Presidential Transitions: Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon (1968)
Lyndon Johnson, who had won the 1964 election by a huge margin (486 to 52 in the electoral college) would not have that same good fortune in 1968. The escalation of the War in Vietnam translated into a decline in popularity for Johnson. By late 1967, over 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. Draftees made up 42 percent of the military over there, but suffered 58% of the casualties. Nearly 1000 Americans a month were killed and many more were injured. Johnson's electability was severely damaged when the national news media began to focus on the high costs of the war both in human lives as well as economically, and the negligible results of escalation of the war. Finally, in March of 1968, Johnson knew he was a political dead man walking, and announced that he would not run for re-election to the presidency.
After Robert Kennedy's assassination in June of 1968, and Eugene McCarthy's unsuccessful attempt to parlay anti-war sentiment into a victory at the Democratic Convention, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was selected as the Democratic Candidate. Although he had a liberal pedigree within the party, his loyalty to Johnson had erased most of his capital with the party's anti-war segment and Johnson hamstrung Humphrey from distancing himself from Johnson's policies. Despite this handicap, Humphrey made up a lot of lost ground in the polls and by late October, he made up significant ground and was running neck and neck with Republican candidate and former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Humphrey was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of George Wallace's support, as blue collar voters came home to the Democrats after flirting with Wallace. When President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal the weekend before the election, this gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost. Johnson announced to the nation on October 31, 1968, that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam", effective November 1, should the Hanoi Government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks. By election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.
The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "October surprise" and had a plan to derail any last-minute chances of a peace accord. Nixon asked Anna Chennault, a prominent Republican from the Asian-American community, to be his channel to the South Vietnamese leadership, promising them a better deal under a Nixon administration. Chennault would a co-operative audience in the South Vietnamese ambassador. Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort. He became enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands". Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to reveal that the NSA was surveilling the Republican campaign. Johnson did make information available to Humphrey, but Humphrey thought he was going to win the election, so he did not reveal the information to the public. Humphrey later regretted this as a mistake.
The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. Nixon's meddling probably made no difference, as the South Vietnamese were unwilling to attend the talks and there was little chance of an agreement being reached before the election. But after Nixon won the election on November 5, 1968, it made for an awkward transition of power.
The election was extremely close, and it was not until the morning after the vote that the television news networks were able to declare Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon's victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, compared to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's five states and 46 electoral votes.
Humphrey left Nixon a gracious message congratulating him. Nixon later said, "I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one."
Audiotapes of Johnson's telephone conversations show that he was furious with Nixon over Nixon's interference with Johnson’s attempts to get negotiations moving to bring the Vietnam war to a swift conclusion in 1968. In a heated diatribe with Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen, Johnson says, of Nixon's actions, “This is treason.” In another conversation, LBJ directly warns Nixon that his “people” appeared to be bent on sabotaging LBJ’s peace overtures to Hanoi. In a conversation on November 3, 1968, two days prior to the presidential election, Johnson confronted Nixon with the accusation but Nixon told LBJ point-blank, “I’m not trying to interfere.”
Three days after Nixon's victory, Johnson had Nixon and his wife over to the White House. By most accounts the meeting was cordial and Johnson promised Nixon that there would be a smooth transition of power. Richard Nixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by a man who had once been a political rival, Chief Justice (and former California Governor) Earl Warren. In his inaugural address, Nixon famously said "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker", a phrase that would later be placed on his gravestone. He added:
"In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices."
After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas. There, assisted by former aide and speechwriter Harry J. Middleton, he worked on his memoirs entitled The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969, published in 1971. Johnson later said that he gave Nixon "high grades" in foreign policy, but expressed concern that Nixon was being pressured into removing U.S. forces too quickly, before the South Vietnamese were really able to defend themselves. He said, "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.
After Robert Kennedy's assassination in June of 1968, and Eugene McCarthy's unsuccessful attempt to parlay anti-war sentiment into a victory at the Democratic Convention, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was selected as the Democratic Candidate. Although he had a liberal pedigree within the party, his loyalty to Johnson had erased most of his capital with the party's anti-war segment and Johnson hamstrung Humphrey from distancing himself from Johnson's policies. Despite this handicap, Humphrey made up a lot of lost ground in the polls and by late October, he made up significant ground and was running neck and neck with Republican candidate and former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Humphrey was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of George Wallace's support, as blue collar voters came home to the Democrats after flirting with Wallace. When President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal the weekend before the election, this gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost. Johnson announced to the nation on October 31, 1968, that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam", effective November 1, should the Hanoi Government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks. By election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.
The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "October surprise" and had a plan to derail any last-minute chances of a peace accord. Nixon asked Anna Chennault, a prominent Republican from the Asian-American community, to be his channel to the South Vietnamese leadership, promising them a better deal under a Nixon administration. Chennault would a co-operative audience in the South Vietnamese ambassador. Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort. He became enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands". Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to reveal that the NSA was surveilling the Republican campaign. Johnson did make information available to Humphrey, but Humphrey thought he was going to win the election, so he did not reveal the information to the public. Humphrey later regretted this as a mistake.
The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. Nixon's meddling probably made no difference, as the South Vietnamese were unwilling to attend the talks and there was little chance of an agreement being reached before the election. But after Nixon won the election on November 5, 1968, it made for an awkward transition of power.
The election was extremely close, and it was not until the morning after the vote that the television news networks were able to declare Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon's victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, compared to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's five states and 46 electoral votes.
Humphrey left Nixon a gracious message congratulating him. Nixon later said, "I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one."
Audiotapes of Johnson's telephone conversations show that he was furious with Nixon over Nixon's interference with Johnson’s attempts to get negotiations moving to bring the Vietnam war to a swift conclusion in 1968. In a heated diatribe with Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen, Johnson says, of Nixon's actions, “This is treason.” In another conversation, LBJ directly warns Nixon that his “people” appeared to be bent on sabotaging LBJ’s peace overtures to Hanoi. In a conversation on November 3, 1968, two days prior to the presidential election, Johnson confronted Nixon with the accusation but Nixon told LBJ point-blank, “I’m not trying to interfere.”
Three days after Nixon's victory, Johnson had Nixon and his wife over to the White House. By most accounts the meeting was cordial and Johnson promised Nixon that there would be a smooth transition of power. Richard Nixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by a man who had once been a political rival, Chief Justice (and former California Governor) Earl Warren. In his inaugural address, Nixon famously said "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker", a phrase that would later be placed on his gravestone. He added:
"In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices."
After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas. There, assisted by former aide and speechwriter Harry J. Middleton, he worked on his memoirs entitled The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969, published in 1971. Johnson later said that he gave Nixon "high grades" in foreign policy, but expressed concern that Nixon was being pressured into removing U.S. forces too quickly, before the South Vietnamese were really able to defend themselves. He said, "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.