LBJ better than Lincoln?

I really should be studying for my test that I have tomorrow but a comment on my Facebook Note regarding the day after blog got me thinking...

It is almost absurd to think that someone might label Lyndon Johnson as a better President than Abraham Lincoln. It is crazy to think that they would even be in the same category. According to the public education we were brought up on, Lincoln freed the slaves and won the Civil War for the North, keeping the United States an intact country. Johnson is known for being JFK's successor and for having the country involved in Vietnam, something still heavily debated to this day.

However, both Presidents were equally good, and both were equally not so good, given the circumstances of their respective Presidencies. Starting with Abraham Lincoln, it should be noted that he inherited a country that was falling apart for years. Getting himself elected was ultimately the final straw that caused the South to secede from the Union, thus beginning the Civil War. The fact remains that secession was set in motion long before Lincoln was ever on the ticket. Not getting into the debate of slavery, but contrary to popular belief, Lincoln really was not interested in freeing the slaves. His main concern was the preservation of the Union and not looking weak to the rest of the world. At this point, the United States was less than 100 years old and they had already fought three major wars on an international front and were now fighting amongst themselves. To the rest of the world, it looked as though our chance for survival as a nation would be short lived. It was the goal of the Lincoln administration to end the war as quickly as possible and to bring the Union back together. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was a bonus of the Civil War as far as history is concerned. Lincoln's plans for Reconstruction were quite moderate compared to the way things actually happened following his assassination. Lincoln was all but resigned to the fact that the North won the war and it was time to move on with business as usual in the country. He did not want to punish the South any more than the war already had. His plans did not include repossession of land from Confederate officers who fought against the Union, but that is how it happened under Lincoln's successors.

I still regard Abraham Lincoln as this country's greatest President. He inherited a broken nation at a turbulent time and was able to restore order and set in motion Civil Rights movements that unfortunately would take another 100 years to fully clarify. Without Abraham Lincoln, who's to really say if Barack Obama ever gets elected President of the United States?

Fast-forwarding through Jim Crow, segregation in the schools, riots in Alabama, and the once again inaccurate Presidency of John F. Kennedy, we come to Lyndon Johnson. Setting the back drop for the Civil Rights Act of 1964: JFK was a President who inherited a Cold War from his predecessors and was solemn in his resolve to keep the nation away from World War III. His focus, first and foremost, was making sure the United States remained a free nation; free from communism, that is. The Presidency of JFK is one that is controversial for many reasons. From the follies of the Bay of Pigs to the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK was dealt a pretty bad hand and he did not do much to improve upon it. He quietly made a phone call to Coretta Scott King after her husband was jailed in Alabama to make sure everything was alright and to see if there was anything he could do. During the Montgomery Bus Boycotts of the early 60's, Freedom Riders were finally allowed to ride from Alabama into Mississippi on the bus. Their bus was guided by national guard troops, set up by JFK and his brother Robert. Once the bus reached Mississippi, Mississippi police were allowed to arrest the riders for riding on the bus. JFK took small steps around the big problem.

His Vice President, however, was dealt a similarly bad hand when the President was assassinated. In order to bring the nation together, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson was an amazing advocate for minorities and the impoverished in this country. Unfortunately, he is tied in with the blunders of Vietnam and the horrendous advice of Robert McNamara and General Westmoreland. LBJ will forever be remembered as the President who engaged the country in an unnecessary war. Unfortunately for him, public education and popular culture will not examine the chain of events set in motion almost forty years before that could have prevented the Vietnam War. They will instead label him a baby killer, just like they label Richard Nixon a crook; despite the strides he made to re-establishing a working relationship with the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War.

It is sad to know that history only looks upon either the good or the bad in a President and not both. Every President has tried, despite what some may think. When the stock market crashed, Herbert Hoover did everything in his power to fix the situation. History will lead you to believe that the stock market crashed and the government did nothing until FDR came riding in on his horse to save the nation with his New Deal policies. As previously stated earlier today, it took YEARS and a WAR to come out of the Great Depression. So before you let anyone tell you what makes a great President, look at the big picture, but also pay attention to the details because chapter titles don't make up an entire story, the sentences and pages in between tell the tale.