Comparing Joe Biden and Lyndon Johnson Withdrawing From Presidential Races of 2024 and 1968

What were the similarities and differences between Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the Presidential Race of 2024, and Lyndon Johnson’s withdrawal in 1968? What were the causes?

What were the effects of the Presidential Debates of 2024 and 1960 on the Presidential Campaigns?

How does his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, remember her father’s speech when he withdrew from the Presidential Race in 1968?

For more interesting videos, please click to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com@ReflectionsMPH/?sub_confirmation=1

Shortcut: https://www.youtube.com/@ReflectionsMPH

YouTube video using this script: https://youtu.be/WkGXJEEBMpc
© Copyright 2024

This blog includes footnotes and Amazon book links:
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/comparing-presidents-biden-and-lyndon-johnson-not-running-for-reelection-in-2024-and-1968

We also review:
• Donald Trump’s attempted assassination, compared to assassinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin and her book, An Unfinished Love Story.
• Why so many generals and leaders were reluctant to exit Vietnam, including Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement of Hitler, and the Korean War.
• Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, Civil Rights Act, Vietnam War, Viet Cong, Tet Offensive, Social Security, Medicare, and civil rights.

2. What were the similarities and differences between Joe
Biden’s withdrawal from the Presidential Race of 2024, and
Lyndon Johnson’s withdrawal in 1968? What were the
causes?
What were the effects of the Presidential Debates of 2024
and 1960 on the Presidential Campaigns?
How does his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, remember
her father’s speech when he withdrew from the
Presidential Race in 1968?

3. Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
Please feel free to follow along in the PowerPoint
script we uploaded to SlideShare, which includes
illustrations. Our sister blog includes footnotes, both
include our Amazon book links.

4. YouTube Channel (click to subscribe):
Reflections on Morality, Philosophy, and History:
© Copyright 2024 Become a patron:
https://www.patreon.com/seekingvirtueandwisdom
https://www.youtube.com/@ReflectionsMPH/?sub_confirmation=1
https://amzn.to/3TJ5WQl
https://amzn.to/3vErJ1M
https://amzn.to/493tfZT
https://amzn.to/3xfxqo3
https://youtu.be/krkJki2vQ2o
Comparing Joe Biden and Lyndon Johnson’s
Withdrawal from Presidential Race
JFK Memories
LBJ Memories
https://youtu.be/MgVEipHdvfM
https://youtu.be/WkGXJEEBMpc

5. To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
YouTube Description has links for:
•Script PDF file
•Blog
•Amazon Bookstore
© Copyright 2024
Blog and YouTube Description
include links for Amazon books
and lectures mentioned, please
support our channel with these
affiliate commissions.
Blog:https://wp.me/pachSU-1fw

6. A few weeks ago, in July 2024, before the Democratic
Convention,

7. Joe Biden addressed the nation:
“You know, in recent weeks, it's
become clear to me that I needed to
unite my party in this critical
endeavor. I believe my record as
president, my leadership in the
world, my vision for America's future
all merited a second term, but can
come in the way of saving our
democracy. That includes personal
ambition.” “So, I've decided the best
way forward is to pass the torch to a
new generation. That's the best way
to unite our nation.”

8. Biden continued: “Over the next six
months, I'll be focused on doing my
job as president. That means I will
continue to lower costs for
hardworking families and grow our
economy. I'll keep defending your
personal freedoms and your civil
rights, from the right to vote to the
right to choose. And I'll keep calling
out hate and extremism and make it
clear there is no place in America for
political violence or any violence
ever, period.”

9. This was not the first time a sitting President
announced they would not run for reelection. In
1968, after winning a landslide election in 1964,
earning a mandate to pass the Great Society
legislation, Lyndon Johnson’s administration got
bogged down in the Vietnam War he inherited, an
incredibly unpopular conflict drawing in American
soldiers by the hundreds of thousands.

10. Vietnam War Scenes.

11. 1970 protest at Florida State University.

12. Lyndon Johnson addressed the American people on
television on March 31, 1968, first announcing that
the massive bombing campaign against North
Vietnam would be unilaterally halted. The truth was
that the Air Force was running out of targets.

13. LBJ addresses
the Nation,
announcing a
bombing halt
in Vietnam
and his
intention not
to run for re-
election, by
Yoichi
Okamoto,
1968

14. Then LBJ somberly announced,
dropping a political bombshell:
“There is divisiveness among us
all tonight.” “I do not believe
that I should devote an hour or
a day of my time to any
personal partisan causes.”
“Accordingly, I shall not seek,
and will not accept, the
nomination of my party for
another term as your
President.”
President Lyndon Johnson announcing he will not run for
re-election on March 31, 1968.

15. Why Did Lyndon Baines Johnson Withdraw?

16. To compare Biden’s withdrawal from the Presidential race to Lyndon
Johnson’s withdrawal, we need to remember the American history of the
Sixties, which was a history of multiple assassinations, beginning with
Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
The newly sworn-in President Lyndon Johnson leveraged sympathy with
Kennedy’s legacy to pass the first Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the
first piece of legislation implementing the Great Society, which includes
Medicare, Medicaid, education funding, expanded Food Stamp program,
increased Social Security benefits, consumer protection, the
establishment of HUD and Department of Transportation, and many
other programs essential to American prosperity and welfare.

17. John F Kennedy
and his wife
Jackie minutes
before the
assassination. In
middle seat are
Texas Governor
John Connally
and his wife,
Nellie. Photo by
Walt Cisco,
Dallas Morning
News,
November 22,
1963

18. LBJ sworn in as
President on
Air Force One,
witnessed by
Jacqueline
Kennedy, from
LBJ Library
website.

19. https://youtu.be/krkJki2vQ2o

20. The Great Society programs were broadly popular, and public opinion turned
against the segregationist Southern Sheriffs when their bloody suppression of
peaceful protesters mobilized by Martin Luther King and other black leaders was
televised for all of America to see on their living room television sets. The
nomination of the far right-wing extremist Barry Goldwater as the Republican
nominee guaranteed that Lyndon Johnson’s election in 1964 would be a landslide,
in contrast with the narrow win by Joe Biden in 2020. The three television networks
dominated the news in Johnson’s era. In the Sixties, both television and
newspapers strove to be non-partisan, all Americans consumed the same news
stories, whereas today the right-wingnut media is extremely partisan, and by
attacking the mainstream media they forced them to be more partisan as well.

21. https://youtu.be/MgVEipHdvfM

24. But Lyndon Johnson was dogged by the growing Vietnam
War. American generals remembered how Hitler had
benefited from British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler. That backfired on
the Allies when Nazi Germany invaded Poland after
swallowing Austria and Czechoslovakia. Communist
aggression had been successfully halted in the Korean War
in the prior decade. There was great reluctance to
withdraw from Vietnam even when victory became more
and more uncertain.

25. Neville Chamberlain proclaims “Peace in Our Time” after appeasing Hitler at Munich Conference in 1938.

26. Korean War scenes.

27. Many mistakes had been made by the Kennedy
administration in the steadily growing conflict in Vietnam.
LBJ tried to keep the lid on the conflict but was forced to
commit more and more American troops to prevent the
complete collapse of the South Vietnamese government
under relentless attacks by the Viet Cong guerillas and the
North Vietnamese Army. Eventually, over four hundred
thousand American troops fought and died in the jungles
of Vietnam.

28. Vietnam War Scenes.

29. In January 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched
the Tet Offensive, attacking positions across South Vietnam,
including its capital in Saigon. The enemy was initially successful,
several cities were captured, but the spontaneous uprising of
ordinary citizens that the North Vietnamese were expecting
never materialized. Although the South Vietnamese were
victorious militarily, severely weakening the Viet Cong forces, the
sense of security was shattered in South Vietnam, and the public
opinion of the Americans, witnessing the carnage on their living
room television sets, profoundly turned against the war, seeing it
as unwinnable.

30. Scenes in Vietnam during Tet offensive.

31. https://youtu.be/lydW8mfpJGQ

33. In her biography of Lydon Johnson, Doris Kearns
Goodwin remembered that the sudden success of
the Tet Offensive forces against what “appeared to
be impregnable areas deep with South Vietnam
suddenly exposed the falsity of the
administration’s optimistic progress reports. Until
Tet, the Vietcong were forced to fight in jungles or
villages, striking quickly and moving on, their true
vitality hidden and, therefore, more easily
concealed from the American people. Now the
news of captured cities, and the films of
skirmishes shown on the TV screen night after
night, exhibited the other side’s strength.”
Smoke in Saigon during Tet Offensive.

34. Kearns continues: “What
happened at Tet taught the
American public an entirely
different lesson from the one
Johnson had intended to convey.”
The approval rating for Johnson’s
handling of the Vietnam War
dropped from 40 to 26 percent in
six weeks, echoed by an even
greater loss of confidence by the
print and television media.
Johnson lost credibility, “a
majority of people believed he
regularly lied to them.”Civilians sort through ruins of their Saigon homes during Tet Offensive.

35. By the end of March 1968, LBJ’s approval rating had
dropped to 36 percent, the lowest level of his
presidency, and only 26 percent supported his
handling of the war. His generals recommended
committing another 200,000 troops, but he knew
the North Vietnamese would simply match the
increase. The massive bombing was ineffective. How
could America break this stalemate?

36. "The Terror of War" by Nick Ut, which won a 1973 Pulitzer Prize, showed a nine-
year-old girl running down a road after being severely burned by napalm.

37. Johnson told his speechwriter, “I
want out of this cage.” To break
the stalemate, Johnson delivered
a televised speech addressed to
all Americans: “Tonight I want to
speak to you of peace in
Vietnam,” offering to “stop the
bombardment of North Vietnam
unilaterally.” If Hanoi responded,
he would withdraw American
forces as Hanoi withdrew its
forces to the North.
President Lyndon Johnson announcing he will not run for
re-election on March 31, 1968.

38. Then Johnson stunned America
further. “With America’s sons in
the fields far away, with
America’s future under
challenge here at home, I do
not believe I should devote an
hour or a day of my time to any
personal partisan causes or to
any duties other than the
awesome duties of this office,
the Presidency of your country.”
President Lyndon Johnson announcing he will not run for
re-election on March 31, 1968.

39. One major difference between Johnson and Biden
announcing they would not run for reelection was
that Lyndon Johnson resigned due to the popular
discontent over the Vietnamese War, a war in which
America was mired for yet another seven long years
under Richard Nixon.

40. 1970 protest at Florida State University.

41. Joe Biden, in contrast, did not lose the confidence of the American
people for policy failures. Joe Biden’s image was not damaged by attacks
by stubborn foreign armies in Asian jungles, but rather by the inevitable
ravages of old age. We previously compared Biden’s and Nixon’s
performance in the Presidential Debates of 2024 and 1960, noting how
Donald Trump in 2024 and John F Kennedy in 1960 appeared to perform
better on television. Those listening to the 1960 debates on the radio
thought that Nixon had won the debate. Both Joe Biden in 2024 and
Richard Nixon in 1960 arguably had more coherently logical arguments,
but that does not matter. In politics, appearance is reality. Since Biden
prevailed over Trump in their 2020 debate, his failure to think on his feet
in 2024 was devastating.

43. Biden sought to reassure American voters of his
competence by numerous public appearances,
and though he proved he was capable of
nuanced and intelligent responses in a NATO
press conference, his gaffes continued. Now
they were not blamed on his stammer, but on
his advanced age. Even in his stepping-down
speech he just seemed old.

45. Cullen Murphy of the Atlantic magazine
interviewed Doris Kearns Goodwin, she
provided additional insights into Lyndon
Johnson’s withdrawal from the Presidential
race. He notes that Johnson had serious
health issues. “Johnson had suffered a major
heart attack in 1955, and the men in his family
had a history of early deaths. In 1967, he
initiated a secret actuarial study on his life
expectancy. He was told he would die at 64, a
prediction that came to pass.” As Goodwin
noted, “he would have died in that next term,
if he’d had a second term.”

46. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who was
an aide to Johnson and ultimately
his biographer, remembers:
“What Johnson talked to me
about later was more personal,”
Goodwin went on. “He knew he
couldn’t go out on the streets
without being bombarded by
people carrying signs, like: How
many kids did you kill today?”

47. Goodwin continues, “There was no
pleasure any longer in the part of politics
that LBJ had always loved: being out with
people. He told me that he had this
nightmare regularly—that he was in a
river, and he was trying to get to shore,
and he went toward the shore on one
side, and then he couldn’t reach the
shore, so he turned around, figuring he
was going the wrong way, and he couldn’t
reach the shore on the other side either.
He was just caught in the middle.”

48. Possibly another factor in LBJ’s decision to step down was
his deep unpopularity in the conservative Jim Crow South.
Some have speculated that Johnson thought he would be
a one-term President because of his ardent support of
civil rights legislation.
Dick Goodwin, a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson,
admired his political courage in pushing through as much
civil rights legislation as possible, even though it was
controversial.

49. Dick Goodwin commented:
“Impressive, a huge risk at the
time. LBJ knew the path he was
taking would cut him off from
the southern bloc that was his
heritage, isolate him from his
oldest friends, and might well
not succeed. But he was willing
to take the path.”

50. After signing the Civil
Rights Bill of 1964, LBJ
was in a melancholy
rather than a festive
mood. Johnson told Bill
Moyers, “I think we just
delivered the South to
the Republican Party for
a long time to come.”

51. The Democratic Party was damaged by domestic chaos after Johnson’s speech,
which helps to explain why the Democratic Party is so eager to unite behind Kamala
Harris. Just as there was an attempted assassination of Donald Trump in 2024,
there were several assassinations after Johnson’s speech. Martin Luther King was
assassinated in April 1968, and Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968,
after winning the California Democratic primary. Whereas LBJ was able to use
King’s assassination to pass the Fair Housing Act, the last great civil rights
legislation to be passed, the widespread riots after King’s assassination soured the
public on further civil rights initiatives. Although LBJ’s Vice-President Hubert
Humphrey was able to win the nomination, the Democratic Convention of 1968
was absolute chaos, plagued by violence and political protests, further alienating
public opinion, and leading to Nixon’s narrow victory in the 1968 elections.

52. https://youtu.be/IeKssG8mrlk

53. The Lorraine
Motel in
Memphis,
where King was
assassinated, is
now the site of
the National
Civil Rights
Museum.
The wreath
marks the spot.

54. Robert F Kennedy at Ambassador Hotel. He lies mortally wounded immediately after the shooting, busboy Juan
Romero, who was shaking Kennedy's hand when Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots.
Doris Kearns Goodwin remembers, “Dick had often
said that for him, the Sixties came to an end that day.”

56. Chicago Democratic Convention 1968 - National Guard and Demonstrators, by Fred Mason, Liberation News Service

57. Anti-War March
when Chicago
was preparing to
host the
Democratic
National
Convention, by
photographer
David Wilson,
1968

58. Luci Baines Johnson Rembers Her Father
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvaTytpx1Zo&t=70s

59. Erin Burnett of CNN interviewed Luci Baines
Johnson, daughter of former president Johnson,
comparing Biden’s withdrawal from the Presential
race to her father’s withdrawal.

60. Luci Johnson remembers: “When President
Biden made his speech conceding that he
was not going to run for reelection, it was
just a magical moment. We all were
pinching ourselves because, as he had said
to us, he cared a lot about the office, but he
cared most about his country. My father
made a similar decision because he cared
so much for his country, and both of them
cared tremendously about civil rights, and
its importance.”

61. Luci Johnson continues, “The
1964 Civil Rights Act was signed
on my 17th birthday, and my
sweet father didn't have time
to go to a drugstore and pick
up a card. So, he wrote me a
love letter on White House
stationery, even noting the
time of day,” “with the hope
that one day I would realize just
what an incredible birthday gift
I had, that was the end of what
was really legal apartheid in the
United States.”

62. “Years later, I got to walk over the
Pettus Bridge with Vice-President
Biden, and we held John Lewis's
hand, and we went with the force
and determination to continue
this fight, which is not over.”
Erin asked Luci Johnson: “You
know, we look in history, and the
last time that someone walked
away from that second term was
your father. How many similarities
do you see between President
Johnson and President Biden?”

63. Luci Johnson responded: “Well, I see a great
love and passion and long service in the
Senate, the Vice-Presidency, and the
Presidency. I see a commitment to social
justice that both felt fervently to their last
breaths. I see the President's willingness to
do whatever it takes to give the best service
to this country,” and they both said, if the
time to “pass the baton has come, I do so
gladly. I saw that in my father. I see that in
President Biden. And it was a moment where
you felt you were in front of a great American
hero. The room was electric, and I was in the
room where it happened.”

64. Luci Johnson concluded: “I went to
Washington, DC for the People's
March,” to fight for “social justice
for all of us, black and white and
ethnic ethnicities of all kinds.
People need basic food, they need
basic nutrition, they need basic
health care, and they need basic
education. These should be rights
of all Americans.”
Poor People's March, Washington DC, 1968

65. Discussing the Sources

66. Since we reflected on Doris Kearns Goodwin Unfinished Love Story, with both her
and her late husband Richard’s memories of the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations, and Doris’ prior biography of Lyndon Johnson, we have noticed
several parallels to current events. Richard Goodwin was an aide and speechwriter
for Kennedy and Johnson, and later for Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, while
Doris Kearns Goodwin served on Johnson’s staff, then practically lived with LBJ on
his ranch while she was writing his biography. She recorded so many hours of
interviews that it is almost an autobiography. They met and married many years
after they served in the White House.
We also reflected on their recollections on the Cuban Missile Fortieth Reunion,
hosted by Fidel Castro himself in Havannah, Cuba, and how Richard Goodwin and
Jackie Kennedy helped save the priceless treasures of Ancient Egypt from being
flooded by the rising Aswan Dam reservoir.

67. https://youtu.be/krkJki2vQ2o https://youtu.be/MgVEipHdvfM

68. Another source we used was Cullen Murphy’s article
in the Atlantic magazine.

69. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/07/the-last-time-a-president-dropped-out-of-the-race/679246/

70. We have a series of reflections based on David
Levering Lewis’ excellent biography of Martin Luther
King, on his youth and career, and on his protests in
Montgomery, Selma, Alabama, Birmingham, and
other cities.

71. https://youtu.be/_64FMZ6AlEg https://youtu.be/TuiyFycWE-U
https://youtu.be/_TLt2fQqL4w https://youtu.be/5y0v0tYMdy8

72. We ponder on Martin Luther King’s Letter from a
Birmingham Jail and his short I Have a Dream Speech,
and his protests in Chicago and Memphis, where he
was assassinated.
We also have a summary of these reflections.

73. https://youtu.be/PqFAUEXbi8k https://youtu.be/IJ64y3nQA4Q
https://youtu.be/eMA_7vLYcdM https://youtu.be/IeKssG8mrlk

74. https://youtu.be/XtdVGx2C3Cc

75. YouTube Channel (click to subscribe):
Reflections on Morality, Philosophy, and History:
© Copyright 2024 Become a patron:
https://www.patreon.com/seekingvirtueandwisdom
https://www.youtube.com/@ReflectionsMPH/?sub_confirmation=1
https://amzn.to/3TJ5WQl
https://amzn.to/3vErJ1M
https://amzn.to/493tfZT
https://amzn.to/3xfxqo3
https://youtu.be/krkJki2vQ2o
Comparing Joe Biden and Lyndon Johnson’s
Withdrawal from Presidential Race
JFK Memories
LBJ Memories
https://youtu.be/MgVEipHdvfM
https://youtu.be/WkGXJEEBMpc

76. To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
YouTube Description has links for:
•Script PDF file
•Blog
•Amazon Bookstore
© Copyright 2024
Blog and YouTube Description
include links for Amazon books
and lectures mentioned, please
support our channel with these
affiliate commissions.
Blog:https://wp.me/pachSU-1fw

77. https://www.patreon.com/seekingvirtueandwisdom
https://www.meetup.com/Reflections/

78. https://www.patreon.com/seekingvirtueandwisdom

79. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLqDkfFbWhXOnzdjp__YZtg/