Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Contenders Hubert Humphrey 20240712

Mr. Chairman, my fellow americans my fellow democrats, i proudly accept the nomination of our party. applause this moment is one of personal pride and gratification. Yet one cannot help but well reflect the deep sadness that we feel over the troubles and the violence which have erupted lid regrettably and tragically in the streets of this great city. And for the personal injuries which have occurred. Thats Hubert Humphrey accepting the 1968 democratic nomination for president. A chicagos comrade hilton hotel. The democrats had gathered for the convention in the midst of the vietnam war while thousands of protesters demonstrated outside. Hubert humphrey longtime minnesota senator and unsuccessful candidate for president in 1968 is the focus of this weeks contenders program. We are live from Minnesota History center. Mick caouette is the documentarian of Hubert Humphreys life. Just finished documentary last year. We are standing in the middle of an exhibit about the tumultuous year of 1968. I want you to set the stage for people. As 68 don, this country was in an uproar about the vietnam war. Set the stage. Well the, vietnam war had been going on for about 15 years a long time. The ted offensive at the end of january really set the stage, because it was obvious to everyone that the war was not being one. The North Vietnamese reach all the way to the American Embassy in saigon. President johnsons Approval Ratings just plummeted. Mccarthy been in the race in the fall, Bobby Kennedy was joining the race and it was just utter chaos at that point. Of course right after president johnson resigned on the 29th of march, three days later marvelous or king was assassinated. The first part of the year was terrible chaos. It was a year when people were turning on the radios to wake up there seem to be another huge story every day. We will try to tell some of that story in the context of Hubert Humphreys quest for president. We will be here for about two hours. Well run more about the history in the times in the biography of senator humphrey. We will be we will begin taking your telephone call so you can be part of our discussion. What is important for young people to understand . What is different about the wars we fight today is the draft. This was real in the sense for american families. The draft was the point at which the protest started. When the draft was instituted. Now people have a choice. If people want to enter the military if they are against the war, they can stay away. In those days, there was no choice. You either went to canada or you did something to get out of being drafted. That is what caused the protest parade people were not even able to vote until they were 21 but they were being drafted when they were 18. Thats is what caused the protests. People were not even able to vote. Was it fair to say that every American Family had a personal connection to this war . Have someone who went to the war and someone who was against it in the same family. Lyndon johnson his own kids were against the war. He had kids antiprotests war protester stay at his house. Families were broken all over it. The other thing that people should understand was television. Television is bringing it into peoples living rooms every night. When you talk about the effect of the . It was wide open because nobody had really done any kind of television was not restricted. It was all brand new. Nobody in the administration had any control over it. The journalists were just going out there and getting whatever they found. We do not have that now. It is much more controlled on the battlefield. We were seeing things in the living room that you wouldnt see now, actual battle scenes it had a profound effect on the country. Another reason why people came out against the war was they started seeing it all the time on tv. 300 body bags were coming back every week. They were showing the body bags coming back. It had a profound effect. It changed the average persons mind. We have to remind people that the war started before Lyndon Johnsons term. It had been raging for 15 years. Earlier with advisers. So Lyndon Johnsons attitude about the war was what. I think he was confused about a for a long time, but it was important to him to win the war. It colored everything that he did. When people tried to talk about any kind of the settlement, he would not do it. He was interested in winning the war. Once he got into it, he did not have a lot of options. That was the only one he wanted. He had no other options and it affected when he left office, too. He wanted someone to come into the office to continue this war policy. And wouldnt end the war and make him lose the race. So Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey became teammates in 1964, following the assassination of kennedy. What Linda Johnson right in his own right. What was the relationship like . How is this period for senator . Humphrey the intensity in vietnam started at the same time he became Vice President. The top an incident in vietnam of 1964 it was a resolution in congress that lbj asked for and it was passed. Humphrey signed on to. That as did jim mccarthy and others. The convention came later in the summer and humphrey became Vice President. He walked into the beginning of johnsons real involvement with the war. They never really talked about the vietnam during the campaign. It was more about Barry Goldwater being trigger happy. Humphrey and johnson were the peas candidates and goldwater was the war candidate basically. Vietnam was not talked about. They were talking more about nuclear annihilation. In 60 . For yeah and 64. They won by a landslide. 44 of 50 states. In the spring, in the early part of the year, there was another incident in vietnam. Johnson called a cabinet ad hoc and adviser meeting. He is already decided to bomb North Vietnam in retaliation. He asked people around the table what they thought of this. Everybody pretty much agreed and humphrey said it was not a good idea. And he backed off and he had written a memo earlier this and we should not get involved. Shouldnt send ground ships, and shouldnt bomb this is not a good idea. Both are you politically the people in the country will understand it. He spoke up again at this meeting. Johnson got angry. Hunter went back and wrote another memo, a lot of detailed. At that point, he was completely frozen out of any discussion about a vietnam. We have our first two video clips to show you. The first one is 1964. Remember that Lyndon Johnson had been operating without a Vice President when he came into office after the kennedy assassination. There is a great deal of speculation coming to the convention about who his choice would be. Here is a film from the 1964 convention as Lyndon Johnson announces his choice for Vice President. The next vicepresident of the United States, my trusted long time laughter personal laughter laughter colleague senator Hubert Humphrey of minnesota. [applause] lawyer democrats and most republicans and the senate vote for the education legislation, but not senator goldwater. applause most democrats and most republicans in the the senate voted to help the United Nations and its peacekeeping functions when it was in financial difficulty, but not goldwater. applause i couldnt help but think that that particular moment how far we had, all the hard work and effort, this was a great moment in my life. Saw mr. Johnson said in his judgment, mr. Humphrey was the best man to be president in case anything happened to have. No longer is the vice presidency just another job. Doug that video and much of the video where you can see is from mick counts documentary on hubert i have. Free thank you for letting us show it to our audience tonight. Lost a followup here. First of all, the scene of the energetic Hubert Humphrey addressing the crowd and having the crowd eating out of his hand and the cutaway to Lyndon Johnson, who did not seem to share the moment. What was happening there . Well he did not like the spotlight being taken from him. Humphrey was believed to be a better public speaker. He was a little bit upset about a humphrey taking the show away. That was Lyndon Johnson. The goldwater part of that speech was written by a number of people. It was written by bill lawyers. He wrote that back and forth. There was a call and response kind of thing that caught on. That was an early one. Worked really well. The call and response . Yeah not senator goldwater. Senator humphry had ambitions for the presidency for quite a while. He toyed with it in 1952 and made a real bid for in 1960. And harry was accepting the Vice President ial nomination. You could see how excited he was at that moment. He earned the nickname the happy warrior. He loved politics, right . He loved politics. He got in trouble for calling it about the joyful of politics he was joyful about politics. He believed it was a way to better the country, to change the country. It was an innocent way. He believed in the the country he believed in the American People. He really believed in our system. That was the way for him to change the country. Another clip and this was later on in 1974 when Hubert Humphrey was gathering material for his memoir any made audiotapes. He talks a bit, and this is just one example, of the relationships you referenced. And how it became very testy between Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey over vietnam. He reflects on some of the ways that Lyndon Johnson used the powers of the office to keep his vicepresident under control. Lets listen. There was not a time that ever got a plane that i didnt have to ask for and leave me if anybody would ever tell you that johnson was extravagant, it surely was not with this vicepresident. Many times he would say to me, it was better to take a smaller plane. If you have a plane that is is too big, there will be too many people who want to ride with you. Why you will be encumbered with people that see there is an extra seat that has not been used. From time to time, on short trips, up and down the atlantic seaboard, i would king or beach craft or queen or one of the smaller planes that were available. Or the condor there was a military plane. For our longer trips we used a jet star. Never in the continental United States, did we use air force one,. Those were to be only used for overseas trips. At no time was i ever permitted to bring a newspaperman or a person of the media Radio Television repress with me on any plane within the United States. President for bennett and off course are respected his command it is. Wish i gather he felt that the vicepresident should be heard and seen, but not reported upon too much. Of course, Lyndon Johnson had been the majority leader in the senate. When Hubert Humphrey had been serving their. These two men had a long relationship and served in leadership together. Could you talk more about how johnson used the levers of power to control Hubert Humphrey. Well as i said earlier when he had an argument with johnson about vietnam, and johnson froze him out for at least a year. About any talk of vietnam or any foreign policy. He cut off his privileges. He shortened his staff. At one point, he tapped his phones. He did a number of things to control humphrey. He did not want him speaking out against vietnam. He did not want him speaking out about anything. He wanted to keep quiet. He had a way of calling them my planes and my boats. Johnson had a sort of possessive attitude about these is if they were is not the American Peoples. He was very much in control of that. Humphrey dealt with it a lot. There were times when he gave three or four speeches per week. He had to get a call and get permission free speech of each week. That last about a week. Did humphrey talk about how he reacted to this . He had to been unhappy. He was miserable for a long time. Johnson was shutting him out of any of the inner circle. He was on the outside. He wanted to be involved in what was going on. It was a bad time for him. Then he was back to he was said to vietnam things change in 1966. We are going to walk around this exhibit tonight and give you a sense of the exhibit that has been put together. Showing the year 1968 with focus on politics. I want to remind you about your participation. In about 10 or 12 minutes, we will start taking calls. Here is how you can do it. We really look forward to your comments on 1968. The year in which Hubert Humphrey was a contender for the president of the United States. The equity walk along with me and will go to our next stop here. How did you first get interested i grew up here, so he was always in the air when i was a kid. I spent some time working here and saw his archives. The archive for a documentary filmmaker, that is a gold mine. Hubert humphrey had four children. Are they still here . His daughter is no longer alive. She died a couple of years ago. His grandson buck is probably more involved than the others in politics. Skip the third hubert the third works with advertising i believe so, none of them really in politics at this point. We are at the exhibit about the politics and political life of Hubert Humphrey. He was not born in minnesota. He was born in south dakota. 90 miles from the minnesota border and one of those Little Railroad towns. He was born in 1911. It was a remarkable little town. His father was the druggist. His mother was his mother was methodist, a social gospel person. He had a great combination of the preacher and the politician. He got it from both sides is bill moores calls it a great combination of the pitcher and a politician. Both sides. He went to a Pharmacy School himself. How did the end up in politics . He went to Pharmacy School for a job. He always wanted be in politics. He did it for a short time to help his father with the drug store. I do not think he ever really want to be a pharmacist. He ended up getting a doctorate as i understand. He went to get a masters degree. Why was studying politics . I initially, he was going to get a doctorate and teach. He was so good at public speaking and so good at communicating, a lot of people convinced him to run. Deep down he really did want to run. He ended up coming back to minnesota and becoming the mayor of minneapolis. When did he serve as mayor and what was the city like that . He came back from lsu from the south in 1940 and minnesota had been a republican state never had a democrat on the senate. The reason why was the non republicans were divided between the democrats and the labor party. He helped to unite the two parties and built himself. He built itself his own political base. The city was corrupt and and bigoted all kinds of problems with segregation. When he first came, nation magazine called it the capital of the antisemitism in the United States. When he left, he got an award from the National Council of christians and jews for what he did. Talk a little bit about the ds eliza still active. He would humphrey was really its founder. He was probably the greatest negotiator of the group. What does it stand for . Democrat democrat pharma labour party. At the pain time, it was a group of farmers and laborers who had differences with a more professional democrats. Fdr democrats. There was a split their. They just did not like each other and humphrey was one of the people that convinced them they will never win an election if they did not get together. The Democrat Farm labour party i believe ran for we will talk a little bit about the speech. From 1960, when he first seriously thought about running for president. This is one of those joy of being a politician. Lets watch. How do you think your race is going . It has been an uphill fight. I think we have been what has been the most exciting part of the campaign . Right now. Thank you, senator. This is good fun. Politics ought to be fine. And there we see Hubert Humphrey just enjoying life. Did he bring this to his politics all the time. All the time, that was pretty much how he ran. People who had madam it was 11 00 at night he would get off the plane and work to three in the morning and everyone was asleep and it still be like that. He could just do that, he ran like that constantly. He loved what he was doing. What were some of his what were some of his other characteristics. I heard that he was known for talking a lot. Absolutely, but it is also a good listener. He did talk a lot he would come other prepared speech and just top for an hour. He knew a lot about a lot of things is very intelligent. Astounding memory. Maybe new five to 10,000 people by the first name. A politicians gift to be able to remember. Names he can go back five years later and remember there name, the familys name, what they did for a living. We will start taking some calls. First topic or in ohio, welcome to our discussion of Hubert Humphrey. First up is it is a Wonderful Program to be participating in. Thank you. You mentioned 1948. I remember hearing an actor named Ronald Reagan who endorsed Hubert Humphrey in 1948 for the u. S. Senate. When you think about it, were they on the opposite end of the spectrum . Also i want to find out what Hubert Humphreys relationship was with Barry Goldwater in the u. S. Senate versus what their private life was like . Also did Hubert Humphrey and jack kennedy did along very well when theyre running against each other in 1960 . In 1956, when they vied for the vicepresident ial nomination to run with adlai stevenson. Who ultimately they lost to the senator from tennessee . Thank you so much. Kurt first his relationship with Ronald Reagan . He was a lifelong friend of Ronald Reagans Ronald Reagan was pretty much the same politics back in those days. He was the head of the actorsunion. He was a democrat and he had the same philosophy. Ronald reagan changed, but humphrey remained the same. But they did remain friends. Goldwater . They were even better friends. The best story i heard about the friendships was they were giving speeches in iowa on the back of a hay wagon. They just ripped each other a needs backtoback speeches. And then they had dinner together after. That they were good friends. Before we talk about kennedy, talk about the United States senate. These were times a very big names of the senators, people recognize those names in history books today. Was there bipartisanship . To people work across the aisle . Absolutely disagree without being disagreeable. Thats what was going on. There was a lot of camaraderie. Humphrey was friends with a lot of republicans. Even friends with some of the dixie crafts that he differ within some of those people. It was more cordial and there was more camaraderie than there is now. I am not in the senate now, but they were very close. Jfk and their relationship . In the early years, they voted together on many of the same bills. Humphrey helped him with farm legislation because he knew nothing about it. Their relationship changed dramatically in 1960. During that election and the primaries. In what way . They have these debates in the primaries in wisconsin and western agenda. They got to know each you get im free gave him any of his ideas to use in his administration he was the idea factory in the Kennedy Administration. The peace corps. Lets take a call how are you doing . I love your show. I have a question. Back in 1968 1948, humphrey spend time with Martin Luther came and humphrey, and johnson. We will spend quite a bit of time talking about the Civilrights Movement. This is from your fellow man from your film. Hubert humphrey talks about his view of the world and his brand of liberalism. Lets listen. We do not have that clip as we are getting ready help us understand what im formed his politics. The question, the civilrights was in him from the time he was born. It was not new to herbert humphrey. Lyndon johnson was had to deal more with the idea of the issue of race and getting elected. It was quite different for him. Humphrey felt and believed deeply what he was up against. What he did in that speech, Lyndon Johnson called the most courageous political act in the 20thcentury. He could have destroyed the Democratic Party. He could have destroyed prove truman and his own premiere. He believed in civil rights. Really believed the caller was asking about humphreys commitment compared to the other two. The Lyndon Johnson and jon kennedy. How much they care about the issue compared to hubert time free . Kennedy was a reluctant civilrights person pretty came to later. Body came to which even more. It was in issue for humphrey for many years. Humphrey was much more passive and involved with the African American communities. He didnt know martin with the king but he knew a lot of the leaders. Roberta brand often other people around that time. Lets to cynthia in iowa. Good evening. I was a member of the Television News team, but i happen to be in washington, d. C. , reporting to the day we withdrew from vietnam. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hubert Humphrey on that very day. I asked him how we felt about losing the vietnam war. He said he, too, was a casualty of the vietnam war. He was quite emotional and had a tear in his side. I wonder if you could talk more about his vietnam policy. Two trips he made to vietnam while he was vicepresident the first trip was scheduled for him. He was watch pretty closely. He saw only the good side of the war. He spoke to the good generals and the good news about the war. The second time, he decided to go out on his own. A year later. He went to hospitals, talked to people. At that point, he quit cheerleading the war. He found out about the corruption and the south vietnamese government. He realized it was lost. He came back from the second trip knowing that the war needed to be over. He was boxed in. He had been speaking out for the war for the last year period Lyndon Johnson was not going to let him speak against the war. Was in a bad situation. The two great issues in his political career or civilrights and the vietnam war. The 1948 speech really launched him on to the National Stage. Were going to listen to that speech to the convention in philadelphia in 1948. We will be joined by another guest will me come back. Juan williams, the author of the number of books that deal with civil rights and American History. Mister chairman fellow democrats, fellow americans, i realize that in speaking on behalf of the minority on civilrights that i am dealing with a charged issue. An issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I must rise at this time to support the minority report, the report that spells out our democracy. A report that the people of this country can and will understand and a report that they will claim the on the great issue of civil rights. To those who say that we are brushing this issue of civil rights, i say to them, we are 172 years late. I had been the destroyer of the Democratic Party, the enemy of the south. I never felt so lonesome and some on wanted in all my life as i did in those first few weeks and months at this United States senator. Second clip was Hubert Humphrey reflecting on what it was like coming to washington in 1949 after his big speech in the convention. Juan williams, welcome to our conversation. How important in the history of civil rights was Hubert Humphrey . That 1948 speech was truly a landmark. That is the moment at which you see organized politics behind what we think of as the modern 20thcentury Civilrights Movement. The moments in which the Democratic Party sheds so much of its paralysis engendered by the reliant on southern democrats. At that point you see someone rise up in the Democratic Party in the form of this very public convention. His voice is heard nationwide at the convention. He is saying to people across the land, this is an abomination. This is not what the Democratic Party, not with the American People should be standing for. He is speaking in terms of national morality. He doesnt as a back at a cost. You have the segregation, many of whom are leaders in the u. S. Senate walk out of the convention. It leads to third parties and a tremendous consequence i will fall like dominoes throughout American History. Name some of those names of the people who walked out of the convention. Am trying to think. You have east slim and some of the other governors and members of the senate tour right there. Question, how risky was it for hubert countries to put his neck out on the line for civil rights . It. It was a controversial here at tom . A controversial here at home . He was still a mayor, but he was a candidate. To speak out for civil rights, was that considered how did truman feel about it . When you first started the speech, truman called in a pipsqueak he thought he had ruined the election for him. Unidentified speaker he was upset. Truman condemned him for it. He learned later on that it had helped him. He turned it around and used to get the africanamerican vote in the north. In flames his commitment to civil rights . Where does it come from . Nobody knows. Got it from his father, but where did his father get it in the middle of south dakota . His father raised him to believe that people are people. It was remarkable. There were no africanamerican and a small town he was then. There were no African Americans in a small town he was then. No one can come up with a reason. Lets go to another call. This is from andrew and uber, new york. Andrew you are on, welcome. Howre you doing . I was hoping that you could comment on the relationship between Center Robert kennedy and Hubert Humphrey and how it developed from being political in 1960 to 1968 when they were vying for the democratic president ial nomination . They are key relationship. The rfk relationship started in 1960. He did not have much of relationship with him before that. It did not start off well because of the way humphrey was treated by the primaries and the kennedys. He learned to like Robert Kennedy and to be friends. He campaigned for kennedy and 1966, when he ran for senate. In 1968, they had a meeting. They agreed that of humphrey got the nomination, kennedy would support of. Kennedy got the nomination, humphrey would support him. He was an in line democrat, a party person, and so was humphreys. Welcome to the humphrey discussion, ron. I would like to jump to the 1968 campaign, again. Can you elaborate, my recollection that president johnson tried to scuttle humphreys effort. That was one of the closest elections in history, and for example, its my recollection that that started a month earlier, medic made the crucial difference. Did Lyndon Johnson tried to schedule his bid for the white house . He did not help him very much. He did these kind of things ray had nixon at the ranch and then hubert hunt surrey and he told humphrey no press could be there. Part of the belief is among historians, is that johnson believe that arm free might end the war and make him look bad. Nixon thought he might continue the war. Nixon played a few dirty tricks, and so he came out for humphrey at that point. He was really late in the campaign when he started working for humphrey. Want to bring the story back to civil rights. He built this campaign on this civilrights legislation is being pushed forward. Tell that story. Humphries involvement is that the democratic whip in this event. You have lbj as president. Kennedy, there was some doubt about his commitment, was he willing to pay the price in terms of senators, who would opposite . After the assassination, johnson and had a commitment to get this done in honor to president kennedy. Does he make comfrey the point man . Humphrey becomes the point man in the senate. It is Hubert Humphrey the man who gave the speech, the man who has been persistent in terms of calling for civil rights and justice as part of the democratic agenda. He takes up the cause in the senate. He is up against it because the rules were different then. You could filibuster to no end. I believe the numbers are Something Like 67 votes required in order to end the filibuster. If you look through history, there are few points at which you get enough votes to end a filibuster. Certainly, it is exceptional that you get enough votes to and a filibuster for civil rights to get. It is almost unheard of. It takes a great deal of effort by Hubert Humphrey to hold off a republican effort to prolong the filibuster. He was finally able to do it. What is interesting is the legislation cannot even be put through the normal channels. You would have run it is kind of extra judicial process been put in place. But engineered by Hubert Humphrey, and the bill gets is overwhelming passage. What were the opponents to civil rights constitutional arguments . We have the right to run our business in a public place. We have a right to allow whoever we want and. The constitution allows us to do that. That was one of the main arguments. There were a number of them. I wanted to say to that the southern democrats were the biggest obstacle for him. He had a number of republicans that were on his side. There were a coalition of republicans and democrats that made it happen. Those people there was no way youre going to change any of their minds. It was an interesting group. Thomas key go was on the republican side. The opposition was conservative republicans. Barry gore was against the the dixie crafts that was his obstacle. And the drama of this filibuster coming down to the wire. Were just gonna give you a sense of what the arguments for like giving another clip. This is Hubert Humphrey and strong thurman debating the 64 civil rights bill. Again, with Hubert Humphrey talking in a speech about his strategy. So to clips back to back. Lets watch that debate from 64. And we know that fellow americans who happen to be a negro have been denied equal access. The night in their travels a chance for a place to rest and to eat. Its not public accommodations, its invasion of public property. This will lead to integration of private life. And the city of birmingham, alabama, there was an ordinance that said if youre going to have a restaurant and you were going to permit a negro to comment, you have a sevenfoot wall down the middle of the restaurant. Dividing the white from the colored. Now how foolish this is. Isnt that an invasion of private property . Senator we live in a country of freedom. Under our constitution, a man has a right to use his all private property the way he sees fit. We have to remember that this bill creates new jobs. So therefore we must as individual citizens speak out against prejudice and discrimination. We must be willing to accept the fact that every american is entitled to equal rights under the constitution and under the law. No less than that. The most difficult task that i have as the floor leader of the civilrights bill is just being there. Having to watch every move and make sure that we have readily available 51 senators. One of the tactics of the opposition is to call for repeated quorums. It means we have to produce 51 senators to enter the role. That story, always to have 51 supporters of the legislation on the floor. How did he organize the people to be there. There were teams they would rotate. At times if they didnt get a quorum, the senate would be shut down. We work in the favor of the civil rights. People they were able to bring only two or three people. To three poor people would come in. They had this rotating basis. They did things like drive to baseball games and paula senator out of a baseball game and bring it back. They did all kinds of things. They had a list and they how to schedule for senators that had to be it was very well done. They had some moments. They had to get people from outside the senate. Flying back and things to get the quorum. Was the opposition largely regional . Was it the Southern Coalition that oppose civil rights are was a broader than that . You had goldwater, for example. He was a westerner. He was from arizona. His opposition was libertarian. This is a free country, a matter of private property. You should not be telling a man what to do. You see much of this gets reflected in Strom Thurmond of language. He is not speaking in terms of racism. He is saying this is a violation of my rights as a american to make personal choices and freedom. Humphrey is having to come back and say this is ridiculous. This is not a genuine argument. In fact what you are doing is perpetrating the worst kind of racism and you are a pressing. People that becomes the argument. It is interesting to go back and listen to that clip. We have such arguments today about the jobs in our country. Here you can hear Strom Thurmond saying, this legislation does not produce jobs. There for blacks reasons knee girls are gonna take the white mens jobs. Clearly, he was comfortable saying this. It had some effect in that era. It is not as if he was speaking into a void. It was generating a political response and strong opposition to the civil rights legislation. Lets take a call from West Virginia. I am so glad you called me. This is wonderful. I have have not spoken, but one of not spoken the sons of senator humphrey. Since he died over the years i think i spoke with skip. I am Jimmy Wofford i am the fellow who saying the Hubert Humphrey songs. I have such a wonderful love for. Him over the years, he took me everywhere. I sang everything. He taught me politics. He had Great Respect for me because i came from a family my father worked railroad, my grandfather mccoys worked the coal mines. Hubert humphrey heard me sing on a Radio Station in williamson, West Virginia in 1960. He gave me 25 a day to travel with them. Charlie white wrote a book called the making of the president. Teddy white became one of my best friends. Teddy taught me a lot and everyone in minnesota that i have met and throughout america and i have matched and throughout america, the the henry fallen is in the president s in the Vice President s and the people all over this country. I am 77 years old. I still record i did record for Capitol Records for years. Im doing material now alberta have fields and the mccoys, my mothers family. Hubert humphrey to me was like my father. Jimmy thank you so much for that personal story. Do you know jimmy songs . Im not gonna sing the but i do know them. He travel with them all the time its good to hear his voice, and its one person ive lost in this whole search for interviews. I did no worry was im glad hes alive and. Well 77 years old. We have to get one more relationship established. The developed a friendship with Martin Luther king . Had a relationship with king around this legislation. If you look inside the reaction of the black community, there were lots of people who were militants who do not see the value of this legislation. King is saying, this is a necessary step. If you go back to the great march on washington in 1963, in large measure, it is for jobs in freedom, but a large measure it is to say to the congress, passed the Civil Rights Act. Humphrey is one of the great supporters of this. He is at the march on washington. He is someone who is in emphatic in his support. Even as you get people saying, we should not have a march on washington. Theyre just trying to pressure us politically. Humphrey thought it was a good and necessary step. The early stages of the filibuster, he met with Martin Luther king. One of the thing and Martin Luther king at the early stages of the filibuster he met with martin tucking. He said to him, i want you to know that we are on the same page. His policy was to treat them with respect. Use the humphrey weight way rather than the johnson way. I am just saying this because we are we want this bill to get past. We can hardly do justice to his career before he ran for president. At least you get some sense of his work on the National Stage and civil rights that he took into the vice presidency, and then in 1968 when he decided to run for president himself. We did not establish this, but Lyndon Johnson made the decision early in 1968 that he would not seek the office. Thus setting the stage. At that point, how many democratic contenders are thinking about challenging Lyndon Johnson . Basically Bobby Kennedy g mccarthy. They were antiwar . Candidates yes they were both anti war candidates when did johnson. Alice 29th. A march that was a surprise to the nation . It was a shock to humphrey. He showed up at humphreys department. Apartment. You should listen to the speech. Youll be surprised at one of the endings if i use. It he had not decided yet. Humphrey was in mexico. He was called out to watch this broadcast. He announced that he was leaving the office. They thought they heard that he was immediately leaving office. Which wouldve made have humphrey president. There was all this commotion. They realized he was leaving at the end of his term. It was a complete shock to him, and the country. You know whats interesting about this that you ask who is running this really was jean mccarthy. Jean mccarthy was the one who is in New Hampshire and taking on johnson. Johnson is not actively campaigning, but he had people all around. Clearly he has surrogates. Teen mccarthy is the antiestablishment, antijohnson candidate. He has support from people who were superstars. Today we still know barbara streisand, they were all people who are anti vietnam war. And of course all the College Students are emphatic about jean mccarthy. Mccarthy does surprisingly well in New Hampshire. I legit about this is the idea that johnson is vulnerable. That is after mccarthys success is then you start to see Robert Kennedy willing to jump in. And theyre saying why is kennedy jumping in and try to upset mccarthy because mccarthy has the momentum . That sets the table. Even as Hubert Humphrey is thinking that he is trying to pull back on the war, he is pressured by the fact that he is loyal to the man who gave him the vice presidency, Lyndon Johnson. To me it is one of those wonderful political stories. This is somebody saying you can tell Hubert Humphrey is a good guy. He is not going to put Lyndon Johnson in a position were Lyndon Johnson feels undercut by his number two. The guy that he empowered at the same time and as you discussed earlier, johnson is just totally dismissive on free and especially humphreys contribution or desire to make a contribution saying that this war is not the right war. Lets get to another call. This is larry in sherman oaks, california. I am a big fan of humphrey. For many years, it took me quite a while to accept the fact that he was never going to be president. Even after his passing. I was finally able to channel that energy into getting my own humphrey website which i have done. In 1998, i visited the humphrey institute. We looked in the catalogs and did not see any items surrounding the middle east war in june. I would have thought humphrey would have made some speeches or interviews or something. Did not see anything. That surprised me. Was he involved a middle east policy and did he speak out on it . I think so but i do not think that was at the forefront. There was too much else on his plate. I do not remember seeing anything either. And ive been through all of his archives as well. The early primaries and Lyndon Johnsons announcement sent things into warp speed. In 1968. It was a year of assassinations, the first being martin attacking. What happened in the country with the king assassination . Well its hard to summarize it. You immediately have riots. You have rights that mark cities Like Washington d. C. Chicago kansas city. It becomes a National Moment of crisis. You had people fearful that there is going to be a largescale racial war in the country. After this assassination. The unrest that surrounded the vietnam war is still present, but now it becomes a background because remember king was an opponent of the vietnam war, and he had said it was an unjust war and iraq war. There were people who were trying to join the Civil Rights Movement would be anti war movement. King, who would not been political, it is becoming more political. These other flaws within the party. There are people inside the Civil Rights Movement who recognize that johnson has been supportive in terms of civil rights. And humphrey supported. It why are you, dr. King, challenging this administration thats been so supportive . King says he feels safe moral imperative to say that this is part of an injustice that is being perpetrated by america. America is on the wrong side of World History in pursuing this world war effort. You have half 1 million of americans Record Number of deaths and hes out there spokeing against it he knew that the Riverside Church in new york making us beside gets lots of attention shortly before he is assassinated he is at the National Cathedral in washington d. C. Speaking against the war. It becomes part of the energy that surrounds him. It puts them in a position of being an opponent of the johnson administration. Syracuse, n. Y. , this is ralph. Thank you for the contenders. Ammo worker from upstate new york, i have a quick comment and a quick question. I have a video at home and its about true friends and worker unions, and it was about Hubert Humphrey speaking at a gathering. It was towards the end of his life and he is still smiling. He had a great quote at the end of his speech. I would rather live 50 years like a tiger than a hundred years like a chicken. I want to move up to 1968. I met a guy about 20 years ago is that he worked on the Humphrey Campaign in 1968. He came home after working on the campaign. He was at the hotel, and he was looking out of a park. The news came on and said there was a humphrey protest in the park. He called humphrey the next day when he had a meeting and he said he there is nothing we can do about it. Nixon was doing it to try to link humphrey to antiwar protesters. I was wondering if youve ever heard a story like this . I have heard story of being protesters in the Civil Rights Movement as well. People were paid to cause trouble. It is hard to document. It probably happened. There is no way to know for sure. They were slow to come along. They were trying to get the labor union in this country to understand the importance of racial equity. By the time of the 1960s, democraticand here they are now linking hands with at only randolph but also dr. King to support the march on washington. The famous picture of dr. King speaking at the march on washington. He has several others right behind him. You can see the Union Involvement and the head of the aflcio with them. It becomes not just a matter of a support mechanism but a controlling mechanism for the people in the Kennedy Administration who wanted to be able to have some levels of control over the march and the civil rights effort. We are going to take a call here and shortly after the king assassination, Robert Kennedy assassinated. Lets listen to a call. Hello. I am a killer brother of the construction trade. I do not want to turn this into a union rally, but my first ever political involvement in politics was with Hubert Humphrey. I was 18 years old. I live in an inner ring that suburb of the city of brooklyn, ohio. He had came to berkeley. He was the Vice President. You could ever imagine what was happening in 1968 and 1969 and all of the 1960s for that matter. He sat down with our major who turned out to be a mayor for 51 years. They were both mayors. It talked things over. I got drafted the following year. It is a pleasure, the series you are running. Thank you for the happy warrior. The navy was given throughout his career. We are live from the History Museum in st. Paul read by the capital. A beautiful building if you are here come and visit. We are using it as our backdrop to talk about the president ial campaign of 1968 Hubert Humphrey. One of his many bids for president and the what he actually got the democratic not. He made a major contribution to American History. In june, the california primary and the next president ial figure to be gunned down was Robert Kennedy. His Campaign Staff for about a month, he did not feel comfortable campaigning. It set him way back. That is really the beginning of his numbers and sliding. Earlier in the year, in the early primary season he was ahead of 10 points by over every candidate. After Robert Kennedy was shot, it looked like the Democratic Party was falling apart. When he got back on his feet in july, he was already behind him . Stands out to my mind is we were talking a moment ago about the king assassination. Robert kennedy gives an amazing speech that so many people still remember in indianapolis on the night of the king assassination. There was writing all over the country. There is racial anger and an ease. He talks about the king assassination in terms of his own brothers assassination. He drops the pain and all we can do to try to ease the pain. The patients that is required. Just a few months later, here he is laying dead in los angeles. I think the sense is that americas leaders are being killed. People who are in the idealists. People who are to carry on the grand traditions of liberalism, people establishing challenging the establishment are being eliminated. There is a sadness and despair in the american body politic at the moment. It is hard to capture the extent of it. Sometimes we have arguments today about polarization that people always said, if he were here in 1968 you will understand how bad things could have been treated felt like the country was coming apart. We do not know the forces of evil at work and why so many Great American leaders are being killed at this moment. Dont forget president johnsons approval numbers are in the low 30s. He cant even come out at major event. He will not be able to go to the Democratic Convention. It really is an incredible moment in 1968. Hubert humphrey was there. You talk about the happy warrior. He wants to stand up with people and said, there is reason to hope america can do it. He is seen as an establishment figure because of his association with the incumbent Lyndon Johnson. Our cities are burning, kids are rioting, leaders are being burned out. People are trying to bring america to the next states. Were going to go to the next stage as well. We will listen to a call. Our next stop will be about the opposition thats gathering with George Wallace and also the republicans. Listen to jim from new york. Hello. How are you . We are great. How much i am enjoying the program. I appreciate it. My question really deals with the first draft lottery, which i believe was either in 1967 or 1968. I do have great recollection of being eligible for that. I had a very low number which set everyone in my family. What was Hubert Humphreys position relative to the whole concept of the lottery . What did he do in that issue . I do not know if i ever heard Hubert Humphrey say anything about the lottery. I do know later on he worked and that when he worked to raise the voting age because he thought it was unfair people were being drafted at 18 and could not vote until they were 21. Later on his life he had different ideas. He probably felt the draft itself was probably not such a good idea. At the time i do not know if he said anything in doubt it. The summer of 1968 and the country is in disarray. The Democratic Party with the assassination of both quinta and kennedy. On the republican side, Richard Nixon who had also been in the senate and former Vice President wanted to be president as well. What was his campaigns reaction to all of the turmoil . How are they positioning their man . The principal response from Richard Nixon was law and order. He wanted to restore law and order in the streets and get the counterculture all of the young people and their antiwar efforts and protesting on campus he wanted to get that under control. He appealed to a group of the silent majority in american politics to felt they were being pulled put upon by all of these young people, some of which you had supported j. Mccarthy. Nixon in this period is a guy who himself has concerns about the war. He has questions about it. He positions himself as a staunch supporter of the military and the war as a counter to some of the democratic efforts and to separate himself from the johnson forces. Hubert humphrey still suffering from being loyal to his president. Johnson demanding loyalty. The two candidates were able to distinguish themselves. But let me just say, it is interesting if you look on the republican side, it is not only Richard Nixon running but you have romney. Romney was trying to position himself as antiwar. It leads us to what we will remember in George Romneys president ial run, he says he has been brainwashed by the general and political leaders about what is going on in vietnam. It alienated some of the silent majority base. They wanted to see the war continued into when the war. Romney thought that he could outflank nixon by be in the antiwar republican turnout he hurt himself with his base and he was never able to challenge Richard Nixon after that. Then you have people like harold stafford, rockefeller is in that mix. Guess who, Ronald Reagan is in that mix. Ronald reagan is the strongest conservative as opposed to Richard Nixon at the miami convention. It ultimately, it comes down to reagan and rockefeller knocking each other out and allowing Richard Nixon to have a clear path to the nomination. Lets take a call from fred. Hello. Wanted to mention one of my stories about Hubert Humphrey when he was the mayor of minneapolis. The Mayors Office overlooked the Bell Telephone Companies Across the street. He saw them taking in food. Taking in food to prepare for a long strike. They had already emptied the building and all of that stuff. The strike. Hubert humphrey was always a great friend of the working people. That is my comment. Thank you for telling the story. Lets move right on to another call from nancy in virginia. I was 14 years old in 1968. I was visiting in washington. My older cousin was a Hubert Humphrey supporter. I was always proud of that. I wanted to absence i heard on s nbc and earlier that the occupied movement is coming to d. C. In the december. I was wondering what your guests could offer in recognizing provocateurs. I know that dr. King was for nonviolent said knox of delaware, tennessee. All of the 99 ers i approve of his nonviolent. Thank you. He studied at the Highlander School as did rosa parks and others involved with the Civil Rights Movement. Initially, it is there to help people with Union Activities fighting against coal miners and teach them how to organize. Those tactics expanded to civil rights protest and the like, obviously in the case that dr. King and rosa parks become so well known for. Extending that to the lessons she would take to Something Like occupy, remember when king is assassinated, he was attending to lead a Poor Peoples Campaign. The Poor Peoples Campaign was going to be on the National Mall right in front of the u. S. Congress and the capital and the ideas dr. King expressed was he wanted to share the leaders of the free world that there was still poverty including an appellation. Also in the big cities. He was going to build chanty cuts for it there on the ball. Talk about an occupy movement. There was a fear that this was going to attract all kinds of anarchist elements. That is what were seeing in occupy. We have a clip from a little bit later during the general election. Talks about the fact there was no debates during the general election. A lot of discussion was of whether there would be. Here is Richard Nixon talking about not debating pierre i happen to be of the opinion we need a debate in this country. I think you and Hubert Humphrey i think mr. Hubert humphrey as having a great time debating himself. Are prejudiced, mr. Nixon. If you do not want to debate with the thirdparty candidate whose name shall not be mentioned, why dont you get your friends in the house of representatives to pass a special law permitting u. S. Mr. Hubert humphrey to debate. If you ever looked at the membership on that committee . It is always amusing to be when people said, why dont i get the republicans to do something of a debate. Lets remember that the senate is 21 democratic. The house is 32 democratic. Anytime that Hubert Humphrey with his influence on his side wants a debate, i would think he would be able to get the democrats to pass it. I think that my power in terms of what i can get the republican members in the house to do is greatly overestimated. That is the problem as you know it. They are not opposing the debate. They are sitting with wallace getting 21 of the poll i am sorry. I should not have mentioned his name. With wallace getting 21 of the poll, they are insisting that they cannot go back to their constituents and laws that provide him an equal chance. If you got your friends humphrey got his friends, you would have enough friends to bring this thing on. I do not think he has that many friends. Richard nixon talking about the 1968 campaign. The focus of our discussion is Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Candidates for president unsuccessful in 1968. We will take a call from jim. Great show. We can hear you. Go ahead. I have a purely speculative question i want to ask to mick dealing with the power of celebrities in the 1968 and supported mainly kennedy and mccarthy and as to the announcements of a bombing halt possibilities many of them came flocking back to humphrey. Many participated in an election telethon. Many of these stars were there like frank sinatra, paul newman, sonny and cher. There was a poll taken the next day on election day saying humphrey would win. My question is do you think that if these stars and this colophon taking questions on air, that humphrey might have pulled it off if they would have come to him earlier in fall in 1968 . It probably would have helped if he had come earlier in the year and joined the Humphrey Campaign. Nothing else was going on at that time besides the telephone. They thought they had peace in viet nam the weekend before his poll ratings just kept going up almost passed nixon in most polls because peace in vietnam would have won him the presidency. Nixon convinced the south vietnams leader to not come to the peace talks because Richard Nixon would give him a better deal with president. This is documented all over the place. He backed out of peace talks. Many people think that is what lost the election at the end appear are behind you is a Campaign Poster for George Wallace. When did he come into the race and what block did he represent . He represents southerners who were alienated not only by Hubert Humphrey but by the student protesters, he is representing workingclass people even in the northern cities who i think are frustrated with the entire climate. They think there is a lack of law and order. Think the minorities and the blacks are out of control. They think nobody is listening to that. This is archie bunker element. That is to wallace comes to represent. A lot of people would have been democrats they argue in people or seven as per ed they are not in line with what has become of the Democratic Party in terms of the james mccarthy, theyre just not there. Wallace formed to their feelings. In the interest of time we have to fast forward to the store. Republicans meet in 1968. Democrats convene at the outset of chicago. The party had series fractions about the war. Chicago was what kind of scene . Where do you begin with chicago . Humphrey tried to get the whole Convention Moved to miami because he knew it was coming. Johnson would not do it because he was so close with daily and he promised daily there would be a convention there. There were all kinds of cab strikes, communications dragged barricades up. The repair kit up. It expected 15,000 protesters. It was chaos. He was worried about threats to his family. There have been threats to kidnap his wife. He arrived at the convention without a peace plank. Johnson squashed it right at the end. He ended at coming to the convention care did he have the nomination in hand when he got there. People were nominated in different ways. Was not by primaries, it was by the delegates. He had the most delegates by way of Lyndon Johnson. He had some sway with the delegates that would nominate him for president. That is a critical moment in terms of political history. Humphrey is the last nominee who gets the nomination not to the primary process. You get people but the other big city leaders and Union Leaders to get behind humphrey almost out of anger at the Counterculture Movement and the antiwar movement. Daley is not only beating up on protesters in the street, he is beating up on media inside the convention. It is a horrible scene. In terms of the eighth American Public that is watching this, a huge turn off. Richard daley was determined to have law and order. The police were there and the National Guard are all on the streets. They are whipping heads. Is a really horrible scene. Humphry is put in a position of saying he stands with what the bosses against people who are breaking down law and order civilization. The anarchist in the streets and the drugs that are being featured in the free sex. He is trying to appeal to the silent majority in saying he stands for law and order. Democrats are bought and out of control party. It is ironic. Hubert humphrey is a guy who was not a great supporter of the war. He was an idealist. In this moment he becomes a representative of the big city mayor union boss, lbj bullying hardball politics. Mike is watching us from honolulu. i really enjoy your program. I in 69years old now and i remember in 1961 i was in high school. I worked for kennedy. He was running against Hubert Humphrey Hubert Humphrey had a Little Campaign slogan or a Campaign Jingle to the tune of give me that oldtime religion. I remember that. Of course, we go back to 1968 and i was voted the end i was married it then. I voted for Hubert Humphrey. My question for the author is this and its the animosity between the humphrey camp and the kennedy camp because of his and he Catholic Campaign i assume he means was it still there in 1968. I do not think so. I think it was gone at that point. The things that john kennedy did to Hubert Humphrey in the 1960 campaign a paled in comparison. He basically bought that election in West Virginia. We have a clip we did not show from 1960. I will take a call. We have jfk talking about Hubert Humphrey from 1960 to help show some of the relationship. Lets get to john and tennessee. Hubert humphrey and mccarthy were Close Friends for many years as fellow dflers. Mccarthy told humphrey he would come out and support him a scene. I think the assumption was Something Like september. Mccarthy never did. That was a terrible burden for humphrey. Probably mccarthy could have swung enough votes to get humphrey elected. I am just wondering whether our experts sure that you or whether they have some other few. Thank you. Interviewed Walter Mondale and he said if mccarthy would have come out on the stage at the convention and said humphrey is not our best candidates and we are against the war. If we need to vote for him instead of Richard Nixon, they would have won the election. They had a couple weeks before the convention where is that he would come out for him by mid september. He never did. There were talking constantly off the route the campaign trying to get mccarthy to come on board with humphrey. He would not do it. He left the country for a while. Nobody knows why. If you have joined us along the way, Mick Caouette has done a documentary. The will show you the cover along the way. Many clubs we are showing our from his research. This is from 1960 talking about his relationship with Hubert Humphrey and his influence on his president ial campaign. This week i had the opportunity to debate with mr. Richard nixon. I feel i should reveal that i have a great advantage in that debate. I am not referring to anyones makeup and man. [applause] the advantage i had was mr. Nixon had adjusted debated with crew shot. I debated with Hubert Humphrey and that gave me an expert debated with Hubert Humphrey gave him an edge. Greg, you are on. Welcome to the conversation. Hello . I was just this kind of relates to what you were talking about earlier. Humphrey and lbj is relationship, why would he attack his why did lbj attack Hubert Humphrey . Because lbj wanted to win the war and he did not want anyone telling him getting off about it. He wanted people to do what he told him to do. Humphrey had reservations about the war and he knew it. He had been a free spirit his whole career and suddenly he was in a situation where he had to be controlled. I think basically he was protecting his own legacy. We are going to close out our conversation with a clip of the 1968 National Guardsmen who were students themselves in the Street Holding back a student protesters. This is Hubert Humphrey in a clip from the convention as he accepts the nomination. Listen to this, where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faiths. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Those are the words of the st. Those of us with less purity listen to them well and may america tonight resolve that never again shall we i was see what we have seen. I was heartbroken. All at once there was this total disarray what do i do under these circumstances . , that was a clip directly from the documentary about Hubert Humphrey reflecting on the terrible turmoil at the 1968 convention. We have about 35 minutes left. We are going to move along to the next part of the exhibit and it takes some seats and round out our discussion of the life and career, continue taking telephone calls. As we do, we will show you some of the humphrey commercials of the 1968 president ial campaign. We will see you in a couple of minutes. Democrats have paved the way for them to get good summer jobs. You have more money today for little luxuries because democrats worked hard to push into a higher minimum wage. You do not have to worry about supporting your mother today and she not worry about being a burden on you thanks to Social Security and medicare. Quite an accomplishment, you know it. You only heard one minutesworth. What have the democrats ever done for you and yours . Think about it. For by it citizens for humphrey muskif. Have seen the terrible results of violence for this country. It would be intolerable if a handful of violent people and that is what it is, just a handful could harden us to needed change. I have seen across the perverts the spirit of the america. I saw it at the Republican Convention in 1964 when rockefeller was shot down. I cited in indianapolis when the boss was heckled and to silence. Happen to me in philadelphia. We should give notice to this violent few. There are americans that are willing to sacrifice for change but they want to do it without being threatened and what to do it peacefully. They are the nonviolent majority. Blackandwhite who are for change without violence. These are the people whose voice i want to be. Richard nixon, where you stand on federal aid education . Were you stand on expanded medicare . Were you stand on aid to Higher Education . Were you stand on the program . Where do you stand . I must say you know something, Richard Nixon has not won an election on his own in 18 years. Lets keep a those were Campaign Commercials for the 1968 campaign as we talk about hubert h. Humphrey, feature contender in our series on 40 men who lost the election but changed history. We are live from the Minnesota History center. This is a special exhibit they are doing in 1968 which i am told will travel to other cities. Chicago for sure, and i believe atlanta or charlotte as well. Chicago is appropriate after what we have been talking about. It is time to talk about the fall campaign. Who won williams on my left and Mick Caouette on my right. Both have written a number of books about the civil rights era. In the fall campaign, we have wallace, nixon, and Hubert Humphrey all fighting for the white house. We had riots in the spring, did they continue . There was some rioting that persisted. Was not of the major kind of smoke in the sky variety that we saw earlier in the year. The racial tension was palpable throughout the country. It is interesting the way that nixon presented himself was as someone who was going to restore order in the big cities. This also had a strong appeal to people who felt this Civil Rights Movement had sold chaos. It is way beyond a just a matter of the quality. It is creating instability in the country. Combined with the anti vietnam war sentiment, you get Richard Nixon as the guy who is a man of stability, law, and order. A man who said, we can win in the vietnam even though we will know he goes on to be somebody to start the pullout from vietnam. He understands he is appealing to the silent majority and that is what his campaign is it out. Hubert humphrey comes out on vietnam still tied to Lyndon Johnsons policy . Probably worse. Lyndon johnson as a fund he is holding on to that he does not release to him. The Democratic National committee has no money. He has no money. He has to borrow money to start his campaign. No tv ads. The promotion whatsoever. He is 20 debt 20 points down in the polls. How does it play out . He runs into it continues like that until the end of september. It continues and nothing changes. Then he gives a speech in late september on september 30 and solid city where he he capitalletter to lose at that point. He makes a break with johnson in a real subtle way or a call for a bombing halt and bring the troops on. Things change instantly. He gets Something Like 1 billion in cash come into him. People side as a chance. The next play see what, it is humphrey we are for you per here is a scene from those months. A popular refrain he met from protesters dominique the hump. Hi proceeded to go out the main door walking with students and protesters on each side of the sidewalk pushing and shoving and cursing. Doing everything they could to arrest me. There were throwing everything they could it to harass me. One of the things that were doing is throwing cans of urine at me and my party. It was a terrible ordeal grid i watched every step. I did no running. I got to my car. I waved back at the students and we started to drive away. I believe that the republican candidate owes it to the people to come out of the shadows. [chanting] [applause] what you heard and saw was Hubert Humphrey reminiscing about a visit to Stanford University and scenes from events in seattle and boston. This is surely from dallas. First heard of you for humphrey when i was in my 20s. He was on a program called a town meeting of the year. He made a speech in favor of civil rights and similar to what he did in 1948. Since then he was always my political hero. I would like to ask a question. Was he not active in the Anti Nuclear Weapons toward the end of his career . I would like to hear more about that. Earlier in his career, he was actually the force behind the disc are meant agency. He could not get in the middle of the 1950s he could not get the senate and congress because of the cold war to talk about disarmament and talk about negotiating with russians. He started a subcommittee and set this up by himself. The treaty was signed by president kennedy returned to humphrey and said, this is worse and i hope it works. We are talking about the general election in 1968, George Wallace is there. George wallaces Vice President ial candidates is lamay. He suggests that the United States might use Nuclear Weapons in vietnam. People are alarmed by this. People have not forgotten what happened in terms of the abomb. It just is an example of how extreme and harsh in this year was and how the 1968 campaign is about war and its bets and social change taking place in the country. We talk about special room the Civilrights Movement and the idea of assassinations. There is also a feminism movement, campuses are on fire. The draft is going on. There is great discontent. This period that has shape so much part the politics, that we see subsequently we will see change in the democratic policy. The Big Union Bosses and the mayors are dictating everything. You will see the need for the Democratic Party to come back together and it does not do so for a very long time. It receives a trajectory and which the south becomes republican. He mentioned Vice President ial nominees. Hubert humphrey shows muskie. How did that allies come together . He had known him for quite a while. Everyone wanted a southern candidate to pull the south. He said, i want somebody who will be a good president if something happens to me. Assassinations were very fresh. He wanted someone he liked and was stable. Did not help him much politically. He was not thinking along those lines. I should say as well that he also spoke to Nelson Rockefeller about being his Vice President. Crossing party lines which would have been pretty remarkable. Nelson rockefeller gave it 24 hours and said he could not do it. They were friends. Rockefeller did not have any special liking for nixon. Next telephone hello. I am enjoying the series. I was intrigued about the comment earlier that humphrey was the originator of the idea for the peace corps and a lot of other ideas for kennedy. I wonder if kennedy ever gave him credit for those ideas and what some of the other ideas of his work. Think pretty much publicly, he gave him credit for food for peace program. I have a speech where he did that. I do not know what he said about the peace corps. I think he might have said that humphrey helped them these are humphrey ideas some of these ideas. When he lost the primary to jfk, he said i want to get my ideas into this administration. Hubert humphrey was 57 years old. He was born in 1911. In 1968 he was 57 years old. How did he present himself as a candidate . We have all of this change going on in society. Was he conventional . Extremely conventional we talk a little bit about the difficulty he had portraying himself as an opponent of the war. He was born in 1911. He is not a counterculture and die. There is no way he will be standing around and made dashiki or with long hair and be credible. He is trying to say that he understands the need for stability and law and order even though he is not a lawandorder candidate. He is in a suit and tie and he has difficulty even with the kind of poetics that Robert Kennedy had employed when the kennedy when king was assassinated. That is not Hubert Humphrey. Hubert humphrey is a great speaker. But how you speak you have people screaming at you and they see you as an operator for Lyndon Johnson who is on popular. He is an apolitical it is impossible for him to present himself as anything. It was done for him. He did not have much of a chance to beat himself. Interestingly enough, he was the revolutionary in 1948. He was in the other role in 1948 and he became part of the establishment he attacked in 1948. A lot of change from 1948 to 1968. Next telephone call. Hello. I worked for Hubert Humphrey my husband and the 1960s was his press secretary. We were involved in his 1960 campaign. We were with him for all of 1968. We were at the Democratic Convention and the horror and tragedy of what was unfolding. I have the experience of escorting Muriel Humphrey and their children through the basement of the Convention Center with teargas seeping all around us as we were going into the Convention Hall on the evening that he would get the democratic nomination. On that night from the hotel room at the conrad hilton, we were with him as he stood there looking out the window at the violence and the terrible tragedy unfolding in grant park. The atmosphere in the room was almost of a funeral. Humphrey was the saddest man you could ever imagine on the night that he had achieved his greatest political victory to be the democratic president ial candidate. This was a band whose ideals and integrity carried through his whole life and in his personal life when you knew him at home or with him privately he was the same person with the same passion. The same conviction for civil rights, for working americans, for the concerns of world peace that you heard in his public statements. I do not think we have had somebody with his gift in the years cents. Pat, our time is short. Are we doing your boss justice tonight . Is there one aspect of his political career you think it is important for our viewers to hear about . I think you are doing a beautiful job on him. You have touched on so many things. I was happy that he was being given some credit for the tremendous array of ideas and programs that he actually generated and then championed during the Kennedy Administration. Thank you for your call. What is your family name . My husband wrote a biography of hubert in 1963 called humphrey a candid biography. Thank you so much for being a part of our program. We have just 15 minutes late. We still have a long life of humphrey to cover. Lets talk about election night. Where did he watch the returns . I think he was in the lemon 10 hotel in minneapolis. What was the election stay in the results like . They thought they had a chance at the end. An illinois, ohio, and a couple of other states came in at the very end. They were very close. He basically went to bed thinking he probably was not going to win and he woke up found out he did not. It was very close. Ohio, illinois, and in california which all voted Richard Nixon. They all go to nixon by not a lot. I think it is just a of a percentage point difference in terms of absolute percentage of votes in the national election. A close popular vote. The Electoral College vote 301 for Richard Nixon, 191 for humphrey. Who did George Wallace take votes away from . That is a good argument. I think if you think about the fact that the south was still mostly democratic and they are reacting to civilrights efforts, i think those would have been available for a democrat who was operating at the behest of the democratic machine. The union bosses, the mayors, the wealthy in the country. That was gone. The had fallen apart. They were trying to pull together for a country as part of lbjs machine. He did not make the effort to try to give those people a reason to vote for humphrey. If i look back on it, my take is those were democratic votes. Weve not talked about African Americans who were coming into the process. What happened if king lives . Get more involved at this point . Did king possibly launch a thirdparty effort . I do not know. That would have changed the Dynamic Market lead. What was the africanamerican turn out like in 1968 . It was pretty good. This was right in the aftermath. You get the Voting Rights act in 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Much more in the north and west. In the south there is still intimidation going on. Blacks are turning out in numbers. I would say the block of states or those Southern States alabama, mississippi, georgia. If you look at it a different way, if they had a choice of only nixon or humphrey, they might have gone to nixon. It is hard to know where those votes really came from. Wallace also took louisiana, arkansas, mississippi, and georgia. Lets take a call. Hi, jim. I would like to mention that in 1968 when johnson made his speech and he stepped down that two days before on friday, march 29 which i have to correct your guest on the date. On march 29, mr. Humphrey agreed to speak at my school. The speech was scheduled for three weeks later. On sunday, march 31, is when johnson made his speech. I always wondered since that event whether he had a clue on that friday because he scheduled some other speeches later in april on the same date that johnson was going to step down or he was simply anticipating that the possibility may exist. Because of that speech, i was able to sit in the front row of his announcement speech on april 27 at the hotel along with the other students that helped invite him. I was also at the capitol the day the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. I feel like i will always have somewhat of a privilege from a frontrow seat in parts of his life. Finally, i would like to make a comment that most of the progress of legislation and programs that evolved during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were a result of humphreys forward agenda. It seemed at that point when he ran for president in 1968, those who he supported with legislation turned on him and he suddenly became outdated or a little bit too conservative in their eyes. Then what the country was looking for at that time. The progressives for civil rights did not view him as a strong advocate, Antiwar Party did not consider him a strong advocate. Ok, jim. We are going to jump and because i think our guests made that exact point earlier. He was a great influence but when it came time for his campaign he had his signature on his hands on over 1000 bills for 10 years. The problem 1968 was there was only one issue and all of the rest were forgotten. All of that was lost unfortunately. Richard nixon won. The war raged on for a couple other years. What about humphreys life after this . Nixon did not say he was going to end the going to win the war. He had a secret plan. That was the effort that appeal to the silent majority. The problem for humphrey again, we talk about how he is trapped in being lbj vicepresident and lbj is feeling he needs to win this war. He is also trapped with the larger argument with nixon were he wants to say, i am for stability. I am not for things going out of control. This is at the same time nixon really says he is a lawandorder candidate. Humphrey can never be that because nixon has the space occupied. He is alienating people who would be his supporters. I will take a call. This is gavin from new york. Hello. You touched upon this earlier. If George Wallace had been out of the 1968 president ial race, would you have seen the outcome being even closer than it was . In all of your opinions, who would it have been closer for . Would it have been humphrey on the top or would it have put nixon ahead . Thank you. Do you have any more to say on that . I dont know why it bought from iowa perspective, i think wallace hurt humphrey. I think a lot of workingclass union folks who had some allegiances to the Democratic Party going back to fdr, i think they peeled off. I do not know if they would have done to the Republican Party and to nixon. We see that in the north. I think the south if wallace was not in the race in the south, nixon might have gotten those votes. Did Hubert Humphrey give up his aspirations after his defeat in 1968 . He came close to trying in 1972 but then he backed out to mcgovern. He became ill at that point. But he did go back to the senate . In 1970 he took mccarthys a seat in the senate. His popularity had dropped and he left politics and humphry took it. It was one of the largest landslides of his senatorial career. He served there until 1978 until he died. How was his second stint . He was at the bottom. He was a freshman. He had no committees. Walter mondale was the senior senator and he was treated like somebody who was just starting. He was given no respect. He found his own way and with a short time he was working on bills again and he passed a couple of different bills during that time. He got back into it. Lets take a call from michigan. Hello, amy. My question is senator humphrey served during the mccarthy era, what was his relationship with mccourtney . That is a with a complicated question. He tried to pass something called the communist control act were to try to make it illegal to be communist. That was done in some part because he was trying to make joe mccarthy to bring the truth out and force his hand so he would have to prove somebody was a communist and would be illegal. He could not be quite so passe about it or blase about how he attacked people. He would have to incriminate them. That was a bad plan. It did not work. He did not like joe mccarthy or any of his tactics. Even though he was anti communist, he did not like anything about what he did. We just have two minutes left. Hubert humphrey was very ill towards the end of his life in the United States center, with bladder cancer. He ended up dying in january of 1978. Add to the time before he died, he was brought back to the capital for what seemed to be an unusual tribute. It never happened before. Tell us about that. It was the first time the congress and the senate met for one senator. Never happened before. They all met it was just to honor his work. He died at two months later. His spirit was still there and republicans and democrats both spoke. Besides. He invited Richard Nixon to come back for his funeral in the capitol building. He called nixon at christmas and said you need to come back. I do not think any president should be not allowed in the city. I want you to come back. He said i do not think i can do it. He said you need to come to my funeral. It is a dying wis. As we close i will ask both of you to bring us full arc. The premise of the series is people who are unsuccessful and the president ial bid but the change to American History. How did he change in American History . American samoa speech at the 1948 convention changed history. If you think about social movement in the 20th century, it is the Civilrights Movement. Hubert humphrey was at the top of that order in terms of people who held Elective Office to put themselves out as advocates on the right side of history. He was well ahead of the curve in terms of pushing the Democratic Party, pushing politics in the direction of the passage of the civilrights act and so much we have seen in this country when it comes to Race Relations Race Relations. When you think about barack obama as president today, that does not happen without some of the changes that come from the Democratic Party. Here is Hubert Humphrey. He is the last selection by the party bosses and machines. In the aftermath of Hubert Humphreys defeat in 1968, suddenly you have an allocation of delegates based on primaries and process. That part of the Hubert Humphreys legacy. Then there are the social programs. We think about the end of the new deal. You have a whole new range of efforts on the social justice scene. Social programs the work of Hubert Humphreys mind. I apologize to you but we have run out of time. I will do is encourage people to find your documentary. He make the case about how Peter Humphrey changed history. Here is what it looks like. Humbert humphrey the art of possible. He was buried back here in minneapolis. His tombstone has this inscription on it i have enjoyed my life. Disappointments outweighed by pledges. I have love my country in a way that some people consider sentimental and out of style. I still do and i remain an optimist with a joint, without apology about this country and about the american experiment in democracy. As we close on this contenders series, we will show you a bit of video from a that very unusual session in the house of representatives chamber. Some real familiar faces. When Hubert Humphrey just months before his death was invited back for a tribute and a celebration of his long political and legislative career. Thank you for being with we. ,. [applause] mr. Speaker, knowing full well the dangers of what i am about to do, i yield as much time as he wishes to consent to the senior senator from minnesota. [applause] know where i am standing. I am standing with the president of the United States gives his state of the union address. My goodness. How i have longed for that opportunity [applause] [caption s Copyright National contenders features to keep profiles of people who have run and lost. I looked continues on friday in montgomery, alabama to take your calls about the campaign of George Wallace. The series airs friday night at 8 00 p. M. Through december 9 on cspan. You can see tonights program again at 11 00 p. M. Eastern sri and theres more Information Online we confine this schedule, biographies, historians appraisals and speeches, all at cspan. Org. To learn more about all our president s and the books feature just orients. Order your coffee today, wherever books are sold. You are watching cspan 3 your unfiltered view a government. Created by americas Cable Television company. Brought to you by a television provider. Hubert humphrey except his partys president ial nomination at the 1968 Democratic Convention in chicago. Vice president humphrey lost to president nixon. Mister chairman, my fellow american, my