President Johnson Is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier

[PyroTheFox]

Interesting that Johnson's mentality seems to be rather different than OTL; there seems to be greater conviction in the worth of the war in SE Asia, and that the strategy won't be based entirely around retaining the ability to withdraw. Stuart Symington, at least from the tidbits I've seen, would also seem to favor a more 'sharp blow' approach to demonstrate strength, as opposed to McNamara style gradual escalation designed to demonstrate limitations.

Pres. may be having some choice disagreements with his staff/cabinet on the Laos issue - Symington and Fulbright were not exactly on board, here.

 

[PyroTheFox]

How are you going to handle Bobby Baker? Will Johnson throw (insert his name here because I can't remember it) on that grenade to take the hit, as Baker himself said Johnson could have? Or, since Johnson is president, the media may not even touch it. It could become a topic of discussion after his assassination, along with the affairs (which I'm sure will be a discussion by the late 1960s and JFK's were), and it could brew as a Republican attacking point for 1964, before being quickly undercut by the assassination; a matter of "we're gonna use this" and then getting a cold shower of not being able to use it. You don't have to reply to this, but food for thought.

Bobby Baker! Aha, that may not be addressed for a while.

 

[dandan_noodles]

Pres. may be having some choice disagreements with his staff/cabinet on the Laos issue - Symington and Fulbright were not exactly on board, here.

Were the Joint Chiefs consulted, or is Johnson relying on an SoD who disagrees with the program itself to advise him and direct it?

 

[Emperor Norton I]

https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research.../United-States-Senate-Indochina_19540406.aspx

 

[PyroTheFox]

Were the Joint Chiefs consulted, or is Johnson relying on an SoD who disagrees with the program itself to advise him and direct it?

I'd like to imagine his entire military advisory team was consulted =)

 

[PyroTheFox]

1962 Congressional Elections

Senate
Democratic: 69 (+6)
Republican: 31 (-6)

House
Democratic: 262 (+2)
Republican: 174 (-5)
Independent: 1 (+1)

Senate Leadership

Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Sen. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) ​

House of Representatives Leadership

Speaker John McCormack (D-MA)
Minority Leader Charles Halleck (R-IN)
​

The steps toward the Great Society proved, if one takes the midterm elections at face value, fairly popular with the American public. Studies demonstrated that far more influential in their vote than the domestic achievements had been foreign policy. Johnson was viewed favorably as a worthwhile match-up to the perceived aggressive behavior of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. Although faced with the disappointing results of Castro remaining in power and the concrete wall under construction in Berlin, voters approved of the president's handling of the country more so than they disapproved. With publicized engagement in Laos just beginning, reported profusely as a humanitarian measure, Democrats received a slight boost from otherwise favorable numbers.

One significant drawback as a direct result of Congress' focus on Civil Rights in the autumn of 1962 had been a resounding lack of enthusiasm from Southern Democrats. The backlash had not been severe enough for the opposing party to perform any stronger than was typical, but publications certainly remarked the odd absence of unanimity usually present in the re-election of Democrats in the Deep South. A handful of incumbent senators were rumored to have considered switching to the Republican column, but talk of this dissipated as the Laotian conflict took headlines.

Federal races of note included the neck-and-neck deadlock in Alabama, in which Republican challenger James D. Martin lost by a mere two percentage points to the incumbent Democrat. Martin ran a fierce, anti-Great Society message which caught the ear of disjointed conservatives throughout the state. His reluctance in pursuing the all-important issues of segregation and states' rights came to his detriment, and ultimately, according to local historians, cost him the seat. A sign of this unrest, the Republican Party chose to field a candidate in Georgia as well. One E. Ralph Ivey (R-GA) lost in a landslide to Senator Herman Talmadge (D-GA) 11-88%, but managed to stir up enough coverage to cause a slight worry for the Georgia Democrats.

Democrats picked up a plethora of swing seats in the upper house, including in Idaho where Democratic Representative Gracie Pfost defeated the incumbent Senator Len Jordan. Jordan had been appointed to complete the term of the recently deceased Henry Dworshak, and served three months prior to his electoral loss. Senator-elect Pfost would come to be known rather quickly for her promotion of fair housing and rent control, and as such would find herself allied with the Federal Housing Administration. For the first time since 1949, both senators from the Gem State were solidly Democratic.

The president, partially as a means to rid himself of an albatross, suggested to his vice president that it would be splendid idea to field a family member in the Massachusetts Special Election. John Kennedy had been most definitely ill-at-ease with the notion that some wildcard like frontrunner Edward McCormack (Incumbent MA Attorney General) or Endicott Peabody (Member of MA Governor's Council) would succeed him. Though the primary bout took its toll on each of the participants, its winner and that of the general race turned out to be Robert F. Kennedy with a margin of victory of well over 15%.

Seemingly an eternal stronghold for the Republican Party, the state of California ended Election Day, 1962, with GOP victories across the board. Each of the swing House districts leaned Republican, as did the Senate race featuring the 53-46 victory for incumbent Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA). This remained consistent in the governor's race, when the one and only Richard Nixon, former senator and presidential candidate, managed to defeat, in a razor-thin margin, Democratic Governor Pat Brown. Out of each of the elections featured on November 6th, President Johnson watched this one with the most fascination, and, even with the overall tide turning in the Democrats' favor, groaned when his old foe reared his head back into the political realm. Robert Finch recalled, "That night was the comeback America needed - and the only story printed in the papers on Wednesday."

Senators Elected in 1962 (Class 3)
Lister Hill (D-AL): Democratic Hold w/ 50%
Ernest (D-AK): Democratic Hold w/ 59%
Carl Hayden (D-AZ): Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Oren Harris (D-AR): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA): Republican Hold w/ 53%
John A. Carroll (D-CO): Democratic Hold w/ 49%
Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-CT): Democratic Gain w/ 52%
George A. Smathers (D-FL): Democratic Hold w/ 65%
Herman E. Talmadge (D-GA): Democratic Hold w/ 88%
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Frank Church (D-ID): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Gracie Pfost (D-ID) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Birch Bayh (D-IN): Democratic Gain w/ 50%
Bourke B. Hickenlooper (R-IA): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Frank Carlson (R-KS): Republican Hold w/ 61%
James B. Pearson (R-KS) SP: Republican Hold w/ 55%
Thruston B. Morton (R-KY): Republican Hold w/ 51%
Russell B. Long (D-LA): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Daniel B. Brewster (D-MD): Democratic Gain w/ 60%
Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 60%
Edward V. Long (D-MO): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Warren E. Hearnes (D-MO) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Alan Bible (D-NV): Democratic Hold w/ 63%
Norris Cotton (R-NH): Republican Hold w/ 60%
Thomas J. Mcintyre (D-NH) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Jacob K. Javitz (R-NY): Republican Hold w/ 55%
Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (D-NC): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Milton R. Young (R-ND): Republican Hold w/ 59%
Frank J. Lausche (D-OH): Democratic Hold w/ 62%
A.S. Mike Monroney (D-OK): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Wayne Morse (D-OR): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Joseph S. Clark (D-PA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Olin B. Johnston (D-SC): Democratic Hold w/ 54%
George S. McGovern (D-SD): Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Wallace F. Bennett (R-UT): Republican Hold w/ 52%
George D. Aiken (R-VT): Republican Hold w/ 66%
Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Gaylord Nelson (D-WI): Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Milward Simpson (R-WY) SP: Republican Gain w/ 56%​

 

[Emperor Norton I]

The wonderful thing about being me is I have all sorts of tidbits in my head that something could be done with. Like this, for instance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Williams

 

[Sasalele]

Yes! I love Gracie Pfost!

 

[PyroTheFox]

Refugee Scene from Critically-Acclaimed Film, "Air Raids At Dawn", 1973
​

With the United States rushing headlong into the Laotian conflict, an inflamed Khrushchev would be forced to dramatically increase arms transport to their unceremonious allies, the Pathet Lao. Much of the U.S. budget once planned for new health programs and educational services now, gradually at first, transferred into this new international conflict. With air strikes announced in the region, the American military now played a definitive role in Laos, one which could no longer be considered conducted in secret. The Joint Chiefs actively coordinated U.S. involvement with the president, as the C.I.A. dedicated the bulk of its resources to Cuba.

By the start of 1963, although not officially a declared war between the two superpowers, soldiers aided and supported heavily by the Soviets now fought soldiers trained, equipped and funded by the Americans. The North Vietnamese fought full-throttle in Laos, and their invading forces took the brunt of the blow from American bombs. The remnants of the Royal Lao Army was reorganized, following the "disappearance" of Gen. Phoumi Nosavan, with direction of American ambassadors in Thailand, South Vietnam and Laos.

Johnson's Operation Wolf, conceived in '62, sought to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, thereby staving off the North Vietnamese from assisting militarily or otherwise in the objective of the Pathet Lao. The U.S. Air Force conducted repeated raids on the Laotian panhandle, killing all life, Communist or not, in the drop zone. Operation Wolf, at first one of several large-scale endeavors, evolved into the chief strategy for the region once evidence of Vietnamese intervention became clear. Historians have argued that this started a new phase to the Laotian War in which the North Vietnamese, or more specifically, the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, were targeted as equals to the Pathet Lao.

"It was not easy to see straight," stated John Connally in The Making of the President. "Lyndon felt as though he needed an ally in the Governor's Mansion, and lent his veteran state staff in the gubernatorial race in order to help us win out Don Yarborough. From January [to November] I had immense difficulty reaching out to Lyndon. I've heard the speculation over the years, how he refused to hear out his cabinet in totality and dove in Laos alone, but I am not one to speculate. I knew our president, and he always, always carried blueprints - six years in advance."

Secretary Fulbright resigned on October 30th. Fulbright held deep disagreements with President Johnson's Laotian strategy from the start, although he hoped that he would have success in reasoning with the Commander-in-Chief, as he claimed to have accomplished in regards to Cuba two years prior. The State Secretary understood the pressure placed on Johnson by the defense sector, but urged reconciliation with the United Nations before moving forward with ground troops. Fulbright later stated that he knew American allies had no interest in the region and, barring U.N. assistance, the conflict could lead the United States down, as he stated, a "rabbit hole to hell". Johnson brushed him off in a fit of anger. When the president proceeded to call for the first thousand troops on October 28th as a means to protect several pockets of Hmong resistance along the border of Laos and North Vietnam, the writing was on the wall.

The president now met with his advisory team on a daily basis, and presented ample time for the Joint Chiefs, Stephen Ailes and Gordon Blake to voice their support for increased interventionist tactics. Symington pushed for fiercer action in the immediate, and the topic of nuclear weapons, as revealed in the Defense Secretary's memoirs, arose now and then. Johnson declined to consider embarking this path, recognizing the danger of allocating even limited nuclear tactics, especially against Soviet-aided soldiers. The president also brought on-board the calculative mind of Commerce Secretary Robert McNamara in order to find a worthwhile path to victory in Laos with minimal American casualties. Albeit diverse with brilliant minds and decades of military experience, this advisory board no longer possessed a voice to critique military engagement.

5 Americans Killed, 71 Injured in Laos
Pathet Lao Launches Offensive in Demilitarized Zone, Threatens South Vietnam
The Los Angeles Times, February 8th, 1963

"Today I have stood, where Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. [...] Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say - segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Governor George Wallace (D-AL), Inauguration Ceremony, January 14th, 1963​

 

[Emperor Norton I]

I would be interested in seeing more on Kennedy's place, actions and thinking. I also had a thought: in this reality, Kennedy's ascension, though Johnson will be lamented, could be seen as a young president taking office at the same time that the youth culture of the 1960s is taking off. "Johnson couldn't be the president for the Summer of Love", and that sort of thing.

EDIT:
Given Johnson's treatment of Humphrey, I would imagine Kennedy would face similar treatment. Humphrey dared to critique Johnson over issues like Vietnam, and Johnson froze him out. Although Kennedy was pragmatic and intelligent enough he may be able to maneuver Johnson to a degree. But I would not be surprised if Kennedy was frozen out as a punishment.

 

[PyroTheFox]

I would be interested in seeing more on Kennedy's place, actions and thinking. I also had a thought: in this reality, Kennedy's ascension, though Johnson will be lamented, could be seen as a young president taking office at the same time that the youth culture of the 1960s is taking off. "Johnson couldn't be the president for the Summer of Love", and that sort of thing.

EDIT:
Given Johnson's treatment of Humphrey, I would imagine Kennedy would face similar treatment. Humphrey dared to critique Johnson over issues like Vietnam, and Johnson froze him out. Although Kennedy was pragmatic and intelligent enough he may be able to maneuver Johnson to a degree. But I would not be surprised if Kennedy was frozen out as a punishment.

Worry not, we will have plenty of Kennedy in the near future! The next major piece to the story will address the role JFK has had in this administration: His perspective and inclusion (or exclusion) to various events taking place with Johnson as pres. Everything up to that, for all intents and purposes of the story, sets the stage for events to come!

 

[PyroTheFox]

Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, June 11th, 1963​

"Lyndon Johnson won a short reprieve when he blew out the candles on his 55th Birthday. With rising strain in Southeast Asia, our American sons traveled down to those bastions of Red Terror and fought with our very latest arms with intent to save the cry of liberty. At home, civil rights once again on the brink as Governor Wallace declares war on integration. [...] The president balances each issue with care in his final months." This segment had been near the conclusion of Lehman's L.B.J., and solemnly carried the tale of Johnson's last year in office.

Laos escalated fast. With the input of Defense Secretary Symington and recently inducted State Secretary Roswell Gilpatric in mind, the president authorized increased attention to curbing the rise of the Laotian Communists. Bogged down in the mountainous region, the war simply see-sawed without either side holding a concise initiative. The Soviet machinery utilized by the Pathet Lao matched pit-for-pat the advanced weaponry held by American soldiers in the region. B-52s showered bombs down the Southern tip of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, effectively shattering supply routes for many of the Pathet Lao. Estimates of civilian casualties, by the summer of 1963, easily outnumbered that of the Korean War from its first year.

Tensions mounted further when nine unarmed Buddhists were fired upon and murdered by officials directed by the South Vietnamese Army. Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic, presided over a region with an estimated 80% Buddhist population. This method of adding fuel to an already burning fire did little to save his reputation. Diem, an ally of the U.S., supported the royalists government in Laos following direct involvement by President Johnson in the region. This demonstration not only served to de-legitimize the governance of Diem, but in turn damaged the reputation of the Americans next door. Following the shootings, Diem defensively countered that Northern Vietnamese Communists had perpetrated the firing, yet did nothing to calm the provoked population. On June 11th, 1963, Thích Quảng Duc, a Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze and perished at a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diem's policies.

President Johnson held his fair share of heated debates with Governor George Wallace of Alabama in this final year of the latter's tenure. The president assured the governor that the civil rights legislation, still in the midst of Senatorial debate, would pull through, and any refusal to comply with the law would only lead to publicized embarrassment. Unwilling to allow for the mandate of integration to go ahead, Wallace attempted to block the entrance to the University of Alabama in order to prevent two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from entering. The university, with police assistance, searched vehemently for excuses to deny the students, yet this debate ended with a federal district judge's interference. Primarily for political showmanship, Governor Wallace then made the calculated choice to stand at the front door to the university's Foster Auditorium.

The president somewhat miscalculated the feigned determination by Wallace and, without informing the governor, issued an order federalizing the Alabama National Guard. Johnson ordered the Guard be dispatched and remove, by any means, the governor from the doorway. George Wallace was forcibly and violently pulled from the university grounds by guardsmen. The Alabaman Press published numerous accounts on this incident the following morning, all calling for demonstrations against the intrusion by the federal government. Johnson expected this circus to conclude as the Freedom Rides did, with clear intervention closing the curtains. However with Wallace in the picture, those calling for a reinforced segregation now had a leader: one who had just had his rights, and those of his state, violated.

On July 3rd, following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Johnson spoke before a joint-session of Congress and urged this be merely the start, not the end, of ensuring the Constitutional rights of all men, regardless of color or race, be accounted for. As he stated, "Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact." Though L.B.J. would not live to see its inception, a bill meant to double-down on voting rights protections would later be introduced by a Texas House Democrat with intent inspiration from Johnson.

Alabama Church Explosions -- Birmingham Bombs Kill Negro Children Across State, Injures Hundreds
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 15th, 1963

Activists Led By Dr. King Call for Civil Rights March in Alabama
Governor Wallace Issues Third Curfew, Order Add'l Police to Quell Riots
The Hartford Courant, September 17th, 1963​

 

[PyroTheFox]

Crater Left by One of the Alabama Church Bombs, September 15th, 1963
​

Speaking to the press reaction, and the public tide in general, following the Alabama Church Bombings, Press Secretary Bill Moyers gave the following take captured in The Making of the President. "Thunder. It was thunder." Moyers explained in his piece that the outcry from the networks had been so severe, so quickly, that it caught the administration off guard: a rare occurrence under the guidance of the micromanaging Lyndon Johnson. The president himself released a statement shortly following 11:00 a.m. on September 15th in which he condemned the church attacks, utilizing striking phrases such as "unspeakable terror" and "Klansman bombings". Public reaction, especially in and around D.C., demanded more.

A state-sponsored study conducted in 1965 revealed that Birmingham had been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. The piercing determination of those most outspoken in favor of keeping it as such has been designated by the bulk of today's historians as the chief cause of the racial climate leading up to the bombings. The growth of the Ku Klux Klan in response to the rising interest in civil rights had been remarkable. The United Klans of America, an Alabaman chapter of the Nativist terror operation, orchestrated the church bombings in order to, as several of the perpetrators claimed, act in extreme defiance of President Johnson, the mandated integration of public facilities, and the federal government's overall role in enforcing an end to segregation.

Klan members whom had based their regiment in Birmingham planted dynamite in twelve churches all throughout Northern Alabama: reaching as far as the First Baptist in Decatur to the Community Church in Tuscaloosa. Timed dynamite bombs detonated early morning on Sunday, September 15th. Half of those religious buildings attacked were, at the time of explosion, empty. The remainder were either conducting services or Sunday School. Those who lost their lives were mostly unidentifiable as a result of the intensity of the blasts, but conservative estimates had those injured at 1,342 and those lives lost at 140.

The ensuing race riots erupted within hours, and Governor Wallace did little to remedy the worsening situation aside from calling upon state police to intervene. Fires erupted throughout those affected cities and towns with white-owned businesses and automobiles swiftly becoming targets for enraged youth. Dr. Martin Luther King and Civil Rights strategist and organizer Bayard Rustin, two leaders in the present movement for equality, expressed outrage at the sequence of events, yet urged refrain from violent backlash as such may only provoke further terror. On the following night, Rustin and fellow organizer A. Philip Randolph began working toward a nonviolent March on Alabama to peacefully express the call for civil rights. Dr. King announced the project publicly shortly thereafter.

Short-term consequences of the Church Bombings varied in the weeks succeeding the initial shock, with each side feeling vilified in their root cause. Hard-right conservatives and states' rights fanatics put forth the notion that it had been due to the Civil Rights Act and federally mandated de-segregation that the Klan first considered planting dynamite. Civil rights proponents and those on the Left whom had spoken out following the attacks placed responsibility on the shoulders of the state and federal government: exclaiming that years of inaction lead to, yet another, racially-motivated act of terror.

Southern Democratic incumbents, not all but most, did not alter their stances on the segregation issue. Senator John Sparkman (D-AL) released a statement expressing disgust at the bombing itself, but refused to go beyond this. Governor Wallace was revealed to have stated in a New York Times interview earlier that September that blocking integration would require, "a few first-class funerals." Sensing a plausible moment of opportunity, a handful of Republicans eligible for re-election in 1964 leaped to lambaste the Dixiecrats for refusing to call on the persecution of those responsible. This contingent included Governor Nixon who criticized the Democrats' failure to provide serious civil rights reform and protections. Sick at the prospect of facing re-energized opposition in Congress, as well as a loss of the black voting population in '64, the president struck back and sought to turn this from a 'party issue' to a 'national issue'.

White House Strengthens FBI Investigation, Orders Crackdown on Alabama United Klans
Johnson: "Malefaction and disregard for human life must not, and will nor, be condoned in the United States"
The New York Times, September 19th, 1963​

 

[Unknown]

Yeah, the KKK is not going to be popular (that's an understatement, IMO) in the years following this; hell, I can see conspiracy theories tying them to LBJ's death ITTL, PyroTheGamer...

How many people died in the race riots that followed?

 

[PyroTheFox]

Yeah, the KKK is not going to be popular (that's an understatement, IMO) in the years following this; hell, I can see conspiracy theories tying them to LBJ's death ITTL, PyroTheGamer...

How many people died in the race riots that followed?

30 estimated fatalities, several hundred or so injured.

 

[dandan_noodles]

I don't know if B-52 strikes could effectively shatter supply routes from the DRV to the Pathet Lao; even dropping more bombs on Laos than in all of WWII, we never succeeded in really interdicting the HCMT by air OTL. I'd also question civilian casualties (not counting the Hmong genocide); Laos in the 60s didn't have anything like the population density of 50s Korea, and the numbers of troops in play here is also going to be significantly less.

How is the war in South Vietnam going with US forces in Laos?

 

[Emperor Norton I]

Have you seen this documentary?

 

[PyroTheFox]

I don't know if B-52 strikes could effectively shatter supply routes from the DRV to the Pathet Lao; even dropping more bombs on Laos than in all of WWII, we never succeeded in really interdicting the HCMT by air OTL. I'd also question civilian casualties (not counting the Hmong genocide); Laos in the 60s didn't have anything like the population density of 50s Korea, and the numbers of troops in play here is also going to be significantly less.

How is the war in South Vietnam going with US forces in Laos?

Keep in mind for things like # of casualties, the perspective of this story is from someone living in this timeline, looking back at the recorded historical details - which, just as in any age, may not be totally accurate. I would imagine that the war in South Vietnam is moving along similarly to OTL.

 

[dandan_noodles]

I would imagine that the war in South Vietnam is moving along similarly to OTL.

By this time, the North was infiltrating 10,000 men a year with machine guns, mortars, and heavy artillery into South Vietnam; I have to doubt they'd be capable of running a two lane highway with truck relays through a zone actually occupied by American ground forces. OTL, they tried infiltrating over the DMZ before the American intervention, but the ARVN successfully blocked that.

 

[PyroTheFox]

Buddhist Demonstration in Saigon, October, 1963
​

A shaken and uneasy Alabaman population braced for the worst when the president declared his intention to provide for a substantial increase in resources toward the end-goal of eliminating the UKA, if not the national KKK. Governor Wallace, perhaps due to his feeling of persecution or mistreatment, expressed indignation when Johnson's announcement aired. The governor demanded the federal government not intervene in the matter, and that any dealing with terror suspects in Alabama was centrally a state issue. Senators Sparkman and Hill, each Democrats from the region, sided squarely with Wallace, leading to what amounted to a standoff. Taking heed of the advice of his staff, including Walter Jenkins who, as history would foretell, recommended the president take a quieter approach, the president drew back.

In lieu of the strained climate and suspicious of the F.B.I. Director, J. Edgar Hoover's, trustworthiness in taking the investigation in earnest, Johnson instead authorized the C.I.A. conduct an internal operation. Paul Nitze's C.I.A. earned a reputation within the White House for its secrecy in Cuba and the president entrusted the intelligence body as such. The director insisted that his agency was not built to interfere in domestic affairs and that moving ahead with the exercise may cause a ripple effect in administrations to come. The president instructed he move ahead.

Starting from October 2nd, "Operation Flicker" rooted itself in local Alabama communities in order to gain leads into KKK plots, leading voices and any future terror activity. The federal agents thwarted five subsequent plots against integration, including one intercepted school bus detonation. Eleven suspects of malicious activity were apprehended between October and November: this group included Robert Edward Chambliss, later convicted of conspiring in the Church Bombings. This methodology, revealed in the memoirs of F.B.I. agent John Patrick, exasperated Director Hoover. Patrick wrote, "The director deeply disliked President Johnson, called him a 'f-ing snake'. I think he feared that LBJ was in bed with Civil Rights Communists like Martin King and the like. When the C.I.A. started trampling in on our investigation, that only worsened things. [The C.I.A.] agents wanted the hell out of Alabama from the moment they arrived, and my friends there agreed the president was going too far."

In Southeast Asia, President Johnson meticulously observed the progress of South Vietnamese demonstrations as they threatened the political practice of Diem. The corrupt government lashed out in accumulating fashions against the Buddhist majority in private whilst disparaging the efforts of their opponents in public. Diem's sister-in-law, the infamous Madame Nhu, in a move calling far back to Marie Antoinette, proclaimed that she would enjoy seeing further "barbecues" of Buddhists. As written in Bernd Greiner's Optics Without Sense: America's Vietnam, "The U.S. government, indeterminate to the righteousness of supporting Diem, wavered in turn. The Defense sector, with Symington at its head, alongside an auxiliary C.I.A., backed uprooting the Ngo family." Greiner proceeds, stating, "Johnson's rigidity in his belief that Diem had been a rock in Vietnam went unchallenged by Ambassador Henry Byroade. Secretary McNamara, upon return from Vietnam in October, recommended holding out financial and political support yet allow for the government to remain as is. On October 18th, General Tran Thien Khiem was discovered dead. Hours later, Duong Van Mihn the same."

These two aforementioned figures spearheaded a plan to oust President Diem with backing by select soldiers of the ARVN, or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. With the generals mysteriously slain, and those close to the conspiracy hesitant to take full command of the operation, the demoralized anti-Diem soldiers stalled in pressing the plot. Ngo Dinh Can, a younger sibling to Diem, took control of the greater army machine on October 29th and ordered the executions of several dozen believed to have played a substantial role in the plot. Murmurs arose of a full-fledged uprising then and there, but none appeared to materialize. Diem's official statement regarding the attempt of the generals to seize power and the related executions concluded that Communist infiltration was the direct source. This remark transpired without American involvement and as one versed in historical fact would know, was totally baseless.

The struggle between combatants in Laos were magnified by Diem's latest atrocities and the aggressiveness of the Pathet Lao no longer appeared to be delayed, much less curtained, by the ongoing flood of air strikes as the administration had expected. In the midst of his fixation with solving the puzzle of Southeast Asia and maintaining a semblance of sanity at home, Johnson emerged distant to his family. The First Lady had an active role in designing the conservation measures proposed by Secretary Udall and was known as a smiling face in an otherwise grim White House, yet in private, as Ladybird Johnson would state in her countless interviews that she felt as though, "[Lyndon]'s health was no richer here. We felt such joy in [1961: specifically at the height of Great Society legislation]."

As the story goes, President Johnson packed his bags and set out for a grand return to his home state, landing first on November 21st for several scheduled events in Houston and San Antonio. The endeavor would perform a three-pronged purpose. The trip would reduce the splitting tension for the First Family and take the president back to a place of comfort, it would act as a chance for Johnson to meet with his friend Governor John Connally and plan ahead for his re-election, and it would drum up essential campaign and party contributions early in the game. The Texas crowds were more than thrilled to catch a glimpse of the president along his way from meeting to meeting. President Johnson's speech in Arlington, TX, attended in immense numbers, would go on to be one of his most critically acclaimed.

"There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem."
NBC Coverage of Lyndon Johnson's Arlington Speech, November 21st, 1963

"The president is slated to speak tomorrow in Dallas apace with Governor Connally to a convention of delegates. The First Lady shall be issuing an address of her own that afternoon."
WFAA Broadcast, November 21st, 1963​