Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th President of the United States on November 22, 1963, after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Johnson had served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, rising to become the Senate Majority Leader before being elected as Kennedy's Vice-President. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. Johnson won re-election in 1964 by a landslide over Barry Goldwater. That same year, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the President the right to use military force in Vietnam without a declaration of war. Johnson increased the commitment of U.S. military personnel from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 525,000 troops, including many in combat roles, by 1965. Growing anger over the war combined with widespread racial tension created an outbreak of violent protests across the country. In 1967, Michigan Governor George Romney (Mitt Romney's father) deployed the National Guard to Detroit in response to riots there, and President Johnson deployed regular Army troops to join them. Johnson expanded Medicare and Medicaid in his War on Poverty. But the violence over Vietnam and civil rights led him to decide not to run for re-election in 1968
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