Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973)

THE FIRST ALLEGATION of Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) exploiting his position in the government to benefit his personal business fortune came about while he was vice president, and such allegations persisted until he won the 1964 presidential election. Johnson appeared unable to separate his business work from his political career, and this greatly influenced people's perceptions of him as being a Texas “wheeler-dealer.”

His administration was tainted by a past littered with claims of corruption. Most notorious was his victory over Coke Stevenson for the Texas Democratic Senate nomination in 1948, when he won by a mere 87 votes, and was widely believed to have “stuffed” Texas ballot boxes. In addition to allegations of political corruption, he had accumulated a multi-million dollar fortune through his LBJ ...

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