Lyndon B. Johnson

===Senate Democratic leader===
[[File:Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell cropped.jpg|thumb|President Johnson giving "The Treatment" to U.S. Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.]] in 1963]]
In the [[1952 United States Senate elections|1952 general election]], [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] won a majority in both the House and Senate. In January 1953, Johnson was chosen by his fellow Democrats as Senate Minority Leader; he became the most junior senator ever elected to this position. One of his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in making appointments to committees while retaining it for chairmanships. In the [[1954 United States Senate election|1954 election]], Johnson was re-elected to the Senate and, with Democrats winning the majority in the Senate, he became majority leader. Johnson's duties were to schedule legislation and help pass measures favored by the Democrats. Johnson, House Speaker [[Sam Rayburn]], and President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] worked well together in passing Eisenhower's domestic and foreign agenda.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goldfield|first=David|date=2014|title=Border Men: Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, and Civil Rights|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23796842|journal=The Journal of Southern History|volume=80|issue=1|pages=7–38|jstor=23796842|via=JSTOR}}</ref>

In 1956, during the [[Suez Crisis]], Johnson tried to prevent the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] from criticizing [[Israel]] for its invasion of the [[Sinai Peninsula]]. Along with much of the rest of the nation, Johnson was appalled by the threat of possible [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] domination of space flight implied by the launch of the Soviets' launch of ''[[Sputnik 1]]'', the first artificial Earth satellite, and used his influence to ensure passage of the 1958 [[National Aeronautics and Space Act]], which established [[NASA]].

Historians Caro and Dallek consider Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader ever. He was unusually proficient at gathering information. One biographer suggests he was "the greatest intelligence gatherer Washington has ever known", discovering exactly where every senator stood on issues, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses and what it took to get his vote.<ref>{{harvnb|Woods|2006|p=262}}</ref> Robert Baker claimed that Johnson would occasionally send senators on [[NATO]] trips so they were absent and unable to cast dissenting votes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/video/lbj_05.html#v230 |title=LBJ |work=American Experience |access-date=October 12, 2014 |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930095709/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/video/lbj_05.html#v230 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Central to Johnson's control was "The Treatment",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afterimagegallery.com/nytjohnson.htm |title=The New York Times, The Johnson Treatment: Lyndon B. Johnson and Theodore F. Green |publisher=Afterimagegallery.com |access-date=October 6, 2008 |archive-date=October 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005055014/http://www.afterimagegallery.com/nytjohnson.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> described by two journalists:

{{blockquote|The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the Johnson Ranch swimming pool, in one of Johnson's offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate itself{{snd}}wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator within his reach.

Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, and the hint of threat. It was all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Rowland Evans |first1=Rowland |last1=Evans |author-link2=Robert Novak |first2=Robert |last2=Novak |title=Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power |url=https://archive.org/details/lyndonbjohnsonex00evan |url-access=registration |year=1966 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lyndonbjohnsonex00evan/page/104 104]|publisher=[New York] New American Library }}</ref>}}

In 1955, Johnson persuaded U.S. Senator [[Wayne Morse]], an Independent, to join the Democratic caucus.<ref name=featuredbio>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Featured_Bio_Morse.htm|title=U.S. Senate: Wayne L. Morse: A Featured Biography|date=July 6, 2015|accessdate=April 13, 2021}}</ref>

During his tenure as Majority Leader, Johnson did not sign the 1956 [[Southern Manifesto]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Badger|first=Tony|title=Southerners Who Refused to Sign the Southern Manifesto|journal=[[The Historical Journal]]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|volume=42|issue=2|year=1999|pages=517–534|doi=10.1017/S0018246X98008346|jstor=3020998|s2cid=145083004}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – March 12, 1956|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=102|issue=4|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|pages=4459–4461|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1956-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1956-pt4-3-1.pdf|access-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref> and shepherded the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957|Civil Rights Acts of 1957]] and [[Civil Rights Act of 1960|1960]] to passage—the first civil rights bills to pass Congress since the [[Enforcement Acts]] and the [[Civil Rights Act of 1875]] during [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]].{{refn|name=1957 & 1960 civil rights bills|<ref>{{cite episode|title=LBJ (Parts 1–2)|title-link=LBJ (1991 film)|series=American Experience|series-link=American Experience|network=[[PBS]]|station=[[WGBH-TV|WGBH]]|date=September 30, 1991|season=4|number=1|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/lbj/|access-date=November 14, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite episode|title=JFK (Part 1)|series=American Experience|series-link=American Experience|network=[[PBS]]|station=[[WGBH-TV|WGBH]]|date=November 11, 2013|season=25|number=7|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jfk/|access-date=September 24, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 7, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=10|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=13900|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 29, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=12|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=16478|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12-6-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – April 8, 1960|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=106|issue=6|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|pages=7810–7811|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6-8-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref>}}

On July 2, 1955, at age 46, Johnson, a 60-cigarette-per-day smoker, suffered a near-fatal [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]], which inspired him to discontinue smoking. Five months later, Johnson's doctors reported he had made "a most satisfactory recovery", and Johnson announced that he would remain as his party's leader in the Senate.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A7-hzOuI2KQC&dat=19560101&printsec=frontpage |title=Lyndon Johnson To Retain Post |date=January 1, 1956 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ie8Y0QrpMWAC&dat=19560101&printsec=frontpage |title=Johnson To Continue As Demo Leader |date=January 1, 1956 |newspaper=Times Daily}}</ref>