We can learn from history. On 7/2/1964, LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law. Senate filibuster was overcome w/teamwork of Sen Hubert Humphrey (D-MN), Pres Johnson, and Sen Everett Dirksen (R-IL). [FN1] On 11/3/64, LBJ won election in a landslide. [FN2] 1/19

LBJ lost five States of the Deep South that had been part of the “Solid South” that had voted for the Democratic Party since Reconstruction. [FN3] By 1968, because LBJ had expanded the U.S. military in Vietnam, his popularity tanked. 2/19

On 3/12, Sen Eugene McCarthy’s (D-MN) 2nd-place finish to LBJ in New Hampshire’s primary was closer than expected. [FN4] On 3/16, Sen Robt Kennedy (D-NY) entered the race. On 3/31 LBJ, in a prime-time speech, said he wouldn’t seek re-election. [FN5] 3/19

I was in junior high. [FN6] My brother, 10 years older than me, was enrolled at IU-Kokomo & was student coordinator for the McCarthy campaign in Howard County. RFK’s campaign also had a student coordinator for Howard County. My brother had remodeled 4/19

servants’ quarters on my parents’ farm Sunnybrook. Half-a-dozen people would gather, talk, drink & listen to albums: Phil Ochs (protest singer), George Carlin & others. [FN7] McCarthy’s people were angry because RFK, months earlier, said he wouldn’t run, but appeared to 5/19

reverse himself after McCarthy & his people exposed LBJ’s weakness. Indiana’s primary was made more confusing by Gov Roger Branigin’s entry as favorite son stand-in for VP Humphrey. Times were extremely weird. TV announcers said “we interrupt this program for 6/19

a bulletin,” [FN8] occurred a lot. That’s how we first knew of Dr King’s assassination, on 4/4. I’ve noted that Dr King’s “unfavorability” ratings in polls was 75%. Racism ran deep. RFK was campaigning in Indy. The speech he gave, standing on the flatbed of a truck outside 7/19

the Broadway Christian Center at 17th & Broadway, is one of the simplest & most eloquent I’ve heard. The night of the primary was a bonfire/party at the back of Sunnybrook. I was a guide for people who parked near my parents’ house. There were no lights in the pasture. 8/19

RFK won (42%), w/Branigin 2nd (31%) and McCarthy 3rd (27%). [FN9] RFK was solid. A month later, the night of his victory in the California primary, RFK was assassinated. In 1981, I read an interview of a former cellmate of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was convicted of RFK’s murder. 9/19

When asked why he did it, Sirhan said he wanted to alter United States policy in Israel. The cellmate asked, “Why didn’t you shoot the President of the United States?” Sirhan said, “I did shoot the President of the United States.” Coming back from vacay in Wisconsin, we 10/19

took the toll road around Chicago, a day before the Democratic National Convention started & passed a ton of military vehicles. Each night subsequent, TV showed street fights in what was later determined to be a police riot. [FN10] On “live” TV Gore Vidal called 11/19

William Buckley a ChristoNazi. Sen Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT) nominated Sen George McGovern for President & slammed the Gestapo tactics of Chicago Police. Humphrey was nominated w/Sen Ed Muskie (D-ME) his running mate. 12/19

A victory for a fractured Democratic Party seemed absurd. Still, Nixon blew a huge lead & won by fewer than a million votes. RFK had a far better chance to unify the party at the convention. Nixon said he had a “secret plan” to end our involvement in Vietnam. He didn’t. 13/19

However, Nixon communicated w/South Vietnamese leaders via Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser, that if the South Vietnamese government withdraw from peace talks, Nixon, if elected, would give them a much better deal. [FN11] 14/19

On “the eve of his planned announcement of a halt to the bombing, Johnson learned the South Vietnamese were pulling out. He was also told why.” Johnson was told by Def Sec’y Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace. [FN12] 15/19

Footnotes:
FN1. National Archives, Milestone Documents, The Civil Rights Act of 1964.
FN2. Britannica, “United States presidential election of 1964,” accessed 07/03/24.
FN3. Id. 16/19

Footnotes:
FN4. LBJ had 49%, McCarthy 42%.
FN5. “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
FN6. Another group was Doug Clark & the Hot Nuts. 17/19

Footnotes”:
FN7. While I try to footnote appropriate authorities for points I make in blogs, much of what I shall describe about 1968 is anecdotal. I was there.
FN8. This is not the exact wording, but the gist of the precatory phrase. 18/19

Footnotes
FN9. Ken Rudin, “Flashback Friday: On This Day In 1968, RFK Wins Indiana Prez Primary,” NPR, 5/7/10.
FN10. http://chicago68.com/ricsumm.html
FN11. BBC News, “The Lyndon Johnson tapes: Richard Nixon's 'treason,'” 3/22/13. 19/19