At 9 p.m. on March 31, 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson sat behind the large wooden desk he had used since his days as a senator and addressed the American people from the Oval Office.
The president’s speech was about the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, which had marred his 52 months in the White House, and focused on “peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” The president spoke for 40 minutes, culminating in the final line he added:
“At a time when America’s sons are toiling in far-flung fields, when America’s future is at stake at home, when our hopes for peace and the world are daily at stake, I do not believe that I should spend an hour of my time, or a day, on any other duty than this office, the great duty of being President of your country.”
“Accordingly, I will not seek or accept my party’s nomination for another term as president.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House on January 21, 1965. Bettman Archive via Getty Images
The announcement sent shock waves around the world: Johnson, a symbol of power, was giving up the highest political prize for the sake of national development.
It was just the beginning of what he called his “nightmare year” of division and turmoil that had already seen the seizure of a U.S. Navy ship and the capture of 83 sailors by North Korea, the Tet Offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War, and later the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, urban unrest and chaos, violent anti-war demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush liberal reforms.
A common, unsupported Mark Twain quote is, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Indeed, in 2024 we hear ourselves rhyming with 1968, as we find ourselves caught in the rapids of history flowing toward an uncertain and perhaps uneasy conclusion: Donald Trump’s ascendancy within the Republican Party despite the ignoble stain of January 6, 2021, his recent conviction on 34 felony charges, the politicized Supreme Court vote to expand the presidency and grant presidential immunity to offset the balance of power, the disastrous performances in the presidential debates that sealed President Joe Biden’s political fate, and the assassination attempt on Trump.
In a more similar example, when Biden announced on social media on Sunday that he would be declining the Democratic presidential nomination next month, he said, “Serving your president has been the greatest honor of my life. While I intended to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and our country for me to step down and focus solely on fulfilling the duties of my presidency for the remainder of my term.”
The 36th and 46th presidents have many similarities. Both were products of Washington, DC, elected to Congress at age 29; Johnson served in the House of Representatives, Biden in the Senate; both thrived in the Senate and had a keen understanding of the nuances of power; Johnson served in the House of Representatives for 11 years before ascending to the Senate; both served as vice presidents under charismatic, elegant presidents who drew inspiration and hope and cast long shadows; and both won the presidency in their own right, building defining terms around extraordinary legislative progress.
President Joe Biden speaks about the assassination attempt on former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the White House on July 14, 2024. President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the nation on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1963. Getty Images
Now, of course, another commonality is that both men, perhaps against their instinct to cling to the presidency, boldly stepped aside for the good of their country and their party.
It is also worth mentioning that both did so to better their own legacies. If President Johnson had stayed in power, he would have been even more divisive and would have been even more obsessed with the Vietnam War. Lady Bird Johnson later said, “I admire him for being sober enough to see that he was not the man to unify the country at that particular time.” Moreover, the Vietnam War would have threatened to undo the enormous accomplishments of his Great Society, especially his most enduring legislative victory: the Civil Rights Movement. Although it took more than two generations for the dark clouds of Vietnam to disappear as passions around the war cooled over time, President Johnson is remembered today more for his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement than as a commander in chief of a failed war.
The main pillars of Biden’s legacy are the protection and preservation of democracy and the revitalization and strengthening of America’s alliances around the world, which are included in the list of his presidential achievements that he enumerated in his letter. Biden achieved these objectives by wresting the White House from Trump, returning the country to democratic values and norms, and restoring NATO, which had been weakened over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But by playing an increasingly weak hand in his quest for reelection, he risked these achievements being wasted by another Trump presidency. By withdrawing and endorsing the candidacy of his vice-presidential successor, Kamala Harris, who would likely thwart another Trump administration, he could better safeguard his most important contributions to the country and the world, and ultimately, his primary legacy.
Next Monday, the president will visit the LBJ Library to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act that LBJ signed as president. The historical parallels are hard to ignore: neither man may have lasted as long in office as he would have liked, but both left bigger marks as a result.
Mark Updegrove is a presidential historian, ABC News contributor and author of four books, including “The Last Republican: Inside the Special Relationship between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush” and “Indomitable Will: LBJ’s Presidency.” He is also CEO of the LBJ Foundation. Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of ABC News.
