22. Lyndon Johnson’s Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson, (1908 – 1973) might have gone down in history as one of the country’s greatest, if not for Vietnam. He spent decades in Congress, first in the House and then the Senate, whose Majority Leader he became in the 1950s. When fate elevated him from vice president to president following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, he entered the Oval Office with an unequaled mastery of the legislative process.
He put that mastery to good use, pushing through landmark legislative accomplishments such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both Medicare and Medicaid were also started during his administration. Had Vietnam not derailed his ambitious “Great Society” program, LBJ would probably rank alongside FDR as one of America’s most transformative presidents. Another thing that might have derailed Johnson’s ambitions was his… Johnson.