threaten to Fire on Protesting Crowds
The New York Herald Tribune, August 14th, 1961

Sam Taliaferrero Rayburn (1882-1961): A Giant Remembered
The Washington Post, November 17th, 1961

[Pyro]

Byron White, Ramsey Clark, Cyrus Vance, and Roswell Gilpatric(who had ties to Symington) strike me as the best options to become CIA Director. Will one of them replace Dulles, or somebody else?

Anyway, it is interesting to note how Symington, himself a through-and-through supporter/protege of Truman, is now helping to back and shape Johnson's policies.

One of the next updates will have a segment about the next CIA Director =)

[Pyro]

Johnson Introduces Landmark Civil Rights Bill, August 1962

  Through the first half of 1962, the incumbency increased pressure on Congress to pass further legislative measures in order to reinforce the Great Society. Those aiding the president religiously surveyed Gallup polling in swing states to determine if the Democratic majority had been in any danger as the midterm elections drew near: these results proved, for the most part, unreliable and inconclusive. President Johnson and his allies in the Senate passed seventeen measures from January to October of 1962 with goals stretching from immigration reform to environmental regulation. It took a single slip on this road to crumble away any hope of further progression.

  Following several months of grueling work and repetitious compromise, the House of Representatives, in September of 1962, passed a landmark civil rights bill. Having been drawn up in several varieties, with input from labor unions, activists, business owners and other varied interests, the process took quite a bit of steam from Johnson's political capital. The first version of the bill compiled a striking down of the segregationist Jim Crow laws and radically reshaped the definition of "discrimination" as known in present law. The Yea presence in the House just barely had the collective voice to push away those which sought to whittle down the bill's substance. Without the guidance of Speaker Rayburn, Johnson, even with the amount of influence he possessed in Congress, struggled to ensure the basis of the bill remain for the final vote.

  The House version of the bill passed, 255 to 165. The Senate proved a far greater obstacle as conservatives from both parties launched an assault. Smacked away were provisions guaranteeing an enforcement of equal rights in private institutions, and put in its place was one which would extend the life of the ongoing Civil Rights Commission. The president held a significant grudge for those who damaged the credibility of his bill, although that mattered little against the intensifying Constitutional argument playing out in the Senate. Senator Goldwater declared that the House bill was a dire threat to the liberties of black Americans, and then Senators Jennings (D-WV) and Hickenlooper (R-IA) voiced their displeasure with the measure.

  The Senate amendments, carried out in the autumn of 1962, struck down the "Title III" protection for peaceful protesters and eliminated the clause relating to racial discrimination in employment. As for what remained, the bill still encompassed a sweeping change in its interpretation of fair voter registration, racial segregation in schools and established equal access for publicly owned facilities. A reinvigorated Southern Bloc filibustered the moment the bill reached the floor. Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) led this effort, proclaiming, "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our states." The stall, accompanied by Senators Goldwater and John Tower (R-TX), lasted 101 days.

  Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) introduced a revised, compromise version of the legislation which held even fewer means to enforce its stated goal of thwarting mass racial segregation. At last, this brought on enough Republican votes to call for an end to debate and lead the legislative body to a vote. The Civil Rights Act, albeit hobbled and tattered, passed 68-32. The House approved of the measure and President Johnson signed the bill on July 2nd of 1963. Some civil rights leaders and participants in the movement applauded the president's leadership in focusing in on their issues. However a sense of agitation regarding the whittling down of the bill left much of the black community outraged.

  "President Johnson worked ages for a shot at ending the injustices for blacks," John Connally remarked, "yet it never truly materialized as he stood breathing. That Senate was a disgrace, and (Majority Leader) Mansfield should have given more. King was glad to see us at work for it, and he promoted the president for it - to a skeptical crowd - over and again." The reality of the matter is, is despite the fact Johnson rigorously sought worked at marking an improvement for the course of civil rights, his head was elsewhere. Just as the House bill passed, the president had been in the midst of a series of problematic engagements overseas.

Civil Rights Overshadows The Great Society: Priority Indicated by Senate Leaders
The Southern School News, October 3rd, 1962

CIVIL RIGHTS: Leaders Decry Democrats' Compromise on Jim Crow
The Chicago Tribune, February 2nd, 1963

[Pyro]

"The Hmong", Photograph Attributed July 20th, 1962

  Khrushchev conscientiously observed the actions taken by the United States on the world stage following the Vienna Summit. He held little trust for the incumbency and had the utmost expectation that he, and the deals he assisted in crafting, would be deceived. The KGB collected various intelligence quips from the U.S in this period, and it revealed mere pieces of a larger puzzle being played in Cuba. The Soviets held the instinct that, as per the course, the present administration would act no different in granting further rights to the C.I.A., and as a result, it would seek the overthrow of Fidel Castro. However, Khrushchev struggled in attaining any validation: beyond the fact that Johnson continuously authorized more stringent means to persist in the embargo on Cuba.

  Khrushchev was seeking any initiative from the Johnson Administration that indicated invasion, as this would spur the notion that Cuba was in clear and present danger. A military exercise aimed at the Caribbean could only serve to increase Soviet influence on the island. However, once Allen Dulles resigned, the dependable aggressiveness of the Eisenhower years seemed to carry away. President Johnson had chosen State Department actor Paul Nitze to replace Dulles as director of the C.I.A. Alongside Deputy Director Cyrus Roberts Vance, Nitze spearheaded a long-term endeavor called The Cuban Project: a series of tactics intended to completely annihilate the legitimacy of the Cuban government.

  As the Soviets searched for overt threats to their sphere, as for instance evidence of assassination attempts on Castro, Nitze launched "destruction operations." U.S. proxy forces in Cuba subtly rendered oil and sugar refineries irreparable in what the local press dubbed, in defense, "momentary workplace mismanagement". More so, throughout the span of 1962, two railroad bridges in Havana collapsed and the roof of a strategically significant industrial facility caved in. Castro accused Western forces of sabotaging the island's economy and infrastructure, though the clean sweep orchestrated by intelligence apparatus ensured there be no loose ends. Due in part to efforts by the United States, the Cuban economy sharply declined in this period, leading to a hastening amount of refugees fleeing the island for work in other countries.

  To a far greater extent than Cuba, focus on the international stage centered in the small, landlocked country of Laos, where a civil war had been raging for nine years. Negotiations at the Vienna Summit ended with a non-binding agreement that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union would directly furnish operations in the conflict. Johnson had no intention to abide by this agreement, and historians mostly come to a consensus in that this move was played as a means to rid himself of any outside presence on the opposing side (this did not come to pass).

  The Royalist faction of Laos was governed by Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma. Souvanna had visited the White House twice when Johnson was in office and as such, the president trusted him to lead an on-the-ground effort with American support. Military operations were carried out, from the start of the war, by the tactless authoritarian Defense Minister, Phoumi Nosavan. Aside Phoumi had been one of the leading figures in the Royal Lao Army, Vang Pao. These three men spearheaded the (initially) 50,000-strong army: boosted later with involvement from South Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, and, as one may imagine, the United States.

  Those opposing the royalists were the Pathet Lao: a Communist movement seeking national liberation and the toppling of Western imperialism. Prince Souphanouvong and Kaysone Phomvihane led the effort of the Lao's People's Revolutionary Party, as then guided further by North Vietnam with direct assistance by General Võ Nguyên Giáp. China and the Soviet Union preferred and supported, militarily and financially, this side of the war. This conflict was not only viewed internationally as a proxy war between the superpowers (which led to the Vienna Summit's agreement), but served to play into Eisenhower's "domino theory" regarding the expansion of Communism in Asia.

  Johnson, Symington and the Joint Chiefs agreed with Eisenhower's assessment. The new administration, as early as May of 1961, pushed the C.I.A. to concentrate more heavily on this particular development. As the truce expired and fighting resumed in June of that year, President Johnson approved of doubling funds for the fledgling Royal Lao Army, equipping 18,000 of C.I.A.-trained guerrilla forces, and further training upwards of 30,000 for stand-by. In December, these forces narrowed in on the strategically necessary town of Luang Namtha and captured it, tepidly retaining its existing holdings for the following year with assistance from American Special Forces. A period of stalemate lasted for the majority of 1962.

  On September 25th, news broke that the Pathet Lao had engaged in genocide against the Hmong people of the region. Reports provided numbers reaching as high as 130,000 or more, shattering hopes of a steadied, negotiated peace. The U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Leonard S. Unger, called the developments, "an intolerable, systematic crime against the ethnic Hmong tribesmen," and urged action be taken as soon as possible.

  President Johnson conducted a televised address in order to discuss the issue. Less than twenty-four hours following the statement released by Unger, the president took it upon himself to introduce the Laotian conflict to the American public: most of whom had never heard of the country. He declared, "We cannot condone this wretched activity taking place in the Communist stranglehold on Laos. I have witnessed in my lifetime what has occurred when this nation refuses to act as an ethnic minority is systematically targeted and killed. [...] Aided by incorrigible aggressors, the people of Laos stand under attack. As Americans, gatekeepers of freedom, we have a moral commitment to ensure our international obligation is met. We are not going to withdraw from that effort, and decency will prevail."
  

U.N. General Sec. Denounces Pathet Lao Genocide; Proposes Steps to Peace in Region
The New York Times, September 29th, 1962

Congress Passes Resolution Granting Presidential War Powers
Johnson Organizes F-100 Air Strikes Against Pethet Lao
The Washington Post, October 2nd, 1962

[Pyro]

1962 Congressional Elections  

Senate
Democratic: 69 (+6)
Republican: 31 (-6)

House
Democratic: 262 (+2)
Republican: 174 (-5)
Independent: 1 (+1)

 Senate Leadership

Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Sen. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL)

 House of Representatives Leadership

Speaker John McCormack (D-MA)
Minority Leader Charles Halleck (R-IN)

  The steps toward the Great Society proved, if one takes the midterm elections at face value, fairly popular with the American public. Studies demonstrated that far more influential in their vote than the domestic achievements had been foreign policy. Johnson was viewed favorably as a worthwhile match-up to the perceived aggressive behavior of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. Although faced with the disappointing results of Castro remaining in power and the concrete wall under construction in Berlin, voters approved of the president's handling of the country more so than they disapproved. With publicized engagement in Laos just beginning, reported profusely as a humanitarian measure, Democrats received a slight boost from otherwise favorable numbers.

  One significant drawback as a direct result of Congress' focus on Civil Rights in the autumn of 1962 had been a resounding lack of enthusiasm from Southern Democrats. The backlash had not been severe enough for the opposing party to perform any stronger than was typical, but publications certainly remarked the odd absence of unanimity usually present in the re-election of Democrats in the Deep South. A handful of incumbent senators were rumored to have considered switching to the Republican column, but talk of this dissipated as the Laotian conflict took headlines.

  Federal races of note included the neck-and-neck deadlock in Alabama, in which Republican challenger James D. Martin lost by a mere two percentage points to the incumbent Democrat. Martin ran a fierce, anti-Great Society message which caught the ear of disjointed conservatives throughout the state. His reluctance in pursuing the all-important issues of segregation and states' rights came to his detriment, and ultimately, according to local historians, cost him the seat. A sign of this unrest, the Republican Party chose to field a candidate in Georgia as well. One E. Ralph Ivey (R-GA) lost in a landslide to Senator Herman Talmadge (D-GA) 11-88%, but managed to stir up enough coverage to cause a slight worry for the Georgia Democrats.

   Democrats picked up a plethora of swing seats in the upper house, including in Idaho where Democratic Representative Gracie Pfost defeated the incumbent Senator Len Jordan. Jordan had been appointed to complete the term of the recently deceased Henry Dworshak, and served three months prior to his electoral loss. Senator-elect Pfost would come to be known rather quickly for her promotion of fair housing and rent control, and as such would find herself allied with the Federal Housing Administration. For the first time since 1949, both senators from the Gem State were solidly Democratic.

   The president, partially as a means to rid himself of an albatross, suggested to his vice president that it would be splendid idea to field a family member in the Massachusetts Special Election. John Kennedy had been most definitely ill-at-ease with the notion that some wildcard like frontrunner Edward McCormack (Incumbent MA Attorney General) or Endicott Peabody (Member of MA Governor's Council) would succeed him. Though the primary bout took its toll on each of the participants, its winner and that of the general race turned out to be Robert F. Kennedy with a margin of victory of well over 15%.

  Seemingly an eternal stronghold for the Republican Party, the state of California ended Election Day, 1962, with GOP victories across the board. Each of the swing House districts leaned Republican, as did the Senate race featuring the 53-46 victory for incumbent Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA). This remained consistent in the governor's race, when the one and only Richard Nixon, former senator and presidential candidate, managed to defeat, in a razor-thin margin, Democratic Governor Pat Brown. Out of each of the elections featured on November 6th, President Johnson watched this one with the most fascination, and, even with the overall tide turning in the Democrats' favor, groaned when his old foe reared his head back into the political realm. Robert Finch recalled, "That night was the comeback America needed - and the only story printed in the papers on Wednesday."

  

Senators Elected in 1962 (Class 3)
Lister Hill (D-AL): Democratic Hold w/ 50%
Ernest (D-AK): Democratic Hold w/ 59%
Carl Hayden (D-AZ): Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Oren Harris (D-AR): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA): Republican Hold w/ 53%
John A. Carroll (D-CO): Democratic Hold w/ 49%
Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-CT): Democratic Gain w/ 52%
George A. Smathers (D-FL): Democratic Hold w/ 65%
Herman E. Talmadge (D-GA): Democratic Hold w/ 88%
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Frank Church (D-ID): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Gracie Pfost (D-ID) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Birch Bayh (D-IN): Democratic Gain w/ 50%
Bourke B. Hickenlooper (R-IA): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Frank Carlson (R-KS): Republican Hold w/ 61%
James B. Pearson (R-KS) SP: Republican Hold w/ 55%
Thruston B. Morton (R-KY): Republican Hold w/ 51%
Russell B. Long (D-LA): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Daniel B. Brewster (D-MD): Democratic Gain w/ 60%
Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 60%
Edward V. Long (D-MO): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Warren E. Hearnes (D-MO) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Alan Bible (D-NV): Democratic Hold w/ 63%
Norris Cotton (R-NH): Republican Hold w/ 60%
Thomas J. Mcintyre (D-NH) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Jacob K. Javitz (R-NY): Republican Hold w/ 55%
Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (D-NC): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Milton R. Young (R-ND): Republican Hold w/ 59%
Frank J. Lausche (D-OH): Democratic Hold w/ 62%
A.S. Mike Monroney (D-OK): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Wayne Morse (D-OR): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Joseph S. Clark (D-PA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Olin B. Johnston (D-SC): Democratic Hold w/ 54%
George S. McGovern (D-SD): Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Wallace F. Bennett (R-UT): Republican Hold w/ 52%
George D. Aiken (R-VT): Republican Hold w/ 66%
Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Gaylord Nelson (D-WI): Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Milward Simpson (R-WY) SP: Republican Gain w/ 56%

[Pyro]

Refugee Scene from Critically-Acclaimed Film, "Air Raids At Dawn", 1973

  With the United States rushing headlong into the Laotian conflict, an inflamed Khrushchev would be forced to dramatically increase arms transport to their unceremonious allies, the Pathet Lao. Much of the U.S. budget once planned for new health programs and educational services now, gradually at first, transferred into this new international conflict. With air strikes announced in the region, the American military now played a definitive role in Laos, one which could no longer be considered conducted in secret. The Joint Chiefs actively coordinated U.S. involvement with the president, as the C.I.A. dedicated the bulk of its resources to Cuba.

  By the start of 1963, although not officially a declared war between the two superpowers, soldiers aided and supported heavily by the Soviets now fought soldiers trained, equipped and funded by the Americans. The North Vietnamese fought full-throttle in Laos, and their invading forces took the brunt of the blow from American bombs. The remnants of the Royal Lao Army was reorganized, following the "disappearance" of Gen. Phoumi Nosavan, with direction of American ambassadors in Thailand, South Vietnam and Laos.

  Johnson's Operation Wolf, conceived in '62, sought to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, thereby staving off the North Vietnamese from assisting militarily or otherwise in the objective of the Pathet Lao. The U.S. Air Force conducted repeated raids on the Laotian panhandle, killing all life, Communist or not, in the drop zone. Operation Wolf, at first one of several large-scale endeavors, evolved into the chief strategy for the region once evidence of Vietnamese intervention became clear. Historians have argued that this started a new phase to the Laotian War in which the North Vietnamese, or more specifically, the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, were targeted as equals to the Pathet Lao.

  "It was not easy to see straight," stated John Connally in The Making of the President. "Lyndon felt as though he needed an ally in the Governor's Mansion, and lent his veteran state staff in the gubernatorial race in order to help us win out Don Yarborough. From January [to November] I had immense difficulty reaching out to Lyndon. I've heard the speculation over the years, how he refused to hear out his cabinet in totality and dove in Laos alone, but I am not one to speculate. I knew our president, and he always, always carried blueprints - six years in advance."

  Secretary Fulbright resigned on October 30th. Fulbright held deep disagreements with President Johnson's Laotian strategy from the start, although he hoped that he would have success in reasoning with the Commander-in-Chief, as he claimed to have accomplished in regards to Cuba two years prior. The State Secretary understood the pressure placed on Johnson by the defense sector, but urged reconciliation with the United Nations before moving forward with ground troops. Fulbright later stated that he knew American allies had no interest in the region and, barring U.N. assistance, the conflict could lead the United States down, as he stated, a "rabbit hole to hell". Johnson brushed him off in a fit of anger. When the president proceeded to call for the first several thousand troops on October 28th, the writing was on the wall.

 The president now met with his advisory team on a daily basis, and presented ample time for the Joint Chiefs, Stephen Ailes and Gordon Blake to voice their support for increased interventionist tactics. Symington pushed for fiercer action in the immediate, and the topic of nuclear weapons, as revealed in the Defense Secretary's memoirs, arose now and then. Johnson declined to consider embarking this path, recognizing the danger of allocating even limited nuclear tactics, especially against Soviet-aided soldiers. The president also brought on-board the calculative mind of Commerce Secretary Robert McNamara in order to find a worthwhile path to victory in Laos with minimal American casualties. Albeit diverse with brilliant minds and decades of military experience, this advisory board no longer possessed a voice to critique military engagement.

5 Americans Killed, 71 Injured in Laos
Pathet Lao Launches Offensive in Demilitarized Zone, Threatens South Vietnam
The Los Angeles Times, February 8th, 1963

"Today I have stood, where Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. [...] Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say - segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Governor George Wallace (D-AL), Inauguration Ceremony, January 14th, 1963

[Pyro]

What's going on with Vice President Kennedy?

Much like how LBJ was treated under Kennedy, the vice president is essentially being excluded from the administration. Kennedy is meeting dignitaries of other countries, traveling for diplomatic purposes, etc. For this point, in 1963, he is aware of what is happening with Laos, but is kept in the dark for most of the conflict's details.

[Pyro]

Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, June 11th, 1963

  "Lyndon Johnson won a short reprieve when he blew out the candles on his 55th Birthday. With rising strain in Southeast Asia, our American sons traveled down to those points of Red Terror and fought with our latest arms as to protect the cause of liberty. At home, civil rights once again on the brink as Governor Wallace declares war on integration. [...] The president balances each issue with care in his final months." This segment had been near the conclusion of Lehman's L.B.J., and solemnly carried the tale of Johnson's last year in office.

  Laos escalated fast. With the input of Secretary Symington and recently inducted State Secretary Roswell Gilpatric in mind, the president authorized increased attention to curbing the rise of the Laotian Communists. Bogged down in the mountainous region, the war simply see-sawed without either side holding a concise initiative. The Soviet machinery utilized by the Pathet Lao matched pit-for-pat the advanced weaponry held by American soldiers in the region. B-52s rained bombs down on the Southern tip of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, effectively cutting off supply routes for many of the Pathet Lao. Estimates of civilian casualties, by the summer of 1963, easily outnumbered that of the Korean War in its first year.

  Tensions rose further when nine unarmed Buddhists, under the direction of the South Vietnamese Army, were fired upon and murdered. President Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic, presided over a region with an estimated 80% Buddhist population and this method of adding fuel to an already burning fire did little to save his reputation. Diem, an ally of the U.S., supported the royalists government in Laos following direct involvement by President Johnson in the region. This demonstration not only served to de-legitimize the governance of Diem, but in turn damaged the reputation of the Americans next door. Following the shootings, Diem countered that Northern Vietnamese Communists had perpetrated the firing, yet did nothing to calm the provoked population. On June 11th, 1963, Thích Quảng Duc, a Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze and perished at a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diem's policies.

   President Johnson held a fair amount of heated debates with Governor George Wallace of Alabama in this final year of his tenure, and only assured the governor that the civil rights legislation would pull through, and any refusal to comply would only lead to embarrassment. Unwilling to allow the mandate for integration, Wallace attempted to block the entrance to the University of Alabama in order to prevent two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from entering. The university, with police assistance, searched vehemently for excuses to deny the students, yet this debate ended with a federal district judge's interference. Primarily for political showmanship, Governor Wallace then made the calculated choice to stand at the front door to the university's Foster Auditorium.

  The president somewhat miscalculated the feigned determination by Wallace and, without informing the governor, issued an order federalizing the Alabama National Guard. Johnson ordered the Guard be dispatched and remove, by any means, the governor from the doorway. George Wallace was raised and forcibly pulled from the university grounds by guardsmen. The Alabaman Press published dozens of stories on this incident the following morning, all calling for demonstrations against the intrusion by the federal government. Johnson expected this circus to conclude as the Freedom Rides did, with clear intervention closing the curtains. However with Wallace in the picture, those calling for a reinforced segregation now had a leader: one who had just had his rights, and those of his state, violated.

  On July 3rd, following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Johnson spoke before a joint-session of Congress and urged this be merely the start, not the end, of ensuring the Constitutional rights of all men, regardless of color or race, be accounted for. As he stated, "Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact." Though L.B.J. would not live to see its inception, a bill meant to double-down on voting rights protections would later be introduced by a Texas House Democrat with intent inspiration from Johnson.

Alabama Church Explosions -- Birmingham Bombs Kill Negro Children Across State, Injures Hundreds
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 15th, 1963

Activists Led By Dr. King Call for Civil Rights March in Alabama
Governor Wallace Issues Third Curfew, Order Add'l Police to Quell Riots
The Hartford Courant, September 17th, 1963

[Pyro]

Crater Left by One of the Alabama Church Bombs, September 15th, 1963

  Speaking to the press reaction, and the tide in general, following the Alabama Church Bombings, Press Secretary Bill Moyers gave the following take captured in The Making of the President. "Thunder. It was thunder." Moyers explains in his piece that the outcry from the networks had been so severe so quickly that it caught the administration off guard: a rare occurrence under the guidance of the micromanaging Lyndon Johnson. The president himself released a statement shortly following 11:00 a.m. on September 15th in which he condemned the church attacks, utilizing striking phrases such as "unspeakable terror" and "Klansman bombings". Public reaction, especially in and around D.C., demanded more.

 A state-sponsored study conducted in 1965 revealed that Birmingham had been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. The piercing determination of those most outspoken in favor of keeping it as such had later been designated as the chief cause of the climate leading up to the bombings. The growth of the Ku Klux Klan in response to the rising interest in civil rights had been remarkable. The United Klans of America, an Alabaman chapter of the Nativist terror operation, orchestrated the church bombings in order to, as several of the perpetrators claimed, act in extreme defiance of President Johnson, the mandated integration of public facilities, and the federal government's overall role in enforcing an end to segregation.

  Klan members whom had based their regiment in Birmingham planted dynamite in twelve churches all throughout Northern Alabama: reaching as far as the First Baptist in Decatur to the Community Church in Tuscaloosa. Timed dynamite bombs detonated early morning on Sunday, September 15th. Half of those religious buildings attacked were, at the time of explosion, empty. The remainder were either conducting services or Sunday School. Those who lost their lives were mostly unidentifiable as a result of the intensity of the blasts, but conservative estimates had those injured at 1,342 and those lives lost at 140.

   The ensuing race riots erupted within hours, and Governor Wallace did little to remedy the worsening situation aside from calling upon state police to intervene. Fires erupted throughout those affected cities and towns with white-owned businesses and automobiles swiftly becoming targets for enraged youth. Dr. Martin Luther King and Civil Rights strategist and organizer Bayard Rustin leading the present movement for equality expressed outrage at the sequence of events, yet urged a refrain from violent backlash as such may only provoke further terror. On the following night, Rustin and fellow organizer A. Philip Randolph began working toward a nonviolent March on Alabama to peacefully express the call for civil rights. Dr. King announced the project publicly shortly thereafter.

   Short-term consequences of the Church Bombings varied in the weeks succeeding the initial shock, with each side feeling vilified in their root cause. Hard-right conservatives and states' rights fanatics put forth the notion that it had been due to the Civil Right Act and federally mandated de-segregation that the Klan first considered planting dynamite. Civil rights proponents and those on the Left whom had spoken out following the attacks placed responsibility on the shoulders of the state and federal government: exclaiming that years of inaction lead to, yet another, racially-motivated act of terror.

  Southern Democratic incumbents, not all but most, did not alter their stances on the segregation issue. Senator John Sparkman (D-AL) released a statement expressing disgust at the bombing itself, but refused to go beyond this. Governor Wallace was revealed to have stated in a New York Times interview earlier that September that blocking integration would require, "a few first-class funerals." Sensing a plausible moment of opportunity, a handful of Republicans eligible for re-election in 1964 leaped to lambaste the Dixiecrats for refusing to call on the persecution of those responsible. This contingent included Governor Nixon who criticized the Democrats' failure to provide serious civil rights reform and protections. Sick at the prospect of facing re-energized opposition in Congress, as well as a loss of the black voting population in '64, the president struck back and sought to turn this from a 'party issue' to a 'national issue'.

White House Strengthens FBI Investigation, Orders Crackdown on Alabama United Klans
Johnson: "Malefaction and disregard for human life must not, and cannot, be condoned in the United States"
The New York Times, September 19th, 1963