LBJ: The Early Years An offer of the Vice Presidency by John Kennedy is at first rejected by Johnson because of the advice of Sam Rayburn. The next day, Rayburn tells Johnson that he changed his mind, and LBJ accepts the offer, despite Robert Kennedy's attempt at squashing the idea. After JFK is elected in 1960, Johnson soon regrets his decision, and he is made to fill the most benign of roles while the President and his brother shut him out of meetings. This position changes drastically when John Kennedy is shot in Dallas in 1963, and Lyndon Johnson becomes the new President of
Secretary to the President of the United States first Hoover designated his Legislative Secretary (the senior Secretary now informally referred to by the press as the President's "No.1 Secretary" ), the second his Confidential Secretary, and the third his Appointments and Press Secretary. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt converted Hoover's two extra secretaries into the permanent White House Press Secretary and Appointments Secretary, but from 1933 to 1939, as he greatly expanded the scope of the federal government's policies and powers in response to the Great Depression, Roosevelt relied on his "Brain Trust" of top advisers. Although working directly for the President, they were often appointed to vacant