Lyndon B. Johnson

==U.S. House of Representatives (1937–1949)==
[[File:FDR-LBJ.png|thumb|President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (left), Texas governor [[James Burr V Allred]] (center), and Johnson (right) in 1937; Johnson later used an edited version of this photo with Allred airbrushed out in his [[1941 United States Senate special election in Texas|1941 senatorial campaign]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Caro |first=Robert |title=The Path to Power |at=Location 15443 (Kindle edition)}}</ref>]]
In 1937, after the death of 13-term congressman [[James P. Buchanan]], Johnson successfully campaigned in a special election for [[Texas's 10th congressional district]], which included [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] and the surrounding hill country. He ran on a [[New Deal]] platform and was effectively aided by his wife. He served as a U.S. Representative from April 10, 1937, to January 3, 1949.<ref name="Bioguide.congress.gov">{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=J000160 |title=JOHNSON, Lyndon Baines&nbsp;– Biographical Information |publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=October 6, 2008}}</ref> President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] found Johnson to be a political ally and conduit for information, particularly regarding the internal politics of Texas and the machinations of Vice President [[John Nance Garner]] and [[Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives|House Speaker]] [[Sam Rayburn]]. Johnson was immediately appointed to the [[United States House Committee on Armed Services|Naval Affairs Committee]]. He worked for rural electrification and other improvements for his district. Johnson steered the projects towards contractors he knew, such as [[Kellogg, Brown and Root#Brown & Root|Herman and George Brown]], who financed much of Johnson's future career.

=== 1941 U.S. Senate election ===
{{Main|1941 United States Senate special election in Texas}}
In April 1941, incumbent [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] [[Morris Sheppard]] from Texas died. Under Texas law, a [[1941 United States Senate special election in Texas|special election]] for a vacant Senate seat must be held within a few months of the vacancy, meaning that the election would not be held during a normal November election, giving Johnson the chance to run without forfeiting his seat in the House.<ref name="Sweany-2006">{{Cite web |last=Sweany |first=Brian D. |date=February 2006 |title=Texas History 101 |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/texas-history-101-8/ |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=Texas Monthly |language=en }}</ref> The election would be held without party primaries, and with no runoff, meaning that Johnson would have to compete against every Democrat&mdash;without the chance of facing the frontrunner, Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O’Daniel, in a 1-on-1 runoff election.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> The first pre-election polls showed Johnson receiving only 5% of the vote, but Johnson ran a fierce campaign, barnstorming the state and emphasizing his close relationship with President Roosevelt.<ref name="Sweany-2006" />

On Election Day, Johnson held a strong lead in the returns throughout the whole night, and with 96 percent of the ballots counted, Johnson held a 5,000-vote lead.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> According to John Connally, future Governor and Johnson's campaign manager, local election officials began calling Connally's office and asking him about whether they should report the vote tallies.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> Connally told them to report the votes, which allegedly allowed O'Daniel's political allies among the [[South Texas|South]] and [[East Texas]] party bosses to know the exact number of fraudulent votes needed for O'Daniel to catch up to Johnson.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> According to Connally, <blockquote>The opposition then—Governor O'Daniel and his people—knew exactly how many votes they had to have to take the lead... They kept changing the results, and our lead got smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, we wound up on the short side of the stick and lost the election by 1,311 votes. I'm basically responsible for losing that 1941 campaign. We let them know exactly how many votes they had to have.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /></blockquote> In addition to O'Daniel's allies, state business interests aligned with former impeached and convicted Texas Governor "Pa" Ferguson had been concerned with O'Daniel's support of prohibition as Governor; they believed that he could do much less damage to their cause in the Senate.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> The lieutenant governor, [[Coke R. Stevenson]], was not in favor of prohibition, making his possible promotion to Governor a key selling point for the state's business interests in manipulating the election results.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> In the final vote tally, Johnson fell short by just 0.23% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title= TX US Senate - Special Election Race - Jun 28, 1941 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=30411&ShowAllCand=Y |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=Our Campaigns }}</ref>

While Johnson's loss in the 1941 Senate race was a stinging defeat, he did not have to give up his seat in the House, which permitted him to maintain numerous allies, including [[George Berham Parr]], who ran a political machine in the [[Lower Rio Grande Valley]] in South Texas.<ref name="Dallek 1991">{{harvnb|Dallek|1991|p=327}}</ref> U.S. Senator [[W. Lee O'Daniel]] became unpopular during his time in the Senate, and decided to forgo a bid for re-election in 1948,<ref>{{Cite web |title=TSHA {{!}} O'Daniel, Wilbert Lee [Pappy] |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/odaniel-wilbert-lee-pappy |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=www.tshaonline.org}}</ref> so Johnson began preparing for a close Senate runoff by arranging for his supporters who controlled votes, including Parr, to withhold their final tallies until the statewide results were announced.<ref name="Dallek 1991" /> By waiting until the statewide result was reported, Johnson was able to know the figure he had to surpass and so could add as many votes as necessary to his total.<ref name="Dallek 1991"/> It would prove consequential, as Johnson would win the Democratic primary in 1948 by just 87 votes.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Tolchin |first1=Martin |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=February 11, 1990 |title=How Johnson Won Election He'd Lost |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/us/how-johnson-won-election-he-d-lost.html |access-date=May 29, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Active military duty (1941–1942)===
[[File:Portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson in Navy Uniform - 42-3-7 - 03-1942.jpg|thumb|Johnson as a lieutenant commander in the [[United States Naval Reserve|U.S. Naval Reserve]] in March 1942]]
Johnson was appointed a [[Lieutenant commander (United States)|lieutenant commander]] in the [[United States Naval Reserve|U.S. Naval Reserve]] on June 21, 1940. While serving as a U.S. representative, he was called to active duty three days after the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941. His first orders were to report to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in [[Washington, D.C.]], for instruction and training.<ref name="military">{{cite web |url=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/Johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/military/military.asp |title=PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON'S MILITARY SERVICE |publisher=University of Texas |access-date=August 7, 2015 |author=LBJ Library Staff |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001119040200/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/military/military.asp |archive-date=November 19, 2000}}</ref> Following his training, Johnson asked [[United States Under Secretary of the Navy|Undersecretary of the Navy]] [[James Forrestal]] for a job in Washington, D.C. He was instead sent to inspect shipyard facilities in Texas and on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]]. In the spring of 1942, President Roosevelt decided he needed better information on conditions in the [[South West Pacific theatre of World War II|Southwest Pacific]], and wanted a trusted political ally to obtain it. Forrestal suggested Johnson. Roosevelt assigned Johnson to a three-man survey team covering the Southwest Pacific.<ref name="Dallek, Robert pp. 235">{{harvnb|Dallek|1991|pp=235–245}}</ref>

Johnson reported to General [[Douglas MacArthur]] in Australia. Johnson and two [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] officers went to the [[22nd Bomb Group (Red Raiders) 5th Army Air Force|22nd Bomb Group]] base, which was assigned the high-risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at [[Lae]] in [[New Guinea]]. On June 9, 1942, Johnson volunteered as an observer for an airstrike on New Guinea. Reports vary on what happened to the aircraft carrying Johnson during that mission. MacArthur recommended Johnson for the [[Silver Star]] for gallantry in action;<ref name="theguardian.com"/> the citation indicated that the mission came under attack and Johnson's aircraft experienced mechanical problems, forcing it to turn back before reaching its objective.<ref name="CNN Special" /> Others claim that the aircraft turned back because of generator trouble before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire, an account that is supported by the aircraft's official flight records.<ref name="CNN Special">{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/johnson.silver.star/story/storypage.html |title=In-Depth Specials&nbsp;– The story behind Johnson's Silver Star |publisher=CNN |access-date=October 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613123509/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/johnson.silver.star/story/storypage.html |archive-date=June 13, 2008}}</ref><ref name="theguardian.com">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jul/06/internationaleducationnews.humanities LBJ's medal for valour 'was sham'] ''[[The Guardian]]'', July 6, 2001</ref> Other airplanes that continued came under fire near the target about the same time Johnson's plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase.<ref name="CNN Special" /> Johnson's biographer [[Robert Caro]] was quoted as saying "I think that the weight of the evidence at this moment is that the plane was attacked by Zeroes and that he was cool under fire",<ref name="CNN Special" /> but also "The fact is, LBJ never got within sight of Japanese forces. His combat experience was a myth."<ref name="USNI">{{cite web |last1=Tillman |first1=Barrett |last2=Sakaida |first2=Henry |title=Silver Star Airplane Ride |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2001/april/silver-star-airplane-ride |publisher=US Naval Institute |access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>

Johnson used a movie camera to record conditions,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/war-is-boring/war-and-forgiveness-437c52499d02 |title=War and Forgiveness |first=Steve |last=Weintz |date=December 24, 2013 |work=War Is Boring |access-date=February 8, 2016}}</ref> and reported to Roosevelt, Navy leaders, and Congress that conditions were deplorable and unacceptable. Some historians have suggested this was in exchange for MacArthur's recommendation to award the Silver Star.<ref name="theguardian.com"/> He argued that the southwest Pacific urgently needed a higher priority and a larger share of war supplies. Warplanes that were sent there were "far inferior" to Japanese planes, and U.S. Navy morale there was poor. Johnson told Forrestal that the Pacific Fleet had a "critical" need for 6,800 additional experienced men. Johnson prepared a twelve-point program to upgrade the effort in the region, stressing "greater cooperation and coordination within the various commands and between the different war theaters". Congress responded by making Johnson chairman of a high-powered subcommittee of the Naval Affairs Committee,<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1991|p=235}}</ref> with a mission similar to that of the [[Truman Committee]] in the Senate. He probed the peacetime "business as usual" inefficiencies that permeated the naval war and demanded that admirals get the job done. Johnson went too far when he proposed a bill that would crack down on the draft exemptions of shipyard workers if they were absent from work too often; organized labor blocked the bill and denounced him. Johnson's biographer [[Robert Dallek]] concludes, "The mission was a temporary exposure to danger calculated to satisfy Johnson's personal and political wishes, but it also represented a genuine effort on his part, however misplaced, to improve the lot of America's fighting men."<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1991|p=237}}</ref>

In addition to the Silver Star, Johnson received the [[American Campaign Medal]], [[Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal]], and the [[World War II Victory Medal]]. He was discharged from active duty on July 17, 1942, but remained in the Navy Reserve, where he was promoted to [[Commander (United States)|commander]] on October 19, 1949, effective June 2, 1948. He resigned from the Navy Reserve effective January 18, 1964.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.va.gov/health/newsfeatures/2015/february/list-of-presidents-who-were-veterans.asp |title=List of Presidents who were Veterans |author=Veterans Health Administration |work=va.gov |access-date=February 8, 2016}}</ref>