An Age of Science - America in the Feynman Era

[Prince di Corsica]

Back to School​

With Fall came the school year too, and many of the eventful things of the long, hot summer of 1967 faded away with them. The Summer of Love, already decaying by the end of summer due to the problems associated with the drug consumption by the participants and the bands, with the police arresting some prominent members, officially ended on October 6, with the Death of the Hippie parade in which a mock funeral was held marking the death of the counter-culture.

Most festival-goers were leaving, some to plant crops, others to resume their studies or to simply get a job. Indeed, the school year was beginning throughout America and none was more excited around it than the Governor, Richard Feynman.

This was because, despite everything that had surrounded his campaign and his governorship so far, Feynman’s goal in government was to improve the education provided to the Californian children, with a special focus on improving the quality of their curriculum. While dealing with the various crisis that had erupted through the year, this goal had been ever-present in the works of the Governor whom, together with his Superintendent of Public Instruction, Wilson Riles, had accomplished a revamp of the textbook material provided for the students in Californian schools.

Feynman gave various press conferences surrounding the matter, showing devotion and excitement at the new choices being made, and explaining how the focus of the new scientific material was on explaining the usefulness of the theory being learned and encouraging personal experimentation and autonomous study.

The curriculum was validated and praised by several educators around the country, and commissions were called on a number of States to study the possibility of copying what was already being dubbed ‘the Feynman model’ for their own state education. However, and despite the great reception by the specialists in the field, Feynman was quite disappointed to find only meagre interest on the part of the press to hear him talk about textbooks and other matters of the kind.

Although disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm about the program, Feynman was content to see it being fulfilled, and vowed to continue his work promoting better educational policies in the State of California. He was enthused with having the policies being expanded to other states as well, and would always be available to receive visitors hoping to discuss the ideas they had for their own states.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

the Year in Review​

At long last, as the relatively calm Christmas season passed, with Governor Feynman celebrating his first season in Sacramento with a joyous occasion for both family and friends, and of course the press, who badgered him to give a Christmas message to the people of California.

It was during that celebration that First Lady Gweneth Feynman, who had so far been an elegant but discreet figure in the State, close to the city people in her daily errands, who would sometimes recognize her, had the opportunity to present her first project as First Lady, the formation of an official Christmas choral group, composed by deprivileged Californian women whose concerts would serve to help several charities and social programs. Donations peaked in the days after their performance on state television accompanying the Governor’s speech.

1967 had proven to be a troublesome year. From having to handle the deficit issue in California as soon as he arrived to office, unexperienced in politics and budgets, to having received the issue of abortion to be executed on the State of California and then, during the summer, having had to dealt with both an increase of racial tensions and with the hippie festivals that had flooded in to California.

Feynman had performed admirably well through those challenges. Although it would have been an impossible expectation to raise the taxes to sustain the budget without losing some popularity, he managed to gain it back and with interest by his performance on the other issues of the year.

By aligning himself with a liberal line, he managed to thwart the general anger of the various protesters while indulging in talks of both moderation and cooperation for prosperity, that interested the families of the State that, political affections aside, preferred order and stability to any kind of volatile environment.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

PART II
THE TRAGIC YEAR OF 1968

1. a Typhoon over Vietnam​

January 1968 was a month in which many things brewed over, ready to explode over the year. One of the most important, that would define the future of American politics, was the beginning of the Tet offensive in Vietnam, a campaign of surprise attacks against the beating hearts of the civil and military commands of South Vietnam, meant on crippling the latter’s war effort once and for all.

It was a countrywide offensive, the largest one seen in the war so far, as the Viet Cong targeted more than 100 towns and cities, including the vast majority of regional capitals, autonomous cities, and of course, the great prize, Saigon, the shining capital of South Vietnam, where the American embassy was stationed, a vital link between the South Vietnamese government and their American patrons. More than 80 thousand soldiers marched for this operation, a bold scheme that caught the Americans unprepared, dealing a crushing morale blow and causing many casualties.

Attempts at the home media to showcase the aftermath of the operation as an American victory weren’t successful; the troops had held and the North Vietnamese had lost many men, that much was true, but it was also apparent that this had been costly and that the enemy was more than capable of striking and losing men that were replenished with new recruits. This confirmed the growing suspicion among many Americans that, unlike what the Pentagon continued to state, the war wasn’t being won.

This marked a great loss for the Johnson administration, that had so far been very keen of turning the American public towards the war effort. Now that the stamina was beginning to fail, their popularity was beginning to crumble. When the final phase of the operation met its end in March, after two bloody months full of massacres and scandals, the President at last had to admit that the war simply could not be won and reluctantly began talks to start the peace process, believing in the possibility of, at the very least, an honourable withdrawal that would allow the country to keep its dignity intact.

It seems to have been too little, too late, however as, being hit by this offensive in the early days of the primaries, the lack of popularity of LBJ’s policy in Vietnam reared its ugly head in hurting the President deeply in the primaries, an extraordinarily bad omen, to say the least, with Johnson barely winning in New Hampshire against the anti-war campaign of Eugene McCarthy. Ultimately, the President had to face the truth – there would be no victory for him come November and, for the sake of keeping his legacy intact, he resigned himself to announce he would not be seeking reelection, opening the field to other Democrats biding for the White House.

This could prove to be an interesting campaign indeed.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

2. Darkness over the Mountaintop​

As the President announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election, another very influential American, on the other side of the wiretapping performed by the secret services, was going around Memphis, Tennessee, in support of African American workers on strike for the cause of better wages. That man was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, one of the most important leaders of the Civil Rights movement, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize and a Christian leader of the African American community of the United States, a pillar of their struggle for equal rights.

On April 3, Martin Luther King delivered what would be his last speech, unwittingly prophesising his own demise, but leaving a message of hope for his brothers-in-arms to carry on his legacy.

“Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

The following day, while preparing for a new rally in his hotel, Martin Luther King was shot by an escaped prisoner with ties to white supremacist movements, dying one hour later of his injury. His autopsy showed that, for a man of his age, his heart was quite weakened, possibly due to the stress of having led, for a full thirteen years, the civil rights movement in America. He had sacrificed his health and, ultimately, his life, for a grand ideal that now others had to carry for themselves.

To say his death sent shockwaves across the United States would be an understatement. Riots sparked through the cities of the nation, as the African American communities showed their outrage at the grave injustice carried against them and their beloved leader, in a fury that was known as the “Holy Week Uprising”.

In Washington DC, mounted machine guns were assembled on the Capitol steps, and Army forces protected the White House, which was only two blocks away from the furthest advances of the rioting. Curfew was imposed and the city went through the greatest military occupation in an American city since the Civil War. Thousands of buildings were burned, the economy turned to shambles and entire neighbourhoods became ruins in a matter of days. In Chicago, orders were given to shoot to kill or maim and for the use of tear gas on the rioters. In Baltimore, thousands were arrested, while lesser numbers were found in other cities, but still rioting and destruction occurred in many African American communities.

The exceptions were, almost always, in the cities where the authorities present had the common wisdom to, rather than call the militias to try and crush the rather justifiable cries for justice of their own people, to put themselves forward and speak of unity and peace, in the values treasured by the good Reverend. The Mayor of Boston, Kevin White, spoke before a crowd at a concert happening at the night of the assassination, speaking of peace and unity, and the city was calm through the periods of great unrest. In New York City, Mayor John Lindsay went to Harlem and said he regretted the death and that he was working towards ending poverty; he is credited with preventing escalation from low-key disturbances in the city. In Indianapolis, it was Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy who spoke towards the crowd, informing them of what had happened, with an appeal to reflection and peace in the land.

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but 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.”

Drawing from personal experience with the death of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, the Senator was able to harness the sympathy of the crowd; in Indianapolis there would be no riots during those difficult days, and many credit that accomplishment to the words and courage of the Senator, who stood to speak when most preferred to fight.

In California, there was some fear in the first day that the Watt riots might be repeated, with a great fervour even, as the memory of those days was still fresh in the minds of many Californians. Tensions ran high among many communities, among white men and black alike, as enemies were seen in all shadows. All were expecting the worst, and some were clinging to their weapons, ready to battle. It was then that, however, the Governor himself, Richard Feynman, came to the Watts neighbourhood to speak with the African community there about the events transpiring the day before.

“Ladies and gentlemen,

It will be no news to you to know that, yesterday, a very sad thing happened to all of those among us who work for peace in our country and all over the world. Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

It is understandable that you may feel wrath at this. It is very understandable that you feel a great injustice was committed, because it was. No good citizen, who loves peace and justice above all other things, can feel anything other than anguish at the killing of such a tremendous man as Dr King, who dedicated his life to the service of others and the improvement of our nation. We as a country must now mourn one of the great heroes of our days.

It is understandable that many of you may feel unsafe. It is understandable that many of you may feel unloved and hated today, for this vicious murder was not committed against one man, but against an idea, against a people who that great man worked his whole life to represent and see advance. The bullet wasn’t sent against one single man, but against millions of citizens of these United States.

But I ask that none of you think that you are alone in your grief, and in feeling attacked. The hand that shot Dr King also shot against all Americans that believe and work for a better nation in which the bitter divisions of the past are erased and the great legacy we have instilled as our core value – that all men are created equal – is at last fulfilled.

With those of you filled with bitterness, anger and desire for revenge – before acting on any of those feelings, I ask you to consider something first. We are at a crossroads of History. This coward attack, made from dark shadows, was made yesterday and not before because, at very last, the wise words of Dr King were making an effect and rocking our nation. His efforts show themselves each passing year, and each day that comes is a day in which the unlawful separation of the white and black races is erased and a true nation of equals emerges. A nation Dr King worked to build. A nation he would be proud to belong to. These cowards attacked because they are seeing themselves being defeated, and their lost cause head to the dustbins of History, where it belongs.

Those of us who remember the war remember the joy of seeing the tide turn and the forces of evil and oppression crushed under the strength of free peoples. That was thanks to the efforts of our soldiers and our working men, who gave us the strength to win. Thanks to the efforts of Dr King and many of his supporters, the movement of equality has the strength to win as well. The day of Victory will come. In his last speech, Dr King said as much ‘I’ve seen the promised land. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop’.

I can’t promise you the hardships of generations will be erased in a brushstroke. Nothing can manage as much. But I can promise you that the work of Dr King will bear fruits yet to come, and that his name and his life shall never be forgotten or less cherished by the generations that come and love freedom as we do ourselves. I hope to get there with you, and celebrate it by your side.

If the legacy of Dr King is to endure and to be victorious, we must be the first ones to uphold it. I ask you to reflect on what the good reverend would have you do today, in his homage. I believe he would tell you to continue your fight in his name, the fight to build a better nation, a nation in which violence and hatred are replaced with compassion and love.

I found a saying of Martin Luther King I would like to share with you today, that may help in your reflections. It says ‘Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. The chain reaction of evil – Hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation’. Perhaps it was my love for mathematics, but I found this very beautiful. I hope you can see beauty and wisdom in it too, for those were the two qualities we shall miss the most in the great mind that was Dr King’s.

He was a man with a mission he put on himself – to help build a better world. It falls to us, now, to decide on whether to carry on his mission and fulfil it, or betray it using the reverend’s good name as justification for violence and terror.

I trust my fellow citizens to make the right decision.”

After a moment of silence, in respect towards Martin Luther King, a thunderous applause was heard. In the days following, the tensions in Los Angeles fell sharply as no disturbances of note were felt through the city, and peace reigned as was uncommon through American cities during those weeks. Many credit Feynman for this, for having made the effort to come himself and speak towards peace and unity.

Within the week, the President would sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which would have a tremendous impact in crushing the state-sponsored segregation and discrimination many African Americans dealt with daily. This bill he championed would make him a hero for the community, and a pariah for the Southern whites who, until them, had been loyally Democratic, under the Solid South. Trouble brewed as the old guard Democrats, of Southern stock, and the Republicans as well, noticed that old loyalties were falling apart in old Dixie. This change would deepen as to greatly change the entirety of American politics.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

3. the Chicanos walk out​

Meanwhile, in California, Governor Feynman faced a more localised crisis, and one that was very dear to him, as on the first day of March, across East Los Angeles, 15,000 Chicanos, the bulk of those numbers made of high school students but also encompassing sympathetic faculty and community members, walked out of their classrooms in seven high schools to signal their protest against the lack of conditions and opportunities for Mexican American students in California to prosper.

The Chicano community, and the student movement, had been great supporters of Feynman during his campaign, but they still found the Governor’s measures lacking, while their greatest grievances stood with the County Board of Education and staff members who they believed had prejudice against them. An infamous letter was distributed by a teacher stating: “Most of the Mexican-Americans have never had it so good. Before the Spanish came, he was an Indian grubbing in the soil, and after the Spaniards came, he was a slave. It seems to me that America must be a very desirable place, witness the number of ‘wetbacks’ and migrants both legal and illegal from Mexico.” That letter outraged the community.

The following ten days the protests kept growing, with a particularly intensive escalation occurring on the 6th, when Victoria Castro, one of the student leaders, having been able to pull a great coup as her allies, entered one of the schools, convincing students to join up, while she distracted the staff, increasing the awareness of the movement.

When on the 11th an Educational issues Coordinating Committee was set up by the community to represent them in the negotiations with the Board of Education, the leaders of the movement were surprised as they received a call from none other than the Governor of California’s office, saying that Richard Feynman would like to meet with them to discuss their grievances and find common ground and strategy for the future.

At the insistence of the Governor, one of the School Boards ceded its installations to host a meeting between Governor Feynman, his Superintendent Wilson Riles and several leading figures of the Chicano Walkout movement, including teacher Sal Castro, perhaps the godfather of the movement, and student activists Moctesuma Esparza and Victoria Castro.

There, the representatives pushed forward their demands, which would later be called ‘The Chicano Manifesto’ and have a great amount of impact in future policy.

Amnesty for every protestor headed the list, as the schools had already shown they were ready to call the authorities to take down the protestors (if cowed somewhat by the arrival of the Governor). Feynman found this quite agreeable, since the students had been within their right to protest. Compulsory bilingual and bicultural education for Mexican-American students in schools where they are the majority, open to all others at request, with training provided to teach the staff Spanish language and increase their knowledge and appreciation of the Spanish language, with an increase in salary on compliance. Feynman argued for the removal of the compulsory clause and instead offer it on a voluntary basis throughout the school district (and indeed spoke of plans to expand it state-wide), and found the idea of pursuing a fully-bilingual staff very ingenious. After all, teachers need to be able to communicate with their students.

Next, came the need to remove any staff members found in prejudice against Mexican Americans and their culture and heritage, a demand that the Governor understood and found fitting with the civil rights acts being passed on the federal level. On the matter of creating textbooks reflecting Mexican American contributions to American society, Feynman vowed to make the State Curriculum Commission work on that. He did not, however, adhere to the idea of reserving the administration of Mexican American majority schools to Mexican Americans alone, believing in a meritocratic system. He believed that this was, however, coherent with having teachers with too great dropout rates assessed by a citizen committee made of the community organisers.

The need to clean the education administrations was also becoming clear to Feynman. Upon hearing and reading about some events, he felt a dread at the thought of university education being as corrupt as the high school level. Wilson Riles, a veteran of such environments, put forward ideas to create administrators in charge of the educational standards of schools, while the Governor said he would enforce measures to prevent discrimination against teachers based on their political views. He also found the idea of involving parents as teachers’ aids and in charge of recreational activities as being an honourable concept, and one that his California's First Lady Gweneth would later take on for her cause, fitting her like a glove.

They also agreed on the demand to improve, renovate and increase the facilities and the material present at the schools, and said they would promote such improvements with the Board of Education.

Although not seeing eye-to-eye on all things, both parties left the meeting saying good developments had occurred, and hoping to see what was next. The negotiated platform had been agreed upon and, from the on, the Board of Education felt pressures from below, above and soon within to accept the changes, granting a great victory for the Chicano movement, that kept growing within the city and the State, as the awareness flourished after those events.

These talks also helped to shape much of the Feynman Doctrine on Education, prompting the Governor to strive for the bilingual requirements, both on the curriculum and by the staff, and on the creation of laws against the discrimination by political or cultural backgrounds on the schools of California. Under Riles, the School Curriculum in California also began to adhere to a more Latin-friendly view of History, promoting the accomplishments of Chicanos and Americans working together and their shared history in California.

Perhaps the influence of the Chicano Walkout can be seen in the future of its leaders, in particular Sal Castro, who was soon after invited to work in the State Curriculum Commission and, later on, under Superintendent Riles in Sacramento, an opportunity he took to represent his community and his beliefs in Sacramento. Esparza and Victoria Castro, still young, would have to wait a few more years for their own paths to take them to places, but still all began in those fateful walkouts for justice.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

4. the Great month of May​

The rumblings that would characterize the year of 1968 were far from being unique to American shores. Since late March, there had been conflicts between left-wing student groups and the administration of the University of Sorbonne, following protests against class discrimination which was perceived as latent in the university. After a police siege, the protestors disbanded, but they left their wishes expressed, forming the Mouvement du 22 Mars.

After weeks of conflict, in which the administration used threats of expulsion as a weapon against their detractors, the administration finally made its last stand by closing down the university on the 2nd of May. The following days, the students’ union and their teachers’ counterpart allied to march in protest against the police intervention, the closure of the institution and the threats of expulsion. On May 6, more than 20 thousand marched against the Sorbonne. The police answered with bastons and tear gas, and with arrests of hundreds of students.

This attack only served to intensify the revolutionary fervour of the students, who were joined by their high school and working-class comrades in solidarity; at the Arc of Triumph in Paris, they demanded the dropping of all criminal charges to the students, that the police left the university and that the universities be reopened.

Sympathies for the students were rising, both at home and abroad, with American singers taking up the Parisian cause, and, one week later, a million people marched through the streets of Paris as the major workers’ unions joined the students and declared a strike in solidarity; that very day French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou announced the release of the prisoners and reopening of the Sorbonne. If the intention was to end the protests by answering their demands, the French government was to become bitterly disappointed as the students re-occupied the university, declared it an autonomous “people’s university” and promoted popular action committees throughout Paris to express grievances against the government and society.

On week later, on 20 May, ten million workers were on strike, or about two-thirds of the French workforce, virtually bringing French economy to a halt. Feeling cornered, the French government assembled with the unions and employers’ organisations, attempting to negotiate a truce by increasing the minimum wage by 25% and the average salary by 10%, an offer the workers rejected as inadequate.

On 28 May, the head of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left declared ‘there is no more State’, offering to form a new government. The following day, the President of France and her Hero, Charles de Gaulle, fled Paris, disappearing for a few hours before reappearing in the French base in Baden, leaving the national government incapable of functioning, but returning with the knowledge the Army supported him.

On May 30, de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and called for new elections, while refusing to resign. He announced new elections and ordered the workers back to work, while it leaked to the media that the Army was surrounding Paris. Over the following weeks, revolutionary fervour waned among workers and students and order was restored to Paris. But nobody could forget how the student movement had been close to deposing the government of France.

In fact, the world was shaken by the events in Paris; in Germany, student movements rose against their own authorities, demanding an improvement of student rights and to disempower administrators that had been involved with Nazi atrocities.

Elsewhere in Europe, other waves were being made.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

5. it’s Spring in Prague​

Beyond the Iron Wall, matters were heating as, in Czechoslovakia, the local Communist Party, led by First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, had started to campaign for extensive reforms in the socialist society that had reigned for twenty years already, to follow more closely to the democratic tradition of Czechoslovakia which, during the stormy interwar period, had alone among its neighbours failed to succumb to tyrannies of some kind or another.

On March 4, censorship was abolished in Czechoslovakia, freeing the media from being the State’s puppet to its fiercest critic. This was the first step into the program Dubcek dubbed ‘socialism with a human face’. In his program, it was planned to further the freedom of the press, speech, movement and change the emphasis of industry to the production of consumption goods, the federalisation of Czechoslovakia between its Czech and Slovak parts and eventually the creation of a multiparty system. In ten years, it stated, a new form of democratic socialism would be fully implemented in the country. In all its proclamations, however, the Party was careful not to denigrate the policies that had come before, calling them merely necessary in the past but having become obsolete due to the new conditions of the working class, free under socialism.

To fight the loss of value of exports, there were discussions on liberalising the economy, and debates between those who were open to create a mixed economy with market components and those who upheld the virtues of the planned system.

From Moscow, the Soviets eyed these reforms with great concern – many feared that the calls for reform were veiled criticisms of their own policies and that, with the liberalisation attempts, Czechoslovakia was merely stepping away from the Warsaw Pact and joining the West in defiance to the Soviet Union and her allies. In the last days of July, Leonid Brezhnev and a Soviet delegation met Alexander Dubcek and their Czechoslovakian counterparts, to inquire about their strategy. They saw that the Czechoslovakians were divided between supporters of the reforms and opponents and, while they did get concessions such as pledges of loyalty to the Warsaw Pact by the reformists and promises to prevent the rise of political foes by getting greater control over the media, the Soviets were not satisfied with the guarantees. The plans for a swifter solution were drawn up.

On the night of August 20, Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia, with Soviet, Bulgarian, Polish and Hungarian soldiers in the ranks, a grand total of 200 thousand men and 2000 tanks, occupying the country overnight with less than one hundred enemy deaths; Dubcek called for non-resistance, but there were many villages who opposed the invading armies. The policy of having Soviet armies take over countries seemed to be shifting towards capitalism would henceforth be known as ‘the Brezhnev Doctrine’. The Prague Spring was over.

Throughout the world there was uproar against the Soviets for their intervention; Romania and Albania, themselves in the Warsaw Pact, protested the action, with the latter even leaving the coalition in protest. Western Communist leaders protested the move and so did China, whose leader, Chairman Mao Zedong, saw in the Brezhnev Doctrine a Soviet casus belli upon China on the making.

In the end, the single greatest impact of the events of the Prague Spring of 1968, much like its Parisian contemporary revolt, was not the changes that came from it – they would be reversed by the new, Soviet-approved regime – but by the shaking they would give to the ideals of the world who now saw the Soviet Union as yet another imperialistic power, rather than the liberator many had hoped. The thinking basis of the Western Left would be severely altered ever since.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

6. 7he California Primary​

In America, the year of 1968 kept going and, as the elections approached, the two major parties began their primary campaigns, testing the waters among themselves to choose which individual would be the face of the party on their bid for power in November.

The President had won the front-running New Hampshire primary, even if by a slight margin alone, before abandoning the race. His main foe at the time was Senator Eugene McCarthy, in a campaign based on ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. He won in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, winning all primary races through March, as the war turned unpopular after the Tet campaign, and was beginning to rise as a likely winner of the popular vote. Johnson, rather than face the embarassment of defeat (or at least not as grand a victory as would be expected of a sitting President in his own party's primaries) decided to gracefully withdraw from the presidential bid, stating he did not plan to run for re-election, leaving the field momentarily open for McCarthy to rise and shine.

But the tide began to change by mid-March when Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of JFK, announced his own candidacy. This spelled the beginning of the end for the McCarthy campaign, even if he continued to win over Kennedy as the latter’s campaign assembled; many of his supporters were Kennedy fans backing the more similar candidate against Johnson, who now abandoned him for their favourite son, leaving with a plea for McCarthy to abandon the race and endorse Kennedy. This he vehemently refused to do and, instead, turned his campaign full-on against Kennedy, who he saw as cowardly for letting him sacrifice goodwill points against Johnson and only entering the campaign after the President had been bled by his own efforts.

At the same time, a third candidate presented himself – Hubert Humphrey, the Vice-President, whose championship of labour and civil rights earned him some points with the people, while his position of influence gained him the endorsement of the big-heads of the Party, from the President himself to the Congressmembers, the Mayors and the labour leaders, giving him hopes of winning the delegates at the Convention over both Kennedy and McCarthy, even though he was too late to take part in the primaries. In him rested the hopes of the New Deal Coalition, the winning machine that had made the Democratic Party such a power since FDR.

As a prominent and upcoming Democrat, Governor Feynman was flirted by the media as an attractive prospect for the nomination, bringing some new blood to the Party while giving it the popularity the Governor held with the African American, Chicano, academic and youth communities. Feynman, however, clearly denied any desire to serve as President, putting his mission in the State of California as paramount and adding that he had no interest whatsoever in going to Washington.

In May, Kennedy won the DC, Indiana and Nebraska primaries over McCarthy, but lost the Oregon race, leaving McCarthy with one further State than himself as they headed to California where, on June 4, there would be the Democratic primaries, concurrently with New Jersey and South Dakota. As the largest shareholder of the Electoral College, however, California was the prize for the candidates, who struggled to achieve supremacy there.

In a debate held in the first day of June and aired by ABC, McCarthy would fall short of Kennedy, who stood against his statements regarding being willing to put forward a coalition government in Saigon, including the Communists, but also of the need to move away African American communities from the inner cities to solve the urban problem, the latter which Kennedy accused of being a plan to ship ghetto residents to white, conservative counties.

As the question raged between the two, Governor Feynman was enquired on where he stood; the leader of the California Democrats, and a shining star in the Party at the national level, even if an unwelcomed one by some, his input and maybe even endorsement was considered noteworthy by many. The Governor was somewhat at a crossfire – a great admirer of Humbert Humphrey, whose letter had sent him on the path to Governorship, he was nonetheless aware that, ideologically, he stood closer to Kennedy than any other candidate, sharing his concern for civil rights and his disenchantment with the war in Vietnam. Rather than announce his position, Feynman declined to endorse any candidate and remain cordial with all of them, meeting with both Senators Eugene McCarthy and with Robert F Kennedy after their debate in the State.

In California, Robert Kennedy won the primary over his opponent, a cause of much celebration for him and his campaign. He was stationed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; in whose ballroom he addressed his supporters shortly after midnight, ending his speech with a promise to head to Chicago and there win the Illinois primary as well. There, he was also greeted by Governor Feynman whom, having heard of his victory, decided to congratulate the Senator, as a show of good faith and comradery in what was becoming a very heated and poisonous primary season. For Feynman, there was no need for bad blood. It was a fair contest and who won, won.

Feynman stayed in the ballroom, speaking with some of the Californian party leadership, whom approached him with the intention of convincing him to endorse Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention, a support which would make great waves for Kennedy and Feynman alike, they claimed, believing that might entice the stubborn man. They were also monitoring him for interest in a Cabinet position, to secure his commitment to their cause. Even the Vice-Presidency could be an option if merited. Meanwhile, the candidate himself was being headed through the kitchen, in a shortcut to the media room that had been prepared for him to give his victory speech.

Moments later, chaos would enter the room, as three gunshots were heard. They feared the worst, and the worst materialised itself, as the room was informed that the Senator had been shot three times. Feynman rushed to the room, where he saw the Kennedy laying, mortally wounded, with a rosary in his hands and a busboy cradling his head, losing blood and being barely conscious.

Minutes later, the medical attendants would transport the Senator to a nearby hospital, where he would die 26 hours later and after extensive and heroic efforts at repairing the damage to his brain caused by the bullets and by the bone fragments; his last words had been ‘don’t lift me’, before losing consciousness on his way to the hospital.

During that day, the nation went into shock as, only five years after having lost his brother and President, John F Kennedy himself, to assassination, the promising Senator too had perished. Investigations quickly concluded the shooter was a young Palestinian national who detested the Senator for his support of Israel and who had chosen the date in remembrance of the start of the Six-Day War.

It was Governor Feynman who first announced the loss of Senator Kennedy, in an address to the nation and to the family and friends of the Senator. A Jew himself, he was in a rather awkward position – he had always been a proponent of assimilation and never a Zionist – he had never even been to Israel, and had no plans of doing such a trip – but he was keenly aware he was still seen as a Jew and that it had been the conflict between Israel and Palestine that had cause the hatred to pour into the assassin’s heart. Eternally hopeful of distancing himself from that particular question, as he had always been, even in the scientific world, when they tried to make waves of his Jewish origins, Feynman was careful not to dwell to deeply into the matter.

“I have come to announce very terrible news – as you may have known, Senator Robert Kennedy has been undergoing surgery after having been a victim to an attempt on his life yesterday. I am sorry to inform you that, as of 1:44 AM of today, June 6, 1968, Senator Kennedy has succumbed to his wounds and has died at 42 years of age. He was with his three children, his wife Ethel, his sister, his brother-in-law Mr. Stephen Smith and his sister-in-law Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy… had just received news of his victory in the Californian primary when he was attacked, and was preparing to go to Illinois to continue his campaign there. He lived a life of service to the public… and died serving in that capacity of public servant, as his brother did before him. Whether or not we agreed with his views… It is important that we, as a nation, recognise the works and sacrifices of those men, who always worked towards creating a better America. I hope we can all respect the great man who has been lost to us today.

It is also my hope that the message of Senator Kennedy, a message of hope, of equality and of peace, does not die with him. Having met the Senator during his campaign, and having followed him before during his life of public service, I know he would have liked to be remembered as a good man, who did his best and tried to right the wrongs he saw in the world. To the family who loved him, I offer my best wishes and hope you can find solace in knowing many share in your grief and will continue fighting to ensure Senator Kennedy’s legacy is not forgotten.

Today is not a day for great speeches or celebrations. Today is a day for mourning and remembering the great man Robert Francis Kennedy was and continues to be, in our memory. I hope that, even now that he cannot continue fighting, others, friends and foes alike, remember his message and its impact with the American people. I believe he would see this as his greatest honour.

Thank you”

There was great mourning through the land as all, allies or enemies, respected and admired the man who had perished at the Los Angeles hotel that night. Not only Kennedy had died that night, but much of the optimism that had characterised American society in the last decade suffered a great blow. In turbulent times, the hope for the future, which had secured all matters, was weakened.

1968 was truly turning into a tragic year.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

7. the Democratic National Convention of 1968​

The death of Senator Robert F Kennedy, one of the most popular contenders to the Democratic nomination for President, and who had usurped Senator Eugene McCarthy as head of the anti-war movement within the Party, brought the Democratic Party to disarray, as many who had supported Kennedy were now forced to ally with another candidate.

Remembering the bitter battles and insults thrown at them by McCarthy during the later stages of the campaign, many of the Kennedy allies, even though they were against the war, allied with Humphrey by pure spite against the Senator, who had insulted their own intelligence during the primaries, in some rather unthoughtful comments. This made Humphrey, who already had the support of the powerful party establishment, the uncontested winner to be.

A few weeks after the death of Senator Kennedy, pressured by his peers and by the media, Governor Feynman would endorse Vice-President Humphrey’s bid, and would turn to be one of his most adamant supporters, even though he never hid that there were disagreements in policy between the Vice President and himself. Nevertheless, his sheer admiration for the work he had done in matters of civil rights outranked those concerns, especially against Senator McCarthy, whose comments during the primary debates had turned the Californian African Americans and Governor Feynman against him.

The Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, 26 to 29 of August, by influence of the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, a prominent establishment Democrat who looked with concern at the voting tendencies of his State and reasoned that, without the Convention being held in the State, it might be lost during the election. From there, he would have great control over went on within the walls of the Convention and, perhaps as importantly, beyond its walls.

Riled up with the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and increasingly turning more against the war, the city of Chicago was home to many protestors of the war, while youth leaders had made manoeuvres to mount a youth festival in Chicago coinciding with the Democratic National Convention, threatening to make their presence known and fighting against the pro-war nomination.

And although Mayor Daley forbade any legal protesting requests, 10,000 protesters gathered in Chicago in late August. They were, however, outnumbered more than two to one by the 23,000 policemen ready to take down their protests and keep the situation from embarrassing the Mayor who had commanded them to be there.

On August 28, the protestors gathered for their demonstration; the police response was so violent and the use of tear gas so abundant the substance made its way to the Hilton Hotel, where it disturbed Humphrey in his shower. The most famous image of the demonstrations would happen in front of that same hotel, as images of the police attacking protestors with mace and tear gas made their way across the world, with the chant of “the whole world is watching”. Indeed, many criticised the violence of the police against the young protestors, even among the Convention.

The Jewish-American Senator from Connecticut Abraham Ribicoff, during a speech that day for George McGovern, a fellow Senator whom had become one of the heirs to Robert Kennedy during the weeks after his death and whom many hoped could bring back the anti-war movement to power, said, going off-script from his speech: “And with George McGovern as President of the United States we wouldn't have to have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago! With George McGovern we wouldn't have a National Guard. You bet. You bet.”

This was a direct attack to Mayor Daley, and one that he took very to heart, shouting, together with other supporters of Hubert Humphrey, at the Senator, what his supporters would claim was just ‘faker’, but which multiple television lip-readers claimed went more along the lines of “Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch, you lousy motherfucker go home”. The Senator, with his voice shaking, then proceeded to file a failed motion to change the city hosting the Convention.

Regardless of the primary victory of Eugene McCarthy, regardless of the efforts of the McGovern supporters, and regardless of the protestors tortured by means of tear gas outside, the Convention was somewhat anticlimactic, with Humphrey winning over his opponents in the first ballot, with more than two-thirds of the votes.

With their Presidential candidate therefore decided, it came to the table the choice of the running mate to Humphrey. With such a contested primary season, even if the convention itself had turned out to be less than climatic, a need was felt to bring the Party together; the choice of the running mate was a traditional tool towards this, meant to indicate the second-in-command and closest ally to the presidential candidate, even if this was less than truthful in reality.

The first choice of Humphrey was Senator Edward Kennedy, or Ted Kennedy, as he was better known, the last surviving of the Kennedys. Not wanting to live under the shadows of his brothers, however, he declined, as he had an invite for a draft by Mayor Daley before the Convention.

The other choices at hand were the Senators Edmund Muskie from Maine, an environmentalist but otherwise moderate, and Fred Harris from Oklahoma, a young and active statesman who dabbled in civil rights extensively, and then the Governors Richard Hughes of New Jersey, greatly popular with the labour unions, Terry Stanford of North Carolina, a known progressive leader, and Richard Feynman of California.

It is said that, of those, the first one with which Humphrey flirted towards being his running mate was Feynman, whose record with the young, the anti-war movement and with civil rights he appreciated as capable of showing the idea of a party united in his support, even if that was far from the truth. Even if that was the case, however, the flirtations failed, as Feynman continued to refuse approaches towards taking him from California and dragging him to Washington DC. In the end, Humphrey reduced his choices between Muskie and Harris and, in the end, saw the age of the latter as too much of a problem and took on Muskie as his running mate.

The unruly Convention followed his request, and Muskie won the nomination in the first ballot, with minimal and quite symbolic opposition from other candidates besides a protest blank vote.

On June 29, the Convention closed, with Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie standing as the uneasy chosen team for the presidential bid later in the year. The lack of party unity, together with the indignity of the violence against the protestors in Chicago and the disapproval of the public towards the Vietnam War, worked to weaken the Humphrey campaign from the start, however, and many feared the Democratic Party was too wounded to actually accomplish victory in November.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

8. a Valley of Silicon​

Feynman had worked with computers during World War II, at Los Alamos, leading the group that used a machine from IBM to make calculations regarding implosions for the Manhattan Project. He had been fascinated by the machines, and had described his interactions with them in the following manner, when recollecting his war experiences years later, in a calmer setting:

“The trouble with computers is you play with them. They are so wonderful. You have these switches--if it's an even number you do this, if it's an odd number you do that--and pretty soon you can do more and more elaborate things if you are clever enough, on one machine.... If you've ever worked with computers you understand the disease-the delight in being able to see how much you can do”

A description that would become a celebrated way of computer enthusiasts of describing their passion to their fellow men, as their hobby went from a small curiosity of the modern age to the dominating industry it became. And, of course, Feynman would have a role to play in that development. As he reached the Governorship in California, events were unfolding that were working towards making California a great hub of the computer industry, events that would begin before Feynman arrived at Sacramento and would continue to develop long after he was gone.

It had begun at the twilight of the war, as the universities began to face pressure as their students returned, turned into veterans of a terrible war, seeking space to learn and space to practice their craft, seeking employment opportunities for graduate students who so far had only known work for the military in Europe and the Pacific. In Stanford, Frederick Terman, the Dean of Engineering, promoted the leasing of Stanford lands for the building of an industrial research park, as part of his campaign to encourage faculty and graduates to start their own enterprises, with the support of the university system, to whom their propserity was their own. As a result of his nurturing and endorsement, many high-tech firms began sprouting around the Stanford campus, in Palo Alto, among them the Hewlett-Packard Company.

In 1956, William Shockley, inventor of the transistor and receiver of the Nobel Prize that year for that contribution to science, moved from his New Jersey home to Mountain View, California, to live closer to his ailing mother, and where, in a delightful coincidence, met the thriving industrial research environment, deciding then to form the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to continue his work and research in the matter. Having worked at Bell Labs and having fallen out with the management, due to his abrasiveness perhaps, he believed the new venture could give him the full credit he deserved for his inventions, something he clung greatly unto ever since the perceived betrayal by Bell Labs on the transistor patent.

The Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory developed the Shockley diode, which the creator and eponym believed would be the prototype of all future computing; the difficulties of producing them, however, refuted that claim and the models were a commercial failure, but Shockley nonetheless refused to budge and continued to focus his efforts on solving the problem with his invention, disregarding the commercial interests of his sponsors. He had done too much too fail, in his mind.

Through the first year, the failure of Shockley was proving emotionally disturbing; his paranoia began to take over, as he distrusted everyone, including his team; results weren’t shared within the Laboratory and all reports were double-checked by the Bell Labs staff to whom Shockley sent them. All phone calls were recorded and he attempted to put the entire staff through a lie detector test. Soon enough, the team started to lose members, who could no longer handle the madness within.

After an ultimatum to the chief investor to replace Shockley, the eight youngest researchers quit the team together, bonding to form a new company of their own. To those, Shockley would call ‘the traitorous eight’ and said they would never succeed.

He was proven wrong as the Traitorous Eight would find an investor in Sherman Fairchild, and begin the Fairchild Semiconductor company. Until 1961, they would work together, through various challenges, and developing planar technology, one of the most important developments in the industry. Even after four of them left the company, after disagreements with management, which was becoming ever more oppressive, Fairchild Semiconductor continued to be, until 1965, the leader of the market, based in Palo Alto, for semiconductor technology.

Beginning in 1965, conflicts with shareholders began to drain manpower, as many researchers moved to new companies sprouting around Palo Alto, with the company losing its leadership position to Texas Instruments in July 1967.

In March 1968, two of the remaining Traitorous Eight, and the leaders of the movement at the time, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, left Fairchild Semiconductor and, on July 18, founded the company that would later become Intel. The many movements, discoveries, clashes and friendships that had moved the industry through the last decade would continue throughout it, to make the Californian computer industry, based around Palo Alto, to grow to the largest nationally and worldwide.

As computer potency grew, ideas began to form in ambitious minds and, after meetings and discussions around Palo Alto, a new concept was emerging – of a network of computers operating and communicating throughout the country and perhaps the world. By 1967, the technical designs had begun, sponsored by the Pentagon, and by mid-1968 the complete plans were designed and approved. California would be a beating heart of the network, comparable only to the full breadth of the Eastern Coast, which it was starting to outrank in technological prowess.

This growing market would find a trustworthy ally in Professor-turned-Governor Feynman, who would follow their development closely, and would help find sponsorships for young researchers with great ideas that he understood could change the world. He would often tour their humble headquarters in Palo Alto, calling media attention and therefore investor money to them, while making efforts to have the State of California invest in the growing industry, both by favourable legislation and by commissions that helped modernise the State’s infrastructures.

There was good reason that Frederick Terman, William Shockley and Richard Feynman, three Californian professors, would be later called the Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley, to whom many streets and monuments in the area are still dedicated.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

9. the Grand Old Race​

In the Republican field, Richard Nixon was the front-runner, promoting a ‘peace with honour’ stance towards Vietnam and law and order for the country ravaged by civil strife. Like his Democrat counterpart, however, he would face challenges from within as not all believed Nixon was as capable a leader for the Party as he would like to paint himself as.

His first opponent was Governor George Romney of Michigan. The first Mormon to press a credible claim to the Presidency, he was at first very popular among voters, but as time passed and as speeches went, full of gaffes mostly, that perception started to weaken, reaching its lowest after a ill-fated comment about having been brainwashed in Vietnam towards supporting the war – as a justification for his change of heart now that he was the Republican candidate for peace. Two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, with internal polls showing that a defeat was imminent, and hearing that his own supporters were already searching for a replacement to his sinking ship, Romney withdrew from the race.

From his ashes, to lead the liberal Republicans against what they saw was the doom of repeating Goldwater’s mistakes, came Nelson Rockefeller, who hitherto had supported the candidacy of Romney. He didn’t immediately declare his presidential nomination interest; he only hinted he was open to be drafted to the position. Answering the call, Anti-war Republicans began a write-in campaign that gave him second place with 11% of the votes in the New Hampshire primary. With that, he became overnight the leader of the Stop Nixon movement within the Republican Party.

Despite his popularity, perhaps due to his reluctance to actually campaign openly, Rockefeller had trouble picking up steam through the primaries, defeating Nixon at the Massachusetts and California primaries alone, while achieving little more than half of his opponent’s votes. Despite this, he had hopes that, come the Convention, he could sway enough of the delegates who didn’t care that much for Nixon to join him out of spite, regardless of, ideologically, being closer to Nixon than himself. It seemed Nixon had collected a few of those throughout his career; one could say it is a curse of being a career politician, but Nixon seemed particularly good at collecting them.

At the Convention, Nixon met great support from the Southern States, who were strictly conservative, while Rockefeller managed to gain many votes that were meant generally against Nixon; even so, his attempt at gaining the Convention over failed. After the first ballot, Nixon had 746 votes against 405 going for Rockefeller, with the rest scattered among lowlier candidates, mostly favourite sons accomplishing the support of their delegation. After this, the Rockefeller campaign collapsed and Nixon would win the nomination with no further delay.

For his running mate, he chose Spiro T. Agnew, Governor of Maryland, for his moderate reputation, and for his liberal reputation towards civil rights that might give him points with the African American community, not to mention the party wing that had been defeated with Rockefeller, but that now needed to be courted to make sure they did vote for Nixon, even if begrudgingly.

Despite this, Nixon’s aim for this election was clear – he had won the nomination thanks to the South, the same South that was now ever further from the Democratic Solid South, having been outraged at the defence by President Johnson of the civil rights movement. He would speak of states’ rights and of law and order, words that were understood for what they meant – an opposition to the counterculture and to the disorderly conduct of some communities.

And, of course, it was from the South that came the movement that would help Nixon to walk more comfortably throughout the election. For it seemed not all Democrats were as fine with the new position on Civil Rights as the President and the new candidate would have liked them to be.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

10. the South rises​

Segregation had been the way of life in the South since… well, since slavery had been abolished, in fact. As the Democratic Redeemer governments took power back in the South as federal occupation loosened after the Civil War, they began an exhaustive campaign of revoking the privileges that had been attributed to the freed blacks and the restoration of their political hegemony – helped by the Corrupt Bargain of 1876 in which the national Democratic Party traded the rights to the Presidency in exchange for the removal of federal forces from the South.

Between 1890 and 1910, Southern states would go on to pass several questionable amendments to their constitutions that disenfranchised the African American citizens in their states, taking back the political power that Emancipation had provided them. Literacy requirements were put forward that made it almost impossible for one to pass as a voter, while grandfather clauses exempted the white citizens of having to go through them, targeting the former slaves and their descendants alone.

After that, and helped by the Woodrow Wilson administration in the 1910’s, which enforced segregation of the workplace on the federal level, the African Americans found themselves holding their own separate (and poorer in quality) schools, libraries, houses and workplaces, which prevented them from rising in life as easily as a white citizen.

And for the next fifty years, that had been the way of life of the South. Slavery was no longer in place, but an impoverished, politically-null and mistreated class continued to exist, working for the descendants of the plantation owners, often enough in the same lands they ancestors had worked in the antebellum period. Everything had changed so that everything could stay the same.

After World War II, however, during which many African Americans had fought and died in service of their country, many felt, upon returning home, that, having given their lives for their country, it was unjust that that country still treated them as second-class citizens. From that injustice-damning spirit, the Civil Rights movement would be born, and begin their campaign to eradicate segregation once and for all in all of these United States.

It was a bloody campaign, with tolls from many of the Civil Rights leaders, most prominently Martin Luther King, whose death brought the nation to the brink of civil warfare. And yet, it seemed their struggle was beginning to pay off as ever more Americans were brought to their cause and ever more political leaders took up their name and passed legislation in their favour.

Surprisingly enough, it was the Democratic Party, the party of the secessionists, the party of the Redeemers, the party of Wilson, now led by Lyndon B Johnson, who had been a champion of civil rights and had passed through Congress many initiatives that had given the African American communities space to flourish for the first time in decades. He managed to turn the motto of the Democratic Party from alliance with the segregationists to alliance with the African Americans.

Of course, as with all changes, not all were thrilled to hear about that. In particular, the Southern Democrats, the proud sons of the Redeemers, were not too happy to see their Party endorse the people they had fought hard to oppress all throughout their political careers, and they would not stand to see all they had worked for forfeited without a struggle.

Just as they ancestors had risen in 1861, they would rise again… but this time, in the ballot.

At least, that was the intention of former Governor and now First Gentlemen of Alabama, George Wallace, a leader within the Southern Democrats and who had been a prolific activist in that camp, having said in his infamous inaugural address in 1963: “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” and, in that same year, having led a symbolic blocking of the University of Alabama, keeping black students from entering the newly-integrated university.

Now, he was promoting himself as a Presidential candidate by the American Independent Party, bent on keeping segregation in the South. His campaign was based on law and order, the increase of social programs, upholding states’ rights as to segregation of their institutions and on disentangling the US from foreign commitments. More than to appeal to the Southern rural whites and to the Northern union workers to whom he had great relationships and whom he knew he could use as a weapon against Humphrey.

He was very aware that full-blown victory was impossible; in any case, it wasn’t the goal either. His plan was to get enough States to make the Electoral College fail to award a majority to any of the two main candidates and, in the position of third potency, have client’s choice as power broker between the two and, from that position, gain negotiation rights for the South.

Storm Thurmond, now Senator and then-governor of South Carolina, had attempted such a feat in 1948, against President Truman, running at the behest of the States’ Rights Democratic Party, better known as Dixiecrats, who had carried four Southern States but nonetheless had failed to curb Truman’s surprising victory. In 1964, he had left the Democratic Party to work on Goldwater’s campaign and now he supported Nixon. George Wallace now took his place and planned to do more damage than he had been able to, twenty years before.

For running mate, there were many choices that Wallace enjoyed – he considered diverse characters from actor John Wayne, who refused to work on Nixon’s campaign instead to J Edgar Hoover, who did not respond to the appeal and even KFC founder ‘Colonel’ Sanders. Other candidates were Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson and General Curtis LeMay, who actually expressed interest in the venture. For a time, his campaign promoted Happy Chandler, former Governor and Senator from Kentucky, but also Baseball Commissioner, but his supporters put down the idea.

In the end, only General LeMay remained, and he was made the official running mate. The idea was to reduce the perception of extremism in the ticket, by putting in a mostly apolitical and respected officer. The enthusiasm LeMay showed for the particular subject of nuclear weapons, especially their use to win the war on Vietnam, however, threw any of such hopes out of the window quickly.

The campaign was not limited to the South; they went all out nationally, doing events and promoting themselves throughout the country; in California, many of the former supporters of Reagan now looked at Wallace as a hope for a truly conservative regime, while in New York City’s own Madison Square Garden 20,000 protestors, both against and in favour of the candidate, squared off while 1,000 policemen attempted timidly to keep the order.

With the nation rising in tensions between the anti-war protests, the civil rights protestors distraught by the murder of Martin Luther King and the Southern reactionaries promoting their return to the past, the election to come would be one of the most violent the country would know.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

the bloody campaign of 1968​

As the campaign began earnestly, after the August conventions, Humphrey had suffered much more than Nixon, after the poor publicity the Chicago convention and the utter division of the Party had afforded him. The Democratic Party was falling into pieces, divided between its segregationist wing, already detached, its anti-war, counter-culture wing that was reviled by most of the establishment, and then the Humphrey Democrats, bent on continuing the war but friendly towards social programs and civil rights nonetheless.

Humphrey stuck to his supporters in the labour unions, promoting his work in the Great Society programs of President Johnson, while nevertheless distancing himself from his administration and the ill will felt towards it. The efforts of Wallace to take those same workers, however, were being felt, with Wallace peaking at 21% in the polls, but falling after the LeMay fiasco as his running mate began speaking of using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. With the support of labour unions, struggling to bring members back from the Wallace fold, he began to rise again, and after having lost almost half the union workers to Wallace, Humphrey came back from the brink of disaster in time for the election.

In California, Humbert Humphrey was well-received and campaigned alongside Governor Feynman, who expressed his support and admiration for the work he had conducted throughout his career. Running against a former Senator of California, many within the campaign feared the State might support their favourite son; Feynman’s support helped them promote the image of Humphrey as not so distant from the people of California as his rivals might suggest.

Humphrey, however, and his supporters in the administration, had plans to help his campaign after the issues regarding the Vietnam War and the threat the liberals might sit out the election or vote for Nixon, for the sake of ending the ever-less popular war. Since May 10, peace negotiations had been undergoing in Paris between the United States and North Vietnam; the negotiations went slowly, as each party understood that total victory was not attainable but couldn’t agree on an honourable peace either. To promote the peace talks and to help the odds of his Vice-President and preferred candidate succeeding him, however, on October 31 President Johnson announced a complete halt of all bombing in North Vietnam, indicating that peace was just around the corner. This move, dubbed the Halloween Peace, just six days before the election, was meant to keep any opponents from reversing the situation and giving Humphrey a clear path to victory.

What they didn’t count was that Nixon wasn’t indisposed to stooping down to any levels.

With the help of his campaign aides and allies, many of them with double agents within the White House who were aware of the plans for the Halloween Peace, they began working towards thwarting the settlement, by means that were less than legal, establishing communications with South Vietnamese leaders to convince them not to take part in the negotiations, which they felt compelled to do, believing Nixon would win the election and catering towards his good-will towards them.

The South Vietnamese government withdrew from the negotiations and all hopes for peace were shattered. Having learned of the interference by NSA wiretapping of Vietnamese communications, the President had his hands tied, not wanting to divulge the nature of his modes of information but wanting to blow the whistle on the illegal and immoral proceedings he believed Nixon had employed.

It was in that mood and in those circumstances that the nation went to vote on November 5, 1968, after a campaign bereft with protest, internal struggle, hatred, intrigue and all kinds of fury, as three very different men presented themselves to be the next President of the United States of America.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

the election night​

Both Humphrey and Nixon had spent the last days of the campaign in Los Angeles, broadcasting from different television channels, ABC and NBC respectively, preparing for the final go that would decide the fate of the entire campaign.

As the polls closed and the votes were counted, Humbert Humphrey and his campaign were stationed in a Los Angeles hotel, confident that they would be giving their victory speech later on. Governor Feynman stood as a guest of honour, happily chatting with the man he had campaigned for during the last few months. He too was confident in the victory of his candidate, trusting the American people would see in him what he saw as a leader.

As the night went on, the votes were being counted and the states slowly began stating which candidate had won their races, even before the final tally was accomplished.

Nixon began to claim a greater share of the popular vote, which did not preoccupy Humphrey. Among the first states to announce their victor was Mississippi, which seemed to be heading towards Wallace, which was less than unexpected, considering the strength his segregationist message had there. Alabama followed behind their native son as well. On the national swing, all that could be said is that it would be a close call.

Kansas and Vermont went for Nixon, while signs from the border states pointed out that Wallace might not be as strong as many would have expected, giving hope for Humphrey to still cling to victory. Illinois, which was deemed crucial enough to have the disastrous Democratic Convention in Chicago, was too close to call between the three candidates.

The first victory that showed itself that night for Humphrey was the State of West Virginia, while Kentucky was close to finishing their counting and presenting a victory for Nixon, with a plurality not far beyond Humphrey’s numbers. In Tennessee, projections pointed to Nixon as well, confirming the suspicion the Upper South was not in the Wallace boat, as some had expected.

Not long after Florida began to show signs of going to fall to Nixon, when, throughout the campaign, it had been impeccably tied between the three candidates to the pointe commentators had mostly refrained from predicting the victor of the Sunshine State. The victory was quite close, regardless. In Georgia, Wallace was beginning the counting leading over his opponents.

In Indiana, Nixon seemed to be leading well, while continuing to rise in the popular vote; despite this, no candidate yet was close enough to call a victory, with Humphrey trailing closely behind and Wallace being not too far back, helped by the early closing times of the Southern states where he had his base. In fact, it seemed Wallace had performed best in the suburbs of American cities, rather than in either the cities themselves, where the black vote crushed him, or in the countryside, more leaning towards their traditional choices.

When the Pennsylvania predictions started, Humphrey began to lead in the state, and the same was true in Maine, the home state of his running mate and in Connecticut as well, while Nixon led in Ohio and in New Hampshire. Soon enough, victory in Connecticut was ensure for Humphrey, a result verified quickly due to the voting machines that the State was equipped with. In New Jersey, the vote was almost tied between Humphrey and Nixon, with the latter only winning by a slim margin so far.

Although Nixon seemed to be winning, Humphrey’s dominance in the large states could mean a deadlocked election, and so far, it seemed that prediction was coming true as the results poured in through the television coverage of the voting counts.

The District of Columbia was quickly won by Humphrey, while it seemed the Texas Democrats had managed to unite under the banner and were leading on the polls, possibly bringing the State to Humphrey. In Massachusetts, the projections pointed towards a safe Democrat victory as well, with Humphrey gaining a great amount of the labour vote. With this, Humphrey finally rose to second place in the electoral vote, no longer falling behind Wallace, as the states favouring him began to close their polls. Nixon, however, was still ahead, in what many were beginning to suspect would be a lead difficult to remove for the Democrats. But nobody was close to a victory.

As time went by, it seemed Humphrey was closing in on Nixon’s advantage over the popular vote. Michigan, meanwhile, was projected to go to Humphrey as well, a sizeable advantage to the candidate. In the Carolinas, the three candidates were very close in vote for a winner to be determined quickly. In Missouri, Humphrey had a substantial lead.

An effect was beginning to be noticed that the African American vote, while higher than ever before, due to changes in the South, where the once-oppressed blacks now registered in large numbers, in the Midwest and industrial states many were staying home, rather than vote, a vote that had been deemed crucial for Humphrey to win there.

In Maryland, perhaps due to the influence of his local running mate Agnew, Nixon was on front, while in Maine, the home state of Edmund Muskie, the same was true for Humphrey. On the popular vote, he was still leading, although treading very closely to Humphrey. Wallace, on the other hand, sat stably at his 20% popular vote, at least for the time being. Not long after, he would go to win Louisiana as well, not a surprise either, as the state had long favoured him.

In Minnesota, Humphrey’s home state, he was the favourite from the very start of the counting, and the same was true from Rhode Island. He was also taking the lead in Illinois and Ohio, although it was too soon to ensure that Nixon might not wing those back before the end of the night. In Virginia, Nixon was expected to be the leader.

Pennsylvania was still too close to tell, while New York’s count was still too low to be anything meaningful. In Colorado and Arizona, however, Nixon seemed to have won, helping him rise more in the race.

Arkansas was another victory for Wallace, while Nixon was winning over North Carolina, although it was yet too soon to speak with any degree of certainty, while Wisconsin so far was nearly tied between the two main party contenders.

In Iowa and Nebraska, Nixon was projected as a winner soon after, but, as the city votes from the great metropolis of the Northeast, heavily supporting Humphrey, were counted, the Democrat took the lead of the popular vote, surpassing Nixon, if by a small margin, for the first time in the night. Wallace’s share of the pie kept decreasing, however. Among the electoral votes of predicted victories, Nixon still led by twenty points, but still with less than half the necessary votes for a true victory. In Ohio, Nixon had taken a lead over the Democrat, however, and in Idaho it was believed victory would be Nixon’s.

Soon after would come news that it seemed North Dakota had voted for Nixon as well, and the same was true from her southernly sister, even if by a lesser margin. By the time the voting polls had all closed in the continental US, news came that in New Mexico the score was too close to tell, while in Illinois Humphrey remained in the lead. In Utah, Nixon held a substantial lead, as would be expected. He also seemed meant to win both Carolinas as well.

Missouri remained too close to call for a while, with Humphrey’s lead over Nixon being very marginal in the state, as it was in Illinois and Pennsylvania, while the opposite being true in New Jersey. In Washington, Humphrey would be the winner, and the same was true for New York, who went against the candidate from their State to support the Democrat Humphrey.

Although Humphrey was winning so far in Illinois, it was known that this wouldn’t last; the Chicago area, very urbanised, was always strongly liberal, but as the votes were counted from north to south, the more rural and conservative areas of the State would take over and vote Republican; the small margin which the Democrat vote had achieved so far would most likely prove insufficient to stand against the wave of Nixon votes coming in. Meanwhile, Nixon was beginning to slowly recover the popular vote, stalking closely the so-far Humphrey lead. Nixon still led in the Electoral College, however, by 25 votes, but yet far from the needed for a true victory. The ten states still to be decided would be crucial.

In California, as the count began to be broadcasted, showed a very close race between Nixon and Humphrey, with the latter winning so far with a margin of 10,000 votes, less than 1% of the total of counted votes. Wallace himself held 7% of the vote in the State. California joined the ranks of undecided states as the night carried on and suspense rose as to who would greet dawn as the President-Elect.

As Nixon returned to the lead in the popular vote, even if by a very slim margin, the question of who would win California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, all of them large states who, together, accounted for 121 electoral votes, a sizeable portion of the Electoral College. States like Missouri and Texas also remained with very thin margins, brewing concerns for all involved in forecasting the election. Hawaii was projected to go Democratic, however, giving one more State to Humphrey. Wisconsin, on the other hand, would go to Nixon.

Seeing as the speed of the counting went, it was becoming ever clearer that the nation would have to wait for the Californian vote to be tallied before any winner could be declared; Humphrey had a small lead, but it was one that could shift at any moment, and neither candidate was still close of reaching the goal of 270 votes necessary to win an election in the Electoral College.

In fact, things were seeming to stall as the night got long and many wanted to rest; some computer problems in Dallas had delayed the counting of the votes and, until the vast Californian votes were accounted for, there would be no certainties of anything. The various candidates spoke, all of them satisfied with what they perceived were the trends favouring them, and proceeded to announce they’d wait until the morning to hear the announcement of the elective results.

And so, a nation went to sleep, restless.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

the Results Come in​

The next morning, Governor Feynman had, shortly after waking up, been informed of the results of the election in his State and in the nation in general. All incumbent representatives in California had been re-elected, and the only vacant position had been refilled with a member of the same party. Of their delegation of 38, it remained 21 Democrats to 17 Republicans. In fact, the changes in the House of Representatives hadn’t been tremendous in the country as a whole, with Republicans winning five seats, falling short of replacing the Democratic majority.

Regarding the Senate, it seemed Alan Cranston had stood victorious over Max Rafferty. That was good for Feynman, whose relationship with the former Superintendent who he had campaigned against in 1966 were less than good. Feynman had happily endorsed Cranston during his campaign, finding in him many reflections of himself, especially regarding humanism and nuclear weapons. Feynman would congratulate him shortly afterwards. Control over the two houses was maintained.

And apparently, Californian voters had ended up voting for Humphrey, although in less than en masse. Humphrey got 3,467,664 votes versus 3,244,318 for Nixon, with a difference of little more than 3 percent, but that nevertheless had delivered its 40 electoral votes to him. That was good; the campaign had been harsh but it was nice to know it had had success. Knowing that Wallace had only obtained less than 7% of the votes was good to know as well.

He then enquired about some of the other states that had been unresolved that night – Texas and Pennsylvania had come to the Democratic side, by a similarly small margin, while Illinois and Ohio had done the same, but for Nixon. Remembering from last night, and tallying the numbers, that gave 231 votes to Humphrey, 262 to Nixon and kept Wallace at 45. After some quick maths, he came to a terrible realisation.

It was so that the nation woke up to find that, for the first time in more than a century, after an election they had no President-elect to speak of. Nixon had missed the needed 270 electoral votes to swing across the moat of victory and, as George Wallace and his allies had hoped, they had managed to prevent any of their rivals from attaining victory… or at least forcing them to consult them to achieve it.

Scandal spread throughout the Republic and the world as the Presidency of the United States of America, perhaps the most powerful position in the West, had its future in the hand of George Wallace of Alabama and his segregationist allies. The media had a field day.

Protests were held by African Americans and liberals, outraged at the process that allowed for a small minority to keep the proper transfer of power from going through and used political manoeuvres to force concessions out of the majority, and all for the sake of keeping their white supremacy in place against the current political tides promoting equality and integration.

The election margin had been quite tight, with Nixon only surpassing Humbert by a very tiny margin of 66,000 voters, less than 0.1% and giving them a virtual tie that could have been shifted with ease in virtue of recounting, besides being the closest margin in any American Presidential Election in History.

Through the morning, the candidates would speak to comment on the situation. After all, they were in the middle of the greatest constitutional crisis America had experienced since the Civil War. Unless Wallace planned to secede with the South, he had managed to create the single greatest political bundle since 1860.

Humphrey asked for calm and for the following of the correct proceeding – the Electoral College would vote and, in the likely case that they would not award anyone the 270 votes, the House ought to vote as demanded in the Constitution. Although he didn’t say this, it had been calculated so far that, with 25 states with Democratic-majority delegations outside the Wallace-won states, and five further counting those, he had good chances of being voted the new President. It was less than ideal, but it got the job done nonetheless.

Nixon too spoke of following procedure and allowing the election to fall to the hands of Congress – but he pointed out that it was the Congress delegations’ duties, from each state, to uphold the popular will expressed in the election. Having carried 31 states during the election, Nixon meant they had a duty to elect him, regardless of their own party loyalty.

Only Wallace could actually speak of preventing the election from going to Congress; having won five states with 45 electoral votes, he was aware he wouldn’t be elected President by either the Electoral College or the House, nor had that ever been his goal. Instead, he spoke of promoting stability and, called on each candidate to come speak to him about terms which, should they promise to guide their Presidencies by, he would be more than happy to ask his pledged electors to shift their votes to an endorsed candidate, thereby granting them victory.

Nobody else liked that hypothesis; everyone knew what the terms would be – stop all federal efforts towards ending segregation and cut the civil rights movement in the bud. Many were outraged at the prospect and promised that, should any of the candidates cut such a bargain, hell would be made.

Elections were meant to provide the peaceful transition of power the US had become great for. They were supposed to give a new leadership that, if not consensual, at least had a clear mandate to administer the nation for the next four years. In late 1968, however, there was no such thing, as the two main candidates had come to a negligible margin of one another, giving none of them a clear mandate on the popular vote, and neither had accomplished any victory on the electoral vote either, thanks to the Wallace movement that now more and more Americans despised. More than a few assassination attempts were thwarted.

It seemed the year of 1968, which so far had been marked with tragedy, turmoil and fury, had decided that, before it was extinguished with a brand-new replacement that many hoped brought along calm and normalcy, it would be going out with a bang.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

Negotiations under the Table​

The Electoral College would meet on the Monday following the second Wednesday of December; this meant December 16, giving the people around five weeks to protest and fight over the results, and for the candidates to actually come to an arrangement that might prevent violence from escalating ever further, as the polls showed that no arrangement made by Congress actually satisfied a majority of citizens; Humphrey winning upset both Republicans and Southerners, Nixon winning upset both Democrats and Southerners; either winning by support of Wallace’s electors upset both Republicans and Democrats and any sort of coalition among the great two contenders just upset everyone.

As might have been expected, the first team to actually move to try something out was Nixon’s. A fine negotiator with no problem in dirtying his hands and with a vast network of resources to help him entrench in any and all positions (with extensions as far as Vietnam that had helped him take down Johnson’s attempt at an October surprise), Nixon was the first to actually approach Wallace to hear his terms and try to work something out.

Nixon saw himself as the logical candidate for such a coalition; he was the most central of the three candidates, with Humbert Humphrey to his left and George Wallace to his right; if any covenant was to be made, he was the one to make it. And, after all, he had come first in both the popular vote and the electoral vote; that had to count for something.

For Nixon, segregation was, more than an issue, a hassle. He had grander plans for the country and for his administration and, while the Wallace campaign had been useful in weakening Humphrey, it was becoming problematic that he had put him in such a vulnerable position.

Nixon feared the terms that Wallace presented would only serve to brew trouble – the question here would not be if segregation as an issue were resolved by one side or another; there was only way for segregation to be resolved, and that was by extinguishing it. The fire had been burning for too long and now wouldn’t be extinguished; if segregation remained in the South, it would be a thorn dividing the nation and his electorate for the next election and every election afterwards.

Perhaps with was due to that the negotiations with Wallace never led anywhere; while Nixon was willing to distribute some seats in the administration to the South, out of good-will and hoping to actually bring them to the Republican fold in the long-term, none of that mattered for Wallace – his supporters hadn’t done the campaign to sit on the national government, but to sit it out and take it out of their states. And that simply wasn’t something Nixon might agree to do.

Negotiations between Nixon and Humphrey also failed – the two men wanted to be President, and the seat was too small for both of them. It was that plain simple; each of them believed that, if push came to shove, the House would elect them as President and were not willing to concede before the very last moment.

Despite the failure of the negotiations, Wallace didn’t take back his statement that he might direct his electors to vote for someone else, fuelling the fears that he might have negotiated a settlement with one of the contenders to give him the perks he desired.

As December approached, galloping in like a horseman of the Apocalypse, the American people sat and feared what would happen then, and what the future held for the country.

 

[Prince di Corsica]

the Electoral Revolution​

The Electoral College met on the Monday, December 16, 1968, each delegation in their own State Capital, to cast their votes for the President of the United States of America. Media attentions were high as many claimed that the Electors were preparing to solve the crisis that had erupted with their own votes, symbolic as they might be. In particular, in the five Southern States that had voted for Wallace, the electors had been hounded as to whether they had been instructed to vote for someone other than the victorious candidate. None of them agreed to comment, only exacerbating the curiosity of the nation.

In many states, protestors assembled around the State Houses as the Electors met, especially in the South as thousands of African Americans stood in protest against Wallace; police dispersal of those protests was brutal in some occasions, further promoting the escalation of violence.

It was in such setting that the twenty-nine Electors of the great State of Pennsylvania would meet, in the State House in Harrisburg, and, through several machinations, make what later became known to the public as the Minehart-Michener Conspiracy or, in a more sensationalist but also more popular term, the Electoral Revolution of ’68.

The Revolution had nothing of violent, in fact, it wasn't even loud, and happened quietly, almost in whispers, in the empty halls of the State House; it was kickstarted by the thoughts on the election of Pennsylvanian James A. Michener, a veteran of the War in the Pacific and prolific author who, in recent years, had dabbled in politics, serving in Democratic local committees, running unsuccessfully for the House (to his regret), serving as campaign manager for Senator Joseph S. Clark and Secretary for the Pennsylvanian Constitutional Convention. He was also a popular writer, with a Pulitzer Prize and a Broadway adaptation of his first book, Tales of the South Pacific. His writing took him to research many faraway lands, from Hawaii to the Caribbean to the Iberian Peninsula, but, in late 1968, his thoughts stuck home, as he contemplated on the disastrous result of the national election.

He had been horrified at the prospect that Wallace had been able to assert himself as king-maker and that his supporters had managed to keep the nation hostage until their demands were met. As he had pondered during the election, upon the results he firmly decided to do his best efforts to keep any deal with Wallace from working out and reach an honorable conclusion to the election.

In this, he was helped by an unexpected ally; Thomas Z. Minehart, Democratic Chairman of Pennsylvania, had began assembling the corps of electors, starting with him and promoting a change in paradigm from what they had been used to – rather than vote for the victor in the State, they would bind together and vote for Nixon – he was only ten votes away from winning and that could be accomplished by turning the votes of Pennsylvania alone.

This surprised Michener, who knew Minehart as an ardent Democrat who felt for every loss in his State, a pain they had shared after the unsuccessful campaigns Michener had been a part of. Nevertheless, with his support, and of his friend and fellow Democrat leader Matt Gouger, they planned to bring enough Democrats to the fold.

As Minehart still had nine electors to select, after some had needed to be replaced, he had managed to bring nine citizens who supported his plan; although many of those who remained were unwilling to budge, mostly for ethical reasons, three more were persuaded to join them, giving the group a full 13 electors prepared to go faithless; a rather ominous number, to be sure, but nevertheless one that gave enough of a margin for their goal to be accomplished.

And so it was that, for the general surprise of the nation that day, the news erupted not from the South, to where the media had flocked, but from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as it came to be known that, rather than the Wallace electors, it had been a group of 13 Democrats from Pennsylvania, dubbed the ‘Thirteen Faithless’, who gave Richard Nixon a majority in the Electoral College.

The news were followed by both celebrations and outrage; Nixon made a speech, thanking that he had been entrusted by the voters, without mentioning the Electoral Revolution, as it was beginning to be called, while Humphrey refused to comment or make a concession speech (although he would later do so) and Wallace made a furious speech denouncing the Thirteen Faithless as conspirers against the United States and calling for Congress to invalidate the results of the election, coming close to calling for the thirteen of them to be hanged (or at least it was clear his thoughts ran that way).

Many celebrated, however, especially among the African American communities. Most of them hadn’t voted for Nixon, that was true, but they nevertheless preferred his victory unattached to Wallace than to know the segregationists held power over the Presidency.

Legal discussions also ensued, frantically, over Washington, as many claimed the conspiracy had been illegal, and harassing the Thirteen Faithless, and Minehart too as he admitted his part in the conspiracy, remaining unapologetic. Despite that, he resigned from his Chairmanship late in December, after various pressures from the Democratic Party that, as public opinion varied swiftly between supporting and criticising the move, preferred to cut their ties to the Conspiracy, just to play it safe.

As the days passed, however, the nation began to accept the results and Nixon was indeed the President-Elect. In January, Congress dully confirmed the election, even if there were raised objections to accepting the ballots from Pennsylvania, but those were quickly dismissed by Humphrey himself who, in his position as Vice President, presided over the counting of the votes.

On January 20, 1969, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States of America, with a less than solid mandate, but nonetheless he assumed office, prepared to carry the position with as much capacity as he had.

The fallout of the Electoral Revolution, however, was still felt as, after such a troubling election, more voters called for a swift reform of the electoral method to ensure that nothing of the sort ever happened again; the year to follow would also see the investigations by Congress of what exactly had happened in Harrisburg that day, and if truly there was no criminal component to the matter.