[sweeping orchestral music]
♪ ♪
[recorder clicks, film rotating]
[soft ambient music]
♪ ♪
- The vice president and Mrs. Nixon
are just now making their way downstairs.
[cheers and applause]
[dark piano chords]
- 3:27 a.m. on this morning after the election,
November the 9th.
crowd: [chanting] We want Nixon!
- And Kennedy is very, very slowly pulling away
in this very close election.
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you very much.
As I look at the board here,
if the present trend continues,
Mr. Kennedy, Senator Kennedy will be
the next President of the United States.
[crowd groans]
[soft solemn music]
♪ ♪
- There obviously is no happiness in the Nixon camp,
and it brings Vice President Nixon
to a stop in his political career.
♪ ♪
- I've had other defeats and disappointments in life,
but nobody has really been defeated
until he's been defeated after running for president.
You don't know what it's really like.
♪ ♪
Well, I've deliberately not made any plans
for the future yet.
When you've been through a very tiring campaign,
you certainly don't wanna make any decisions in a hurry.
♪ ♪
My political friends said, "You got to go back.
"You got to run for office again.
"If you don't run, who's Dick Nixon gonna be?
He's the guy that lost for president."
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat classical music]
- Enthusiastic Nixonites are at hand and twisting
at the Pomona, California County Fairgrounds,
to welcome back to the site where he started
his first political campaign,
former Vice President, Richard Nixon.
♪ ♪
- I announce tonight my intention to seek
the governorship of the state of California.
Mrs. Nixon said,
"Well, I think it's a terrible mistake for you to run."
We had just been through a campaign.
We were just getting back on our feet.
"But if you decide to do it,"
she said, "I'll be there with you."
- In this campaign, it's generally been stated
that if you don't win, you'll have no future.
- I would agree with that objective critique,
but on the other hand, I don't expect to lose.
I expect to win.
[solemn string music]
- The last chance of Richard Nixon
was to unseat Pat Brown as governor
of his home state in California.
And the last chance failed.
The next day, his press chief told the waiting press
Nixon would not appear or speak.
But suddenly, Nixon appeared, tired,
making an effort to be genial,
but bitterness forced its way out.
- People say, "Isn't it a come-down,
"having run for president,
and almost made it to run for governor?"
The answer is, I'm proud to run for governor.
I would like to have won.
I believe Governor Brown has a heart,
even though he believes I do not.
I believe he is a good American,
even though he feels I am not.
I wish him well.
And, for once, gentlemen,
I would appreciate if you would write what I'm saying.
For 16 years, you've had a lot of fun.
You've had an opportunity to attack me,
and I think I've given as good as I've taken.
But as I leave you... [chuckles]
Just think how much you're gonna be missing.
You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore,
because, gentlemen,
this is my last press conference.
Thank you, gentlemen, and good day.
- So, the end, apparently,
the end of the curious, often colorful,
sometimes checkered career of Richard Nixon.
- I had burned my bridges in spades,
as far as the press were concerned.
I had been defeated
for President of the United States;
I had been defeated for governor of California.
I thought I was dead.
[soft solemn music]
♪ ♪
After going through the trauma of defeat
and disappointment,
many felt that being out of office
was an end to a career,
and I must admit that I felt that too.
I was physically drained
and emotionally drained,
mentally drained.
Just numb.
[upbeat classical music]
♪ ♪
- Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great privilege
and pleasure for me to present
the former United States vice president,
Mr. Richard Nixon.
[cheers and applause]
My little daughter said today that--
she says--Mr. Nixon. I'll be honest with you.
She says, "I do hope that man finds work."
[laughter]
[applause]
Can Kennedy be defeated in '64?
- Well, which one?
[laughter, applause]
- Would you bring a piano out here?
If we can do this. We had--Mrs. Nixon, Pat,
had a tape recorder going one afternoon,
and she quietly said to Mr. Nixon,
"Why don't you play an old piece?"
And she recorded it.
Now, Jose has made a concerto arrangement
of this hinky-dinky song that you wrote here.
[laughter, applause]
Would you play it for us?
[slow orchestral music playing]
♪ ♪
[piano playing over orchestration]
♪ ♪
- There are times when a person in public life
should get out of the public view,
go away, and then come back in.
♪ ♪
I knew that it was well for me
to get off stage for a while...
♪ ♪
And as it turned out,
it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
[yelling, screaming]
[dogs barking, growling]
[people singing] ♪ We shall overcome... ♪
- This month will go down as one of the greatest,
if not the greatest,
demonstrations for freedom and human dignity...
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- Today, millions of people throughout the world
are trying to find words adequate
to express their grief.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote
because of their color.
This law will right that wrong.
[siren wailing]
- The riots are only the most virulent symptom
of a much more disturbing national problem,
and that's the growing disrespect
for law in America.
After 16 years in public life,
I believe that I should continue to speak out
from time to time on public issues.
all: Freedom now! all: ♪ Revolution has come ♪
all: Freedom now! all: ♪ Time to pick up the gun ♪
[people chanting indistinctly]
♪ ♪
- How do we get this world orderly,
rather than letting it drag on for five years?
Which this present administration's policy
would let it do.
- Mr. Nixon, when are you gonna start running
for president yourself?
- What has got to happen before,
uh, your intentions next year will be made known?
♪ ♪
Do you know what I mean by that, Mr. Nixon?
[laughter]
- Well, intentions about what?
- [stammering] [laughter]
- I had been thinking about it, of course.
The program was underway.
- Richard Nixon still is not officially
a candidate for president,
but unofficially he is running,
and has been for some time.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
- I have an announcement.
Yesterday, I informed
the Nixon for President campaign committees
that their campaigns could go forward with my cooperation.
♪ ♪
This is not my last press conference.
[chuckles]
- The final campaigning is underway
in the New Hampshire presidential primary.
On the Republican side, Richard Nixon is urging
New Hampshire Republicans to give him a big send-off
in his quest for the GOP presidential nomination.
[engine humming]
[beeps]
- Perhaps if you could make a point
of trying to look towards me a little bit more often,
so the sound will be a little bit better.
- All right, fine. All right, fine.
- Mr. Nixon, a lot has been said about a new Mr. Nixon.
Have you been seeking a kind of newness?
- Well, my wife says I've got less hair
than I've had before.
You know, the hairline goes back a bit here and there.
Uh, others discovered that I, uh,
perhaps have a sense of humor,
which I think I've always had,
but perhaps people didn't see it.
[chuckling]
I'm really the most difficult man in the world
when it comes to a so-called public relations firm.
Nobody's gonna package me.
Nobody's going to make me put on an act for television.
I'm not gonna engage in any gimmicks
or any stunts, wear any silly hats.
If people looking at me say, "That's a new Nixon,"
then all that I can say is,
"Well, maybe you didn't know the old Nixon."
- [chuckles]
- Well, I guess I'll sit down here
and get ready.
[pizzicato music]
♪ ♪
- And absolute quiet in here,
because they can pick up everything.
- Remember, it's extremely informal,
and we can slice it out of the tape
if we don't like it. [chuckles]
And if it doesn't work, we do it again, so...
♪ ♪
- Here. And then, you can block the shot.
[indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
- See, when you're on live...
then it's sudden death. [laughter]
A guy asks you a question, and you answer it,
and then bite your tongue.
- Okay, ready for the first question, and go.
- Mr. Nixon, if the Johnson administration
can terminate the war within,
well, let's give him eight months,
then he has a very good chance of winning next year,
but if we haven't been able to win the war
in the past few years,
how long could it last really?
- I do know this:
I do know that the new administration
can and will end the war,
within a matter of a year,
after we get into power.
♪ ♪
[solemn music]
[explosions]
♪ ♪
- I have today ordered to Vietnam
the air mobile division,
which will raise our fighting strength
75,000 to 125,000 men,
almost immediately.
- Without question,
Lyndon Johnson, he had all the moves.
He knew how to use power.
He was ruthless. He was persuasive.
And then when the war began to escalate,
and Johnson didn't know what to do about it,
he just started to flail around.
And everything that he tried seemed to...
crumble in his hands.
[crowds chanting indistinctly]
crowd: Hey, hey, LBJ!
I think that you're guilty, hey!
Hey, hey, LBJ!
I think that you're guilty, hey!
Hey, hey, LBJ...
- The low-keyed Minnesota Democrat
Senator Eugene McCarthy
entered the race against his party's incumbent president
for the express purpose of giving the voters a voice
in the Vietnam debate.
- The big surprise in the first primary
of campaign '68
has been the strength of Senator Eugene McCarthy.
The volume with which New Hampshire's voters
today endorsed his effort
signals trouble for President Johnson's
as yet undeclared re-election bid.
On the Republican side, Richard Nixon entered the race
to shed that loser's image
he acquired in 1960 and '62.
- Seems to be quite apparent from the early returns
that we won't have to have a recount tonight.
[cheers and applause]
- Nixon, the only active campaigner,
ran far in front, even farther than expected,
with 81%.
- Mr. Nixon, which tactics and issues
do you feel got you this vote in New Hampshire?
- A very effective use of television.
I know I'm not supposed to be able to use television,
but I think that's one myth we knocked down this time.
We were pretty good on television.
- The Nixon campaign needed this kind of a shot in the arm.
His supporters now around the country
I think are going to look at him a little bit differently
as possibly a vote-getter.
- Mr. Nixon, do you think you can be stopped now?
[laughter] - Well, let me put it--
[crowd cheers, yells]
Well, sir, that's a fair enough question.
Uh--[chuckles]-- uh, I can say this,
I'm not gonna stop myself, that's for sure.
[cheers and applause]
[music swells]
♪ ♪
- Here we go.
[applause]
[atmospheric music]
- I am announcing today my candidacy
for the presidency of the United States.
♪ ♪
I run, because I am convinced
that this country is on a perilous course,
and because I have such strong feelings
about what must be done.
I do not lightly dismiss the dangers
and the difficulties of challenging
an incumbent president.
At stake is not simply the leadership
of our party and even our country.
It is our right to the moral leadership
of this planet.
I thank you.
[applause]
- Well, the whole thing is one of the most extraordinary
political and human dramas, I think,
in the history of American politics.
This party may come apart at the seams.
It's possible.
- Mr. Nixon, what sort of an opponent
do you think Robert Kennedy would be
if you both were to be nominated?
- He would be a strong opponent.
I mean, after all, you can't knock money.
[crowd cheering, screaming]
- Bobby Kennedy was very intense,
very hardworking.
He had more fire in his belly than either of the other two.
This was a totally political animal.
[crowd chanting] RFK! RFK!
[rotor thrumming]
[indistinct chatter]
[engines droning]
[grass rustling]
- Many people in Vietnam are speaking of peace,
but the men in the field don't speak of peace.
They speak of going home,
which is something they've wanted to do for a long time.
Meanwhile, they march, they fight...
[gunfire]
And they die.
And peace is only a word.
[soft solemn music]
crowd: The whole world is watching!
The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!
The whole world is watching!
- Gosh, this is hard to read, Jim, you have no idea.
It's just marked up, every word nearly, you see?
I just--
and I can't see where a period is or not.
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Tonight, I want to speak to you
of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
We are prepared to move immediately
toward peace through negotiations.
So, tonight...
I am taking the first step
to deescalate the conflict,
with our hopes and the world's hopes
for peace in the balance every day.
I do not believe
that I should devote an hour or a day of my time
to any personal partisan causes.
Accordingly...
I shall not seek,
and I will not accept,
the nomination of my party
for another term as your president.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
[stately string music]
- Roger, no question about it,
this was a bombshell politically.
- Well, you really don't know where to begin.
[clears throat] As you said, there was no warning.
The announcement that he would not seek another term,
or accept another term, was not in the text.
- What it says is that President Johnson
is willing to pay the ultimate price
to make the ultimate sacrifice for peace in Southeast Asia.
- [stammers, chuckles]
What I'd rather do, Dan, is go home,
and come back tomorrow morning and begin to talk about it.
- Well, it is a stunning moment,
and, for those of you in the audience
who may be saying, "Well, those two fellas
are having a hard time coming up with something to say,"
that's the truth of the matter,
because it did come as a distinct surprise.
And it seems to me that this turns
the whole political basket upside-down.
[siren wailing]
- This is a CBS News special report.
- Good evening. Dr. Martin Luther King,
the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement,
has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.
- At 7:10 this evening, Martin Luther King was shot.
[crowd gasps]
Martin Luther King 20 minutes ago died.
[crowd groaning, murmuring]
I would like to take this opportunity
to ask Reverend John Genzel
to lead all of us in prayer for Martin Luther King
and the future of all civil rights movements.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Martin Luther King dedicated his life
to love and to justice
between fellow human beings.
What we need in the United States
is love and wisdom
and compassion toward one another,
and a feeling of justice
toward those who still suffer within our country,
whether they be white or whether they be black.
♪ ♪
- When I heard about it,
I just couldn't believe that it had happened.
♪ ♪
I considered him in terms of the black movement,
as being what I would call a moderate.
At least he wasn't advocating burning down the buildings,
and raising all the kinda hells
the Black Panthers and others were.
[dramatic music] [indistinct shouting]
[alarm blaring]
[siren wailing]
- All over America,
black ghettos exploded in rage and grief.
- There is no cause that justifies violence
or breaking the law.
The Constitution does guarantee
the right to disagree, but not the right to disobey.
It is time for us to restore respect for law,
and then we'll have real progress
in the United States of America.
- We've heard constant references
to respect for law and order,
and more particularly, what they mean is,
respect for the white man's law enforcement.
[cheers and applause]
- The American people today
want a president of the United States
who will see it like it is and tell it like it is,
and that's what I'm doing to you here today.
[cheers and applause]
[soft music]
- Folks, this is John Wayne.
We need a president who will restore
respect for law and order.
Richard Nixon is the man to do it.
He's strong enough, he has the experience,
and he doesn't pussyfoot around.
That's my kind of a president.
Richard Nixon: The best we have.
[triumphant music plays]
♪ ♪
crowd: ♪ This land is your land ♪
♪ This land is my land ♪
♪ From California ♪
♪ To the New York island... ♪
- Only 40% of the men that live in the ghetto
have jobs that pay more than $60 a week.
How can you support a family?
How can you bring up children in dignity?
- Robert Kennedy is the only man
on the current political structure
that can do the job that we need done.
- Is there a second choice?
- There is no second choice, as far as we're concerned.
[foreboding music]
- There is a feeling in the political climate
that the Kennedy juggernaut is not to be denied much longer.
- Senator Robert Kennedy stands a good deal taller this morning,
as a result of his clear-cut victory
in the Indiana Democratic presidential primary.
- On the Republican side, Richard Nixon was not opposed,
and write-ins are not permitted in Indiana.
- Senator Kennedy picked up 23 convention votes
in the District of Columbia primary.
- The size of the Nixon win all but wraps up
the Republican nomination for him.
[train honks]
- Polls have just closed
in California's presidential primary.
- We're going to Robert Kennedy's headquarters
at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
"The New York Times" has just said
that Kennedy is the apparent winner.
Now he's advancing towards the hall,
where he will talk to his supporters.
[cheers and applause]
crowd: [chanting] We want Bobby!
- Thank you very-- thank you very much.
I want to express my gratitude
to all of those Mexican Americans
who were such supporters of mine.
And I want to also thank all my friends
in the black community.
[cheers and applause]
My thanks to all of you.
And now it's on to Chicago, and let's win this.
Thank you very much.
- Who is gonna be the next President of the United States?
crowd: [chanting] RFK!
- From its very beginning, this campaign of '68
has been one which has defied the experts,
an unpredictable sequence of political surprises.
[people yelling, screaming]
- Get the gun! Get the gun!
Gun. Stay away from the gun.
Get his thumb!
Take ahold of his thumb, and break it if you have to!
Get his thumb!
- A doctor! We need a doctor right here.
- We need a doctor here. That's what we need.
- Is there a doctor?
[people clamoring, sobbing]
[soft somber music]
♪ ♪
- I went up to my study,
Mrs. Nixon came in,
and it's one of the few times I've seen her cry,
and she said, "That poor boy died."
♪ ♪
[train rumbling]
♪ ♪
- My brother need not be idealized,
or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life...
♪ ♪
To be remembered simply as a good and decent man,
who saw wrong and tried to right it...
♪ ♪
Saw suffering and tried to heal it,
saw war and tried to stop it.
♪ ♪
- Senator Kennedy's death is a tragedy
for a nation and for a family,
but the tragedy would be compounded
if we allowed it to cause us to lose confidence
in ourselves and in our nation.
There are sick people in America,
but the American people are not a sick nation.
[solemn music]
- Of course, all political campaigns have been suspended.
- But it's far too early to contemplate
any political implications from this.
- It's simply too early to have a reading on
what the possible effect could be on the political campaign
for the rest of the year.
That it will have an effect, no one can deny.
[upbeat marching band music playing]
♪ ♪
- At 6:30 this evening, as scheduled,
the man most likely to succeed on Wednesday
arrived and heard his first hoorahs
in Miami Beach.
[cheers and applause]
- Richard Nixon remains far out in front
in the delegates' strengths,
but if he's to win a nomination,
he still is going to need some additional support.
And there's going to be a great deal of maneuvering,
and that's certainly the understatement of the day.
[dynamic music]
♪ ♪
- Nelson Rockefeller was in there.
He had a huge amount of money.
And then, also Ronald Reagan
was making a little run at it from the coast.
[dramatic tone]
- There has been some movement.
Ronald Reagan could claim 16 fresh votes
as an aftermath of his meetings today
with two Southern delegations.
- I think that Mr. Nixon can be stopped,
and I think if he does not get it on the first ballot,
he's through.
- Anybody in politics must have great
competitive instinct.
He must want to win.
He must not like to lose.
But above everything else, he must have the ability
to keep fighting more and more strongly
when it seems that the odds are the greatest.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- The most important developments
have centered mostly on a conference
that Richard Nixon held last night,
and he seemed to be trying desperately
to win the South to his side.
♪ ♪
- As a result of his statements
to the Southern caucus,
black voters are aware that Richard Nixon
is opposed to bussing to help eliminate
racial imbalance in the nation's schools,
that he has a deep and basic opposition to open housing,
and that he will try to capitalize on
the political and racial issues of law and order and violence.
- I am going to cast my vote
for that world statesman and that great American,
Richard M. Nixon...
[cheers and applause]
[dramatic music]
And South Carolina's votes will go with me.
[cheers and applause]
- I again proudly accept that nomination
for President of the United States.
But I have news for you, this time, there's a difference.
This time, we're going to win!
[cheers and applause]
My fellow Americans,
for a few moments,
let us look at America,
let us listen to America.
As we look at America,
we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame,
we hear sirens in the night,
we see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad,
we see Americans hating each other,
fighting each other, killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things,
millions of Americans cry out in anguish,
"Did we come all this way for this?"
Listen to the answer to those questions.
It is another voice.
It is a quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting.
It is the voice of the great majority of Americans,
the forgotten Americans,
the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators.
They're good people. They're decent people.
They work and they save and they pay their taxes
and they care.
And what America needs are leaders to match
the greatness of our people.
[cheers and applause]
[dramatic percussive music]
♪ ♪
[soft bass music]
- Good evening from Chicago,
where the 35th National Democratic Convention opens
with the promise of turmoil inside this hall,
and a threat of violence without.
- Today, 5,000 National Guard troops joined
federal and local forces
in imposing unprecedented security.
- As for the demonstrators,
estimates ranged up to 1,000 protesters.
- The invading students, hippies, yippies,
radicals, activists, McCarthy kids,
and other anti-war horses.
crowd: [chanting] We want change!
- More than 5,000 screaming, cheering supporters
of Eugene McCarthy swanned all over Midway Airport.
[dramatic string music]
♪ ♪
- Across town, Hubert and Muriel Humphrey
step from their chartered jet.
In Vietnam, he is, if the word means anything,
rather hawkish, and he's stuck with it.
- ♪ Oh, say ♪
♪ Can you see ♪
♪ By the dawn's ♪
♪ Early light ♪
♪ What so proudly ♪ people: [chanting] Peace now!
♪ We hailed... ♪
[chanting continues]
- A new line of police moving down Balbo Street now
to take positions, and to try, presumably,
to clear this intersection.
[chanting continues]
[soft solemn music]
♪ ♪
- A noisy but non-violent crowd jams the streets,
as Chicago police charge suddenly in all directions.
- And the police clearing off the sidewalks,
and the crowd is running.
The police are chasing them into Graham Park.
[indistinct yelling, screaming]
♪ ♪
- They jab nightsticks to their stomachs and skull...
[explosion] Shots of gas.
people: [chanting] The whole world is watching!
- "The whole world is watching,"
chants the crowd on this side.
[chanting continues]
- The incident certainly could hardly be
described any other way except unprovoked,
and the police lost control.
♪ ♪
[dramatic string music]
♪ ♪
- Richard Nixon can take some heart
from what happened here this week.
- The impact could help thrust Richard Nixon
into the White House next January.
♪ ♪
- Mr. Nixon chose to open his drive for the White House
in Chicago, where the Democrats had
a certain amount of difficulty last week.
Today, the crowds were big, boisterous, and friendly.
- A picture of the city of Chicago
and the people of Chicago went out across America
and across this world.
It was an ugly picture,
and, my friends, I can tell you today,
it was an unfair picture.
It wasn't a true picture.
I saw the real Chicago yesterday.
A record number of Chicagoans came out.
Some said 400,000, some said 600,000.
Let's call it 1/2 million.
They had taken to the streets,
because they want a change in America,
and they're gonna get it by their votes this November.
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat classical music]
- I, in a sense, am in the ring tonight,
and I think this is the time and this is the place
to take off the gloves and sock it to 'em.
[cheers and applause]
- Nixon's staff today claimed he would win a landslide
427 electoral votes next Tuesday.
- ♪ Yes, Nixon's the one to go with ♪
♪ ♪
- The polls showed that we were gonna win
very, very handsomely...
[rotor thrumming]
But Lyndon Johnson still had the White House,
and that White House almost finished us off
just three or four days before the election.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
- Good evening.
President Johnson announced tonight he has ordered a halt
to the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam,
effective at 8:00 o'clock tomorrow morning,
Washington time.
- A North Vietnamese spokesman said
the Hanoi delegation will participate
in expanded peace talks next Wednesday.
President Johnson's decision has brought
the highest prospects for peace in Vietnam
in three years.
- I shall do everything in my power
to move us toward the peace that this president,
and I believe every other American,
so deeply and urgently desires.
- To think that this should be pulled out of the hat
right before the election,
at a time that it was bound to give Humphrey a treat,
and give me a trick, which would defeat us.
- It seems to me that the statement
made tonight by the president cannot help but help
Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
- After the president announced the bombing halt last night,
the Louis Harris poll reported today
that Hubert Humphrey has narrowed
Richard Nixon's lead to three percentage points.
And Harris has said in the past
that if Humphrey reached within
two to three percentage points of Mr. Nixon,
then the election could become too close to call.
[tense music]
- There's no question that I was very distressed,
and all of my associates were.
♪ ♪
- An American spokesman in Paris said today,
the peace talks, scheduled for tomorrow,
will be postponed,
because of South Vietnam's refusal to participate.
- As they come down to the wire,
it seems to me that the developments
of the past few days clearly indicate
that the American people need fresh ideas,
new men, and new leadership, if we are to bring to an end
the war in which we're presently engaged.
[cheers and applause]
- Election night '68.
Reporting from election headquarters.
- Perhaps the closest race in the nation's history.
Richard Milhous Nixon,
in a remarkable political comeback,
narrowly has been elected
the 37th president of the United States.
[crowd cheering]
- The president-elect, Richard Nixon.
[cheers and applause]
- Remarkable comeback.
Perhaps the most remarkable political comeback
in American presidential history.
- President Nixon is indeed the one today.
- Having lost a close one eight years ago,
and having won a close one this year,
I can say this: Winning's a lot more fun.
[laughter, cheers and applause]
- The Nixon administration
is engaged in a polarization process.
[indistinct yelling, screaming]
[dramatic string music]