Born in poverty in Texas Hill Country, President Johnson delivered an unsurpassed series of legislation, including the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act. Yet by 1968 he was so toxically unpopular that he decided against running again.

Don's guest today (for the second time in a row!) is Mark Atwood Lawrence.

Mark is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin and author of ‘The Vietnam War: A Concise International History’, ‘Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam’ and ‘The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era’.

Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

Humanoid Revolution: The Overlooked Game-Changer