Part of Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson and 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries | |
Date | March 31, 1968 |
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Location | White House |
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On March 31, 1968, then-incumbent U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson made a surprise announcement during a televised address to the nation that began around 9 p.m., [1] declaring that he would not seek re–election for another term and was withdrawing from the 1968 United States presidential election. Johnson stated, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." [2] [3]
At first Johnson's only significant challenger in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries was Eugene McCarthy, an anti-war senator from Minnesota. Johnson's announcement to drop out of the race came after McCarthy nearly won the New Hampshire primary and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, another critic of the war and the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, entered the race. Johnson's decision opened the door for Vice President Hubert Humphrey to become the Democratic Party's nominee. The 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, was marked by significant protests and clashes between demonstrators and police, [4] reflecting the deep divisions within the nation.
The 1968 election saw Republican Party candidate Richard Nixon emerge victorious, defeating Humphrey and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon's campaign capitalized on themes of law and order and a promise to end the Vietnam War conflict and United States involvement, which resonated with many voters. [5]
1968 U.S. presidential election | |
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Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, assumed office following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. [6] Johnson was subsequently elected in a landslide victory in the 1964 United States presidential election. [7] His presidency was marked by significant legislative achievements, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ratification of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Amendment, and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid. [8]
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Senator from Texas 37th Vice President of the United States 36th President of the United States
First term
Second term
Presidential and Vice presidential campaigns
Post-presidency
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Historically, most sitting US presidents who completed one full term chose to run for a second. The following presidents were eligible for reelection after completing one full term in office, but chose not to run: [9]
The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified by the states in 1951) imposes a limit of two terms on presidents. [b] Prior to the term limit, an informal two-term tradition was generally followed by many presidents after a precedent set by President George Washington, who chose not to run for reelection after serving two terms.
President Joe Biden would withdraw from the 2024 race, [10] marking the third time an incumbent US president withdrew from the presidential election.
Johnson's tenure, however, wound up being overshadowed by various conflicts of interests, such as resistance to escalation of U.S. involvement in the conflict. Public opinion turned increasingly against the war with Anti-War movements spreading across the country. [11] The Tet Offensive in early 1968 further eroded support for the war and Johnson's handling of it. [12]
As the 1968 election approached, Johnson began to lose control of the Democratic Party, which was splitting into four factions. The first group consisted of Johnson and Humphrey, labor unions, and local party bosses (led by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley). The second group consisted of antiwar students and intellectuals who coalesced behind Senator Eugene McCarthy in an effort to "dump Johnson." The third group included Catholics, Hispanics and African Americans, who rallied behind Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The fourth group consisted of traditionally segregationist white Southerners like Governor George Wallace. [13]
Johnson's approval ratings had declined significantly by 1968, with his approval rating at the time of his withdrawal being 36 percent. [14] Despite Johnson's growing unpopularity, conventional wisdom held that it would be impossible to deny re-nomination to a sitting president. Johnson won a narrow victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary on March 12, against McCarthy 49–42%, [15] but this close second-place result dramatically boosted McCarthy's standing in the race. Kennedy announced his candidacy on March 16. [16]
Historians have debated why Johnson quit a few days after his weak showing in New Hampshire. Jeff Shesol says Johnson wanted out of the White House, but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative, he decided to leave. [17] Lewis L. Gould says that Johnson had neglected the Democratic party, was hurting it by his Vietnam policies, and under-estimated McCarthy's strength until the last minute, when it was too late for Johnson to recover. [18] Randall Bennett Woods said Johnson realized he needed to leave, for the nation to heal. [19] Robert Dallek writes that Johnson had no further domestic goals, and realized that his personality had eroded his popularity. His health was poor, and he was pre-occupied with the Kennedy campaign; his wife was pressing for his retirement, and his base of support continued to shrink. Leaving the race would allow him to pose as a peace-maker. [20] Anthony J. Bennett, however, said Johnson "had been forced out of a re-election race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia". [21]
In 2009, an AP reporter said that Johnson decided to end his re-election bid after CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, who was influential, turned against the president's policy in Vietnam. During a CBS News editorial which aired on February 27, Cronkite recommended the US pursue peace negotiations. [22] [23] After watching Cronkite's editorial, Johnson allegedly exclaimed: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." [22] This quote by Johnson has been disputed for accuracy. [24] Johnson was attending Texas Governor John Connally's birthday gala in Austin, Texas, when Cronkite's editorial aired and did not see the original broadcast. [24] But, Cronkite and CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer defended reports that the remark had been made. They said that members of Johnson's inner circle, who had watched the editorial with the president, including presidential aide George Christian and journalist Bill Moyers, later confirmed the accuracy of the quote to them. [25] [26] Schieffer, who was a reporter for the Star-Telegram's WBAP television station in Fort Worth, Texas, when Cronkite's editorial aired, acknowledged reports that the president saw the editorial's original broadcast were inaccurate, [26] but claimed the president was able to watch a taping of it the morning after it aired and then made the remark. [26] However, Johnson's January 27, 1968, phone conversion with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley revealed that the two were trying to feed Robert Kennedy's ego so he would stay in the race, convincing him that the Democratic Party was undergoing a "revolution". [27] They suggested he might earn a spot as vice president. [27]
After the televised announcement of his withdrawal, the Johnson's took calls from fellow Democrats in the White House bedroom, [28] who expressed a mix of respect, disappointment, and understanding towards his announcement, some left dumbfounded. Former Presidents and key figures within the party praised Johnson's presidency and his decision to step aside. Former President Harry S. Truman commended Johnson's service, highlighting his belief that Johnson acted in the best interests of the country and the Democratic Party. Democratic leaders struggled to figure out how to respond to Johnson's sudden withdrawal. [29] This led to bitter battle for succession among Democrats. [30] Some Democrats were worried that a new nominee, selected by the convention, would lack legitimacy since they would have secured the nomination without direct input from Democratic voters around the country. [31]
After Johnson's withdrawal, the Democratic Party quickly split into four factions.
Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race, he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal vice-president. [32] Milne (2011) argues that, in terms of foreign-policy in the Vietnam War, Johnson at the end wanted Nixon to be president rather than Humphrey, since Johnson agreed with Nixon, rather than Humphrey, on the need to defend South Vietnam from communism. [33] However, Johnson's telephone calls show that Johnson believed the Nixon camp was deliberately sabotaging the Paris peace talks. He told Humphrey, who refused to use allegations based on illegal wiretaps of a presidential candidate. Nixon himself called Johnson and denied the allegations. Dallek concludes that Nixon's advice to Saigon made no difference, and that Humphrey was so closely identified with Johnson's unpopular policies that no last-minute deal with Hanoi could have affected the election. [34]
Many anti-war activists rejoiced at the news. Some of them concluded that their movement had forced Johnson to alter his war policy and to decide that he could not win another term. [35] [36] Antiwar protesters chanted outside the White House, "Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" [37] After Johnson's withdrawal, many Republicans underwent an anguished reappraisal concerning Richard Nixon's chances for winning the election in November. [38]
South Vietnamese officials viewed Johnson's withdrawal with concern, mainly with the threat of an anti-war candidate unwilling to support them and threatening to withdraw troops. [39] During this time, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was eagerly anticipating the results of the American election, believing he could secure a more favorable agreement with Republican candidate Nixon than with the incumbent administration. Messages implying this were secretly communicated to Thieu's representatives by Nixon's associates. President Johnson, enraged and appalled, discovered evidence of this through phone taps, intercepts, and surveillance, considering it a potentially treasonous act. [15]
Johnson's decision was seen as a victory by anti-war activists around the world. His withdrawal was viewed by some as a sign that public and international pressure could influence the policies of powerful nations. [40]
Within the week of Johnson's announcement, American civil rights activist and oppositionist to the Vietnam War; Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel. [41] Many US cities were convulsed in rioting following King's death. [42] Johnson was in the Oval Office that evening, planning a meeting in Hawaii with Vietnam War military commanders. After press secretary George Christian informed him at 8:20 p.m. of the assassination, he canceled the trip to focus on the nation. He assigned Attorney General Ramsey Clark to investigate the assassination in Memphis. He made a personal call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and declared April 7 a national day of mourning on which the U.S. flag would be flown at half-staff. [43] After Johnson's withdrawal, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, McCarthy was Humphrey's only major opponent until George McGovern entered the race. Humphrey would end up losing the election to the antiwar Republican Richard Nixon, who portrayed himself as a figure of stability during this period of national unrest and upheaval. [44]
The defeat left Humphrey in a state of depression. To stay active, his friends helped him get hired [45] as a professor at Macalester College and the University of Minnesota. The perceived failures of the Vietnam War nurtured disillusionment with government, and the New Deal coalition fell apart in large part due to tensions over the Vietnam War and the 1968 election. [46] [47] Republicans won five of six presidential elections after Johnson left office. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 vowing to undo the Great Society, though he and other Republicans were unable to repeal many of Johnson's programs. [46] [48] [49] [50]
The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in a landslide victory. Johnson was the fourth and most recent vice president to succeed the presidency following the death of his predecessor and win a full term in his own right. Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote for the Democratic Party in history at 61.1%. As of 2024, this remains the highest popular vote percentage of any candidate since the advent of widespread popular elections in 1824.
The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making the purpose of the convention to select a new presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine were nominated for president and vice president, respectively.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was an American politician and statesman who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 1949 to 1964 and again from 1971 to 1978. As a senator he was a major leader of modern liberalism in the United States. As President Lyndon B. Johnson's vice president, he supported the controversial Vietnam War. An intensely divided Democratic Party nominated him in the 1968 presidential election, which he lost to Republican nominee Richard Nixon.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson previously served as a U.S. representative and U.S. senator.
The Paris Peace Accords, officially the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam, was a peace agreement signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The agreement was signed by the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ; the Republic of Vietnam ; the United States; and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG), which represented South Vietnamese communists. US ground forces had begun to withdraw from Vietnam in 1969, and had suffered from deteriorating morale during the withdrawal. By the beginning of 1972 those that remained had very little involvement in combat. The last American infantry battalions withdrew in August 1972. Most air and naval forces, and most advisers, also were gone from South Vietnam by that time, though air and naval forces not based in South Vietnam were still playing a large role in the war. The Paris Agreement removed the remaining US forces. Direct U.S. military intervention was ended, and fighting between the three remaining powers temporarily stopped for less than a day. The agreement was not ratified by the U.S. Senate.
The Dump Johnson movement was a movement within the United States Democratic Party to oppose the candidacy of President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson to become the party's nominee in the 1968 presidential election. Their opposition to Johnson stemmed mainly from their opposition to the Vietnam War, while the movement can be seen as part of an internal battle within the Democratic Party between antiwar liberals, unreconstructed Cold Warriors and moderates.
The Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign began on March 16, 1968, when Kennedy, a United States Senator from New York, mounted an unlikely challenge to incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson. Following an upset in the New Hampshire primary, Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not seek re-election to a second full term. Kennedy still faced two rival candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination: the leading challenger United States Senator Eugene McCarthy and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey had entered the race after Johnson's withdrawal, but Kennedy and McCarthy remained the main challengers to the policies of the Johnson administration. During the spring of 1968, Kennedy led a leading campaign in presidential primary elections throughout the United States. Kennedy's campaign was especially active in Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, California, and Washington, D.C. After declaring victory in the California primary on June 4, 1968, Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died on June 6, 1968 at Good Samaritan Hospital. Had Kennedy been elected president, he would have been the first brother of a former U.S. president to win the presidency himself.
Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as the 36th president of the United States began on November 22, 1963, upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and ended on January 20, 1969. He had been vice president for 1,036 days when he succeeded to the presidency. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, ran for and won a full four-year term in the 1964 presidential election, in which he defeated Republican nominee Barry Goldwater in a landslide. Johnson withdrew his bid for a second full term in the 1968 presidential election because of his low popularity. Johnson was succeeded by Republican Richard Nixon. His presidency marked the high tide of modern liberalism in the 20th century United States.
The 1968 presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy was launched by United States Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota in the latter part of 1967 to vie for the 1968 Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States. The focus of his campaign was his support for a swift end to the Vietnam War through a withdrawal of American forces. The campaign appealed to youths who were tired of the establishment and dissatisfied with government.
From March 8 to June 7, 1960, voters and members of the Democratic Party elected delegates to the 1960 Democratic National Convention through a series of caucuses, conventions, and primaries, partly for the purpose of nominating a candidate for President of the United States in the 1960 election. The presidential primaries were inconclusive, as several of the leading contenders did not enter them, but U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts emerged as the strongest candidate and won the nomination over Lyndon B. Johnson at the convention, held from July 11 to 15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
From March to July 1968, Democratic Party voters elected delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the purpose of selecting the party's nominee for president in the upcoming election. Delegates, and the nominee they were to support at the convention, were selected through a series of primary elections, caucuses, and state party conventions. This was the last time that state primary elections formed a minority of the selection process, as the McGovern–Fraser Commission, which issued its recommendations in time for the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries, would dramatically reform the nomination process to expand the use of popular primaries rather than caucuses.
The 1968 presidential campaign of Hubert Humphrey began when Hubert Humphrey, the 38th and incumbent Vice President of the United States, decided to seek the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States on April 27, 1968, after incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew his bid for reelection to a second full term on March 31, 1968, and endorsed him as his successor. Johnson withdrew after an unexpectedly strong challenge from anti-Vietnam War presidential candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, in the early Democratic primaries. McCarthy, along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, became Humphrey's main opponents for the nomination. Their "new politics" contrasted with Humphrey's "old politics" as the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War intensified.
The 1968 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, the 36th vice president of the United States, began when Nixon, the Republican nominee of 1960, formally announced his candidacy, following a year's preparation and five years' political reorganization after defeats in the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial election.
The 1968 United States elections were held on November 5, and elected members of the 91st United States Congress. The election took place during the Vietnam War, in the same year as the Tet Offensive, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the protests of 1968. The Republican Party won control of the presidency, and picked up seats in the House and Senate, although the Democratic Party retained control of Congress.
The selection of the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate for the 1964 United States presidential election occurred at the party's national convention and resulted in the selection of Hubert Humphrey to join the ticket with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was running for election to a full term. Humphrey would go on to become the Democratic presidential nominee in 1968 but ultimately lost to former Vice President Richard Nixon in the general election.
The 1968 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. District of Columbia voters chose three representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1960 United States presidential election in West Virginia took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. West Virginia voters chose eight representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The United States foreign policy during the 1963-1969 presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson was dominated by the Vietnam War and the Cold War, a period of sustained geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. Johnson took over after the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, while promising to keep Kennedy's policies and his team.
The 1964 presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson was a successful campaign for Johnson and his running mate Hubert Humphrey for their election as president and vice president of the United States. They defeated Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and vice presidential nominee William Miller. Johnson, a Democrat and former vice president under John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president upon Kennedy's assassination. In 1964, Johnson did not look optimistically upon the prospect of being elected president in his own right. Despite Johnson's uncertainty about running, he was seen as the most likely candidate to get the nomination. He entered the primaries starting with New Hampshire and won the state by almost 29,000 votes. Johnson's main opponent in the primaries was Alabama Governor George Wallace, who had announced his intention to seek the presidency even before Kennedy's assassination.
WASHINGTON, March 30 — President Johnson will address the nation at 9 P.M. tomorrow to deal 'rather fully' with the situation in Vietnam, including further troop build-ups, the possibility of reserve call-ups and the additional costs thereof.