That ' s not entirely true . And it ' s also important to understand that he deferred a lot of the war decision making to other administration officials like Robert McNamara . They had an analytic approach to the war LBJ didn ' t challenge . LBJ basically retained JFK ' s administration out of courtesy due to the circumstance of his acquiring the Presidency . They were considered a group of highly educated madmen era boy geniuses , and we generally accepted as THE authority to conduct the cold war . LBJ wanted to focus on reforming American society and civil rights . There are some excellent books on the subject , including one written by McNamara himself title escapes me . <| sep |> Thanks AP Human Geography <| sep |> Congress passes legislation in that case a Republican controlled congress . The president can only sign or veto . For example the welfare reform bill was the result of negotiations between the president and congress and was preceded by two more conservative bills that were vetoed by Clinton .