Lyndon B. Johnson — 36th President (1963–1969)

**Lyndon B. Johnson** was the most effective legislator ever to become president — and the most tragically divided. He passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and the Immigration Act of 1965, collectively the most transformative domestic legislation since the New Deal. He also escalated the Vietnam War to 500,000 troops, tearing the country apart and destroying his own presidency in the process.