Katharine Graham
Born	Katharine Meyer (1917-06-16)June 16, 1917 New York City
Died	July 17, 2001(2001-07-17) (aged 84) Boise, Idaho
Education	University of Chicago Vassar College
Occupation	Publisher
Spouse	Philip Graham (1940–1963)
Children	Lally Weymouth Donald E. Graham William Welsh Graham Stephen Meyer Graham

Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Her memoir, Personal History, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Early life[link]

Katharine Graham was born Katharine Meyer in 1917 into a privileged family in New York City, the daughter of Agnes Elizabeth (née Ernst) and Eugene Meyer. Graham's father was a financier and, later, a public official. He bought The Washington Post in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction. Graham's mother was a bohemian intellectual, art lover, and political activist in the Republican Party, who shared friendships with people as diverse as Auguste Rodin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, and worked as a newspaper reporter at a time when journalism was an uncommon profession among women. Graham's father was Jewish and her mother was Lutheran, from a family of German descent.^[1][2][3]

Graham's parents owned several homes across the country, but primarily lived between a veritable 'castle' in Mount Kisco, New York, and a smaller home in Washington, D.C. Graham often did not see much of her parents during her childhood, as both traveled and socialized extensively, and was raised in part by nannies, governesses and tutors. Katharine endured a strained relationship with her mother. Agnes Meyer was reportedly very negative and condescending towards Katharine, which had a negative impact on Katharine's self confidence.

Her elder sister Florence Meyer (1911–1962) was a successful photographer and wife of actor Oscar Homolka.

Graham was an alumna of The Madeira School (to which her father had donated much land) and attended Vassar College before transferring to the University of Chicago. In Chicago, she became quite interested in labor issues and shared friendships with people from walks of life very different from her own. After graduation, she worked for a short period at a San Francisco newspaper where, among other things, she helped cover a major strike by wharf workers.

Her father's sister, Florence Meyer Blumenthal founded the Prix Blumenthal, given to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians during the period of 1919-1954.^[4]

Graham began working for the Post in 1938. While in Washington, D.C., she met a former schoolmate, Will Lang Jr. The two dated, but broke off the relationship due to conflicting interests.

Family[link]

On June 5, 1940, she married Philip Graham, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. They had a daughter, Lally Morris Weymouth (born 1943), and three sons: Donald Edward Graham (born 1945), William Welsh Graham (born 1948) and Stephen Meyer Graham (born 1952).

[edit] Leadership of The Washington Post

Philip Graham became publisher of the Post in 1946, when Meyer handed over the newspaper to his son-in-law. Katharine recounts in her autobiography, Personal History, how she didn't feel slighted by the fact her father gave the Post to Phillip rather than her, "Far from troubling me that my father thought of my husband and not me, it pleased me ,In fact, it never crossed my mind that he might have viewed me as someone to take on an important job at the paper."^[5] Meyer went on to became the head of the World Bank. Meyer left that position only six months later; he was Chairman of the Washington Post Company until his death in 1959, when Philip Graham took that position and the company expanded with the purchases of television stations and Newsweek magazine.

Social life and friends[link]

The Grahams were important members of the Washington social scene, becoming friends with John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Robert F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, and Nancy Reagan among many others.

In her 1997 autobiography, Graham comments several times about how close her husband was to politicians of his day (he was instrumental, for example, in getting Johnson to be the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1960), and how such personal closeness with politicians later became unacceptable in journalism.

Graham is also known for a long time friendship with Warren Buffett whose Berkshire Hathaway owns a substantial stake in Washington Post.

Philip Graham's illness and death[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Phillip dealt with alcoholism and mental illness throughout his marriage to Katharine. He had mood swings and often belittled her, calling her horrible names. ^[6] On Christmas Eve in 1962, Katharine found out her husband was having an affair with Robin Webb, an Australian stringer for Newsweek. Graham declared that he would divorce his wife for Robin and he made motions to divide up the couple's assets.^[7]

At a newspaper conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Graham apparently had a nervous breakdown.^[8] Graham was sedated and flown back to Washington, where he would end up in the Chestnut Lodge psychiatric facility near Washington, D.C.^[8] During a weekend release from Chestnut Lodge on August 3, 1963, Graham committed suicide with a 28-gauge shotgun at the couple's Glen Welby home.

Ascension to power[link]

Katharine Graham assumed the reins of the company, and of the Post, after Philip Graham's suicide. Graham was de facto publisher of the newspaper from 1963 onward, formally assuming the title in 1979, and chairman of the board from 1973 to 1991. As the only woman to be in such a high position at a publishing company, she had no female role models and had difficulty being taken seriously by a many of her male colleagues and employees. Graham outlined in her memoir her lack of confidence and distrust in her own knowledge. The convergence of the women's movement with Graham's ascension to power at the Post brought about changes in Graham's attitude, and also led her to promote gender equality within her company.

Graham hired Benjamin Bradlee as editor and cultivated Warren Buffett for his financial advice; he became a major shareholder and something of an eminence grise in the company. Her son Donald was publisher from 1979 to 2000.

Watergate[link]

Graham presided over the Post at a crucial time in its history. The Post played an integral role in unveiling the Watergate conspiracy, and ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Graham and editor Bradlee first experienced challenges when they published the content of the Pentagon Papers. When Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought the Watergate story to Bradlee, Graham supported their investigative reporting, and Bradlee ran stories about Watergate when few other news outlets were reporting on the matter.

In conjunction with the Watergate scandal, Graham was the subject of one of the best-known threats in American journalistic history. It occurred in 1972, when Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, warned reporter Carl Bernstein about a forthcoming article: "Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published." The two words "her tit" were cut on publication.

CIA speech[link]

In 1988, Graham gave a speech at the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Virginia:^[9]

Other accomplishments and recognition[link]

Graham's headstone (far left), located beside the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel in Washington, D.C.

Graham had strong links to the Rockefeller family, serving both as a member of the Rockefeller University council and as a close friend of the Museum of Modern Art, where she was honored as a recipient of the David Rockefeller Award for enlightened generosity and advocacy of cultural and civic endeavors (see External links below).

In 1973, Graham received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College.

Graham published her memoirs, Personal History, in 1997. The book was praised for its honest portrayal of Philip Graham's mental illness, and received rave reviews for her depiction of her life, as well as a glimpse into how the roles of women have changed over the course of Graham's life. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

In 2000, Graham was named as one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.^[10]

In 2002, Katharine Graham was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

Death[link]

In 2001, Graham fell on a sidewalk while visiting Sun Valley, Idaho. Three days later she died in a hospital in Boise due to trauma resulting from the ensuing head injury.^[11]. Her funeral took place at the Washington National Cathedral. Graham is buried in historic Oak Hill Cemetery, across the street from her former home in Georgetown.^[12][13]

References[link]

• Graham, Katharine (1997). Personal History. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-58585-2. 
• Bradlee, Ben (1995). A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80894-3. 
• Gerber, Robin (2005). Katharine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon. New York: Portfolio. ISBN 1-59184-104-6. 

Further reading[link]

• Katharine the Great, an unauthorized biography of Katharine Graham that was recalled by the publisher just a couple of weeks after its release, then later released.

External links[link]

• Charlie Rose's interview with Katharine Graham, year-1997
• Booknotes interview with Graham on Personal History, February 16, 1997.
• New York Times Paid Death Notices: July 18, 2001 Inserted by Rockefeller University and the Museum of Modern Art.
• Katharine the Great – slate.com
• The high life of Katharine Graham
• Joan Didion is writing the screenplay for HBO's upcoming Katharine Graham biopic.
• The University of Chicago: Presidential Medal of Freedom

J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover in 1959
1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
In office March 22, 1935 – May 2, 1972
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Deputy	Clyde Tolson
Preceded by	Office created (was BOI director)
Succeeded by	L. Patrick Gray
6th Director of the Bureau of Investigation
In office May 10, 1924 – March 22, 1935
President	Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	William J. Burns
Succeeded by	Himself (as FBI Director)
Personal details
Born	John Edgar Hoover (1895-01-01)January 1, 1895 Washington, D.C. United States
Died	May 2, 1972(1972-05-02) (aged 77) Washington, D.C. United States
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature

J. Edgar Hoover in 1924

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 aged 77. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modernizations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.

Late in life and after his death Hoover became a controversial figure as evidence of his secretive actions became public. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI.^[1] He used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders,^[2] and to collect evidence using illegal methods.^[3] FBI directors are now limited to one 10-year term,^[4] subject to extension by the United States Senate,^[5] because of his long and controversial tenure.

Early life and education[link]

J. Edgar Hoover was born on New Year's Day 1895 in Washington, D.C., to Anna Marie (née Scheitlin; 1860–1938), who was of German Swiss descent, and Dick Naylor Hoover, Sr. (1856–1921), of English and German ancestry. The uncle of Hoover's mother was a Swiss honorary consul general to the United States. Hoover grew up near the Eastern Market in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood. At Central High, he sang in the school choir, participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, and competed on the debate team,^[6] where he argued against women getting the vote and against abolition of the death penalty.^[7] He obtained a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1916, and an LL.M., a Master of Laws degree, in 1917 from the same university.^[8][9] While a law student, Hoover became interested in the career of Anthony Comstock, the New York City United States Postal Inspector, who waged prolonged campaigns against fraud and vice, and also was against pornography and birth control.

FBI career[link]

During World War I, immediately after getting his LLM, Hoover was hired by the Justice Department. He was soon promoted to head of the Enemy Aliens Registration Section. In August 1919, he became head of the new General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation within the Justice Department^[10] (see the Palmer Raids).

Hoover joined the Bureau as America's first great Communist scare was getting under way, and handpicked as his assistant a man named George Ruch. One of two key associates to name their own sons J Edgar, Ruch expressed astonishment that left-wingers should even "be allowed to speak and write as they like".^[11] Hoover and Ruch favoured deporting people merely for being members of radical organisations, and used the Bureau to spy on lawyers representing those arrested in the Red Raids of 1920. One of them, on whom Hoover was to keep tabs for half a century and deem "the most dangerous man in the United States", was future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter.^[12]

In 1921, he rose in the Bureau of Investigation to deputy head, and in 1924, the Attorney General made him the acting director. On May 10, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Hoover as the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation, following President Warren Harding's death and in response to allegations that the prior director, William J. Burns, was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. When Hoover took over the Bureau of Investigation, it had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents.

Hoover was noted as sometimes being capricious in his leadership; he frequently fired FBI agents, singling out those who he thought "looked stupid like truck drivers" or he considered to be "pinheads".^{[13][page needed]} He also relocated agents who had displeased him to career-ending assignments and locations. Melvin Purvis was a prime example; he was one of the most effective agents in capturing and breaking up 1930s gangs and received substantial public recognition, but a jealous Hoover maneuvered him out of the FBI.^[14]

Hoover often hailed local law-enforcement officers around the country and built up a national network of supporters and admirers in the process. One that he often commended was the conservative sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, J. Howell Flournoy, for particular effectiveness.^[15]

Gangster wars[link]

Famous Depression Era gangsters, including Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, and more (1920s).

In the early 1930s, criminal gangs carried out large numbers of bank robberies in the Midwest. They used their superior firepower and fast getaway cars to elude local law enforcement agencies and avoid arrest. Many of these criminals, particularly John Dillinger, who became famous for leaping over bank cages and repeatedly escaping from jails and police traps, frequently made newspaper headlines across the United States. Since the robbers operated across state lines, their crimes became federal offenses, giving Hoover and his men the authority to pursue them. Initially, the FBI suffered some embarrassing foul-ups, in particular with Dillinger and his conspirators. A raid on a summer lodge named "Little Bohemia" in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, left an FBI agent and a civilian bystander dead, and others wounded. All the gangsters escaped. Hoover realized that his job was now on the line, and he pulled out all stops to capture the culprits. In late July 1934, Special Agent Melvin Purvis, the Director of Operations in the Chicago office, received a tip on Dillinger's whereabouts which paid off when Dillinger was located, ambushed and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater.

In the same period, there were numerous Mafia shootings as a result of Prohibition, while Hoover continued to deny the very existence of organized crime.^[16] Frank Costello helped encourage this view by feeding Hoover, "an inveterate horseplayer" known to send Special Agents to place $100 bets for him,^[17] tips on sure winners through their mutual friend, gossip columnist Walter Winchell.^[17] Hoover said the Bureau had "much more important functions" than arresting bookmakers and gamblers.^[17]

Even though he was not there, Hoover was credited with several highly publicized captures or shootings of outlaws and bank robbers. These included that of Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, and Machine Gun Kelly, which led to the Bureau's powers being broadened and it was given its new name in 1935: the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1939, the FBI became pre-eminent in the field of domestic intelligence. Hoover made changes, such as expanding and combining fingerprint files in the Identification Division to compile the largest collection of fingerprints to date.^[18][19] Hoover also helped to expand the FBI's recruitment and create the FBI Laboratory, a division established in 1932 to examine evidence found by the FBI.

Investigation of subversion and radicals[link]

Hoover, perhaps at the behest of Richard Nixon, investigated ex-Beatle John Lennon by putting the singer under surveillance, and Hoover wrote this letter to the Attorney General in 1972. A 25-year battle by historian Jon Wiener under the Freedom of Information Act eventually resulted in the release of documents like this one.

The same Hoover letter, with fewer redactions.

Hoover was concerned about subversion, and under his leadership, the FBI spied upon tens of thousands of suspected subversives and radicals. According to critics, Hoover tended to exaggerate the dangers of these alleged subversives and many times overstepped his bounds in his pursuit of eliminating that perceived threat.^[20]

The FBI investigated rings of German saboteurs and spies starting in the late 1930s, and had primary responsibility for counterespionage. The first arrests of German agents were made in 1938, and continued throughout World War II.^[21] In the Quirin affair during World War II, German U-boats set two small groups of Nazi agents ashore in Florida and Long Island to cause acts of sabotage within the country. The two teams were apprehended after one of the men contacted the FBI, and told them everything. He was also charged and convicted.^[22]

The FBI participated in the Venona Project, a pre–World War II joint project with the British to eavesdrop on Soviet spies in the UK and the United States. It was not initially realized that espionage was being committed, but due to multiple wartime Soviet use of one-time pad ciphers, which are normally unbreakable, redundancies were created, enabling some intercepts to be decoded, which established the espionage. Hoover kept the intercepts—America's greatest counterintelligence secret—in a locked safe in his office, choosing not to inform President Truman, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, or two Secretaries of State—Dean Acheson and General George Marshall—while they held office. He informed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the Venona Project in 1952.

In 1946, U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark authorized Hoover to compile a list of potentially disloyal Americans who might be detained during a wartime national emergency. In 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean War, Hoover submitted to President Truman a plan to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and detain 12,000 Americans suspected of disloyalty. Truman did not act on the plan.^[23]

COINTELPRO years[link]

In 1956, Hoover was becoming increasingly frustrated by Supreme Court decisions that limited the Justice Department's ability to prosecute people for their political opinions, most notably communists. At this time he formalized a covert "dirty tricks" program under the name COINTELPRO.^[24]

This program remained in place until it was revealed to the public in 1971, after the theft of many internal documents stolen from an office in Media, Pennsylvania, and was the cause of some of the harshest criticism of Hoover and the FBI. COINTELPRO was first used to disrupt the Communist Party, where Hoover went after targets that ranged from suspected everyday spies to larger celebrity figures such as Charlie Chaplin who were seen as spreading Communist Party propaganda,^[25] and later organizations such as the Black Panther Party, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and others. Its methods included infiltration, burglaries, illegal wiretaps, planting forged documents and spreading false rumors about key members of target organizations.^[26] Some authors have charged that COINTELPRO methods also included inciting violence and arranging murders.^[27] In 1975, the activities of COINTELPRO were investigated by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, called the Church Committee after its chairman, Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), and these activities were declared illegal and contrary to the Constitution.^[28] Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files containing large amounts of compromising and potentially embarrassing information on many powerful people, especially politicians. According to Laurence Silberman, appointed Deputy Attorney General in early 1974, FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley thought such files either did not exist or had been destroyed. After The Washington Post broke a story in January 1975, Kelley searched and found them in his outer office. The House Judiciary Committee then demanded that Silberman testify about them.

In 1956, several years before he targeted King, Hoover had a public showdown with T.R.M. Howard, a civil rights leader from Mound Bayou, Mississippi. During a national speaking tour, Howard had criticized the FBI's failure to thoroughly investigate the racially motivated murders of George W. Lee, Lamar Smith, and Emmett Till. Hoover wrote an open letter to the press singling out these statements as "irresponsible."

Response to Mafia and civil rights groups[link]

In the 1950s, evidence of Hoover's unwillingness to focus FBI resources on the Mafia became grist for the media and his many detractors. His moves against people who maintained contacts with subversive elements, some of whom were members of the civil rights movement, also led to accusations of trying to undermine their reputations. The treatment of Martin Luther King, Jr. and actress Jean Seberg are two examples. Jacqueline Kennedy recalled that Hoover told President John F. Kennedy that King tried to arrange a sex party while in the capital for the March on Washington and told Robert Kennedy that King made derogatory comments during the President's funeral.^[29]

Hoover personally directed the FBI investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1964, just days before Hoover testified in the earliest stages of the Warren Commission hearings, President Lyndon B. Johnson waived the then-mandatory U.S. Government Service Retirement Age of seventy, allowing Hoover to remain the FBI Director "for life." The House Select Committee on Assassinations issued a report in 1979 critical of the performance by the FBI, the Warren Commission, and other agencies. The report also criticized what it characterized as the FBI's reluctance to thoroughly investigate the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President.^[30]

Late career and death[link]

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, photographed in 1961.

FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC

Presidents Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy each considered dismissing Hoover as FBI Director, but ultimately concluded that the political cost of doing so would be too great.^[31]

Hoover's FBI investigated Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti, a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson, in 1964. Despite Valenti's two-year marriage to Johnson's personal secretary, the investigation focused on rumors that he was having a gay relationship with a commercial photographer friend.^[32]

Hoover maintained strong support in Congress until his death at his Washington, D.C., home on May 2, 1972, from a heart attack attributed to cardio-vascular disease.^[33] His body lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, where Chief Justice Warren Burger eulogized him.^[34] President Richard Nixon delivered another eulogy at the funeral service in the National Presbyterian Church. Nixon called Hoover "one of the giants. His long life brimmed over with magnificent achievement and dedicated service to this country which he loved so well."^[35] Hoover was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to the graves of his parents and a sister who died in infancy.^[36]

Operational command of the Bureau passed to Associate Director Clyde Tolson. On May 3, Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray, a Justice Department official with no FBI experience, as Acting Director, with W. Mark Felt remaining as Associate Director.^[37]

Legacy[link]

Hoover was a consultant to Warner Bros. for a 1959 theatrical film about the FBI, The FBI Story, and in 1965 on Warner Bros.' long-running spin-off television series, The F.B.I. Hoover personally made sure that Warner Bros. would portray the FBI more favorably than other crime dramas of the times.

In 1979, there was a large increase in conflict in the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) under Senator Richard Schweiker, which had re-opened the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy, reported that Hoover's FBI "failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President". The HSCA further reported that Hoover's FBI "was deficient in its sharing of information with other agencies and departments".^[38]

The FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC is named after Hoover. Because of the controversial nature of Hoover's legacy, there have been periodic proposals to rename it by legislation proposed by both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. In 2001, Senator Harry Reid sponsored an amendment to strip Hoover's name from the building. "J. Edgar Hoover's name on the FBI building is a stain on the building", Reid said.^[39] However, the Senate never adopted the amendment.

Sexuality[link]

Hoover and his assistant Clyde Tolson sitting in beach lounge chairs, c. 1939

President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. White House East Room. People watching include Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Senator Hubert Humphrey, First Lady "Lady Bird Johnson", Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, Speaker of the House John McCormack. Television cameras are broadcasting the ceremony.

Hoover with Bebe Rebozo (left) and Richard Nixon. The three men relax before dinner, Key Biscayne, Florida, December 1971.

Since the 1940s, rumors have circulated that Hoover was gay.^[40] There are speculations that Clyde Tolson, an associate director of the FBI and Hoover's primary heir, may have been his lover.^[41]

Hoover hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality.^[42] He also spread unsubstantiated rumors that Adlai Stevenson was gay to damage the liberal governor's 1952 presidential campaign.^[42] His extensive secret files contained surveillance material on Eleanor Roosevelt's alleged lesbian lovers, speculated to be acquired for the purpose of blackmail.^[42]

Some authors have dismissed the rumors about Hoover's sexuality and his relationship with Tolson in particular as unlikely,^[43][44][45] while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed",^{[46][47][page needed]} and still others have reported the rumors without stating an opinion.^[48][49] Hoover described Tolson as his alter ego: the men not only worked closely together during the day but also took meals, went to night clubs and vacationed together.^[41] This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers, though some FBI employees who knew them, such as W. Mark Felt, say that the relationship was merely "brotherly." However, former FBI official Mike Mason suggested that some of Hoover's colleagues were denying he had a sexual relationship with Tolson in an effort to protect his image.^[50]

Upon Hoover's death, Tolson inherited Hoover's estate and moved into his home, having accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery.

Among those skeptical of claims that Hoover was homosexual is Hoover's biographer Richard Hack. Hack notes that Hoover was romantically linked to actress Dorothy Lamour in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and that after Hoover's death Lamour did not deny rumors that she had had an affair with Hoover in the years between her two marriages.^[51] Hack additionally reports that during the 1940s and 1950s, Hoover so often attended social events with Lela Rogers, the divorced mother of dancer and actress Ginger Rogers, that many of their mutual friends assumed the pair would eventually marry.^[51]

In his 1993 biography Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, journalist Anthony Summers quoted "society divorcee" Susan Rosenstiel as claiming to have seen Hoover engaging in cross-dressing in the 1950s. She stated that on two occasions she witnessed Hoover wearing a fluffy pink dress with flounces and lace, stockings, high heels and a black curly wig, at homosexual orgies:^{[47][page needed][52][53]}

Summers also said that the Mafia had blackmail material on Hoover, which made Hoover reluctant to aggressively pursue organized crime. Although never corroborated, the allegation of cross-dressing has been widely repeated. In the words of author Thomas Doherty, "For American popular culture, the image of the zaftig FBI director as a Christine Jorgensen wanna-be was too delicious not to savor."^[54] Skeptics of the cross-dressing story point to Susan Rosenstiel's poor credibility (she plead guilty for attempted perjury in a 1971 case and later served time in a New York City jail)^[55][56] and say recklessly indiscreet behavior by Hoover would have been totally out of character, whatever his sexuality. Most biographers consider the story of Mafia blackmail to be unlikely in light of the FBI's investigations of the Mafia.^[57][58] Truman Capote, who helped spread salacious rumors about Hoover, once remarked that he was more interested in making Hoover angry than determining whether the rumors were true.^[31]

Attorney Roy Cohn, an associate of Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and himself a closeted homosexual, opined that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship.^[31]

In his 2004 study of the Lavender Scare, historian David K. Johnson attacked the notion of Hoover's homosexuality for relying on "the kind of tactics Hoover and the security program he oversaw perfected – guilt by association, rumor, and unverified gossip." He views Rosenstiel as a liar who was paid for her story, whose "description of Hoover in drag engaging in sex with young blond boys in leather while desecrating the Bible is clearly a homophobic fantasy." He believes only those who have forgotten the virulence of the decades-long campaign against homosexuals in government can believe reports that Hoover would allow himself to be seen in compromising situations.^[59]

Some people affiliated with Hoover, however, defended the claims that he had homosexual tendencies.^[60] Singer Ethel Merman, who was a friend of Hoover since 1938, stated in a 1978 interview: "Some of my best friends are homosexual. Everybody knew about J. Edgar Hoover, but he was the best chief the FBI ever had."^[61] Another FBI agent who had gone on fishing trips with Hoover and Tolson revealed that the director liked to "sunbathe all day in the nude."^[61] Hoover often frequented New York City's Stork Club and one observer – soap model Luisa Stuart, who was 18 or 19 at the time – told Summers she saw Hoover holding hands with Tolson as they all rode in a limo uptown to the Cotton Club in 1936.^[61]

Novelist William Styron told Summers that he once spotted Hoover and Tolson in a California beach house and the director was painting his friend's toenails.^[61] Harry Hay, founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations, confirmed that Hoover and Tolson sat in boxes owned by and used exclusively by gay men at their racing haunt Del Mar in California.^[61] One medical expert told Summers that Hoover was of "strongly predominant homosexual orientation", while another medical expert categorized him as a "bisexual with failed heterosexuality."^[60]

Freemasonry[link]

Hoover was a devoted Freemason, being raised a Master Mason on 9 November 1920, in Federal Lodge No. 1, Washington, DC, just two months before his 26th birthday. During his 52 years with the Masons, he received many medals, awards and decorations. Eventually in 1955, he was coroneted a Thirty-Third Degree Inspector General Honorary in the Southern Scottish Rite Jurisdiction. He was also awarded the Scottish Rite's highest recognition, the Grand Cross of Honor, in 1965.^[62] Today a J. Edgar Hoover room exists within the House of the Temple. The room contains many of Hoover's personal papers and records.

Honors[link]

• In 1938, Oklahoma Baptist University awarded Hoover an honorary doctorate during commencement exercises at which he spoke.^[63][64]
• In 1939, the National Academy of Sciences awarded Hoover its Public Welfare Medal.^[65]
• In 1950, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded Hoover an honorary knighthood in the Order of the British Empire.^[66]
• In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower gave Hoover the National Security Medal.^[67]
• In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed the State Department's Distinguished Service Award on Hoover for his service as director of the FBI.
• The FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., is named the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
• Congress voted to honour Hoover's memory by publishing a memorial book. J. Edgar Hoover: Memorial Tributes in the Congress of the United States and Various Articles and Editorials Relating to His Life and Work appeared in 1974.
• In Schaumburg, Illinois, a grade school was named after Hoover. In 1994, after personal information about Hoover was released, the school's name was changed to reflect Herbert Hoover instead of J. Edgar Hoover.^[68]

Portrayals[link]

J. Edgar Hoover has been portrayed many times in film and on stage. Some notable portrayals include:

• Broderick Crawford and James Wainwright portrayed Hoover in the Larry Cohen film The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Ernest Borgnine in both the television film Blood Feud (1983) and Hoover (2000).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Vincent Gardenia in the television film Kennedy (1983).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Jack Warden in the television film Hoover vs. The Kennedys (1987).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Treat Williams in the television film J. Edgar Hoover (1987).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Kevin Dunn in the film Chaplin (1992).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Pat Hingle in the television film Citizen Cohn (1992).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Richard Dysart, both in the television film Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993) and in the 1995 film Panther.
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Bob Hoskins in the Oliver Stone drama Nixon (1995).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor David Fredericks in two episodes of The X-Files, as well as on the show Millennium.
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Kelsey Grammer with John Goodman as his lover, in the Harry Shearer comic musical J. Edgar! on L.A. Theatre Works' The Play's the Thing (2001).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Larry Drake in the Robert Dyke film Timequest (2002).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Billy Crudup in the Michael Mann film Public Enemies (2009).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Enrico Colantoni in the television miniseries The Kennedys (2011).
• Hoover was portrayed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the Clint Eastwood biopic J. Edgar (2011).
• Hoover will be portrayed by actor William Harrison-Wallace in the first Dollar Baby screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Death of Jack Hamilton (2012). ^[69].

See also[link]

	Government of the United States portal
	Biography portal

• Anti-communism
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• G-Man (slang)
• Helen Gandy
• McCarthyism
• German American

Writings[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover was the nominal author of a number of books and articles. Although it is widely believed that all of these were ghostwritten by FBI employees,^[70][71][72] Hoover received the credit and royalties.

• Hoover, J. Edgar (1938). Persons In Hiding. Gaunt Publishing. ISBN 1-56169-340-5. http://books.google.com/?id=zSEiAAAAMAAJ&q. 
• Hoover, J. Edgar (1958). Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It. Holt Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 1-4254-8258-9. http://books.google.com/?id=U503AAAAIAAJ&q. ^[73]
• Hoover, J. Edgar (1962). A Study of Communism. Holt Rinehart & Winston. ISBN 0-03-031190-X. http://books.google.com/?id=8Jk3AAAAIAAJ&q. 
• Hoover, J. Edgar; Paterson, T. G. (February 1947). "Red Fascism in the United States Today". American Magazine 75 (4): 1046–64. JSTOR 1852269. 

References[link]

1. ^ "J. Edgar Hoover", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation. 2008. Archived from the original on October 31, 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5kwrg7R6c. 
2. ^ "Hoover, J. Edgar", The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). Columbia University Press. 2007. 
3. ^ Documented in Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-532-X.  and elsewhere.
4. ^ Pub.L. 94-503, 90 Stat. 2427, 28 U.S.C. § 432: In note: Confirmation and Compensation of Director; Term of Service
5. ^ "Obama signs 2-year extension to Mueller's FBI tenure". CNN. July 26, 2011. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-26/politics/obama.mueller.term_1_obama-signs-mueller-s-fbi-fbi-director-robert-mueller?_s=PM:POLITICS. Retrieved November 10, 2011. 
6. ^ Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. 
7. ^ The Guardian, The secret life of J Edgar Hoover
8. ^ "J. Edgar Hoover's GW Years". GW Today. GWU. http://gwtoday.gwu.edu/people/jedgarhooversgwyears. .
9. ^ "Prominent". Alumni. GWU. http://alumni.gwu.edu/prominent/classyear/1880s30s.html. .
10. ^ Murray, Robert K (1955). Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919–1920. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-8166-5833-1. .
11. ^ The Guardian, The secret life of J Edgar Hoover
12. ^ The Guardian, The secret life of J Edgar Hoover
13. ^ Schott, Joseph L (1975). No Left Turns: The FBI in Peace & War. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-33630-1. 
14. ^ Purvis, Alston; Tresinowski, Alex (2005). The Vendetta: FBI Hero Melvin Purvis's War Against Crime and J. Edgar Hoover's War Against Him. Public Affairs. pp. 183+. ISBN 1-58648-301-3. 
15. ^ "Sheriff 26 Years – J. H. Flournoy Dies," Shreveport Journal, December 14, 1966, p. 1
16. ^ Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia (New York: Facts on File, 1999), p.127.
17. ^ ^{a b c} Sifakis, p.127.
18. ^ "More Fingerprints Called Necessary... Hoover Urges Criminologists At Rochester To File Records In The Capital Bureau". New York Times. July 23, 1931. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0612FD385F11738DDDAA0A94DF405B818FF1D3&scp=14&sq=%22J.+Edgar+Hoover%22&st=p. Retrieved April 17, 2008. 
19. ^ "Washington Develops a World Clearing House For Identifying Criminals by Fingerprints.". New York Times. August 10, 1932. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70617F8355A13738DDDA90994D0405B828FF1D3&scp=33&sq=%22J.+Edgar+Hoover%22&st=p. Retrieved April 17, 2008. "Through the medium of the fingerprint, the Department of Justice is developing an international clearing house for the identification of criminals." 
20. ^ See, for example, Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. 
21. ^ William Breuer, Hitler's Undercover War, New York: St. Matin's Press, 1989, ISBN 0-312-02620-X.
22. ^ Ardman, Harvey (February 1997). "German Saboteurs Invade America in 1942". World War II magazine (HistoryNet.com). http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-saboteurs-invade-america-in-1942.htm. 
23. ^ Weiner, Tim (December 23, 2007). "Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950.". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/washington/23habeas.html. Retrieved April 15, 2008. 
24. ^ Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. p. 312. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. 
25. ^ Sbardellati, John; Tony Shaw. Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America. 
26. ^ Kessler, Ronald (2002). The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. St. Martin's Paperbacks. pp. 107, 174, 184, 215. ISBN 0-312-98977-6. 
27. ^ See for example James, Joy (2000). States of Confinement: Policing, Detention, and Prisons. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 335. ISBN 0-312-21777-3. , Williams, Kristian (2004). Our Enemies In Blue: Police And Power In America. Soft Skull Press. p. 183. ISBN 1-887128-85-9.  and Churchill, Ward and Wall, Jim Vander (2001). Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. South End Press. pp. 53+. ISBN 0-89608-646-1. 
28. ^ "Intelligence Activities And The Rights Of Americans". 1976. http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIa.htm. Retrieved October 25, 2006. 
29. ^ Klein, Rick (2011). "Jacqueline Kennedy on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr". ABCNews. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Jacqueline_Kennedy/jacqueline-kennedys-feelings-martin-luther-king-jr-revealed/story?id=14478321. Retrieved September 9, 2011. 
30. ^ "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives". The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. 1979. http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/. Retrieved October 25, 2006. 
31. ^ ^{a b c} Hack, 2007
32. ^ 'Gay' Probe of LBJ Aide by Washington Associated Press at NY Post newspaper February 20, 2009
33. ^ Graham, Fred P. (May 3, 1972). "J. Edgar Hoover, 77, Dies". New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0910FC3F5F117B93C1A9178ED85F468785F9&. Retrieved March 15, 2011. 
34. ^ New York Times: Nan Robertson, "Hoover Lies in State in Capitol," May 4, 1972, accessed February 15, 2011
35. ^ Richard Nixon (May 4, 1972). "Richard Nixon: Eulogy Delivered at Funeral Services for J. Edgar Hoover". American Presidency Project. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/01/j-edgar-hoover-secret-fbi. Retrieved 2012-06-01. 
36. ^ New York Times: Nan Robertson, "President Lauds Hoover," May 5, 1972, accessed February 15, 0211
37. ^ New York Times: "Nixon Names Aide as Chief of FBI until Elections," May 4, 1972, accessed February 15, 2011
38. ^ "HCSA Conclusions, 1979". Archives.gov. http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/summary.html. Retrieved January 1, 2012. 
39. ^ "No thanks to Hoover". The Washington Post. May 5, 2001. http://www.polkonline.com/stories/050701/opi_hoover.shtml. ^{[dead link]}
40. ^ Terry, Jennifer (1999). An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society. University of Chicago Press. p. 350. ISBN 0-226-79366-4. 
41. ^ ^{a b} Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. p. 108. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. 
42. ^ ^{a b c} "J. Edgar Hoover: Gay marriage role model?". Salon. http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/2000/01/05/hoover/. Retrieved November 14, 2008. 
43. ^ Felt, W. Mark and O'Connor, John D (2006). A G-man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' And the Struggle for Honor in Washington. Public Affairs. p. 167. ISBN 1-58648-377-3. .
44. ^ Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri (2003). Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence. Yale University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-300-10159-7. .
45. ^ Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. p. 108. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. "The strange likelihood is that Hoover never knew sexual desire at all." 
46. ^ Percy, William A. and Johansson, Warren (1994). Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Haworth Press. pp. 85+. ISBN 1-56024-419-4. .
47. ^ ^{a b} Summers, Anthony (1993). Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-88087-X. 
48. ^ Theoharis, Athan G, ed. (1998). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Oryx Press. pp. 291, 301, 397. ISBN 0-89774-991-X. .
49. ^ Doherty, Thomas (2003). Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. Columbia University Press. pp. 254, 255. ISBN 0-231-12952-1. 
50. ^ "Movie depicting J Edgar Hoover gay affair rankles some in FBI". News. AOL. 2011-1-9. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/09/movie-depicting-j-edgar-hoover-gay-affair-rankles-some-in-fbi/. .
51. ^ ^{a b} Hack, Richard Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. (2007). Phoenix Books. ISBN 1-59777-512-6.
52. ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (February 15, 1993). "Books of The Times; Catalogue of Accusations Against J. Edgar Hoover". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DE173BF936A25751C0A965958260&scp=1&sq=j.+Edgar+hoover+confidential&st=nyt. Retrieved April 16, 2008. 
53. ^ Claire Bond Potter, Wesleyan University (July 2006). "Queer Hoover: Sex, Lies, and Political History". Journal of the History of Sexuality (Texas: University of Texas Press) 15 (3): 355–81. DOI:10.1353/sex.2007.0021. ISSN 1535-3605. "What does the history of sex look like without evidence of sexual identities or proof that sex acts occurred? And how might an analysis of gossip, rumors, and perhaps even lies about sex help us to write political history?" 
54. ^ Doherty, Thomas (2003). Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. Columbia University Press. p. 255. ISBN 0-231-12952-1. 
55. ^ Summers, Anthony (2012). Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Open Road Media. p. 295. ISBN 1-4532-4118-3. 
56. ^ Holden, Henry M. (2008-04-15). FBI 100 Years: An Unofficial History. Zenith Imprint. p. 42. ISBN 0-7603-3244-4. 
57. ^ Kessler, Ronald (2002). The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. St. Martin's Paperbacks. pp. 120+. ISBN 0-312-98977-6. .
58. ^ Ronald Kessler. "Did J. Edgar Hoover Really Wear Dresses?". History News Network. http://hnn.us/articles/814.html. 
59. ^ David K Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (University of Chicago Press, 2004), 11–13
60. ^ ^{a b} "J. Edgar Hoover: Gay or Just a Man Who Has Sex With Men?". ABCnews.go.com. p. 1. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/edgar-hoover-sex-men-homosexual/story?id=14948447#.TwJTkYGRlJE. 
61. ^ ^{a b c d e} "J. Edgar Hoover: Gay or Just a Man Who Has Sex With Men?". ABCnews.go.com. p. 2. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/edgar-hoover-sex-men-homosexual/story?id=14948447&page=2#.TwJU6IGRlJE. 
62. ^ J. Edgar Hoover, 33, Grand Cross-Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity Cartha DeLoach, Chairman, Hoover Foundation at Scottish Rite Journal of Freemasonry Magazine
63. ^ "Honorary Doctorates". Oklahoma Baptist University. http://www.okbu.edu/alumni/honordocs.html. Retrieved September 20, 2010. 
64. ^ "How the Angells changed OBU". December 15, 2004. https://www.okbu.edu/news/2004-12-15/how-the-angells-changed-obu. Retrieved September 20, 2010. 
65. ^ "Public Welfare Award". National Academy of Sciences. http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm. Retrieved February 14, 2011. 
66. ^ New York Times: George VI Honors FBI Chief," December 11, 1947, accessed February 17, 2011. This entitled him to use the letters KBE after his name, but not to the use of the title "Sir," since that title is restricted to citizen of countries belonging to the British Commonwealth.
67. ^ "Citation and Remarks at Presentation of the National Security Medal to J. Edgar Hoover". http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=10244. 
68. ^ Winter, Christine (June 26, 1994). "Hoover School Gets A Name It Can Take Pride In". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-06-26/news/9406260229_1_pta-honored-president. 
69. ^ "'The Death of Jack Hamilton' official movie website". http://www.thedeathofjackhamilton.com. Retrieved 07 May 2012. 
70. ^ Anderson, Jack (1999). Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account. Forge Books. p. 174. ISBN 0-312-87497-9. .
71. ^ Powers, Richard Gid (2004). Broken: the troubled past and uncertain future of the FBI. Free Press. p. 238. ISBN 0-684-83371-9. .
72. ^ Theoharis, Athan G, ed. (1998). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Oryx Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-89774-991-X. 
73. ^ Oakes, John B (March 9, 1958). "Conspirators Against the American Way". New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0611FE3B5D1A7B93CBA91788D85F4C8585F9&scp=15&sq=J.+Edgar+Hoover&st=p. Retrieved April 17, 2008. 

Sources[link]

• Ackerman, Kenneth D. (2007). Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-1775-0. 
• Beverly, William (2003). On the Lam; Narratives of Flight in J. Edgar Hoover's America. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-537-2. 
• Carter, David (2003). Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-34269-2. 
• Charles, Douglas (2007). J. Edgar Hoover and the Anti-interventionists: FBI Political Surveillance and the Rise of the Domestic Security State, 1939–1945. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-1061-1. 
• Garrow, David J. (1981). The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr., From 'Solo' to Memphis. W.W.Norton. ISBN 0-393-01509-2. 
• Gentry, Curt (1991). J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. Plume. ISBN 0-452-26904-0. 
• Lowenthal, Max (1950). The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8371-5755-2. 
• Porter, Darwin (2012). J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson: Investigating the Sexual Secrets of America's Most Famous Men and Women. Blood Moon Productions. ISBN 1-936003-25-2. 
• Powers, Richard Gid (1986). Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Free Press. ISBN 0-02-925060-9. 
• Schott, Joseph L. (1975). No Left Turns: The FBI in Peace & War. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-33630-1. 
• Stove, Robert J. (2003). The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims. Encounter Books. ISBN 1-893554-66-X. 
• Summers, Anthony (2003). Official and Confidential:The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-13800-5. 
• Swearingen, M. Wesley. FBI Secrets An Agent's Expose. 
• Theoharis, Athan (1993). From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 1-56663-017-7. 
• Frontline ; The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover (#11.4) 1993

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: J. Edgar Hoover

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: J. Edgar Hoover

• StraightDope.com – 'The Straight Dope: Was J. Edgar Hoover a crossdresser?'
• FBI file on J. Edgar Hoover
• J. Edgar Hoover Appointment and Phone Logs
• Time.com – 'The Truth about Hoover', December 22, 1975
• Wall Street Journal – 'Hoover's Institution', Laurence H. Silberman, July 20, 2005
• Assassination Records Review Board – Final Report: 1998
• Zpub.com – 'J. Edgar Hoover Biography'
• J. Edgar Hoover's Watching You – slideshow by Life magazine
• Yardley, Jonathan (June 26, 2004). "'No Left Turns': The G-Man's Tour de Force". A review of the book "No Left Turns" (Washington Post). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7055-2004Jun25.html. Retrieved May 5, 2010. 

Government offices
Preceded by William J. Burns as Director of the Bureau of Investigation	Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Bureau of Investigation until 1935) 1924–1972	Succeeded by L. Patrick Gray
Honorary titles
Preceded by Everett Dirksen	Persons who have lain in state or honor in the United States Capitol rotunda May 3–4, 1972	Succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson

v t e Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hoover • Gray* • Ruckelshaus* • Kelley • Adams* • Webster • Otto* • Sessions • Clarke* • Freeh • Pickard* • Mueller denotes acting

v t e Alcohol prohibition By country Canada Finland Iceland Iran Russia/Soviet Union United States By topic 18th Amendment (U.S. Constitution) 21st Amendment (U.S. Constitution) Anti-Saloon League American Mafia Dry county Islam Jazz Age Moonshine Prohibition Party Roaring Twenties Rum-running Rum row Rum Patrol Speakeasy Temperance movement Teetotalism Volstead Act Woman's Christian Temperance Union Associated people Al Capone Mickey Duffy The Purple Gang Waxey Gordon Frank Hamer J. Edgar Hoover Bumpy Johnson Enoch L. Johnson Meyer Lansky Lucky Luciano Sam Maceo Owney Madden Bugs Moran William McCoy Eliot Ness Arnold Rothstein Nicholas II of Russia Dutch Schultz

Persondata
Name	Hoover, J. Edgar
Alternative names	Hoover, John Edgar
Short description	FBI director
Date of birth	1895-01-01
Place of birth	Washington, D.C., United States
Date of death	1972-05-02
Place of death	Washington, D.C., United States

Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of the United States
In office November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
Vice President	None (1963–1965) Hubert Humphrey (1965–1969)
Preceded by	John F. Kennedy
Succeeded by	Richard Nixon
37th Vice President of the United States
In office January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Richard Nixon
Succeeded by	Hubert Humphrey
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1961
Deputy	Earle Clements Mike Mansfield
Preceded by	William F. Knowland
Succeeded by	Mike Mansfield
Senate Minority Leader
In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1955
Deputy	Earle Clements
Preceded by	Styles Bridges
Succeeded by	William F. Knowland
Senate Majority Whip
In office January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1953
Leader	Ernest McFarland
Preceded by	Francis J. Myers
Succeeded by	Leverett Saltonstall
United States Senator from Texas
In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1961
Preceded by	W. Lee O'Daniel
Succeeded by	William A. Blakley
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 10th district
In office April 10, 1937 – January 3, 1949
Preceded by	James P. Buchanan
Succeeded by	Homer Thornberry
Personal details
Born	Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-08-27)August 27, 1908 Stonewall, Texas, U.S.
Died	January 22, 1973(1973-01-22) (aged 64) Stonewall, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Lady Bird Taylor
Children	Lynda Luci
Alma mater	Southwest Texas State Teachers College
Profession	Teacher
Religion	Disciples of Christ
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1941–1942
Rank	Lieutenant commander
Battles/wars	World War II  • Salamaua-Lae campaign
Awards	Silver Star Presidential Medal of Freedom (Posthumous; 1980)

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969), a position he assumed after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States (1961–1963). He is one of only four people^[1] who served in all four elected federal offices of the United States: Representative, Senator, Vice President, and President.^[2] Johnson, a Texas Democrat, served as a United States Representative from 1937–1949 and as a Senator from 1949–1961, including six years as United States Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader and two as Senate Majority Whip. After campaigning unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1960, Johnson was asked by John F. Kennedy to be his running mate for the 1960 presidential election.

Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, completed the rest of Kennedy's term and was elected President in his own right, winning by a large margin in the 1964 election. Johnson was greatly supported by the Democratic Party and as President, he was responsible for designing the "Great Society" legislation that included laws that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education, and his "War on Poverty." He was renowned for his domineering personality and the "Johnson treatment," his coercion of powerful politicians in order to advance legislation.

Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War, from 16,000 American advisors/soldiers in 1963 to 550,000 combat troops in early 1968, as American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. The involvement stimulated a large angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U.S. and abroad.^[3] Summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, and crime rates soared, as his opponents raised demands for "law and order" policies. The Democratic Party split in multiple feuding factions, and after Johnson did poorly in the 1968 New Hampshire primary, he ended his bid for reelection. Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him. Historians argue that his presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his domestic policies.^[4][5]

Early years[link]

Lyndon Johnson in 1915

Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two boys: Johnson and his brother, Sam Houston Johnson (1914–78), and sisters Rebekah (1910–78), Josefa (1912–61), and Lucia (1916–97). The nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJ's father's cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Georgia. The Johnsons were of Scots-Irish and English ancestry. In school, Johnson was an awkward, talkative youth and was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated from Johnson City High School (1924), having participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball.^{[6][7][better source needed]}

Johnson was maternally descended from a pioneer Baptist clergyman, George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana. Baines was also the president of Baylor University during the American Civil War. George Baines was the grandfather of Johnson's mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson (1881–1958).

Johnson's grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Sr., was raised as a Baptist. Subsequently, in his early adulthood, he became a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In his later years the grandfather became a Christadelphian; Johnson's father also joined the Christadelphian Church toward the end of his life.^[8] Later, as a politician, Johnson was influenced in his positive attitude towards Jews by the religious beliefs that his family, especially his grandfather, had shared with him (see Operation Texas).^[9]

In 1926, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College (now Texas State University-San Marcos). He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics, and edited the school newspaper called The College Star, now known as The University Star.^[10] He dropped out of school in 1927, and returned one year later, graduating in 1930. The college years refined his skills of persuasion and political organization. In 1927, Johnson taught mostly Mexican children at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, some ninety miles south of San Antonio in La Salle County. In 1930, he taught in Pearsall High School in Pearsall, Texas, and afterwards took a position as teacher of public speaking at Sam Houston High School in Houston.^[11] When he returned to San Marcos in 1965, after having signed the Higher Education Act of 1965, Johnson looked back:

"I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American."^[12]

Early political career[link]

Johnson briefly taught public speaking and debate in a Houston high school, then entered politics. Johnson's father had served five terms in the Texas legislature and was a close friend of one of Texas's rising political figures, Congressman Sam Rayburn. In 1930, Johnson campaigned for Texas State Senator Welly Hopkins in his run for Congress. Hopkins recommended him to Congressman Richard M. Kleberg, who appointed Johnson as Kleberg's legislative secretary. Johnson was elected speaker of the "Little Congress," a group of Congressional aides, where he cultivated Congressmen, newspapermen and lobbyists. Johnson's friends soon included aides to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as fellow Texans such as Vice President John Nance Garner. He became a surrogate son to Sam Rayburn.

President Roosevelt, Governor James Allred of Texas, and Johnson. In later campaigns, Johnson edited Governor Allred out of the picture to assist his campaign.

Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor (already nicknamed "Lady Bird") of Karnack, Texas on November 17, 1934, after having attended Georgetown University Law Center for several months. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and Luci Baines, born in 1947. Johnson enjoyed giving people and animals his own initials his daughters' given names are examples, as was his dog, Little Beagle Johnson.^[13]

In 1935, he was appointed head of the Texas National Youth Administration, which enabled him to use the government to create education and job opportunities for young people. He resigned two years later to run for Congress. Johnson, a notoriously tough boss throughout his career, often demanded long workdays and work on weekends.^[14]

He was described by friends, fellow politicians, and historians as motivated throughout his life by an exceptional lust for power and control. As Johnson's biographer Robert Caro observes, "Johnson's ambition was uncommon—in the degree to which it was unencumbered by even the slightest excess weight of ideology, of philosophy, of principles, of beliefs."^[15]

Congressional career[link]

House of Representatives[link]

In 1937, Johnson successfully contested a special election for Texas's 10th congressional district, that covered Austin and the surrounding hill country. He ran on a New Deal platform and was effectively aided by his wife. He served in the House from April 10, 1937, to January 3, 1949.^[16]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt found Johnson to be a welcome ally and conduit for information, particularly with regard to issues concerning internal politics in Texas (Operation Texas) and the machinations of Vice President John Nance Garner and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Johnson was immediately appointed to the Naval Affairs Committee. He worked for rural electrification and other improvements for his district. Johnson steered the projects towards contractors that he personally knew, such as the Brown Brothers, Herman and George, who would finance much of Johnson's future career.^{[17][better source needed]} In 1941, he ran for the U.S. Senate in a special election against the sitting Governor of Texas, radio personality W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. Johnson lost the election.

War record[link]

Lyndon B. Johnson in Navy uniform in March 1942.

After America entered World War II in December 1941, Johnson, still in Congress, became a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve, then asked Undersecretary of the Navy James Forrestal for a combat assignment.^[18] Instead he was sent to inspect the shipyard facilities in Texas and on the West Coast. In the spring of 1942, President Roosevelt needed his own reports on what conditions were like in the Southwest Pacific. Roosevelt felt information that flowed up the military chain of command needed to be supplemented by a highly trusted political aide. From a suggestion by Forrestal, President Roosevelt assigned Johnson to a three-man survey team of the Southwest Pacific.

Johnson reported to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia. Johnson and two Army officers went to the 22nd Bomb Group base, which was assigned the high risk mission of bombing the Japanese airbase at Lae in New Guinea. A colonel took Johnson's original seat on one bomber, and it was shot down with no survivors. Reports vary on what happened to the B-26 Marauder carrying Johnson. Lyndon Johnson said it was also attacked by Japanese fighters but survived, while others, including other members of the flight crew, claim it turned back because of generator trouble before reaching the objective and before encountering enemy aircraft and never came under fire, which is supported by official flight records.^[19] Other airplanes that continued to the target did come under fire near the target at about the same time that Johnson's plane was recorded as having landed back at the original airbase. MacArthur awarded Johnson the Silver Star, the military's third-highest medal.^[19]

Johnson reported back to Roosevelt, to the Navy leaders, and to Congress that conditions were deplorable and unacceptable. He argued the South West Pacific urgently needed a higher priority and a larger share of war supplies. The warplanes sent there, for example, were "far inferior" to Japanese planes, and morale was bad. He 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. With a mission similar to that of the Truman Committee in the Senate, he probed into the peacetime "business as usual" inefficiencies that permeated the naval war and demanded that admirals shape up and 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 Johnson. Still, Johnson's mission had a substantial impact because it led to upgrading the South Pacific theater and aided the overall war effort immensely. Johnson's biographer 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."^[20]

Senate[link]

1948 contested election[link]

Lyndon B. Johnson as Senator from Texas.

In the 1948 elections, Johnson again ran for the Senate and won. This election was highly controversial: in a three-way Democratic Party primary Johnson faced a well-known former governor, Coke Stevenson, and a third candidate. Johnson drew crowds to fairgrounds with his rented helicopter dubbed "The Johnson City Windmill". He raised money to flood the state with campaign circulars and won over conservatives by voting for the Taft-Hartley act (curbing union power) as well as by criticizing unions.

Stevenson came in first but lacked a majority, so a runoff was held. Johnson campaigned even harder this time around, while Stevenson's efforts were surprisingly poor. The runoff count took a week. The Democratic State Central Committee (not the State of Texas, because the matter was a party primary) handled the count, and it finally announced that Johnson had won by 87 votes. By a majority of one member (29–28) the committee voted to certify Johnson's nomination, with the last vote cast on Johnson's behalf by Temple, Texas, publisher Frank W. Mayborn, who rushed back to Texas from a business trip in Nashville, Tennessee. There were many allegations of fraud on both sides. Thus one writer alleges that Johnson's campaign manager, future Texas governor John B. Connally, was connected with 202 ballots in Precinct 13 in Jim Wells County that had curiously been cast in alphabetical order and just at the close of polling, with all of the people whose names appeared on the ballots being dead on election day. Robert Caro argued in his 1989 book that Johnson had stolen the election in Jim Wells County and other counties in South Texas, as well as rigging 10,000 ballots in Bexar County alone.^[21] An election judge, Luis Salas, said in 1977, that he had certified 202 fraudulent ballots for Johnson.^[22]

The state Democratic convention upheld Johnson. Stevenson went to court, but—with timely help from his friend Abe Fortas—Johnson prevailed. Johnson was elected senator in November and went to Washington tagged with the ironic label "Landslide Lyndon," which he often used deprecatingly to refer to himself.

Freshman senator[link]

Once in the Senate, Johnson was known among his colleagues for his highly successful "courtships" of older senators, especially Senator Richard Russell, Democrat from Georgia, and the leader of the Conservative coalition and arguably the most powerful man in the Senate. Johnson proceeded to gain Russell's favor in the same way that he had "courted" Speaker Sam Rayburn and gained his crucial support in the House.

Johnson was appointed to the Senate Armed Services Committee, and later in 1950, he helped create the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee. Johnson became its chairman and conducted investigations of defense costs and efficiency. These investigations tended to dig out old forgotten investigations and demand actions that were already being taken by the Truman Administration, although it can be said that the committee's investigations caused the changes. Johnson's brilliant handling of the press, the efficiency with which his committee issued new reports, and the fact that he ensured every report was endorsed unanimously by the committee all brought him headlines and national attention.

Johnson used his political influence in the Senate to receive broadcast licenses from the Federal Communications Commission in his wife's name.^[22][23]

In 1951, Johnson was chosen as Senate Majority Whip under a new Majority Leader, Ernest McFarland of Arizona, and served from 1951 to 1953.^[16]

Senate Democratic leader[link]

Senate Desk X, used by all Democratic leaders, including Johnson, since Joseph Taylor Robinson

In the 1952 general election Republicans won a majority in both House and Senate. Among defeated Democrats that year was McFarland, who lost to then-little-known Barry Goldwater, Johnson's future presidential opponent.

In January 1953, Johnson was chosen by his fellow Democrats to be the minority leader. Thus, he became the least senior Senator ever elected to this position, and one of the least senior party leaders in the history of the Senate. One of his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in appointment to a committee, while retaining it in terms of chairmanships. In the 1954 election, Johnson was re-elected to the Senate, and since the Democrats won the majority in the Senate, Johnson became majority leader. Former majority leader, William Knowland was elected minority leader. Johnson's duties were to schedule legislation and help pass measures favored by the Democrats. Johnson, Rayburn and President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked smoothly together in passing Eisenhower's domestic and foreign agenda.

Johnson, a 60-a-day smoker, suffered a near-fatal heart attack on July 2, 1955. He completely gave up smoking as a result, with only a couple of exceptions, and did not resume the habit until he left the White House on January 20, 1969. During the Suez Crisis Johnson supported the Anglo-French military attempt to topple the Egyptian dictator Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, and tried to prevent the US government from criticising the Israeli invasion of the Sinai peninsula.

In sharp contrast to what would become during his Presidency, Johnson was strongly opposed as Senate Majority Leader to Eisenhower's 1957 Civil Rights Act, fearful that its passage would tear his party apart. Thus with the help of the judiciary committee led by Senator James Eastland, the bill ended up being far weaker than it originally started, but it still became law and Johnson tried to give himself credit for its "passage".

President Johnson giving "The Treatment" to Senator Richard Russell in 1963.

Historians Caro and Dallek consider Lyndon Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader in history. 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, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses, and what it took to break him.^[24] Robert Baker claimed that Johnson would occasionally send senators on NATO trips in order to avoid their dissenting votes.^[25] Central to Johnson's control was "The Treatment",^[26] described by two journalists:^[27]

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 — 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.

Vice Presidency[link]

Election[link]

Johnson's success in the Senate made him a possible Democratic presidential candidate. He was the "favorite son" candidate of the Texas delegation at the Party's national convention in 1956. In 1960, after the failure of the "Stop Kennedy" coalition he had formed with Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, and Hubert Humphrey, Johnson received 409 votes on the only ballot at the Democratic convention, which nominated John F. Kennedy. Tip O'Neill, then a representative from Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, recalled that Johnson approached him at the convention and said, "Tip, I know you have to support Kennedy at the start, but I'd like to have you with me on the second ballot." O'Neill replied, "Senator, there's not going to be any second ballot."^[28]

Kennedy realized that he could not be elected without support of traditional Southern Democrats, most of whom had backed Johnson. Therefore, Johnson was offered the vice-presidential nomination. Some sources (such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s) state that Kennedy offered the position to Johnson as a courtesy and did not expect him to accept. Others (such as W. Marvin Watson) say that the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win the 1960 election against Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., and needed Johnson on the ticket to help carry Southern states. According to still other sources, Kennedy did not want Johnson as his running-mate and did not want to ask him. Kennedy's reported choice was Stuart Symington. Johnson decided to seek the Vice Presidency and with House Speaker Sam Rayburn's help pressured Kennedy to give him a spot.^[29]

At the same time as his Vice Presidential run, Johnson also sought a third term in the U.S. Senate. According to Robert Caro, "On November 5, 1960, Lyndon Johnson won election for both the vice presidency of the United States, on the Kennedy-Johnson ticket, and for a third term as Senator (he had Texas law changed to allow him to run for both offices). When he won the vice presidency, he made arrangements to resign from the Senate, as he was required to do under federal law, as soon as it convened on January 3, 1961."^[30] (In 1988, Lloyd Bentsen, the Vice Presidential running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and also a Senator from Texas, took advantage of "Lyndon's law," and was able to retain his seat in the Senate despite Dukakis' loss to George H. W. Bush. The same went for Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2000 after Al Gore lost to George W. Bush. In 2008, Joseph Biden of Delaware was elected Vice President and was re-elected U.S. Senator, as Johnson had done in 1960.)

Johnson was re-elected Senator with 1,306,605 votes (58 percent) to Republican John Tower's 927,653 (41.1 percent). Fellow Democrat William A. Blakley was appointed to replace Johnson as Senator, but Blakley lost a special election in May 1961 to Tower.

Office[link]

President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson prior to a ceremony.

After the election, Johnson found himself powerless. He initially attempted to transfer the authority of Senate Majority Leader to the Vice Presidency, since that office made him President of the Senate, but faced vehement opposition from the Democratic Caucus, including members he'd counted as his supporters.^[31] His lack of influence was thrown into relief later that year when Kennedy appointed Johnson's friend Sarah T. Hughes to a federal judgeship; whereas Johnson had tried and failed to garner the nomination for Hughes at the beginning of his vice presidency, House Speaker Sam Rayburn wrangled the appointment from Kennedy in exchange for support of an administration bill.

Despite Kennedy's efforts to keep Johnson busy, informed, and at the White House often, JFK's advisors and some members of the Kennedy family were more dismissive to Johnson. Kennedy appointed him to jobs such as head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, through which he worked with African Americans and other minorities. Though Kennedy may have intended this to remain a more nominal position, Taylor Branch in Pillar of Fire contends that Johnson served to push the Kennedy administration's actions for civil rights further and faster than Kennedy originally intended to go. Branch notes the irony of Johnson, who the Kennedy family hoped would appeal to conservative southern voters, being the advocate for civil rights. In particular he notes Johnson's Memorial Day 1963 speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania as being a catalyst that led to more action.

Johnson took on numerous minor diplomatic missions, which gave him limited insights into global issues. He was allowed to observe Cabinet and National Security Council meetings. Kennedy did give Johnson control over all presidential appointments involving Texas, and he was appointed chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science. When, in April 1961, the Soviets beat the U.S. with the first manned spaceflight, Kennedy tasked Johnson with coming up with a program that would prove world leadership. Johnson knew that Project Apollo and an enlarged NASA were feasible, so he steered the recommendation towards a program for landing an American on the Moon.^[32]

Johnson was touched by a Senate scandal in August 1963 when Bobby Baker, the Senate Majority Secretary and a protege of Johnson's, came under investigation by the Senate Rules Committee for allegations of bribery and financial malfeasance. One witness alleged that Baker had arranged for the witness to give kickbacks for the Vice President. Baker resigned in October, and the investigation stopped from expanding to Johnson. The negative publicity from the affair fed rumors in Washington circles that Kennedy was planning on dropping Johnson from the Democratic ticket in the upcoming 1964 presidential election.

Presidency 1963–1969[link]

Foreign trips of Lyndon Johnson during his presidency.

Assassination of President John F. Kennedy[link]

Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes. On the right is Mrs. Kennedy; to the left is Mrs. Johnson; sitting down near the airplane window is Jack Valenti, White House aide. Assistant Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff, at bottom left, records the event with a dictaphone.

Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One at Love Field Airport in Dallas on November 22, 1963 two hours and eight minutes after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza in Dallas.^[33] He was sworn in by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a family friend, making him the first President sworn in by a woman. He is also the only President to have been sworn in on Texas soil. Johnson did not swear on a Bible, as there were none on Air Force One; a Roman Catholic missal was found in Kennedy's desk and was used for the swearing-in ceremony.^[34] Johnson being sworn in as president has become the most famous photo ever taken aboard a presidential aircraft.^[35][36]

In the days following the assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson made an address to Congress: "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long."^[37] The wave of national grief following the assassination gave enormous momentum to Johnson's promise to carry out Kennedy's programs.

Johnson created a panel headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, known as the Warren Commission, to investigate Kennedy's assassination. The commission conducted hearings and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination. Not everyone agreed with the Warren Commission, and numerous public and private investigations continued for decades after Johnson left office.^[38]

Johnson retained senior Kennedy appointees, some for the full term of his presidency. The late President's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, with whom Johnson had a notoriously difficult relationship, remained in office for a few months until leaving in 1964, to run for the Senate.^[39] Robert F. Kennedy has been quoted as saying that LBJ was "mean, bitter, vicious—[an] animal in many ways...I think his reactions on a lot of things are correct... but I think he's got this other side of him and his relationship with human beings which makes it difficult unless you want to 'kiss his behind' all the time. That is what Bob McNamara suggested to me...if I wanted to get along."^[40]

1964 presidential election[link]

On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign managers for the 1964 presidential election broadcast the "Daisy ad". It portrayed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, counting up to ten. Then a baritone voice took over, counted down from ten to zero and the visual showed the explosion of a nuclear bomb. The message conveyed was that electing Barry Goldwater president held the danger of nuclear war. Although it only aired one time, it became an issue during the campaign. Johnson won the presidency by a landslide with 61 percent of the vote and the then-widest popular margin in the 20th century — more than 15 million votes (this was later surpassed by incumbent President Nixon's defeat of Senator McGovern in 1972).^[41] Johnson's popular vote margin of over 22 percentage points is a record that stands to this day.

President Johnson, Issue of 1973

In mid-1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was organized with the purpose of challenging Mississippi's all-white and anti-civil rights delegation to the Democratic National Convention of that year as not representative of all Mississippians. At the national convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey the MFDP claimed the seats for delegates for Mississippi, not on the grounds of the Party rules, but because the official Mississippi delegation had been elected by a primary conducted under Jim Crow laws in which blacks were excluded because of poll taxes, literacy tests, and even violence against black voters. The national Party's liberal leaders supported a compromise in which the white delegation and the MFDP would have an even division of the seats; Johnson was concerned that, while the regular Democrats of Mississippi would probably vote for Goldwater anyway, if the Democratic Party rejected the regular Democrats, he would lose the Democratic Party political structure that he needed to win in the South. Eventually, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther and black civil rights leaders (including Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King, and Bayard Rustin) worked out a compromise with MFDP leaders: the MFDP would receive two non-voting seats on the floor of the Convention; the regular Mississippi delegation would be required to pledge to support the party ticket; and no future Democratic convention would accept a delegation chosen by a discriminatory poll. When the leaders took the proposal back to the 64 members who had made the bus trip to Atlantic City, they voted it down. As MFDP Vice Chair Fannie Lou Hamer said, "We didn't come all the way up here to compromise for no more than we'd gotten here. We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired." The failure of the compromise effort allowed the rest of the Democratic Party to conclude that the MFDP was simply being unreasonable, and they lost a great deal of their liberal support. After that, the convention went smoothly for Johnson without a searing battle over civil rights.^[42] Despite the landslide victory, Johnson, who carried the South as a whole in the election, lost the Deep South states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, the first time a Democratic candidate had done so since Reconstruction.

Johnson won the presidency by a majority of 61 percent, ready to fulfill his earlier commitment to "carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right."^[43]

Civil rights[link]

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among the guests behind him is Martin Luther King, Jr.

	Remarks upon Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Public statement by Johnson of July 2, 1964 about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Remarks upon Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964" audio only
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In conjunction with the civil rights movement, Johnson overcame southern resistance and convinced the Democratic-Controlled Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation. John F. Kennedy originally proposed the civil rights bill in June 1963.^[44] In late October 1963, Kennedy officially called the House leaders to the White House to line up the necessary votes for passage.^[45][46] After Kennedy's death, Johnson took the initiative in finishing what Kennedy started and broke a filibuster by Southern Democrats in March 1964; as a result, this pushed the bill for passage in the Senate.^[47] Johnson signed the revised and stronger bill into law on July 2, 1964.^[47] Legend has it that, as he put down his pen, Johnson told an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation", anticipating a coming backlash from Southern whites against Johnson's Democratic Party. Moreover, Richard Nixon politically counterattacked with the Southern Strategy where it would "secure" votes for the Republican Party by grabbing the advocates of segregation as well as most of the Southern Democrats.^[48]

In 1965, he achieved passage of a second civil rights bill, the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern blacks to vote for the first time. In accordance with the act, several states, "seven of the eleven southern states of the former confederacy" – Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia — were subjected to the procedure of preclearance in 1965, while Texas, home to the majority of the African American population at the time, followed in 1975.^[49]

After the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, Johnson went on television to announce the arrest of four Ku Klux Klansmen implicated in her death. He angrily denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots," and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's too late." Johnson was the first President to arrest and prosecute members of the Klan since Ulysses S. Grant about 93 years earlier.^[50] He turned the themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, thereby mobilizing support from churches North and South.^[51]

At the Howard University commencement address on June 4, 1965, he said that both the government and the nation needed to help achieve goals:

In 1967, Johnson nominated civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Immigration[link]

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration Act of 1965 at Liberty Island as Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and others look on.

Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1965,^[53] which substantially changed U.S. immigration policy toward non-Europeans.^[54] According to OECD, "While European-born immigrants accounted for nearly 60% of the total foreign-born population in 1970, they accounted for only 15% in 2000."^[55] Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and doubled again between 1970 and 1990.^[22] Since the liberalization of immigration policy in 1965,^[56] the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled,^[57] from 9.6 million in 1970, to about 38 million in 2007.^[58]

Great Society[link]

The Great Society program, with its name coined from one of Johnson's speeches,^[22] became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, Medicaid, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, enacted most of Johnson's recommendations.^[59]

After the Great Society legislation of the 1960s, for the first time a person who was not elderly or disabled could receive a living from the American government.^[60]

Federal funding for education[link]

Johnson had a lifelong commitment to the belief that education was the cure for both ignorance and poverty, and was an essential component of the American Dream, especially for minorities who endured poor facilities and tight-fisted budgets from local taxes.^[61] He made education a top priority of the Great Society, with an emphasis on helping poor children. After the 1964 landslide brought in many new liberal Congressmen, he had the votes for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. For the first time, large amounts of federal money went to public schools. In practice ESEA meant helping all public school districts, with more money going to districts that had large proportions of students from poor families (which included all the big cities).^[62] For the first time private schools (most of them Catholic schools in the inner cities) received services, such as library funding, comprising about 12 percent of the ESEA budget. As Dallek reports, researchers soon found that poverty had more to do with family background and neighborhood conditions than the quantity of education a child received. Early studies suggested initial improvements for poor kids helped by ESEA reading and math programs, but later assessments indicated that benefits faded quickly and left students little better off than those not in the programs. Johnson's second major education program was the Higher Education Act of 1965, which focused on funding for lower income students, including grants, work-study money, and government loans. He set up the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, to support humanists and artists (as the WPA once did). Although ESEA solidified Johnson's support among K-12 teachers' unions, neither the Higher Education Act nor the Endowments mollified the college professors and students growing increasingly uneasy with the war in Vietnam.^[63] In 1967, Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act to create educational television programs to supplement the broadcast networks.

"War on Poverty" and Medical Reform[link]

Truman (seated right) and his wife Bess (behind him) attend the signing of the Medicare Bill on July 30, 1965, by President Johnson.

In 1964, upon Johnson's request, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in association with the war on poverty. Johnson set in motion bills and acts,^[64] creating programs such as Head Start, food stamps, Work Study, Medicare and Medicaid, which still exist today.

The Medicare program was established on July 30, 1965, to offer cheaper medical services to the elderly,^[65] today covering tens of millions of Americans. Johnson gave the first two Medicare cards to former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess after signing the medicare bill at the Truman Library.

Lower income groups receive government-sponsored medical coverage through the Medicaid program.^[66]

Gun control[link]

On October 22, 1968, Lyndon Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968, one of the largest and most far reaching federal gun control laws in American history. Much of the motivation for this large expansion of federal gun regulations came as a response to the murders of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr..

Space Program[link]

During Johnson's administration, NASA conducted the Gemini manned space program and the Apollo program, including Apollo 7; and the first human spaceflight to the Moon, Apollo 8, in December 1968. The president congratulated the Apollo 8 crew, saying, "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era."^[67][68] On July 16, 1969, Johnson attended the Apollo 11 launch—the first former or incumbent US president to witness a rocket launch.

All US manned flights after Gemini 3 were controlled from the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, renamed for Johnson in 1973.

Urban riots[link]

Major riots in black neighborhoods caused a series of "long hot summers." They started with a violent disturbance in Harlem riots in 1964, and the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965, and extended to 1971. The biggest wave came in April 1968, when riots occurred in over a hundred cities in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Newark burned in 1967, where six days of rioting left 26 dead, 1500 injured, and the inner city a burned out shell. In Detroit in 1967, Governor George Romney sent in 7400 national guard troops to quell fire bombings, looting, and attacks on businesses and on police. Johnson finally sent in federal troops with tanks and machine guns. Detroit continued to burn for three more days until finally 43 were dead, 2250 were injured, 4000 were arrested; property damage ranged into the hundreds of millions. Johnson called for even more billions to be spent in the cities and another federal civil rights law regarding housing, but his political capital had been spent, and his Great Society programs lost support. Johnson's popularity plummeted as a massive white political backlash took shape, reinforcing the sense Johnson had lost control of the streets of major cities as well as his party.^[69]

President Johnson with Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt at the White House in October 1966.

Johnson created the Kerner Commission to study the problem of urban riots, headed by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner.^[22]

Backlash against Johnson: 1966–67[link]

Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos on September 12, 1966.

Johnson's problems began to mount in 1966. The press had sensed a "Credibility gap" between what Johnson was saying in press conferences and what was happening on the ground in Vietnam, which led to much less favorable coverage of Johnson.^[70]

By year's end, the Democratic governor of Missouri, Warren E. Hearnes, warned that Johnson would lose the state by 100,000 votes, despite a half-million margin in 1964. "Frustration over Vietnam; too much federal spending and... taxation; no great public support for your Great Society programs; and ... public disenchantment with the civil rights programs" had eroded the President's standing, the governor reported. There were bright spots; in January 1967, Johnson boasted that wages were the highest in history, unemployment was at a 13-year low, and corporate profits and farm incomes were greater than ever; a 4.5 percent jump in consumer prices was worrisome, as was the rise in interest rates. Johnson asked for a temporary 6 percent surcharge in income taxes to cover the mounting deficit caused by increased spending. Johnson's approval ratings stayed below 50 percent; by January 1967, the number of his strong supporters had plunged to 16 percent, from 25 percent four months before. He ran about even with Republican George Romney in trial matchups that spring. Asked to explain why he was unpopular, Johnson responded, "I am a dominating personality, and when I get things done I don't always please all the people." Johnson also blamed the press, saying they showed "complete irresponsibility and lie and misstate facts and have no one to be answerable to." He also blamed "the preachers, liberals and professors" who had turned against him.^[71] In the congressional elections of 1966, the Republicans gained three seats in the Senate and 47 in the House, reinvigorating the Conservative coalition and making it impossible for Johnson to pass any additional Great Society legislation.

Johnson became the first serving President to visit Australia. It proved to be a visit that provoked many demonstrations against his visit, in the context of wider anti-war protests.

Vietnam War[link]

Walt Whitman Rostow showing President Lyndon B. Johnson a model of the Khe Sanh area in February 1968.

Johnson increasingly focused on the American military effort in Vietnam. He firmly believed in the Domino Theory and that his containment policy required America to make a serious effort to stop all Communist expansion.^[72] At Kennedy's death, there were 16,000 American military advisors in Vietnam.^[73] As President, Lyndon Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM No. 273 on November 26, 1963.^[74][75][76] Johnson expanded the numbers and roles of the American military following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (less than three weeks after the Republican Convention of 1964, which had nominated Barry Goldwater for President).