He was elected to Congress 1937-49 and the Senate 1949-60. Born in Texas, he brought critical Southern support as J F Kennedy's vice presidential running mate 1960, and became president on Kennedy's assassination. Following Kennedy's assassination, Johnson successfully won congressional support for many of Kennedy's New Frontier proposals, most conspicuously in the area of civil rights. He moved beyond the New Frontier to declare "war on poverty" supported by Great Society legislation (civil rights, education, alleviation of poverty). His foreign policy met with considerably less success. After the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which escalated US involvement in the Vietnam War, support won by Johnson's domestic reforms dissipated, and he declined to run for re-election 1968.
