Editing Hubert Humphrey (section)

===1968 presidential campaign===
{{Main|Hubert Humphrey 1968 presidential campaign}}
[[File:Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson.jpg|thumb|left|Vice President Hubert Humphrey, President [[Lyndon Johnson]], and General [[Creighton Abrams]] in a Cabinet Room meeting in March 1968]]
As 1968 began, it looked as if President Johnson, despite the rapidly decreasing approval rating of his Vietnam War policies, would easily win the Democratic nomination for a second time.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/johngardner/chapters/5a.html|title=THE ELECTION OF 1968|publisher=PBS|date=June 18, 2013}}</ref> Humphrey was widely expected to remain as Johnson's running mate for reelection in 1968.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YEaNBy203cC&pg=PA203|title=No Way To Pick A President|author=Jules Witcover|isbn=978-0415930314|publisher=Psychology Press|year=1998|author-link=Jules Witcover}}</ref> Johnson was challenged by Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]] of Minnesota, who ran on an [[Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War]] platform.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aB8p_0YxneDE|title=Eugene McCarthy, 1968 Anti-War Presidential Candidate, Dies|author=Michael Forsythe|publisher=Bloomberg L.P.|date=December 10, 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924143644/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aB8p_0YxneDE|archive-date=September 24, 2015}}</ref> With the backing of out-of-state anti-war college students and activists while campaigning in the [[New Hampshire primary]], McCarthy, who was not expected to be a serious contender for the Democratic nomination, nearly defeated Johnson, finishing with a surprising 42% of the vote to Johnson's 49%.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/mccarthy|title=Eugene J. McCarthy Papers|publisher=University of Minnesota|date=June 18, 2013|access-date=June 18, 2013|archive-date=January 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101222844/https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/mccarthy|url-status=dead}}</ref> A few days after the New Hampshire primary, after months of contemplation and originally intending to support Johnson's bid for reelection, Senator [[Robert F. Kennedy]] of New York also entered the race on an anti-war platform.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/06/rfk_excerpt200806#|title=The Last Good Campaign|author=Thurston Clarke|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=June 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220171610/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/06/rfk_excerpt200806|archive-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref> On March 31, a week before the Wisconsin primary, where polls showed a strong standing for McCarthy, Johnson stunned the nation by [[Withdrawal of Lyndon B. Johnson from the 1968 United States presidential election|withdrawing from his race for a second full term]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0331.html|title=Johnson Says He Won't Run|author=Tom Wicker|work=The New York Times|date=March 31, 2013}}</ref>

Humphrey announced his presidential candidacy on April 27.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5a0wf4HHRVgC&pg=PA375|title=The Columbia Guide to America in The 1960s|author=David Rosenthal Farber|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231113731|year=2003}}</ref> Declaring his candidacy in a speech in Washington, D.C. alongside Senators [[Fred R. Harris|Fred Harris]] of [[Oklahoma]] and [[Walter Mondale]] of Minnesota (who both served as the co-chairs to his campaign), Humphrey stated:

<blockquote>Here we are, just as we ought to be, here we are, the people, here we are the spirit of dedication, here we are the way politics ought to be in America, the politics of happiness, politics of purpose, politics of joy; and that's the way it's going to be, all the way, too, from here on out. We seek an America able to preserve and nurture all the basic rights of free expression, yet able to reach across the divisions that too often separate race from race, region from region, young from old, worker from scholar, rich from poor. We seek an America able to do this in the higher knowledge that our goals and ideals are worthy of conciliation and personal sacrifice.<ref name="UCSB Remarks Declaring Candidacy">{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=77814|title=Remarks Declaring Candidacy for the Democratic Presidential Nomination|author1=Gerhard Peters|author2=John T. Woolley|publisher=University of California|location=Santa Barbara|date=April 27, 1968|access-date=June 18, 2013|archive-date=January 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101085101/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=77814|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Also in his speech, Humphrey supported Johnson's Vietnam initiative, which Johnson had proposed during his address to the nation four weeks earlier;<ref name="UCSB Remarks Declaring Candidacy"/> partially halting the bombings in North Vietnam, while sending an additional 13,500 troops and increasing the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense's]] budget by 4% over the next fiscal year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/johnson-announces-bombing-halt|title=Vietnam War: Johnson announces bombing halt|publisher=History Channel|date=March 31, 1968|access-date=June 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826104225/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/johnson-announces-bombing-halt|archive-date=August 26, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Later in the campaign, Humphrey opposed a proposal by Senators McCarthy and [[George McGovern]] of [[South Dakota]] to the Democratic Convention's Policy Committee, calling for an immediate end to the bombings in Vietnam, an early withdrawal of troops and setting talks for a [[coalition government]] with the Viet Cong.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00442/pdfa/00442-02684.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00442/pdfa/00442-02684.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Meet the Press: America's Press Conference of the Air|publisher=[[Minnesota Historical Society]]|date=August 25, 1968}}</ref>

[[File:Photograph of Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie at the 1968 Democratic National Convention a.jpg|thumb|Vice President Humphrey (left) and U.S. Senator [[Edmund Muskie]] (right) wave from the podium at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] in Chicago]]
Many people saw Humphrey as Johnson's stand-in; he won major backing from the nation's labor unions and other Democratic groups troubled by young antiwar protesters and the social unrest around the nation.<ref name="HHH Papers">{{cite web|url=http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00720/pdf/hhh41.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00720/pdf/hhh41.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=HUBERT H. HUMPHREY PAPERS An Inventory of His 1968 Presidential Campaign Files|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}</ref> A group of British journalists wrote that Humphrey, despite his liberal record on civil rights and support for a nuclear test-ban treaty, "had turned into an arch-apologist for the war, who was given to trotting around Vietnam looking more than a little silly in olive-drab fatigues and a forage cap. The man whose name had been a by-word in the South for softness toward Negroes had taken to lecturing black groups ... the wild-eyed reformer had become the natural champion of every conservative element in the Democratic Party."<ref name="Chester, p. 147"/> Humphrey entered the race too late to participate in the [[Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1968|Democratic primaries]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/1968-democratic-convention.html|title=1968 Democratic Convention The Bosses Strike Back|author=Haynes Johnson|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=August 2008|access-date=August 4, 2013|archive-date=August 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828023957/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/1968-democratic-convention.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and concentrated on winning delegates in non-primary states by gaining the support of Democratic officeholders who were elected delegates to the Democratic Convention.<ref name="HHH Papers"/> By June, McCarthy won in Oregon and Pennsylvania, while Kennedy had won in Indiana and Nebraska, though Humphrey was the front runner as he led the delegate count.<ref name="HHH Papers"/><ref name="OMCA">{{cite web|url=http://www.museumca.org/theoaklandstandard/mr-kennedy-and-1968-battle-california|title=Mr. Kennedy and the 1968 Battle for California|author=Matthew Harrison Tedford|publisher=[[Oakland Museum of California]]|date=April 4, 2013|access-date=August 4, 2013|archive-date=December 12, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212144506/http://www.museumca.org/theoaklandstandard/mr-kennedy-and-1968-battle-california|url-status=dead}}</ref> The California primary was crucial for [[Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign, 1968|Kennedy's campaign]], as a McCarthy victory would have prevented Kennedy from reaching the number of delegates required to secure the nomination.<ref name="OMCA"/> On June 4, Kennedy defeated McCarthy by less than 4% in the winner-take-all California primary.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9606/10/|title=For Perspective & Determination|magazine=Time|publisher=CNN|date=June 14, 1968|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703181451/http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9606/10/|archive-date=July 3, 2011}}</ref> But the nation was shocked yet again when [[Robert F. Kennedy assassination|Senator Kennedy was assassinated]] after his victory speech at the [[Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)|Ambassador Hotel]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://framework.latimes.com/2010/08/10/the-assassination-of-robert-f-kennedy/|title=The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy|author=Scott Harrison|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 10, 2010|access-date=August 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730150814/http://framework.latimes.com/2010/08/10/the-assassination-of-robert-f-kennedy/|archive-date=July 30, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the assassination of Kennedy, Humphrey suspended his campaign for two weeks.{{sfn|Solberg|1984|p=341}}

====Chicago riots and party fallout====
Humphrey did not enter any of the 13 state primary elections,<ref>Jennings & Brewster 1998: 413.</ref> but won the Democratic nomination at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention|party convention]] in Chicago, even though 80 percent of the primary voters had been for antiwar candidates. The delegates defeated the peace plank by {{Fraction|1,567|3|4}} to {{Fraction|1,041|1|4}}.{{sfn|Gitlin|1987|p=331}} Humphrey selected as his running mate U.S. Senator [[Ed Muskie]] of [[Maine]]. Unfortunately for Humphrey and his campaign, in [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]], just five miles south of [[International Amphitheatre]] convention hall, and at other sites near downtown Chicago, there were [[1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity|gatherings and protests]] by thousands of [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|antiwar demonstrators]], many of whom favored McCarthy, [[George McGovern]], or other antiwar candidates. Mayor [[Richard J. Daley]]'s Chicago police attacked and beat these protesters, most of them young college students, which amplified the growing feelings of unrest among the public.
[[File:ElectoralCollege1968.svg|thumb|1968 presidential election results]]

Humphrey's inaction during these incidents, Johnson's and Daley's behind-the-scenes maneuvers,{{sfn|Gitlin|1987|p=331}} public backlash against Humphrey's winning the nomination without entering a single primary, and Humphrey's refusal to meet McCarthy halfway on his demands, resulting in McCarthy's refusal to fully endorse him, highlighted turmoil in the Democratic Party's base that proved to be too much for Humphrey to overcome in time for the general election. The combination of Johnson's unpopularity, the Chicago demonstrations, and the discouragement of liberals and African-Americans after the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] that year, all contributed to his loss to former Vice President Nixon. Nevertheless, as Wallace lost support among white union members, Humphrey regained strength and the final polls showed a close race. Humphrey reversed his Vietnam policy, called for peace talks, and won back some of the antiwar Democrats.<ref>Lewis L. Gould, ''1968: The Election That Changed America'' (1993), pp 142–150.</ref>

Nixon won the electoral college and the election. Humphrey lost the [[1968 United States presidential election|popular vote]] by less than one percent, with 43.4% for Nixon (31,783,783 votes) to 42.7% (31,271,839<!-- votes-->) for Humphrey, and 13.5% (9,901,118<!-- votes -->) for Wallace. Humphrey carried just 13 states and the District of Columbia with 191 electoral college votes, Nixon carried 32 states and 301 electoral votes, and Wallace carried five states and 46 electoral votes. In his concession speech, Humphrey said, "I have done my best. I have lost; Mr. Nixon has won. The democratic process has worked its will."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1968/1968-Presidential-Election/12303153093431-2/|title=1968 Presidential Election – Events of 1968 – Year in Review|work=United Press International|access-date=April 12, 2012}}</ref>