“I run because this country is now involved in a deep crisis of leadership; a crisis of national purpose - and a crisis of American ideals. It is time to substitute a leadership of fear for a leadership of hope. This is not simply what I want, or what most of us want. It is, I believe, the deepest hunger of the American soul.”
- Senator Eugene McCarthy on running for the Democratic nomination for President, 1967
Nothing went as planned in the Election of 1968.
What started out as the shoe-in re-election of an incumbent President instead ended with the election of a no-name Senator from Minnesota. Ever since Lyndon B. Johnson’s crushing victory over Barry Goldwater in the Election of 1964, the Democrats seemed to be ascendant, but behind the scenes, they had been rapidly growing cracks over how to proceed with the Vietnam War. President Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Speaker of the House John McCormack all supported the war, while the disorganized anti-war Democrats - nominally led by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee J. William Fulbright - had been pushed to the side of the administration. Despite Johnson’s large-scale investments into America through the War on Poverty, and his ushering in of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, his economic and domestic achievements were beginning to be dwarfed by undesirable foreign policy, and discontent with the lack of 'law and order' in the United States. Everyone knew Johnson was going to win the Democratic nomination unopposed, but it was guaranteed to be close against the Republican challenger, who was likely to be Richard Nixon, Eisenhower’s Vice President and the 1960 Republican Presidential candidate. Nixon, who had narrowly lost to Johnson’s assassinated predecessor, the near-mythical President John F. Kennedy. Nixon was making a political comeback of the ages following nearly eight years of racking up favours from Republican politicians, and other such behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
Despite having the full backing of the party machinery, Johnson’s authority was consistently questioned by that small but vocal group of anti-war Democrats. But, in Johnson’s mind, it wasn’t something to be concerned about: whenever re-election season came around, most didn’t say a word about the war in Vietnam, which the majority of Americans still supported.
That being said, the anti-war Democrats had tapped a nerve. A concerted “Dump Johnson” Movement emerged, led by the junior politician Allard Lowenstein, along with the political activist Curtis Gans. The duo later became a trio when they were joined by activist Midge Miller. They planned to field an anti-war candidate against Johnson in the Democratic primaries, who would inevitably lose, but would force Johnson to moderate his stance on Vietnam. With that goal in mind, the movement hunted for a candidate throughout 1967. Initially, they tried to draft Senator Robert Kennedy, the brother and Attorney General of the late President Kennedy. But, after much vacillating and in spite of his antagonistic relationship with Johnson, Kennedy refused to risk running against the sitting President. After Kennedy, Lowenstein and Gans approached as many anti-war figures they could think of, from the darkest of dark horses, Senator Lee Metcalf of Montana, to war heroes, such as former General James M. Gavin. The closest to accept, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, eventually decided against it, as he feared that running against Johnson would ruin his chances of re-election to the Senate.
After plenty of searching, it seemed the only person willing to lock horns with Johnson was his almost-Vice President, Senator Eugene McCarthy.
Eugene, or, as he was more commonly known, 'Gene' McCarthy was the senior Senator for Minnesota. A relatively unknown opponent to the Vietnam War, McCarthy was eligible for re-election to the Senate, but had grown bored with politics and intended to retire. However, McCarthy was increasingly concerned by the scope of the Vietnam War, and he was convinced by Midge Miller to throw his hat in the ring.
Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota
In late 1967, McCarthy began to enter his name into Democratic primaries, with the expressed goal of attempting to defeat the President in the Wisconsin Primary.
As the plan went, he would raise a ruckus against Johnson, maybe get a peace plank in at the Democratic Convention, then fade into obscurity. While officially, the White House considered McCarthy’s candidacy a joke, in private, Johnson was concerned that if McCarthy was able to get the endorsement of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, that it would split the party down the middle [1]. After all, the late 1960s were not a good time to be a Democrat.
Race riots had enveloped major cities all across the country, and were only made worse by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The Democratic Party was lambasted as the party of crime, excess, and disorder by the media, the Republicans, and the voting public at large, while internal squabbles were only getting worse. Both doves and hawks harassed Johnson as overly-aggressive, or as not aggressive enough regarding Vietnam, and elements of the conservative wing of the party were bolting to join forces with Southern populist and avowed segregationist, George Wallace. With this backdrop of chaos, McCarthy began his underdog campaign in early 1967. At the same time, rumours began circulating that McCarthy was attempting to weaken Johnson for Robert Kennedy to swoop down and win the nomination. McCarthy, ambivalent about the presidency at best, privately confided to friends and family that a Kennedy victory would be the best result, despite his long running feud with the Kennedy family. Indeed, McCarthy stuck to the language of being "willing" to run and would "accept" the nomination, having something of a lackadaisical approach to campaigning. When asked by Johnny Carson if he would be a good President of the United States, McCarthy replied that he would be "adequate."
Ironically, McCarthy had previously been friends with Johnson, but after being led on by Johnson that he would be the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1964, they had had a falling out, with the then-junior Senator McCarthy, whose stars seemed to be about to align, being practically exiled from the President’s inner circle. The Vice Presidential nomination instead went to the then-senior Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Known as the “Happy Warrior” of progressive causes in the Senate, Humphrey was well-liked, competent, and popular, and was most definitely the more meritocratic pick for Vice President if one were to choose between Senators from Minnesota. Humphrey would go on to ride the Johnson landslide, but many progressive Democrats felt thereafter that with the Happy Warrior taking his marching orders from Lyndon Johnson, he was turning a blind eye to the administration’s military excesses in Vietnam.
After McCarthy declared his candidacy, Vice President Humphrey met with his erstwhile ally, and was assured that he was running because of his beliefs on Vietnam, not any personal animosity towards Johnson or his choice in Vice Presidents. Humphrey remained skeptical, but their Senate colleagues tended to believe McCarthy’s sincerity, even if they thought he didn't stand a Republican’s chance in Alabama.
Eugene McCarthy with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Oval Office in 1964, before their split.
Holding rallies in St. Louis and Miami, McCarthy focused on the Vietnam War and civil rights in his speeches, and was getting an increasing amount of media attention from bemused onlookers. McCarthy failed to gain much traction amongst his fellow congressmen, but he did manage to gain the endorsement (and delegates) of the Conference of Concerned Democrats, as well as Americans for Democratic Action. At the same time, McCarthy was convinced by his staff that he needed a headline catching move, so he decided to run in the first primary in moderate New Hampshire, not just anti-war Wisconsin. As New Hampshire's primary approached, many of the delegates from Minnesota declared they would nominate Eugene McCarthy to the Democratic Presidential slot, instead of re-nominating Hubert Humphrey to the Vice Presidency of it came down to it at the upcoming 1968 Democratic National Convention. As a result, President Johnson decided to pull his name from the Wisconsin and Massachusetts ballots (relying on write-ins and local power players to sustain him) so that he could focus entirely on a vigorous campaign in New Hampshire to strangle the Dump Johnson Movement in its crib. However, Johnson's political fortunes took a sour turn with the Tet Offensive in late January of 1968. A massive surprise attack by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, the Tet Offensive was a total tactical failure for the communists, but shattered the American perception of Vietnam as an imminently winnable war. With this revelation, many began to take their first serious look at McCarthy. Doves and Hawks alike started to see McCarthy as a vehicle for change.
McCarthy’s campaign served to be incredibly popular with younger voters, especially hippies and college students, many of whom campaigned on his behalf. College students from all over New England and New York poured into the state to McCarthy's New Hampshire campaign headquarters at the Sheraton-Wayfarer Hotel in Wilmington, New Hampshire to volunteer. This, in turn, inspired McCarthy’s unofficial campaign slogan, “Get Clean for Gene.” McCarthy hoped that by organizing the youth vote and have them cut their hair to look presentable to rural county-folk and suburbanites, he could use them to go door-to-door to advocate for his policies. The tactic worked quite well: volunteers canvassed the state, while a media blitz was organized by McCarthy's new Campaign Organizer (and Johnson's former Special Assistant to the President) Richard N. Goodwin at the same time Gene's wife, Abigail, launched a mailing campaign. McCarthy himself was an inconsistent campaigner who often missed his own events and didn't schedule any events in the morning because he said he "was not really a morning person." This lacklustre performance was alleviated by the fact that McCarthy was the only active campaigner in the state.
In New Hampshire, McCarthy not only ran in the Democratic primary, but ran a write-in campaign in the Republican primary. Most anti-war Republicans ultimately supported New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller over McCarthy.
As the New Hampshire primary approached, the McCarthy campaign had put in a spirited, if disorganized, effort. Optimistic estimates expected around twenty percent of the vote, at most.
But luck had little to do with it.
Johnson had critically underestimated his unpopularity, not just amongst anti-war voters, but among hawkish voters who no longer had confidence in Johnson after the Tet Offensive. Doves wanted the war to end, hawks wanted to invade North Vietnam, and Johnson was doing neither. McCarthy’s calm, deliberate, and straightforward mannerisms had endeared him to the more conservative-minded people of New Hampshire, while the Johnson campaign (organized by New Hampshire Governor John King) appeared completely out-of-touch, with Johnson's character being described as anywhere between “exuberant” and “hyperthyroid.”
When the polls closed and the votes were counted on the cold night of March 12th, 1968, Eugene McCarthy had won forty-two percent of the vote to Johnson’s forty-nine, coming within two-hundred and fifty votes of winning the state. An incredibly close margin for an obscure challenger against a sitting President.
There was blood in the water, and everyone could smell it.
Just days after, Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in what many saw as an opportunistic move. To put salt on the wound, McCarthy's Campaign Organizer, Richard Goodwin jumped shipped to the Kennedy campaign. Flush with his victory-in-defeat and stung by the new split in support, McCarthy denounced Kennedy’s entry, going back on his intention to step down if Kennedy entered the race.
As for the President himself, he had had enough.
Facing failing health and a brutal power struggle within his own party, Lyndon Baines Johnson declared to a shocked nation that he would not seek re-election as President of the United States of America.
The battle for the nomination had begun.
“In 1964, I had every right to think Johnson would pick me as his Vice President. All the signals I was getting were very positive. Without any notice to me, it was Humphrey. I vowed I would get that son of a bitch, and I did.”
- President-Elect Eugene McCarthy on running for the Democratic nomination for President, 1968
[1] As LBJ feared, Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed Eugene McCarthy before his death. King's endorsement was used in radio advertisements by McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.
