Original subtitles

Lyndon Johnson: The enemy of freedom

has chosen to make this year the decisive one.

Richard Nixon: Something's going to happen

the change is on the way.

We can change America.

We can change the world.

Eugene McCarthy: What we need now

is a reconciliation in this land.

George Wallace: There is nothing wrong with you

that a good haircut wouldn't cure.

Hubert Humphrey: And rest assured, we Democrats

will stir it up out here.

Chet Huntley: This election year of 1968

has touched the emotions

and assaulted logic as never before.

Unidentified Male: I think we have a little

too much violence in this country.

Martin Luther King, Jr: We go up together

or we go down together.

Robert Kennedy: If we have not found

an understanding for our fellow citizens,

we will have a new America.

And I need your help.

(cheering)

♪ (theme music) ♪

(cheering)

Lance Morrow: If you look at the whole year as theater,

as real acts of tragedy,

there's an almost poetic feeling to it.

1968 was one goddamn thing after another.

John Scali: Hardly a day goes by

without a new report of another demonstration

or protest against the Vietnam War.

Lyndon Johnson: There is in the land

a certain restlessness.

Dan Rather: Lyndon Johnson

whatever everyone else thinks of him

his reputation will always

have the stone of Vietnam around it.

Jerry Rubin: We're living in a middle of a beast.

Lyndon Johnson is a common murderer.

Leonard Steinhorn: Johnson did things that

no other president did,

Civil Rights, great society.

He should have been somebody that

every young person and every liberal would have

celebrated, but they didn't.

He became the Vietnam War president.

Robert Dallek: We've been told repeatedly

that we are succeeding. We're defeating them.

They can't hold out.

Johnson kept saying

there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Announcer: This is a CBS News special report,

Saigon Under Fire.

Mike Wallace: The enemy in Vietnam

has demolished the myth

that allied military strength

controls that country.

(machine gun fire)

Reporter: The American Embassy

is under siege.

Inside are the Viet Cong terror squads

that charged in during the night.

Morrow: The Tet Offensive

was an enormous game changer.

They were shooting up the American Embassy.

They had hit dozens of cities all over Vietnam.

It was a tremendous shock.

Johnson: We have known for several months now

that the communist planned a massive

Winter-Spring offensive.

We do not think that our military operations

are going to be at all materially affected--

Robert Schenkkan: He was unable to be honest

with the American people because

of course he was unwilling to simply say,

"This is an unwinnable war."

Unidentified Male: Cronkite's Vietnam report.

Reel one, take four.

Walter Cronkite: These ruins are in Saigon,

capital and largest city of South Vietnam.

Morley Safer: When he went to Vietnam during Tet,

it was the first time

and maybe the only time that

Walter had shown

any kind of bias in his public broadcast.

Walter Cronkite: It is increasingly

clear to this reporter

that the only rational way out

will be to negotiate,

not as victims but as an honorable people

who lived up to their pledge

to defend democracy

and did the best they could.

Dallek: After Walter Cronkite,

Johnson's popularity sinks.

Reporter: To most ordinary citizens,

it has become obvious the war is not being won.

Sander Vanocur: Opposition to the war was rising.

It wasn't just Beatniks and young kids.

King, Jr: We are fighting a war

and I'm convinced that it is one of the most

unjust wars that has ever been fought

in the history of the world.

Robert F Kennedy, Jr: Martin Luther King came out

against the Vietnam War.

His own followers said,

"You shouldn't be focusing on that,

you should be focusing on our issue."

And he said, "They're intertwined.

You can't separate them."

King, Jr: President Kennedy said on one occasion,

"Mankind must put an end to war,

or war will put an end to mankind."

Reporter: Do you honestly think that

if there was an election,

a vote for and against the war

that the anti-war people would win out?

Well, its really hard to tell now.

The polls are uncertain but the polls do say that

most of the country is discontent

with the manner the war is taking.

I think something ought to be done.

Reporter: Senator, how are you?

Steinhorn: When some of the anti-war activists

were looking for somebody to run for President

and a number of people turned them down

including Robert Kennedy.

Reporter: There are increasing reports

out of Washington that your advisers are now telling you

that you should run against President Johnson this year.

Robert F Kennedy: I have no plans.

I have no plans to change the statement

that I've already made.

Reporter: According to-- Senator?

Timothy Naftali: The assumption among

the Kennedy intimates was that LBJ

was totally unbeatable in 1968.

And Bobby would run in 1972.

Sander Vanocur: The anti-war movement

needed a leader,

and it fell to Gene McCarthy.

-McCarthy: How do you do? - Woman: Nice meeting you.

-Nice to meet you. -Very nice appearance.

Douglas Kiker: Senator, President Johnson's supporters

say you don't have a chance here

in New Hampshire and you'll be lucky if you get

ten percent of the vote.

What do you say about that?

Well, I don't know.

The people who are supporting me

say we'll do much better than that.

Unidentified Male: One Democrat,

Senator Eugene McCarthy,

defied precedent to bid for his party's nomination.

His platform: peace.

Naftali: Eugene McCarthy does something that,

you know, is taboo.

He comes out against the sitting president

from the same party.

Morrow: McCarthy came in from left field.

He was not thought of in the front rank

of presidential contenders.

But there was a great deal of frustration

and even despair among the young.

Eugene McCarthy gave them hope.

Unidentified Female: We're volunteers

for Senator McCarthy.

-Yeah. - We're reminding everybody

to vote in the primary.

Reporter: From NBC News

Election Central in Manchester, New Hampshire,

this is the news.

If McCarthy gets as much as 30 percent of the vote

or more against an incumbent President

he can legitimately claim an important victory.

(cheering)

Kennedy, Jr: McCarthy didn't win

the New Hampshire primary

but he took enough votes

that it scared Lyndon.

(chanting)

Tom Hayden: He got 42 percent of the vote.

But McCarthy was a nothing, an upstart.

If McCarthy could draw blood,

Johnson was vulnerable.

McCarthy: They said that '68 was the year,

I think that March the 12th was the day.

(cheering)

David Schumacher: How does this strike you,

you're not disappointed that he didn't actually win?

Oh, no. Oh, he did win though.

This is exactly what he wanted.

He said you shouldn't have dissent that...

that breaks down our system.

You should work through the Democratic process

to get what you want.

You can hope

and I mean, you've got to base it on a dream,

and this is coming true.

David Schumacher: Whatever happened to Robert Kennedy?

I think...

Who's he?

Schumacher: Perhaps the most important result

out of all these from McCarthy's viewpoint

is that he will, from now on,

be treated as a serious presidential candidate.

Morrow: All of a sudden, after New Hampshire,

there's a new political reality

and Bobby very rapidly starts recalculating.

Reporter: Would you welcome his entrance?

Well, I don't know.

It's a little crowded now, but....

(laughter)

Richard Nixon: Let me tell you the issue of '68.

The issue of 1968

is not the Johnson personality

but the Johnson policies,

and I happen to believe that this country

can't afford four more years of Lyndon Johnson.

-That is the issue of 1968. -(cheering)

Reporter: For 16 years now

in the shadow play of American politics

there has always been Richard Nixon.

He's not coming back, he never left.

Naftali: Most political observers

thought Nixon was finished.

He'd been counted out so many times.

So, Nixon wanted to show the leaders

of the Republican Party that he was a winner.

Nixon: We'll inaugurate

a Republican president next January. Thank you.

Naftali: Media consultants worked with him

so he wouldn't be the sweaty Nixon of 1960.

I'm really the most difficult man in the world

when it comes to a so-called public relations firm.

Nobody's going to package me.

Nobody's going to make me

put on an act for television.

If people looking at me say,

"That's a new Nixon,"

then all that I can say is,

"Well, maybe you didn't know the old Nixon."

I wrote a diary

of being on the Nixon campaign plane.

And I came out just saying,

"What does he believe in?

What does he care about?

How can we trust him?"

I realized that the person I felt most

related to was Robert Kennedy.

Kennedy: I have traveled and I have listened

to the young people of our nation

and felt their anger

about the war that they are sent to fight,

about the world they are about to inherit.

I'm announcing today my candidacy

for the Presidency of the United States.

Morrow: Eugene McCarthy clears the way

and tests the water, but he wasn't the guy

who was going to get there.

Bobby was going to get there.

Kennedy: This nation must adopt a foreign policy

which says clearly and distinctly "No more Vietnams".

Todd Gitlin: You have the declaration of another

rival candidate from within his own party.

Currents of anti-war sentiment are building up.

And the same time, the war is getting worse.

I think if you are Lyndon Johnson,

you feel you're being surrounded by a stampede.

Johnson: Good evening, my fellow Americans.

Tonight, I want to speak to you

of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Schenkkan: This is the moment for LBJ

where the pressures of Vietnam

are becoming almost overwhelming.

Johnson: It is true,

that a house divided against itself

is a house that can not stand.

Accordingly,

I shall not seek,

and I will not accept,

the nomination of my party

for another term as your President.

Rather: You have just heard the President

of the United States Lyndon Baines Johnson

in an address from his office at the White House.

The advance text of his address

did not contain those last remarks

saying and I quote from President Johnson,

"I shall not seek, and will not accept,

the nomination of my party for the Presidency."

Roger, no question about it.

This was a bombshell politically.

Roger Mudd: Well, you really don't know where to begin.

Edwin Newman: Our guest today on Meet The Press

is the Vice President Hubert H Humphrey.

who yesterday announced his candidacy

for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Naftali: Hubert Humphrey was

LBJ's Vice President

and now he's running for President.

Humphrey has doubts about Vietnam

but has been a good soldier. He has stood by Johnson.

Your President made a supreme political sacrifice

to promote this cause of peace.

He was one of the casualties of this war.

Morrow: I don't think there was ever

an overwhelming enthusiasm for Hubert.

The drama of McCarthy and Kennedy

had captured everyone's attention.

Reporter: Is the key Vietnam?

Humphrey: Yes, in a large way.

In a large measure, not totally, but...

there's a certain degree of general protest amongst youth,

which I think is, on balance, a healthy thing.

(indistinct chatter)

Mark Rudd: There was a long frustration

on the part of students

that the war was not drawing to a close

despite our demonstrations.

So, the students began to become more militant.

Reporter: At Columbia University,

students barricade themselves

into University buildings.

Their leader is a 20-year old ex-Boy Scout, Mark Rudd.

I would say that we now have

more support than any group

had about any political issue

has ever held on any-- at anytime.

Rudd: Columbia became the symbol of students in revolt.

(chanting)

Mark Kurlansky: Activists like Tom Hayden

went to Columbia and said,

"Lets have more Columbias."

Tom Hayden: There's nothing like feeling that

you're fighting the power or somebody is listening to you

at least to draw more people in.

Tom Hayden: We started shouting a phrase,

and it's a phrase that's been used in other words,

and by action

of people all around the world

when they face troops.

And that phrase is "Up against the wall ####!"

(cheering)

Rudd: We had an idea that this was the beginning

of something very important.

We took it as the beginning of revolution.

Announcer: What's happening to America,

conversation three.

Tonight, "Our young people, what's bothering them?"

Newman: Is there really a generation gap?

Harry Edwards: Generation gap is a way that whites

in this country, and the structure in this country,

the system in this country, rationalizes its

lack of responsibility in teaching this generation

how to solve the problems which we are faced with.

1968 was the year

that you could point to and say,

"Here is where the separation began

between past generations

and generations going forward."

(cheering)

Robert Kennedy: I think all of us have a role to play.

And I think all of us

have a great stake in the future,

you more than anybody else.

As President Kennedy once said,

"You have the least ties to the past

and the greatest stake in the future."

Kennedy, Jr: You will always find idealism in youth

and I think that's something my father

and my uncle recognized

and why they always visited the universities.

I remember my father talking about

how the founders of the American Revolution,

you know, they were young people.

George Wallace: Well, you fellows don't even

vote over here, you're not older than my son.

You don't even vote.

Come up here and I'll autograph your sandals for you.

That'll make you feel better.

Naftali: There was a third party candidate

in this election, George Wallace.

But Wallace was not affected by the Vietnam issue.

He was going to have a certain amount of

support in the South, come what may.

Wallace: There's not a dime's worth of difference

in either one of the two parties.

And if they don't give the people a choice,

we're going to give them a choice

by having a new party.

Morrow: It was just a plain, ordinary,

anti-government streak in him.

It was his act,

"You bastards in Washington

are not going to tell me what to do."

And you anarchists had better have your day now,

because I'll tell you again,

you're through after November 5th in this country.

Robert Kennedy: Do they know about Martin Luther King?

Ladies and gentlemen...

Could you lower those signs, please?

I have some very sad news for all of you,

and, I think, sad news

for all of our fellow citizens,

and people who love peace all over the world.

And that is, that

Martin Luther King

was shot and was killed tonight

in Memphis, Tennessee.

(screaming)

Evan Thomas: When King was killed,

Bobby was on his way to a campaign stop

in Indianapolis, going into the ghetto.

And the cops said "Don't go."

They were fearful of a riot.

Bobby went anyways.

Robert Kennedy: For those of you who are

black and are tempted to fill with--

be filled with hatred and mistrust

of the injustice of such an act,

I would only say that I can also

feel in my own heart

the same kind of feeling.

I had a member of my family killed,

but he was killed by a white man.

Steinhorn: He gives this spontaneous speech

to an absolutely devastated crowd.

This wasn't just politics, he made it personal.

Let us say a prayer for our country,

and for our people.

Thank you very much.

(cheering)

Chet Huntley: This country and every person in it

suffered a terrible loss tonight

with the assassination of this man.

The perpetrator of this deed

brings down upon all of us the painful charge,

that we Americans are prisoners of violence

and destruction and death.

That is the tragedy of it.

Restraint, gentleness, charity...

virtues we so desperately need

have had a dark day.

Unidentified Male: King was the only

rational voice that was left in America.

He stood against the war in Vietnam.

He stood against violence, period.

So, when you killed him, you killed everything.

You killed the only rational voice that's left.

Edwards: It became absolutely clear,

you don't want Dr. King,

you assassinated nonviolent direct action,

you tried to kill the dream.

Okay, here's a taste of the nightmare.

(sirens wailing)

Harry Reasoner: The outrage could not be contained.

Fires burned in the cities of America.

Reasoner: Washington, Chicago, Detroit,

Boston, New York, these are just a few of the cities

in which the Negro anguish over Dr. King's murder,

expressed itself in violent destruction.

Jeff Greenfield: I remember coming back to Washington,

two or three days after King had been killed.

I was thinking "What am I seeing here?

This is the United States of America

and there are machine guns

on the steps of the Capitol?"

Reporter: One hundred cities rage with riot,

20,000 are arrested.

Rudd: People were in open revolt.

Sirens wailing, people screaming

and it shook everyone, black and white, to the core.

Whitney Young: Nothing could be more desecrating

to the memory of Martin Luther King

and to use his death as an excuse to engage in violence.

Edwards: There was a faith and spirit vacuum,

and when you find people

who have lost that hope,

fear tends to fill that vacuum.

People were increasingly afraid

and "Mister law and order", stepped up

on the Republican side.

Nixon: This is a nation of laws.

No one is above the law,

no one is below the law

and we're going to enforce the law

and Americans should remember that

if we're going to have law and order.

(cheering)

(cheering)

Robert Kennedy: Ending those divisions

that exist between black and white,

I want us to work together

and I run on that basis

for President of the United States.

Kennedy, Jr: My father's appeal was to

really the most disenfranchised classes.

He felt like nobody else was

speaking for them and that's where

his space was rather than with the liberals,

because the liberals were for McCarthy.

McCarthy: I want to reassure you that

I'm not yielding to anybody along the way,

either the Vice President or Senator Kennedy.

(cheering)

Morrow: Indiana, Bobby wins.

Nebraska, Bobby wins. And then on May 28th, Oregon.

Reporter: McCarthy's crowds

in recent days have been good,

larger than Kennedy's in many places

although without the frenzy

that accompanies a Kennedy appearance.

Robert Kennedy: I can't afford to lose

if I'm going to remain a very active

and viable candidate,

it would... adversely affect me in a very serious way.

Cronkite: The actual final figures yet to come in

but apparently Senator McCarthy has

won a major victory in Oregon.

Senator Kennedy has suffered a severe setback.

They move on now to California

and the primary there, a week from tonight.

Eric Sevareid: And this result, tonight,

does not prove of course,

that Kennedy is politically dead this year,

it does prove that he is politically mortal,

it establishes that he is Robert Kennedy after all,

not John F Kennedy.

I think what will happen now is that

McCarthy gets a new life.

He's still a long shot, but he has a chance now.

I think that, however, you don't

write off Robert Kennedy

because he can come off the floor

and win big in California. That's what he has to do.

But if he doesn't win big in California, he's had it.

(crowd chanting) We want Kennedy

We want Kennedy

We want Kennedy

Steinhorn: Bobby Kennedy having lost Oregon

knew that he had to win California,

and that would be his ticket to the convention.

Reporter: It will take a very big win,

a spectacular win in California,

to repair the badly shattered Kennedy image.

Kurlansky: Bobby's going to do it.

You know, it's just the way everybody felt.

Reporter: Final totals will be

Kennedy, 48 percent,

Senator McCarthy 41 percent.

Unidentified Female: He won.

♪ (crowd singing "This Land Is Your Land") ♪

♪ (This land is Robert Kennedy's) ♪

(cheering)

All of us are involved in this great effort.

And it's a great effort

not on behalf of the Democratic Party,

it's a great effort on behalf of the United States,

on behalf of our own people,

on behalf of mankind and all around the globe

and the next generation of Americans.

(cheering)

My thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago,

and let's win there.

(cheering)

(indistinct chatter)

Greenfield: I was upstairs in the Ambassador Hotel.

We were getting ready for a victory party,

and somebody called.

I picked up the phone in the suite

and this colleague said,

"Something's happened to the Senator."

Sander Vanocur: Senator Kennedy has been shot...

Vanocur: Senator Kennedy has been shot...

Is that possible?

Vanocur: In this bedlam I couldn't find Kennedy,

finally found him, he's lying on the floor.

No! (wailing)

Bob! (wailing)

Unidentified Male: Somebody shot him

in this corridor behind the kitchen,

behind the kitchen here.

Unidentified Male: Everybody please stay back.

Please stay back. We need a doctor here.

Please, it's very important. We need a doctor.

Unidentified Male: Will you please clear this room?

If you will not leave the room,

we cannot give medical aid for the Senator.

Now, would please... (screaming and chaos)

Greenfield: I can't say that people thought,

"How this could happen?" Because we'd seen it happen.

The truth is this had been at the back of

everybody's mind and one of the reasons why,

you know, some people said, "Don't do this, don't run."

♪ (somber music) ♪

Chet Huntley: Robert Kennedy is in the most grave condition

and hope is difficult to find.

Frank Mankiewicz: Senator Robert Francis Kennedy

died at 1:44 a.m. today,

June 6th, 1968.

He was 42 years old.

Thank you.

McCarthy: As you all know that

no words can really fully convey

the feeling that one must have

for the nation in the face of this tragedy,

this new tragedy.

Vanocur: People say, well, it was inevitable.

His brother was murdered and so was he.

Nothing's inevitable. It just happened.

Vanocur: This plane will take back

the body of Robert Francis Kennedy

to New York.

Also on board this plane today

will be Mrs. John F Kennedy.

Also on board will be another widow,

Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr.

Somehow and in some way,

we seemed to be sending a great many

of our young leaders to their early graves.

It's been a very emotional period

for all of us who have worked for the Senator.

And personally, the most horrifying thing,

in these last few days, was this morning

when I tacked this black ribbon on to my campaign button

because now I'm lost. I'm desperate.

And I don't know where we're going from here.

David Brinkley: When Senator Kennedy went down,

he was trying to speak for those Americans

including the young who feel the need to change

many aspects of American life.

Well, that cause has not been stilled forever

because even without him that changes will be made

because they have to be.

But nobody knows when nor how

nor whether the changes will be made

peacefully or violently.

Lauren Bacall: In the meantime,

this country has lost another leader.

As far as I'm concerned, it has lost the only leader

that I feel gives us any hope for the future.

I mean, what happens to the country?

I mean, you wonder if it's worth saving, you know.

What is it? What's left of this country?

Rather: I know what my own feelings were

and I think they were widely shared.

We have to question ourselves,

is our country coming apart?

What are we becoming?

♪ (somber music plays) ♪

This is Walter Cronkite

in Miami Beach at this first session

of the Republican National Convention.

Rather: Richard Nixon was the leader

but he walked in to the Republican convention,

not positive that he would be the candidate.

Cronkite: The new fashioned Nixon

runs an old fashioned campaign,

and that's what the country seems to want.

Morrow: There were challengers.

There was Nelson Rockefeller in New York, for starters,

and George Romney of Michigan.

There was some talk of Reagan.

But Nixon had a lock on the delegates.

Gov. Spiro Agnew: We are a nation in crisis.

Right now change rules America.

It's time for America to rule change.

(cheering)

It is my privilege to place a nomination,

the man for 1968,

the honorable Richard M Nixon!

Reporter: There are 30 votes in Wisconsin

and this should put him across.

Reporter: Richard M Nixon.

(cheering)

Nixon: Sit down, get to work.

(chanting)

William F Buckley: Well, it looks like Nixon,

nobody is really surprised

and no committed Republican feels cheated.

What was the fuss all about?

Dallek: The Republicans understand

that Nixon in this time of tumultuousness,

he gives people the sense of continuity.

Richard Nixon: What is most important now

is for us to think how we can get this war ended.

Unidentified Male: Mr. Nixon talks of an honorable peace

but says nothing about how he would attain it.

(machine gun fire)

Dallek: At this point, the war is

continuing at as a hot a pace as it's ever been.

More troops are being killed every week

than in any time in the course of the war.

Harry Reasoner: This weekend, the enemy

stepped up attacks throughout South Vietnam.

Hayden: We knew that we would not be able to

influence the Republicans on Vietnam,

so we wanted to put massive pressure

on the Democrats.

I didn't think anything could happen

with Vietnam without that challenge.

Joseph Benti: This is a CBS news

Campaign '68 Convention Special.

What's going to happen in Chicago?

Benti: On this eve of the beginning

of the 35th Democratic National Convention,

Chicago is nearly security tight.

Perhaps the heaviest security

ever provided for a political gathering

in the free world.

Reporter: The police,

several thousand of them, are now deployed.

Soldiers have arrived in Chicago and are standing by.

Hayden: For the convention,

the plan was to have a mass anti-war demonstration

and a mass counter culture festival.

We gathered in the parks.

Unidentified Male: We are going to march

because we have a right to

because that's what we came here to Chicago to do

and no one is going to stop us. Thank you.

Morrow: There were many factions.

They were united only by feeling that this is

our moment.

This is Carnegie Hall.

(crowd chanting) No more war. No more war.

Tom Hayden: We are concerned about

the build up of the force because we think

that anything that's built up like this

is liable to be used.

Cronkite: A Democratic Convention

is about to begin in a police state.

There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it.

Richard J Daley: The people of Chicago

and its Mayor are proud to welcome

a great political gathering of Americans

who come here to shape the future of a nation.

And as long as I'm Mayor of this town

there will be law and order in Chicago.

Reporter: The two men

who most still believe this is all about

arrived in Chicago today to begin their final drive

for delegate votes.

Steinem: Most of us were saying

it just wasn't politically possible

for McCarthy to overcome

those who were pledged to Humphrey.

So, there clearly needed to be another force.

Reporter: Arriving now,

Senator George McGovern of South Dakota.

Kurlansky: McGovern got into the race because

there was a big hole in the anti-war side

and, you know, Bobby Kennedy had a lot of delegates

Charles Quinn: McCarthy said

he didn't believe McGovern had enough strength

to make any difference.

And so McCarthy said

he'll continue the fight for the nomination

although it was clearly implied

that his chances are very slim.

Steinhorn: Mayor Daley setup all of the conditions

for a conflict in Chicago.

He didn't give them permits to march

but he knew that they were coming anyway.

Reporter: Over 10,000

demonstrators were gathered in Chicago's Grant Park.

The demonstrators are determined to march

on Convention Hall tonight in protest.

The police are at the park in force.

Hayden: You can count on it

that the police and the authorities

will always unify

what you can't unify by yourself.

(chanting)

Rather: The tumultuousness of

violence that was happening outside the hall

became reflected inside the hall.

Mike Wallace: There seems to be

some kind of battle going on over there.

Dan Rather: Yes, directly

under our booth here. They're carrying a man out.

Rather: I got into a melee

in the convention hall myself.

Don't push me. Take your hands off of me

unless you plan to arrest me.

Unidentified Male: Wait a minute.

Rather: Well, Walter as you can see...

Cronkite: I don't know what's going on,

but I think we got a bunch of thugs here, Dan.

Rather: Mind you, Walter, I'm all right.

It's all in a day's work.

Rather: It reflected for all the world to see

the reppression inside the hall

in what was supposed to be a

Democratic Society of free people

nominating someone to be President.

(chanting)

Downtown. Downtown Chicago

across from Grant Park beside the Hilton Hotel,

there has been in progress for some time,

a peace demonstration.

The police have come to put it down.

The National Guard has been called to help.

Hayden: You create disorder,

if you try to impose too much order with force.

That's what happened.

They were suppressing our Democratic rights

in order to continue an undemocratic war.

(chaos and unrest)

Gabe Pressman: People screaming,

being dragged to the paddy wagons,

a scene of wild disorder on this,

the night, of the Presidential nomination

at this Democratic convention.

Steinem: It was a police riot.

And I had never seen that before in my life.

I had never seen groups of

uniformed policemen going after civilians,

there were pools of blood on Michigan Avenue.

(chanting) The whole world's watching

Reporter: "The whole world is watching"

chants the crowd on this day.

Abraham Ribicoff: When George McGovern is

President of the United States,

we wouldn't have to have Gestapo style tactics

in the streets of Chicago.

(cheering)

Reporter: Did you see

what was happening downtown?

Shirley MacLaine: Yes, I saw it with this television set.

Reporter: Do you think this is going

to cost the Democrats the election this--

what's happening here in Chicago this evening?

MacLaine: I don't think there's any question.

I think not only the party but the country has split in half.

And I think they'll veer away from this dissension.

Reporter: Thank you very much

Shirley MacLaine and Roosevelt Grier

watching the television set in the back of the hall

about what's going on downtown.

Rep. Carl Albert: It is my high honor

to present the new leader of our party,

the next President of the United States,

the honorable Hubert H. Humphrey.

♪ (marching band music plays) ♪ (cheering)

I proudly accept the nomination of our party.

Rudd: We got Hubert Humphrey

as the candidate.

Humphrey was an example of what we were fighting.

He was a liberal

who was going to betray our hopes.

Reporter: I see an HHH on your lapel.

Does that mean you're for Humphrey all the way?

Hugh Hefner: Well, I wouldn't say all the way.

I'm a Democrat and he's the nominee.

Kurlansky: Now, it's true what George Wallace said,

if the first job at hand is to end this war,

there isn't a dime of difference there

between Humphrey and Nixon.

Harry Reasoner: Vice President Humphrey

remains by any basis of measurement available

a complete underdog.

Unidentified Female: My feeling is that

if he could cut himself off from the President,

be his own man,

then he has a chance of winning this election

and it would make it very easy for all of us

to support him.

Humphrey desperately needed to separate himself

from the administration, and he did.

Humphrey: Well, I think the greatest task

of statesmanship is to find a way

to conclude and bring that war in Southeast Asia

-to an end and to do it-- -(roraring applause)

Naftali: The public was so happy

that there was some movement towards peace in Vietnam.

Humphrey was back in the game

and it was neck and neck.

Reporter: From NBC News election central.

Huntley: Nixon is the one.

That's the natural banner

for any sprightly front page tonight.

94 percent of the popular vote is counted.

There are the numbers.

Brinkley: It was one of the closest elections

in American history,

closer even than when Nixon lost to Kennedy

eight years ago.

(applause)

I have done my best.

I have lost. Mr. Nixon has won.

The Democratic process has worked its will.

Huntley: George Wallace carried five states,

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Wallace: In our judgment,

the people who supported us

had an impact on orienting the two parties

in a different direction.

And I do wish for Mr. Nixon the most success

of any President in the history of our country.

Having lost a close one eight years ago

and having won a close one this year, I can say this:

Winning is a lot more fun.

(crowd laughs)

(cheering)

Morrow: With Nixon's election,

even though many people felt a sense

of disappointment, there was a sense that

that there maybe some normality on the horizon.

People were exhausted,

so it was, in part, a sense of relief...

..maybe, thank God it's over.

Bop Hope: I planned to spend Christmas

in the States, but I can't stand violence.

(crowd laughing)

(cheering)

Brinkley: 1968 certainly has been

one of the unhappiest years in American history.

Frank Reynolds: In the end, it always comes down to

what the people do, and this year the people,

like the events of 1968, are largely unpredictable.

Dan Rather: Our country was put to

some enormous tests in 1968.

It was a bend but there was no break.

Todd Gitlin: The issues that were thrown open in 1968...

Who has authority? Who deserves authority?

What the limits of power are.

Those are profound questions that continue to matter.

Nixon: This will be an open administration,

open to new ideas,

open to men and women of both parties,

open to the critics

as well as those who support us,

and I am confident that

this task is one that we can undertake

and one in which we will be successful.

♪ (theme music) ♪