Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
1
The enemy of freedom has chosen
to make this year the decisive one.
Something's going to happen.
The change is on the way.
We can change America.
We can change the world.
What we need now is
a reconciliation in this land.
There not anything wrong with you
that a good haircut wouldn't cure.
Rest assured,
we Democrats will stir it up well here.
This election year of 1968
has touched the emotions, the soul,
and logic as never before.
I think we a little too much
violence in this country.
We go up together
or we go down together.
And we have not found
an understanding for our fellow citizens.
We will have a new America,
and I need your help.
If you look at the whole year
as theater,
as real acts of tragedy,
there's an almost poetic
feeling to it.
after another.
Hardly a day goes by
without a new report
of another demonstration
or protest against the Vietnam War.
There is in the land
a certain restlessness.
Lyndon Johnson,
whatever else one thinks of him,
his reputation will always have
the stone of Vietnam around it.
We're living in a middle of a beast.
Lyndon Johnson is a common murderer.
Johnson did things
that no other President did.
Civil Rights, great society.
He should have been somebody
that every young person
and every liberal would have celebrated.
But they didn't.
He became the Vietnam War President.
We'd been told repeatedly
that we're succeeding.
We're defeating them.
They can't hold out.
Johnson kept saying
there's light at the end of the tunnel.
This is a CBS News special report.
Saigon under fire.
The enemy in Vietnam
has demolished the myth
that allied military strength
controls that country.
The American Embassy is under siege.
Inside are the Viet Cong terror squads
that charged in during the night.
The Tet Offensive was
an enormous game-changer.
They were shooting up
the American Embassy.
They had hit dozens of cities
all over Vietnam.
It was a tremendous shock.
We have known for several months now
that the communists planned
a massive winter-spring offensive.
We do not think that our military operations
are going to be at all materially affected.
He was unable to be honest
with the American people
because, of course,
he was unwilling to simply say,
"this is an un-winnable war.
"
Cronkite in Vietnam report,
reel 1, take 4.
These ruins are in Saigon,
capital and largest city of South Vietnam.
When he went to Vietnam
during Tet,
it was the first time
and maybe the only time
that Walter had shown
any kind of bias
in his public broadcast.
It is increasingly clear
to this report
that the only rational way out
will be to negotiate,
not as victims,
but as an honorable people
who lived up to their pledge
to defend democracy
and did the best they could.
After Walter Cronkite,
Johnson's popularity sinks.
To most ordinary citizens,
it has become obvious the war is not being won.
Opposition to the war was rising.
It wasn't just beatniks and young kids.
We are fighting a war
and I'm convinced that
it is one of the most unjust wars
that has ever been fought
in the history of the world.
Martin Luther King came out
against the Vietnam War.
His own followers said,
"You shouldn't be focusing on that,
"you should be focusing on our issue.
"
And he said,
"They're intertwined.
You can't separate them.
"
President Kennedy
said on one occasion,
"Mankind must put an end to war,
or war will put an end to mankind.
"
Do you honestly think that
if there was an election,
a vote for and against the war,
that the anti-war people
would win out?
Well, it's really hard to tell now.
The polls are uncertain
but the polls do say that
most of the country is discontent
with the manner the war is taking.
I think something ought to be done.
Senator, how are you?
When some of the anti-war activists
were looking for somebody to run for President,
a number of people turned them down,
including Robert Kennedy.
There are increasing reports
out of Washington
that your advisers are
not telling you that
you should run against
President Johnson this year.
I have no plans.
I have no plans to change
the statement that I've already made.
- According to Senator?
- Get out of the way.
The assumption among the
Kennedy intimates was that
LBJ was totally unbeatable in 1968,
and Bobby would run in 1972.
The anti-war movement
needed a leader
and it fell to Eugene McCarthy.
- How do you do?
- Nice meeting you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Very nice to hear.
Senator, President Johnson supporters
say you don't have a chance
here in New Hampshire
and you'll be lucky if you get 10% of the vote.
- What do you say about that?
- Well, I don't know.
The people who are supporting me say
I would do much better than that.
One Democrat,
Senator Eugene McCarthy,
defies precedent to bid
for his party's nomination.
His platform, peace.
Eugene McCarthy
does something that,
you know, was taboo.
He comes out against a sitting President
from the same party.
McCarthy came in from left field.
He was not thought of in the front rack
of Presidential contenders.
But there was a great deal of frustration
and even despair among the young.
Eugene McCarthy gave them hope.
We're volunteers for Senator McCarthy.
- Yeah.
- Reminding everybody to vote in the primary.
From NBC News Election Central
in Manchester, New Hampshire,
this is the news.
If McCarthy gets as much as
or more against an incumbent President
he can legitimately claim
an important victory.
McCarthy didn't win
the New Hampshire primary,
but he took enough votes
that it scared Lyndon.
He got 42% of the vote.
But McCarthy was a nothing, an upstart.
If McCarthy could draw blood,
Johnson was vulnerable.
They said at 68 was the year
I think that
marks the 12th to today.
How does it strike you,
you're not disappointed?
Oh, no.
Oh, he did win though.
This is exactly what he wanted.
He said you shouldn't have dissent,
that it breaks down our system.
You should work through the
democratic process to get what you want.
You can hope and, I mean,
you've got to base it on the dream
and this is coming true.
Whatever happened to Robert Kennedy?
- I think
- Boo!
Perhaps the most important
result out of all this
from McCarthy's viewpoint
is that he will, from now on,
be treated as a serious
Presidential candidate.
All of the sudden,
after New Hampshire,
there's a new political reality.
And Bobby very rapidly
starts recalculating.
Would you welcome his entrance?
Well, I don't know.
It's a little crowded now, but
Let me tell the issue of 68.
The issue of 1968
is not the Johnson personality,
but the Johnson policy.
And I happen to believe
that this country can't afford
four more years of Lyndon Johnson.
That is the issue of 1968.
For 16 years now,
in the shadow play of American politics,
there has always been
Richard Nixon.
He's not coming back.
He never left.
Most political observers thought
Nixon was finished.
He'd been counted out
so many times.
So Nixon wanted to show
the leaders of the Republican Party
he was a winner.
We'll inaugurate a
Republican President
next January.
Thank you.
Media consultants
worked with him
so he wouldn't be
the sweaty Nixon of 1960.
I'm really the most difficult man
in the world
when it comes to a
so-called public relations firm.
Nobody's going to package me.
Nobody's going to make me
put on an act for television.
If people looking at me say,
"That's a new Nixon,"
then all that I can say is,
"Well, maybe you didn't know the old Nixon.
"
I wrote a diary of being on
the Nixon campaign plane.
And I came out just saying,
"What does he believe in?
What does he care about?
"How can we trust him?"
I realized that the person I felt
most related to was Robert Kennedy.
I have traveled and I have listened
to the young people of our nation,
and felt their anger
about the war
that they are sent to fight.
About the world that
they are about to inherit.
I am announcing today
my candidacy
for the Presidency of the United States.
Eugene McCarthy clears the way
and tests the water,
but he wasn't the guy
who was going to get there.
Bobby was going to get there.
This nation must adopt
a foreign policy
which says clearly and distinctly,
"no more Vietnams.
"
You have the declaration
of another rival candidate
from within his own party.
Currents of anti-war sentiment
are building up.
And the same time,
the war is getting worse.
I think if you're Lyndon Johnson,
you feel
you're being surrounded
by a stampede.
Good evening,
my fellow Americans.
Tonight, I want to speak to you
of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
This is the moment for LBJ
where the pressures of Vietnam
are becoming almost overwhelming.
It is true that a house
divided against itself
is a house that cannot stand.
Accordingly, I shall not seek
and I will not accept
the nomination of my party
for another term
as your President.
You have just heard the
President of the United States,
Lyndon Baines Johnson,
in an address from his office
at the White House.
The advance text of his address
did not contain
those last remarks saying,
and I quote from President Johnson,
"I shall not seek and will not accept
"the nomination of my party
for the Presidency.
"
Roger, no question about it.
This was a bombshell politically.
Well, you really don't know
where to begin.
Our guest today on Meet the Press
is the Vice President, Hubert H.
Humphrey,
who yesterday announced his candidacy
for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Hubert Humphrey was LBJ's Vice President,
and now he's running for President.
Humphrey has doubts about Vietnam,
but has been a good soldier.
He has stood by Johnson.
Your President made the supreme
political sacrifice
to promote this cause of peace.
He was one of the casualties
of this war.
I don't think there was ever
an overwhelming
enthusiasm for Hubert.
The drama of McCarthy and Kennedy
had captured everyone's attention.
- Is the key Vietnam?
- Yes, in a large way.
In a large measure,
not totally,
but there's a certain degree of
general protest amongst the youth,
which I think is, on balance,
a healthy favor.
There was a lot of frustration
on the part of students
that the war was not
drawing to a close
despite our demonstrations.
So, the students began to
become more militant.
At Columbia University, students
barricade themselves in the University buildings.
Their leader is a 20-year-old
ex-Boy Scout, Mark Rudd.
I would say that
we now have more support
than any group had,
about any political issue, has ever held,
on any at any time.
Columbia became
the symbol of students in revolt.
Activists like Tom Hayden
went to Columbia and said,
"let's have more Columbias.
"
There's nothing like
feeling that you're fighting the power
or somebody is listening to you,
at least, to draw more people in.
We started shouting the phrase,
and it's a phrase that's been used
in other words and by actions
of people all around the world
when they face truth.
And that phrase is,
"up against the wall, mother".
We have an idea that this was
the beginning of something very important.
We took it as
the beginning of revolution.
What's Happening to America?
Conversation #3.
Tonight, our young people.
What's bothering them?
Is there really a generation gap?
Generation gap is a way that
whites in this country,
and the structure in this country,
the system in this country,
rationalizes its lack of responsibility
in teaching this generation how to
solve the problems which we are faced with.
that you could point to and say,
"here is where the separation began
"between past generations
and generations going forward.
"
I think all of us have a role to play.
And I think all of us
have a great stake in the future.
You more than anybody else.
President Kennedy once said,
"you have to the least ties to the past
and the greatest stake in the future.
"
You will always find idealism in youth,
and I think that's something my father
and my uncle recognized.
Why they always visited the universities.
I remember my father talking about
how the founders
of the American Revolution,
you know, they were young people.
Well, you fellas don't even vote over here,
you're not any older than my son!
You don't even vote!
Come up here and I'll autograph
your sandals for you.
That'll make you feel better.
There was a third-party candidate
in this election, George Wallace.
But Wallace was not affected
by the Vietnam issue.
He was going to have a certain amount
of support in the South, come what may.
There's not a dime's worth of difference
in either one of the two parties.
And if they don't give the people a choice,
we're going to give them a choice
by having a new party.
It was just a plain, ornery
anti-government streak in him.
It was his act,
"you *** in Washington
are not going to tell me what to do.
"
And you anarchists had better
have your day now
because I tell you again,
you're through after November 5th
in this country.
Do they know about
Martin Luther King?
Ladies and gentlemen.
Could you lower those signs,
please?
I have some very sad news
for all of you,
and, I think, sad news
for all of our fellow citizens,
and people who love peace
all over the world.
And that is that
Martin Luther King was shot and was killed
tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
When King was killed,
Bobby was on his way to a campaign stop
in Indianapolis,
going into the ghetto.
And the cops said, "don't go.
"
They were fearful of a riot.
Bobby went anyways.
For those of you who are black
and are tempted to be filled
with hatred and mistrust
of the injustice of such an act,
I would only say that I can also
feel in my own heart
the same kind of feeling.
I had a member of my family killed,
but he was killed by a white man.
He gives this spontaneous speech
to an absolutely devastated crowd.
This wasn't just politics.
He made it personal.
Let us say a prayer for our country
and for our people.
Thank you very much.
This country and every person in it
suffered a terrible loss tonight
with the assassination of this man.
The perpetrator of this deed
brings down upon
all of us the painful charge
that we Americans are
prisoners of violence
and destruction and death.
That is the tragedy of it.
Restraint, gentleness, charity.
Virtues we so desperately need
that had a dark day.
King was the only rational voice
that was left in America.
He stood against the war in Vietnam.
He stood against violence, period.
So when you killed him,
you killed everything.
You killed the only rational voice
that's left.
It became absolutely clear.
You don't want Dr.
King.
You assassinated nonviolent direct action.
You've tried to kill the dream.
Okay,
here's a taste of the nightmare.
The outrage could not be contained.
Fires burn in the cities of America.
Washington, Chicago, Detroit,
Boston, New York.
These are just a few of the cities
in which the *** anguish
over Dr.
King's ***
expressed itself in violent destruction.
I remember coming back to Washington
I was thinking, "What am I seeing here?
This is the United States of America,
"and there are machine guns
on the steps of the Capitol?"
People were in open revolt.
Sirens wailing,
people screaming.
And it shook everyone,
black and white, to the core.
Nothing could be more desecrating
to the memory of Martin Luther King
than to use his death as an excuse
to engage in violence.
There was a faith and spirit vacuum,
and when you find people
who have lost that hope,
fear tends to fill that vacuum.
People were increasingly afraid,
and Mr.
Law-and-Order
stepped up on the Republican side.
This is a nation of laws.
No one is above the law,
no one is below the law,
and we're going to enforce the law.
And Americans should remember that
if we're going to have law and order.
Disbanding those provisions
that exist between black and white.
I want us to work together,
and I run on that basis
for President of the United States.
My father's appeal was to, really,
the most disenfranchised classes.
He felt like nobody else was
speaking for them.
And that's where his space was,
rather than with the liberals,
because the liberals were for McCarthy.
I want to reassure you that I'm not yielding
to anybody along the way,
either the Vice President
or Senator Kennedy.
Indiana, Bobby wins.
Nebraska, Bobby wins.
And then on May 28th, Oregon.
McCarthy's crowds in recent days
have been good,
larger than Kennedy's
in many places,
although without the frenzy
that accompanies a Kennedy appearance.
I can't afford to lose
if I'm going to remain
a very active and viable candidate.
It would very adversely affect me
in a very serious way.
The actual final figures
yet to come in,
but apparently Senator McCarthy
has won a major victory in Oregon.
Senator Kennedy has suffered
a severe setback.
They move on now to California
and the primary there,
a week from tonight.
And this result, tonight,
does not prove, of course,
that Kennedy is politically dead this year,
it does prove that he is politically mortal.
It establishes that he is Robert Kennedy,
after all, not John F.
Kennedy.
I think what will happen now
is that McCarthy gets a new life.
He's still a long shot,
but he has a chance now.
I think that, however,
you don't write off Robert Kennedy
because he can come off the floor
and win big in California.
That's what he has to do.
But if he doesn't win big in California,
he's had it.
We want Kennedy!
We want Kennedy!
We want Kennedy!
We want Kennedy!
Bobby Kennedy, having lost Oregon,
knew that he had to win California.
And that would be
his ticket to the Convention.
It will take a very big win,
a spectacular win in California,
the repair the badly shattered
Kennedy image.
Bobby's going to do it.
You know,
it's just the way everybody felt.
Final votes will be Kennedy, 48%,
Senator McCarthy 41%
He won!
This land is your land,
this land is my land,
from California
to the New York island.
From the redwood forests
to the Gulf Stream waters,
this land is Robert Kennedy's!
All of us are involved
in this great effort.
And it's a great effort not
on behalf of the Democratic Party,
it's a great effort on behalf
of the United States,
on behalf of our own people,
on behalf of mankind,
and all around the globe
and the next generation.
My thanks to all of you,
and now it's on Chicago,
and let's win there.
I was upstairs in the Ambassador Hotel.
We were getting ready for our victory party.
And somebody called,
I picked up the phone in the suite,
and this colleague said,
"something's happened to the Senator.
"
Senator Kennedy has been shot!
Senator Kennedy has been shot?
Is that possible?
It was bedlam.
I couldn't find Kennedy.
Finally found him
and he was lying on the floor.
Somebody shot him in this
corridor behind the kitchen,
going to the kitchens here.
Everybody, please stay back.
Please stay back.
We need a doctor here.
Please, it's very important.
We need a doctor!
Will you please clear this room?
If you will not leave the room,
we cannot get medical aid for the Senator.
Now, would you please?
I can't say that people thought,
"how this could happen?"
Because we'd seen it happen.
Truth is that this had been
in the back of everybody's mind,
and one of the reasons why,
you know, some people said,
"don't do this, don't run.
"
Robert Kennedy is in
the most grave condition,
and hope is difficult to find.
Senator Robert Francis Kennedy
died at 1:44 A.
M.
today.
June 6, 1968.
He was 42 years old.
Thank you.
As you all know, there are no words
that can really fully convey
the feeling that one must have
for the nation
in the face of this tragedy,
this new tragedy.
People say, "well, it was inevitable.
"His brother was murdered
and so was he.
"
Nothing's inevitable.
It just happened.
This plane will take back
the body of Robert Francis Kennedy
to New York.
Also on-board this plane today
will be Mrs.
John F.
Kennedy.
Also on-board will be another widow,
Mrs.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Somehow and in some way,
we seem to be sending a great many
of our young leaders to their early graves.
It's been a very emotional period
for all of us
who have worked for the Senator.
And personally, the most horrifying
thing in these last few days
was this morning when I tacked
this black ribbon onto my campaign button.
Because now I am lost.
I'm desperate.
And I don't know
where we're going from here.
When Senator Kennedy went down,
he was trying to speak for those Americans,
including the young,
who feel a need to change
many aspects of American life.
Well, that cause
has not been stilled forever
because even without him
the changes will be made,
because they have to be.
But nobody knows when, nor how,
nor whether the changes
will be made peacefully or violently.
In the meantime,
this country has lost another leader.
As far as I'm concerned,
we've lost the only leader
that I feel gives us any hope
for the future.
I mean,
what happens to the country?
I mean, you wonder if it's worth saving,
you know? What is it?
What's left of this country?
I know what my own feelings were,
and I think they were widely shared.
We have to question ourselves.
Is our country coming apart?
What are we becoming?
This Walter Cronkite
in Miami Beach,
at this first session
of the Republican National Convention.
Richard Nixon was the leader,
but he walked into
the Republican Convention
not positive that
he would be the candidate.
The new-fashioned Nixon
runs an old-fashioned campaign,
and that's what the country
seems to want.
There were challengers.
There was Nelson Rockefeller
in New York, for starters.
And George Romney in Michigan.
There was some talk of Reagan.
But Nixon had a lock
on the delegates.
We are a nation in crisis.
Right now, change rules America.
It's time for America to rule change.
It is my privilege
to place in nomination,
the man for 1968,
the honorable Richard M.
Nixon.
There are 30 votes in Wisconsin
and this should put him across.
Richard M.
Nixon.
Sit down and get to work.
Well, it looks like Nixon.
Nobody is really surprised.
And no committed Republican
feels cheated.
What was the fuss all about?
The Republicans understand
that Nixon,
in this time of tumultuousness,
he gives people this
sense of continuity.
What is most important now
is for us to think
how we can get this war ended.
Mr.
Nixon talks of
an honorable peace,
but says nothing about
how he would attain it.
At this point,
the war is continuing
at as hot a pace as it's ever been.
More troops are being killed
every week
than at any time
in the course of the war.
This weekend, the enemy stepped up
attacks throughout South Vietnam.
We knew that we would not
be able to influence
the Republicans on Vietnam,
so we wanted to put massive pressure
on the Democrats.
I didn't think anything could happen
with Vietnam
without that challenge.
This is a CBS News campaign 68
Convention special.
What's going to happen in Chicago?
On this eve of the beginning of
the 35th Democratic National Convention,
Chicago is nearly security-tight.
Perhaps the heaviest security
ever provided
for a political gathering
in the free world.
The police, several thousand of them,
are now deployed.
Soldiers have arrived in Chicago,
and are standing by.
For the Convention, the plan was
to have a mass anti-war demonstration
and a mass counter-culture festival.
We gathered in the parks.
We are going to march
because we have a right to,
because that's what we came here
to Chicago to do.
And no one is going to stop us.
Thank you.
There were many factions.
They were united
only by a feeling that
this is our moment.
This is Carnegie Hall.
No more war!
No more war!
We are concerned
about the build-up of the force,
because we think that
anything that's built up like this
is liable to be used.
The Democratic Convention
is about to begin
in a police state.
There just doesn't seem to be
any other way to say it.
The people of Chicago,
and its mayor,
are proud to welcome
a great political gathering
of Americans who come here
to shape the future of the nation.
And as long as I'm mayor of this town,
there will be law and order in Chicago.
The two men, who most
still believe this is all about,
arrived in Chicago today
to begin their final drive
for delegate vote.
Most of us were saying
it just wasn't politically possible
for McCarthy to overcome
those who were pledged
to Humphrey.
So, there clearly needed to be
another force.
Arriving now,
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota.
McGovern got into the race
because there was a big hole
in the anti-war side,
and, you know,
Bobby Kennedy had a lot of delegates.
McCarthy said he didn't believe
McGovern had enough strength
to make any difference.
And so McCarthy said he'll continue
the fight for the nomination,
although it was clearly implied
that his chances are very slim.
Mayor Daley set up all the conditions
for conflict in Chicago.
He didn't give them permits to march,
but he knew that
they were coming anyway.
Over 10,000 demonstrators were
gathered in Chicago's Grant Park.
The demonstrators are determined
to march on Convention Hall tonight
in protest.
The police are at the park in force.
You can count on it
that the police and the authorities
will always unify
what you can't unify by yourself.
The tumultuousness of violence
that was happening outside the Hall
became reflected inside the Hall.
There seems to be some kind of
battle going on over there.
Yes, directly under our booth here.
They're carrying a man out.
I got into a melee
in the Convention Hall myself.
Don't push me.
Take your hands off of me
unless you're trying to arrest me.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Well, Walter as you can see!
I don't know what's going on.
I think we got a bunch of thugs here, Dan.
Well, mind you, Walter, I'm all right.
It's all in a day's work.
It reflected
for all the world to see
the oppression inside the Hall,
in what was supposed to be
a democratic society of free people
nominating someone to be President.
Downtown.
Downtown Chicago
across from Grant Park
beside the Hilton Hotel.
There has been in progress for some time
a peace demonstration.
The police have come
to put it down.
The National Guard
has been called to help.
You create disorder
if you try to impose
too much order with force.
So that's what happened.
They were suppressing
our democratic rights
in order to continue
an un-democratic war.
People screaming,
being dragged to the paddy wagons.
A scene of wild disorder on this,
the night of the Presidential nomination
to this Democratic Convention.
It was a police riot.
I had never seen that before
in my life.
I had never seen
groups of uniformed policemen
going after civilians.
There were pools of blood on Michigan Avenue.
"The whole world is watching,"
chants the crowd on the side.
When George McGovern
is President of the United States,
we wouldn't have to have
gestapo-style tactics
in the streets of Chicago.
Did you see
what was happening downtown?
Yes, I saw it with this television set.
Do you think this is going to cost
the Democrats the election?
What's happening here
in Chicago this evening?
Oh, I don't think there's any question.
Not only the party but the country is split in half.
I think they'll veer away
from this dissension.
Thank you very much.
Shirley MacLaine and Roosevelt Grier,
watching the television set in the back
of the hall about what's going on downtown.
It is my high honor
to present the new
leader of our party,
the next
President of the United States,
the honorable
Hubert H.
Humphrey.
I proudly accept
the nomination of our party.
We got Hubert Humphrey
as the candidate.
Humphrey was an example
of what we were fighting.
He was a liberal who was
going to betray our hopes.
I see an HHH on your lapel.
Does that mean you're
for Humphrey all the way?
Well, I wouldn't say all the way.
I'm a Democrat and he's the nominee.
Now it's true
what George Wallace said.
If the first job at hand
is to end this war,
there isn't a dime of difference there
between Humphrey and Nixon.
Vice President Humphrey remains,
by any basis of measurement available,
a complete underdog.
My feeling is that if he could
cut himself off from the President,
be his own man, then he has
a chance of winning this election
and it would make it very easy
for all of us to support him.
Humphrey desperately needed
to separate himself
from the administration.
And he did.
Well I think the greatest task
of statesmanship
is to find a way to conclude
and bring that war in Southeast Asia
to an end and to do it properly.
The public was so happy that there was
some movement towards peace in Vietnam.
Humphrey was back in the game,
and it was neck in neck.
From NBC News election central.
Nixon is the one.
That's the natural banner
for any sprightly front page tonight.
There are the numbers.
It was one of the closest elections
in American history.
Closer even than when
Nixon lost to Kennedy
eight years ago.
I have done my best.
I have lost.
Mr.
Nixon has won.
The Democratic process
has worked its wheel.
George Wallace carried five states.
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Mississippi.
In our judgment,
the people who supported us
have an impact on bringing in
the two parties
in a different direction.
And I do wish for Mr.
Nixon
the most success
of any President
in the history of our country.
Having lost a close one
eight years ago
and having won a close one this year,
I can say this.
Winning is a lot more fun.
With Nixon's election,
even though many people
felt a sense of disappointment,
there was a sense that there may be
some normality over the horizon.
People were exhausted,
so it was, in part,
a sense of relief.
Maybe, thank God, it's over.
I plan to spend Christmas in the states,
but I can't stand violence.
the unhappiest years in American history.
In the end, it always comes down to
what the people do.
And this year the people,
like the events of 1968,
are largely unpredictable.
Our country was put to
some enormous tests in 1968.
It was a bend,
but there wasn't a break.
The issues that were thrown
open in 1968
Who has authority,
who deserves authority,
what the limits of power are
Those are profound questions
that continue to matter.
This will be an open administration.
Open to new ideas,
open to men and women of both parties,
open to the critics as well as those who support us.
And I am confident that this task
is one that we can undertake,
and one in which we be successful.