Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don't think the press has understood me.

W. One of his first actions was to eliminate the seniority system in appointment to a committee while retaining it in terms of chairmanships. Though Kennedy may have intended this to remain a more nominal position Taylor Branch in Pillar of Fire contends that Johnson served to push the Kennedy administration's actions for civil rights further and faster than Kennedy originally intended to go.

Johnson a Democrat from Texas served as a United States Representative from 1937–1949 and as a Senator from 1949–1961 including six years as United States Senate Majority Leader two as Senate Minority Leader and two as Senate Majority Whip. The involvement stimulated a large angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U. Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him.