Born on August 27, 1908, into a poor family in the Texas hill country, Lyndon Johnson was an average student but also seemed a natural leader among his peers. In 1927, he entered Southwest Texas State Teachers College. A prominent student, Johnson worked his way through school, graduating in three years. Next he taught English in Houston. In 1932, Johnson went to Washington as a legislative assistant to Representative Richard Kleberg. Doing most of the work, he became quite versed in the ways of Washington. In 1937, he ran for Congress himself as a Roosevelt New Dealer. In 1941, he ran for the Senate in a special election and lost. But he retained his House seat and continued his rise to prominence among congressional Democrats. During the war, Johnson served for a few months in a non-combat position.

In 1948, Johnson ran again for the Senate, defeating his Democratic primary opponent in a runoff by only 87 votes amid loud accusations of fraud. He easily won the general election in the fall. In the Senate, Johnson quietly but quickly rose to prominence. In 1952, he became the Democratic leader in the Senate. He has been recognized as one of the ablest parliamentarians in U.S. history. In 1960, he sought his party's nomination for president but had to settle for the vice presidential slot, behind John Kennedy. As vice president, Johnson seemed out of place, with little of significance reaching his desk. That changed radically when Kennedy's assassination thrust him into the Oval Office in 1963.

Johnson's presidency was a tragedy. Highly successful at home in getting his "Great Society" and civil rights legislation passed, his work was increasingly overshadowed by the war in Vietnam. A believer in the "domino theory," and concerned about becoming the first U.S. president to lose a war, Johnson steadily deepened the country's involvement until, in 1968, more than 500,000 U.S. soldiers were fighting in Southeast Asia. After the Tet Offensive, and in the face of mounting domestic protests against the war, he announced in March 1968 that he would not seek re-election. He left office with his "Great Society" programs threatened by insolvency, and his party and the nation as a whole deeply divided over the Vietnam War. Johnson died on January 22, 1973, at his Texas ranch at age 64.