Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes
If the communists can bring together 300 million Russians and China almost a billion Chinese, we ought to be able to get together with Alabama.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1908-1973, 36th President of the United States (Democrat, TX), Telephone Call on Voting Rights in Alabama with Ed Clark, 1964
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Not only were the Democratic and Republican Parties at odds, but both political parties were split with the different factions very hostile to each other. The Populists and the Progressives were putting great pressure in the Democrats, and the Corporate Republicans strongly and often viscously opposed President Roosevelt. America was politically fractionated. Roosevelt called for a comity and unity which never took place.
American Presidents after Wilson have not, in general, shared this view. By the latter part of the 20th century judgmentalism was a major component of American foreign policy and reached its zenith with the administration of George W. Bush.
This resolution was bad enough for its overt racism. Ironically, the major victims of Japanese aggression have been Asians—China, Korea, Manchuria, and others. “White” empires had economic interests in throughout Asia and this was what Britten and many others were concerned with protecting. This quotation is important for another reason. At the very moment Britton introduced the resolution, Charles Evans Hughes our Secretary of State was welcoming a new, very high level ambassador to Washington. The administration had decided on a negotiating initiative and Britton and other Congressmen cut the legs out from under the administrations diplomatic efforts. It was particularly bad because one of the Japanese complaints about America and other white nations was their racism and discrimination against Asians. Congress undermining Administration diplomatic efforts has an all too frequent history in America.
This phrase was also to be used over 100 years later by Malcolm X. See {624101} and {38291}.
Preclearance was a requirement that any change in the voting or registration laws, rules or procedures needed to be approved by the Federal Justice Department. He was testifying about why preclearance was important and why it was placed in the Voting Rights Act every time it was reauthorized. See {635271} for what happens without preclearance.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to by his initials LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, in office from 1963 to 1969. He served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963 and assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson was also a United States representative and later majority leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people to have served, at various times, in all four federal elected positions.
