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Lyndon Johnson

An elderly white man in front of a white background

Khrushchev’s son recalls Sputnik, Gagarin ascent in US-Soviet space race

Global Politics

In October 1957, a beach-ball sized metal globe hurtled through space a couple hundred miles above the United States. That orb was the first artificial Earth satellite — Sputnik. Sergei Khrushchev, former missile engineer and son of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, remembers the US-Soviet race into space.

Jimmy Carter sitting down with several women standing behind him

In 2019, women’s rights are still not explicitly recognized in US Constitution

A tent is seen next to Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, California, April 11, 2018.

America’s poor becoming more destitute under Trump, UN human rights investigator finds

Justice
Vietnam on TV

The Tet Offensive shocked the nation and permanently changed US attitudes toward the Vietnam War

Conflict
MLK LBJ White House 1963

Martin Luther King’s 1967 speech opposing the Vietnam War ended a historic partnership with Lyndon Johnson

Conflict
LBJ 1965

The carrot and the stick: LBJ addresses the nation on the conflict in Vietnam

Conflict

In an April 1965 address to the nation, President Lyndon Johnson laid out his argument for expanding US involvement in Vietnam. From archival audio, we now know that Johnson had believed for at least a year that the conflict was a disaster in the making. Why did he continue to push for escalation in a war he didn’t think was worth fighting?

USS Maddox

What really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964?

Global Politics

Historians still argue about what exactly happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 1964. What’s not in dispute is the aftermath: A resolution from the Senate passed by a vote of 98 to 2 authorizing President Lyndon Johnson to use whatever force he thought he needed against North Vietnam. The resolution was a major escalation of US involvement in Vietnam and helped Johnson win the presidential election. But it was built on a lie.

Medicare

50 years later, how Medicare changed America

Health

The desegregation of hospitals in the South was just one of many things to come from the Medicare law.

Clyde Foster analyzing data for NASA

How JFK made NASA his secret weapon in the fight for civil rights in America

Justice

NASA’s black engineers, mathematicians and technicians didn’t just help American win the space race, they also played a key role in reshaping the American South.

U.S.-Russia hotline celebrates 50th anniversary

Global Politics

For 50 years, the hotline between Washington, D.C., and Moscow has helped protect the peace and avoid nuclear confrontation. But the popular image of a red telephone on the president’s desk is actually a far cry from what the hotline really is.