Lyndon B. Johnson

==Post-presidency (1969–1973)==
[[File:Lyndon B. Johnson 1972.jpg|thumb|left|Johnson with longer hair during an interview in August 1972, five months before his death]]
{{blockquote|On Inauguration Day (January 20, 1969), Johnson saw Nixon sworn in, then got on the plane to fly back to Texas. When the front door of the plane closed, Johnson pulled out a cigarette—his first cigarette he had smoked since his heart attack in 1955. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth and said, "Daddy, what are you doing? You're going to kill yourself." He took it back and said, "I've now raised you, girls. I've now been President. ''Now it's my time!''" From that point on, he went into a very self-destructive spiral.|Historian [[Michael Beschloss]]<ref>''Decisions That Shook the World'', vol. 1, 38:18–47. Dir. Gerald Rafshoon. Camera Planet/Discovery Productions, 2004.</ref>}}

After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, accompanied by former aide and speechwriter [[Harry J. Middleton]], who would draft Johnson's first book, ''The Choices We Face,'' and work with him on his memoirs, ''The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969,'' published in 1971.<ref>{{cite news|title=Harry J. Middleton Curriculum Vitae|date=February 25, 1971|agency=LBJ Presidential Library Reading Room}}</ref> That year, the [[Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum]] opened on the campus of [[University of Texas at Austin|The University of Texas at Austin]]. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public to form the [[Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park]], with the provision that it "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile relic of the past".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marvin |last=Harris |url=https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/615573 |title=Taming the wild pecan at Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park |journal=Park Science |volume=19 |issue=2 |date=December 1999}}</ref>

Johnson gave Nixon high grades in foreign policy, but worried that his successor was being pressured into removing U.S. forces from South Vietnam before the South Vietnamese were able to defend themselves. "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.<ref name="theatlantic1973">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/73jul/janos.htm|date=July 1973|title=The Last Days of the President|last=Janos|first=Leo|work=The Atlantic|access-date=July 15, 2013}}</ref>

During the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 presidential election]], Johnson only reluctantly endorsed Democratic nominee [[George McGovern]], a senator from [[South Dakota]]; McGovern had long opposed Johnson's foreign and defense policies. The McGovern nomination and platform dismayed him. Nixon could be defeated, Johnson insisted, "if only the Democrats don't go too far left".<ref name="LastDays" /> Johnson felt [[Edmund Muskie]] would be more likely to defeat Nixon; however, he declined to try to stop McGovern receiving the nomination as he felt his unpopularity within the Democratic Party was such that anything he said was more likely to help McGovern. Johnson's protégé [[John Connally]] had served as President Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury and then stepped down to head "[[Democrats for Nixon]]", a group funded by Republicans. It was the first time that Connally and Johnson were on opposite sides of a general election campaign.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ashman |first=Charles R. |title=Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John |publisher=Morrow |location=New York |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-688-00222-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/connallyadventur00ashm/page/271 271] |url=https://archive.org/details/connallyadventur00ashm/page/271}}</ref>

=== Failing health ===
[[File:LBJ-Ranch-1972.jpg|thumb|Johnson wearing a [[cowboy hat]] at his ranch in Texas, 1972]]

In March 1970, Johnson suffered an attack of [[angina]] and was taken to [[San Antonio Military Medical Center|Brooke Army General Hospital]] in [[San Antonio]]. He had gained more than {{convert|25|lb}} since leaving the White House; he now weighed around {{convert|235|lb}} and was urged to lose considerable weight. Johnson had also resumed smoking, having not smoked since his near-fatal heart attack in July 1955. The following summer, again gripped by chronic chest pains, he lost {{convert|15|lb}} in less than a month on a crash diet.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

In April 1972, Johnson had another heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad",<ref name="LastDays" /> he confided to friends. The chest pains returned nearly every afternoon {{mdashb}} jolting pains that left him frightened and breathless. A portable [[oxygen tank]] was kept by his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask. He continued to smoke heavily and, although nominally on a [[low-calorie diet|low-calorie]], [[dietary cholesterol|low-cholesterol diet]], kept to it only intermittently. Meanwhile, he began to experience severe abdominal pains, diagnosed as [[diverticulosis]]. His heart condition rapidly worsened and surgery was recommended. Johnson flew to Houston to consult with heart specialist [[Michael DeBakey]], where he learned his condition was terminal. DeBakey found that despite two of Johnson's coronary arteries being in urgent need of a [[coronary bypass]], the former president's heart was in such poor condition that he likely would have died during surgery.<ref name="theatlantic1973"/>