To see nowadays. Before 1972, there were few primaries. Most of the delegates to both conventions, republicans and democrats, were elected through as we call it back channels, small party conventions, back room meetings, among various politicians. In 1968, 73 of democratic delegates to the convention had been elected this way. Less than 25 were elected in the way we normally do it now. Ly Lyndon Johnson had taken himself out of the race. He was not up for reelection in 1968, which initiate ad a freeforall between a number of conditions. One of which was dead by august of 68. That was Robert Kennedy who had been a peace candidate, who had been a unifying candidate for many people in the party. He was assassinated in june of 1968. Thats one thing thats lying behind the convention in august of 68 when people arrive there, the kennedy delegates who had been elected, pledged to kennedy. Hubert humphrey had become the nominee, the Party Nominee by august as vicepresident. There was another peace candidate, mccarthy, who also had delegates like kennedys who showed up in chicago in august. You can see its a freeforall where the delegates are concerned. Its more of a freeforall in many ways as you will see. Because of the vietnam war, because of Bobby Kennedys assassination, there were a lot of people who had come to chicago to demonstrate, to demonstrate against the war, to demonstrate against the democratic party, against lbj and then his standin, hubert humphrey. There were a lot of people on the streets outside of the convention in the hilton hotel, which is still there. The city made strategic errors. The old mayor had denied anybody a permit to spend the night in the parks or to be in the parks after 11 00 p. M. That was something of a problem. There were so many thousands of young people who had come. There were a couple groups. The National Mobilization committee to end the war. There was the Youth International party called the yippies. The mobe was trying to forth consensus among young voters about the war, how to end the war in vietnam. The yippies were led by abby hoffman and jerry rubin who were known for street theater and antics. At one point, they got in and dropped dollar bills on the floor of the Stock Exchange and then watched people on the floor scramble to get the money, which was exactly what they were looking for. While the democrats were rang ma rangwrangling, protesters started to clastart ed to clash with the police. Here we go. Peace now is what they are chanting. Thats the chicago police. They are chanting, the whole world is watching. This is when the police just they charged the crowd and they start with their night sticks start beating people up indiscreme natalie, basically. Clapping people on the heads. Tear gas. You can hear the reaction to the tear gas. The police to keep them from filming what they were filming. This was shocking to people for a whole bunch of reasons. But it was one of the first times that white young people were beat up by the police indiskrindi indiscrimina indiscriminantly. Thats grant park, the scene later on of president obamas election rallies. Lets see whats happening inside the convention. Thats whats happening on the outside of the convention. Theres one famous moment when i cant remember if it was mike wallace. Looking out at the Police Beating up the row testeprotest saying, these are our children. Whats happening . Here is whats happening inside the convention also at the hilton. Dan rather. Take your hands off of me unless you intend to arrest me much dont push me. We have a young dan rather. Take your hands off of me unless you plan to arrest me. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Me. Wait a minute. I dont know whats going on, but these are security people, apparently, around dan. And obvious low getting roughed up. Talk to the man, and we got bodily pushed out of the way. It is the first time we had it happen inside of the hall. I am sorry some of you had to stomach doing that. What happened was a georgia delegate was being held out of the hall. We tried to talk to him to see why, who he was, what the situation was. In that instance the security people as you can see put me on the deck. I didnt do very well. I think we have got a bunch of thugs here, dan. Thats exactly what they had. They had a bunch of thugs posing as secret service at and as various security people. Exactly what they were doing, they were going down the aisle in the convention beating people up, mostly media, in the convention. There is then a huge uproar in the convention. We are going the pass on some of the die look between mayor daly, who could be very colorful in his language and some of the other delegates. The blame for the riot this is the first time there is an investigation of all of this. And this is the first time that anything is called a police riot. It was called a police riot for the first time. And thats what it was. And the blame for the riot can be laid squarely on the shoulders of mayor daily, who can denied protests to people who intended to peacefully protest the war. He had a take no prisoners mentality, hes the one that told the chicago police, you know, go in there, take no, no prisoners. He was the one who ensured that chicago would be site when all of the world would see the unbridgeable gaps among americans. Theres a literary gadfly named i. F. Testosterone who says the war is destroying us as we are destroying vietnam. And another reporter was more succinct as he said he said the democrats are finished as he scrawled in a notebook watching police chase hippies down michigan avenue. The twin legacies of the Chicago Convention and Lyndon Johnsons aggressive policies in vietnam handicapped Hubert Humphreys candidacy from the gingham. He was in a difficult position. He was the Vice President. It is bad form to criticize a sitting president , each if that president is a lame duck president as listen don johnson was. Hoover dang it, humphrey was more inclined to press for peace than johnson had done. The democrats looked very bad. Although the economy was doing. There was Government Spending on the increasingly expensive war in vietnam. That part looked okay. The democrats were all right there. But, again, the war was increasingly unpopular. Humphrey rate issed himself from johnsons war policies in september of 1968. He said he would be willing to press for peace. He would be open to peace talks with vietnam. He wanted what he called a deamericanization of the war in vietnam. He became a plausible peace candidate at that point, in other words appealing to some of the young people who were here. At the same time, the aflcio, so labor finally stepped up. Labor constituencies, traditionally very strong for the democrats but especially important in terms of organizing the vote, if heing people out to vote. Thats what labor did in those years. The late help from labor, it helped hubert humphrey, but it also created the impression that the election was closer than it really was. So the republican, Richard Nixon wins, and he wins with 44. 3 of the popular vote. Humphrey had 42. 7 of the popular vote. You are remaining where was the remaining 13. 5 of the vote . That vet went to the former alabama governor George Wallace who ran as an independent. There he is. There is george. A happy george. You can tell from the confederate battle flag behind him what his policies might have been. He ran as an independent in 1968. He also ran as an independent again in 19 2. He hes important here not just for who he is, but for the effect that his campaign has. His campaign detaches traditionally urban white sectors to the people who had voted for the democrats previously, sort of White Working Class voters in cities. They were attracted to wallace. And he did very well in ohio and michigan and indiana and illinois. He got more than 10 of the white vote in those places. Westerners liked him, too. Idaho, nevada like George Wallace. He split the southern vote with humphrey sorry. Excuse me w nixon. Wallace and thikson. Wall sass a democrat, a former democrat, now an independent. He and nixon split thesporin vote, which was traditionally the democratic vote. Between them they take every state in the south except for texas, which was lindyndon joh n johnsons home state. Richard nixon, former Vice President , under eisenhower. Earlier, a congressman, republican congressman from california. He wins the election in 1968, in part by taking away some of wallaces issues. So nixon talks about restoring voice to the quiet americans, the americans who dont go out in the streets, the americans who are not making trouble, the americans whose children are fighting in vietnam, in fact. He takes some of that vote from wallace. He has a Vice President who becomes famous, not for good reasons, spiro agnew, who is a former governor of maryland. Spiro agnew talks about exactly who is going to be represented under nixons presidency and he says, nixons campaign was bringing us together after the democratic the debacle of the democratic convention, nixon was going to bring people together, he was going to bring the country together. Heres how spiro agnew defines what that really meant. He says it is time to rip away the rhetoric and to divide on authentic lines. He says, when the president said bring us together, what he meant was, the functioning, contributing portions of American People. The new president would have his job cut out for him. The same americans who voted quite overwhelmingly for knicks or at least who catapulted him into the white house over democrats gave the democrats both houses of congress. Richard nixon in 1968 will be the first president to enter the white house without control of either house of Congress SinceZachary Taylor in 1849. Thats how unusual it is for a president not to have either house of congress when he begins. That represents in part a really you can see that as real distrust at this point of government. And wanting to have real checks and balances. President from one party, both houses of congress from another party is an extreme version of that kind of distrust that you see other times. Nixons job in 1969 as he begins his presidency is to soothe a nation that had fractured into multiple groups whites, africanamerican, women, many, youth, old folks, workers, intellectuals, and they were all at odds with each other. And this phrase, middle america, was not a phrase in the 1960s. Its new phrase that comes to describe this portion of america that is where american president ial elections are going to be fought and won on for the next 40 years. This thing, this thing, middle america, wasnt very firm in the late 1960s, though, it was more marsh than solid ground. It was hard to figure out who was in middle america, who was not in middle america. And maintaining majority was tricky for Richard Nixon, or for anybody for that matter in the white house. Nixon had a majority that was formed by disgruntled white democrats, so wallace voters, with an increasingly conservative fiscally and culturally conservative Republican Party. This is where Richard Nixon is standing, in the middle. And it is managing to get the voters who will vote for both of those things that becomes very important. In fact, nixons election in 68 is usually regard as a bellwether for the next president ial elections. The democrats actually the democrats win only one of the next six president ial elections between 1968 and 1992. So you have a very long period of really, of unified republican control of the white house. And it is a profound shift in american politics. Its the beginning of a profound shift in american politics. So nixon realizes that his future depends in good measure on his ability to woo those americans who voted for George Wallace in 1968. Thats 13. 5 of the voters. Nixon needs to have those people in order to win. And he understands that wallace voters, whether they are in the south or the north for that matter are spooked by the soerl changes of the 60s. They are spooked by the changes in race relations. They are spooked by the changes in youth behavior, in relations between the s. E. C. S. They are spooked by hippies. All of these things upset them. And nixon takes on this wallace law and order mantle where he talks rather vaguely about just sort of calming things down. And hes going to be the protectors of middle class, read white, against the lawless urban class, read black. This is what he is always talking about, these people in the cities. They are burning the cities. They are, you know, wrecking america. And he had a hard time because he had to lure these wallace voters, which included democratic voters in the north, urban democrats, working class urban catholics for example, traditionally, urban democrats voted for mayor daly. And knickon needs those votes. This is the moment when the Republican Party begins the reach out what was traditionally a democratic working base, a working base of white ethnics if you remember back who had been part of the new Deal Coalition in the 1930s. Arent there all that long. We tend to think of working class whites as being democrats. In fact, they are only democrats for about 30 years. And then they have been republicans for longer than that by now. Nixon understands that democrats want security. And there is this old word again back from the new deal. You remember we talked earlier, Social Security, all the different programs. People want security. And then and that they are the defenders of the new deal social safety net. There arent republicans or there arent wallace republicans sorry, wallace democrats, there arent old democrats from the democratic coalition. Those people want to keep the new deal. They are not interested in republican economics as they are being described in the late 1960s. Gary wills, who was a syndicated columnist later said his definition of american conservatives. He was asked. He said americans are conservatives. What they want to preserve is the new deal. What do they want in this new deal . Wallaces independent, american independent hes not there anymore but you remember him. Walla wallaces independent party called for increases in Social Security, for National Health care, and the right to collective bargaining. You see why wallace was appealing to workers, to the working class. And it just reminds you again, how long National Health care has been on the agenda. We talked about it already under fdr. We talked about it again under harry truman. Here it is again with George Wallace. Leading conservative magazines described wallaces brand of conservatism and nixons adoption of it as country western marxism. To romance these workers nixon embraced key elements of Lbjs Great Society vision signing a whole bunch of laws that were passed by this democraticrolled congress. You get a really interesting i will read you the list of laws that Richard Nixon passed. Richard nixon as a republican passed all of these laws with a democraticcontrolled congress. So republicans begin to complain after a while. But heres a list of the things that Richard Nixon passes. He passes a National Environmental policy act which created the epa, the Environmental Protection agency. He passed the clean air act. He passed the Consumer Protection safety act. The federal Water Pollution control act. The Noise Pollution and control act. The equal opportunity equal Employment Opportunity act. The federal Election Campaign act of 1971. The employment Retirement Income security act. I know, these names. You dont have to keep up with them. The Occupational Safety and health act, osha, a constant target of republicans ever since. Workers in dangerous occupations like coal mining, or who were exposed to Hazardous Substances like asbestos were big fans of all of these things. These were very popular things. Republicans held their applause. The republican president said in Fortune Magazine was putting cuffs on capitalism through corporate regulation. Nixons baffling blend of republicanism and radicalism confused the new york times. As i said, it was congenial, though to the heirs of populism, you remember way back our pop you lists. Heirs of populism, the new deal. The country western marxists liked this a lot. It was very popular. This cemented that White Working Class electorate into the republican base. These people had never voted republican in their life. They voted for Richard Nixon. What is happening with the economy in the 1970s . We will come back to this one. The basic answer is nothing good is happening with the economy. And american prosperity, especially working class prosperity, had been considered synonymous with the National Interest since world war ii. If you look at world war ii in the 1950s there is talk about the American People and all of these things. You remember the g. I. Bill of rights which was there to kind of help working class americans buy houses to help them go to school. These things had all been done with the interests of the White Working Class foremost in mind. Fdr, you remember, had said under in 1944 that every american had the right to a job, a living wage, a home and an education. These are things that are on the agenda since the new deal, and even by 1945 44 you have actually the expanded new deal, the second bill of rights that roosevelt is talking about. And this is a quote from roosevelt in 1944. He says, we cannot be content no matter how high that general standard of living may be if some fraction of our people is ill fed, ill clothed, ill housed and ill secure. Americans found this position very appealing in 1944, and they still did 30 years later. It was a bedrock. Of both parties. There were a few people like libertarian Barry Goldwater what wanted to tinker with the basic Social Security state. But nobody else really did. Or nobody else with any power actually did n. 1973, a gallup poll said that 91 of americans believed that tax laws should be changed to ease the burden on moderate and lower income and increase those on higher income and on corporations. It is 91 of americans who want to see their taxes lowered and the taxes on the rich and corporations raised. Thats true, actually a majority of Americans Still believe that. It just hasnt been part of policy. In in 1973, 72 of americans agreed with the statement, the federal government has a responsibility to do away with poverty in the country. Although 69 were skeptical about welfare, 62 felt that more should be done to help the poor. One thing to bear in mind is that full employment as a goal is part of the basic platform of every Political Party until the 1970s. They dont achieve it, but its there as a goal. The idea that everyone should have a job. Its there. Its in the platform. It is something to be it is aspirational. They dont get it. But it is there as a value. It is something that disappears later on. But the key to prosperity in this country and this is true when you talk about the right to work platforms or legislation, the key to opportunity in this country was always the opportunity to work. To have a job. This is in part because of whats been happening for the 30 years back, right . So if you look back into the new deal, when Franklin Roosevelt entered the white house in 1933, 25 of americans could not find a job. Right . You remember this. A quarter of americans, who wanted a job, could not find a job. And throughout the 1930s, unemployment never dipped below 14 . So where is unemployment today . Thats right. 4 . Roughly 4 . Which is really very low. In the 1950s, unemployment dipped down to 4. 6 . Almost as low as today. By 199, it was at 3. 9 . So we would have to recount the votes, right, to tell the difference between 3. 9 and 4 today. Again, very low by 1969. Between 1945 and 1970 this is important americans became richer overall, meaning people got were doing better overall. At the same time the gap between rich and poor contracted. Got smaller. And this is known you will be surprised to know, as the great contraction. We will talk about this more later on. But this is an important thing. Because now if you look at the same statistics for americans, you know, it has been getting wider and wider and wider and wider. This period between 45 and 1973, it got narrower. Think a little bit about vietnam which was not talked much about yet we will talk more about it on thursday. Richard nixon was a brilliant statesman. He really was. And he was desperate to disentangle the United States from vietnam. He wanted to get america out of that war. It wasnt at all clear how to do it. In part, he wanted to get out it because he wanted to pursue a very vigorous antisoviet important policy. He was always nixon, since he came to washington when he was 46, he was a rural issent anticommunist which doesnt mean he couldnt play with the communists when he wanted to. But he wanted to get out of vietnam for all kinds of reasons. Americans didnt want to be there anymore either. He had an ally at his side. I am sure you all know who it was. It was Henry Kissinger, also a brilliant statesman. Possibly not as brilliant as he himself thought and thinks. But a brilliant statesman. He was the National Security adviser. He did end runs around the white house. Whenever he wanted to do something he just did it and never told anybody. And they found out later on, which was sort of embarrassing if you were the secretary of state. It was nixon sorry, it was kissinger who articulated what came to be called the nixon doctrine. Since nixon, everyone has to have a doctrine. Nixon did have a doctrine. Nixonkissinger doctrine. What it was was effectively rejection of containment. Remember we talked earlier about the idea of containment. That the United States could contain communism everywhere. And this is how the United States got involved in all of these little wars including vietnam, which turned out not to be a little war at all. And nixons the nixon doctrine announced that although america would reward its friends with economic aid and even with weapons sales, that it was no longer going dedicate its own troops to combat communist growth anywhere in the world. But mainly in asia and africa and latin america. So it could spend money. It could send weapons. It might send advisers, but that was how we got into vietnam in the first place in the 50s. So maybe that was not a good idea. But they were not going to send american troops anymore to fight other peoples wars. He had at the same time a threepronged approach to end the vietnam war honorably. No one wants to end a war dishonorably. I think everybody was on board for ending the war honorably. But this meant trying to preserve an independent proUnited States government in south vietnam. This was very difficult because the north were actually winning the war. You will see they do in fact, pretty much the minute the United States takes its troops out of vietnam, the north wins. But this is still the goal. The goal is to have a proUnited States government in south vietnam. And nixon tries to accomplish this through a series of meetings in paris between Henry Kissinger and the North Vietnamese. He also wants to do what he calls i am not going the say this word right. Vietnamization of the war, in other words by replacing by pulling american troops out and replacing them with south vietnamese troops trained by the americans, armed by the americans but in other words trying to get our troops extricated from vietnam itself. And by expanding the air war ask. This is something you have probably seen images of or heard about. It becomes extremely controversial. The idea to expand the air war is to force North Vietnam to compromise, to basically we talked already, and we read slaughterhouse 5 talking about the way that war, war thats targeting civilians becomes acceptable in world war ii. And this is basically what is happening now in vietnam. And they say usually there is a military base or something, a military target of some sort. But in truth what they are doing is targeting civilians and killing a lot of them. These tactics dont work. The bombing of North Vietnam does not actually end the war. It does not particularly demoralize the North Vietnamese. And as this happened, as the bombing expanded, you get a massive Antiwar Movement in the United States. 750,000 people participated in the november moratorium in 1962 in washington, d. C. , which is still the largest antiwar demonstration in American History. It may be the largest demonstration at all still. Maybe not. Maybe some of last years demonstrations were bigger. But its the largest antiwar demonstration in American History. Really nothing like it had been seen in 1972. People werent populating the mall. The closest thing would have been Martin Luther kings march on washington. But thats really quite small compared to this. Thats about 100,000 people i think simple will he on the mall. And this is three quarters of a Million People come to washington and march. The answer war movement at this point also split. It turned violent. So between the fall of 1969 and the spring of 1970 not very many months, right . Maybe six months. There were at least 250 bombings. And they were directed at rotc buildings on College Campuses, at draft boards, at draft centers, at federal offices and at the headquarters of certain corporations that were considered to be particularly involved in the war. 250 bombings in six months is lot of bombings. Think how we felt a week ago when bombs that didnt go out were sent in the mail. If bombs were going off around us every week, we would become i think very unnerved. And people did. And the goal of these bombings, you are asking yourself, why were people doing it . Who was doing it . It was young people doing it . Why were they doing it . The goal as they put it was to bring the war home. They wanted to force americans to experience the war that was being endured on a much, much greater scale by the vietnamese. In other words, they wanted to bring home some of the terror that other people, the vietnamese were experiencing by having our government drop bombs on them. A member of the Weather Underground organization chafs which was one of the organizations that split from the sunts for a Democratic Society who was rooted in the 1960s this is the member of the Weather Underground explaining. She says, we felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is it self a form of violence. If you sit in your house, live your white life, go to your white job, allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide, you sit there and you dont do anything about it, thats violence. The had very little effect on the government. In 199, in the spring of 69 actually it was the fall of 69 to the spring of 1970 are the bombings. It is the spring of 69 that nixon ramps up the Bombing Campaign against the North Vietnamese. And he does something very ding rouse. He secretly in other words, without informing congress, which had the right to be informed. He secretly extended the. Booing to the vietcong bases, the North Vietnamese military bases and to supply routes. The vietcong was being supplied via routes in that area and in in cambodia. The United States was trying to cut off that lane of supplies with bombing. It was unsuccessful. In april of 1970, nixon sent american troops into cambodia. It was completely illegal. We were not at war with cam bodbod cambodia. This also failed. It did have the effect of the unintended and undesired effect of supporting local communist insurgents in cambodia as a response to this. And the resulting cambodian communists, their victory in cambodia helped by the North Vietnamese, and surged by the United States. It is lard to do this in secret. The president got found out. It was revealed. Again, it is hard to go to war against another country with no one noticing. Immediate protests in Congress Respond to this in the meania and on College Campuses nationwide. And this is the media and on College Campuses nationwide. This is when College Campuses explode with students out in the quads. Out wherever protesting the american policies, protesting the war, protesting the draft. Yall would be eligible for the draft depending on which year it was, and depending on when you graduated. So think about that one for a second. It is not a good moment for young people. You can see why you are out you would be out there, too, probably, protesting. At Kent State University in ohio you have seen this image, im sure. Kent state was a Public University with a largely working class white student body. And students burned a copy of the constitution and then burned down campus rotc building. Not Good Behavior if you are the president of the university. But thats what they did as a protest. The governor of ohio denounced the students as he said, the worst type of people we harbor in america. And he dispatched National Guard troops to quell the unrest. They werent rioting but there were a lot of people out. And this is one of the most tragic moments, frankly, in the whole Student Movement because what you get there is you have 19yearold National Guardsmen who are unnerved by 19yearold students throwing rocks at them. And they shoot them. And they kill they kill four students at ohio state. They also kill another two people who had not participated in the riot at all, the protests at all, but who found themselves within the two mile range of the guardsmens m1 bullets. They were shooting something that has a two mile range, and they managed to hit two people beyond from where they were. The response to the kate state murders fast and furious. Within days 1. 5 Million Students nationwide walked out of class. A fifth of the nations colleges and universities had closed their doors temporarily. 11 days after this, Mississippi State troopers opened fire on a dormitory at jackson state, which is an africanamerican college, killing two people. Another two students. Still the war drags on. In april of 1971, which was year after the murders at kent state, a half Million People gathered began in washington to demand americas immediate withdrawal from the war. A week later, thousands of protesters assembled in washington again, aiming to use massive nonviolent pros tests to paralyze the city. So they are going to, you know, cut off the highways. They are going to do all of these thing. But before they had a chance to act so they had done nothing yet. They gathered, but they hadnt done anything yet. Before they had a chance to act police and the military swept the downtown area in washington, d. C. 7,000 people were arrested and were incarcerated temporarily in robert f. Kennedy stadium. News week magazine was appalled. And he condemned that the attacks on the protesters seem more appropriate to saigon in south korea in war time than in washington, d. C. President nixon was unperturbed. A few days later he told his aide, Charles Colton this is a nixon quote that can be read. Its clean. He says, one day well get them. Well get them on the ground, where we want them. And we will stick our heels in, step on them hard, and twist. Right, chuck . Right . Thats our president. Somewhere between 1967 and 1971, the war that we were fitting had ceased to be a war between the United States and vietnam and had become a vicious battle among americans. President nixon finally achieved a negotiated settlement in vietnam in january of 1973. You see how long this is dragging out. This is in his second term he finally chiefed the negotiating settlement. The bombing ended, as did the draft. Ever since then we have had an all volunteer draft, since 1972. In november 1973 Congress Passed something called the war powers act, which spelled out the procedures to be followed when the introduction of American Forces could lead to their involvement in combat. Now, this was passed over president nixons veto, as you that every single president since nixon has in common is that they have interpreted the war powers act as an unconstitutional infringe men on executive policy. Infringement on executive policy. The paris Peace Agreement was negotiated by Henry Kissinger, unsurprisingly. And it left the North Vietnamese and vietcong troops in control of the south. In other words it did not push the north back which was the thing they had been trying to to the whole time and failing at. They failed, therefore, to address the basic issue of the war that they had you know gotten into in the first place, which was whether vietnam would be one country or two countries. They dont address that. That question is addressed, definitively, in the spring of 19 75 when North Vietnam launches a medical terry assault against the south and the americans fail to intervene. The nixon doctrine. On april 30th, 1957, even further, americans glued to their Television Sets i actually remember this watched as North Vietnamese tanks rolled into saigon and as American Helicopters evacuated americans from the United States embassy in south vietnam. If you have seen those images, again, they are really wrenching because they have people getting onto the helicopters and other people desperately trying to get on also and who are not able to get on who are left instead. People who had aided the americans there. The final cost of the war in vietnam can be measured in lots of ways, as every war that we have talked about. It can be measured in money. It can be measured in the end of the great society. Whatever whatever Lyndon Johnson had hoped for in his social programs was swallowed up by the war in vietnam as he himself recognized what happened. He predicted that. He knew it. 58,000 americans died in vietnam. Three to four million vietnamese died in that war. 300,000 americans are wounded. Countless vietnamese are also wounded in that war. It has a 100 billion price tag, which doesnt sound like much today, but was with a whole lot then. It was enough to bankrupt all of the social services, basically, that we had. In concluding, we talked about how you pay for a war, too, whether or not you raise taxes, right . Every war we have talked about has been do you raise taxes or take on debt . One of the things that president johnson did that kept the war going as long as it did without people protesting was that he refused to raise taxing and instead used debt. Several of his advisers wanted him to use taxes because when you raise peoples taxes, they ask why. When you say oh, it is because we are in this war that we forgot to mention, then they might say, well lets talk about that war before we go any further. The vietnam war had more repercussions than the dead. It permanently divided a generation. For at least the next 40 years, every Political Campaign until barack obama was fought in part on where were you doing vietnam . What did you do during vietnam . Did you fight during vietnam . Did you get a deferment during vietnam . Did you have some kind of injury or chronic effect that kept you out of vietnam . Barack obama is the only one young enough not to have this be an issue. I thought when i was writing when barack obama was elected i thate thought great a torch has been passed from the vietnam generation. We are going to get vietnam ott of our politics. But that baby boomer generation, they pull it right back. We still have vietnam in our politics. Although by this point, interesting, no one cares. No one seems to care. It was huge issue in 1992 when bill clinton was run forth president. That was a big issue. Where were you in vietnam. By the time we get to a 70yearold candidate it is not important to anybody particular anymore. Lets talk a little bit about where are we now if we can get a little bit to the other thing Richard Nixon is known for. We do the vietnam piece because he actually did get us out of the war. But he also put a lot of people in jail in the end. Ip not talking about people on the streets. I am talking about people in his own administration as he did during the watergate crisis. And nixon was always kind of paranoid about how he was being treated, how he was going to win, whether he would stay in office, whether people liked him. It was very important people did not like him, in fact, which was why he was kind of paranoid about whether or not people liked him, probably. Again, in 1972, hes running for reelection. George wallace almost to water gaichlt first he has to get re watergate. First he has to get reelected. Watergate starts actually in the reelection of 1972. Richard nixon did not have any worries, really, about being reelected. He wasnt going to not be reelected in 1972. But he got himself into a position. It is hard to say nixon had always been known as someone who engaged in dirty tricks as a politician. His nickname already in the 1950s was tricky d dick which gives you an idea of his reputation at least among other politicians. Then in the election one of the things that had happened earlier well, we are not going to go back there actually right now. But one of the things that nixon its just part of the repertoire of nixons political operative is breaking and entering. Breaking into a psychiatrist offices to get daniels elseberg who had leaked the pentagon papers. Wanting to break into the asassin George Wallace gets shot in 1972, the assassin wanted to get nixon, couldnt get close enough to nixon, shot wallace instead. Didnt kill him. Left him paralyzed. The first reaction by nixon after hearing wallace was assaulted was to send one of his guys to break into the apartment of the shooter there, Arthur Bremmer and try to plant some mcgovern propaganda from the 72 election. Colton fails. There were police lines, he couldnt actually get in there and plant stuff. Nixon says never mind, we will try it again another time. He starts to go a little nuts in the early 70s. He says, you know, lets break into this guys apartment and plant plant democratic letture. Lets break into the Brookings Institution. He wants to break into the Brookings Institution to see if he can find anything on daniels elseberg. He wants to break into the National Archives and steal secret vietnam papers about president johnsons aides. He was enamored about this . Really . There are ways to do that . We can break into the National Archives . It is like, no, you cant break into the National Archives. But he thought it would be a good idea anyway. And he had this thing called the enemies list, which was very, very long. And i know people in the 70s who were offended that they were not on the list. That they were as big a critic as anybody else of nixon. Why werent they on the enemies list when the enemies list was finally published. He also just liked to play dirty. In the election in 72 he had his people go around his opponent in 1972 was a guy named edmund muskie, the former governor of maine. Nixon planted rumors that muskies wife was she was a drinker and she told dirty jokes. This was what he said. This was enough to get new trouble politically in 1972. He slipped muskies pilot not nixon himself, these are his people. They got a fake schedule to muskies pilot when he was trying to fly him around to Campaign Events that completely screwed up his schedule. He couldnt get anywhere on time. They had rumors that muskie was going to have carl stokes, who was the africanamerican mayor of detroit as his running mate. Again, this play or may not have played well with people and before we end, we had a fake harlem for Muskie Committee calling people at midnight and saying to them, this is the harlem for Muskie Committee, can we count on your vote. Well, no, not if you are somebody who doesnt want black people in office. You cant. So thats the kind of thing that Richard Nixon did. He wasnt in any trouble of losing his job, ever, but it was amusing and it was perhaps addictive also. We are going to end with this building. This is the watergate hotel. Still there in washington. It was brandnew then, very, very, posh, it is curvy, interests. It is apartment. People have offices there. Including the Democratic National convention. The dnc has its office there and Richard Nixon wants to break into the dnc to see if they have anything on him. Nothing particular, but just to see. It was a mistake. Because the people who haveburgeled on his behalf are actually caught and arrested. And thats the beginning of the down fall of Richard Nixon. Thanks. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who Lizzie Borden is . And raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder the jean harris murder trial before this class. The deepest cause was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the American People. We are going to talk about both of these sides of this story here, right . The tools, the techniques of slave owner power. And we will also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th, lectures in history on cspan3, every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. And lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Cspans 2019 book the president s noted historians rank americas best and worst chief executivives qus provides insight of 4 american president s with conversations with historians. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Richard Douglas smith and contributor to the back talk about the president ial rankings at a quorum last spring at George Washingtons mount vernon. Watch American History tv now and over the weekend on cspan3