Question

AP US History question:

“Vice-presidents who have succeeded to the presidency on the death of the President have been less effective in their conduct of domestic and foreign policy than the men they replaced.” Assess the validity of this statement for any TWO of the following pairs: McKinley and Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Truman, Kennedy and Johnson.

Answer 1

This is, in general, not a true statement. In the case of Roosevelt and Truman, Truman had impossible large shoes to fill, and yet he did a good job both domestically and internationally. With Johnson after Kennedy, Johnson did a great job passing the civil rights legislation that Kennedy had in many ways started.