[shouting] mr. Chairman, my fellow americans my fellow democrats, i proudly accept the nomination of our party. [applause] this moment, this moment is one of personal pride and gratification. One cannot help but reflect the sadness that we feel over the troubles and the violence which have erupted in the streets of this great city. And for the personal injuries which have occurred. That is Hubert Humphrey accepting the 1968 democratic nomination for president. The democrats had gathered for the convention in the midst of the vietnam war while thousands of protesters demonstrated outside. Hubert humphrey is the focus of this weeks program. We are live from Minnesota History center. Mick caouette is the documentarian of Hubert Humphreys life. We are standing in the middle of an exhibit about the tumultuous year of 1968. I want you to set the stage for people. This country was in an uproar about the vietnam war. Set the stage. The vietnam war had been going on for 15 years. It was obvious to everyone that the war was not being one. It reached all the way to the American Embassy in saigon. President johnsons Approval Ratings just plummeted. Bobby kennedy was joining the race. It was utter chaos. Right after president johnson three days later, Martin Luther king was assassinated. The first part of the year was a terrible chaos. People were turning on their radios to wake up and there seem to be another huge story every day. We will try to tell some of that story. We will be here for two hours. We will learn more about the history of the times and the biography of senator humphrey. We will begin taking your telephone call so you can be part of our discussion. What is important for young people to understand . What is different about the wars we fight today is the draft. This was real in the sense for american families. The draft was the point at which the protest started. When the draft was instituted. Now people have a choice. If they are against the war, they can stay away. In those days, there was no choice. That is what caused the protest parade people were not even able to vote this is what caused the protests. People were not even able to vote. That is the biggest. Was it fair to say that every American Family had a personal connection to this war . Some have someone who went to the war and someone who was against it in the same family. Lyndon johnson his own kids were against the war. Families were broken over it. The other thing that people should understand that made this real was television. Television was bringing it into peoples living rooms every night it was wide open because nobody had really done any kind of television was not restricted. It was all brand new. Nobody in the administration had any control over it. The journalists were just going out there and getting whatever they found. We do not have that now. It is much more controlled on the battlefield. It had a profound effect on the country. Another reason why people came out against the war because they were seeing it all the time on television. 300 body bags were coming back every week. They were showing the body bags coming back. It had a profound effect. It changed the average persons mind. We have to remind people that the war started before Lyndon Johnsons term. It had been raging for 15 years. About johnsons attitude the war was what . I think he was confused about a for a long time, but it was important to him to win the war. It colored everything that he did. When people tried to talk about any kind of the settlement, he would not do it. He was interested in winning the war. Once he got into it, he did not have a lot of options. That was the only one he wanted. It affected when he left office, too. He wanted someone to come into the office to continue this war policy. Lyndon johnson and Hubert Humphrey became teammates in 1964, following the assassination of kennedy. What was the relationship like . How was this. For senator humphrey . The intensity in vietnam started at the same time he became Vice President. There was a resolution in congress that lbj past four and it was passed. Humphrey signed on to that. The convention came later in the summer and humphrey became Vice President. He walked into the beginning of johnsons involvement with the board. They never really talked about the vietnam during the campaign. It was more about Barry Goldwater being trigger happy. Vietnam was not talked about. They were talking more about nuclear annihilation. They won by a landslide. In the spring, in the early part of the year, there was another incident in vietnam. Johnson called a cabinet and adviser meeting. He is already decided to bomb North Vietnam in retaliation. He asked people around the table what they thought of this. Everybody pretty much agreed and humphrey said it was not a good idea. He had written a memo earlier this and we should not get involved. This is not a good in a good idea. He spoke up again at this meeting. Johnson got angry. Hunter went back and wrote another memo, a lot of detailed. At that point, he was completely frozen out of any discussion about a vietnam. We have to videos to show you. The first one is 1964. Lyndon johnson had been operating without a Vice President. There was a great deal of speculation coming into the convention about his choice would be. Here is a film from the 1964 convention as Lyndon Johnson announces his choice for Vice President. The next vicepresident of the United States my trusted colleague senator Hubert Humphrey of minnesota. [applause] democrats and most republicans and the senate vote for the education legislation, but not senator goldwater. Most democrats and most republicans in the the senate voted to halt the United Nations and its peacekeeping functions when it was in financial difficulty, but not goldwater. I cannot help but think that particular moment how far we had, all the hard work and effort, this was a great moment in my life. Mr. Johnson said in his judgment, mr. Humphrey was the best man to be president in case anything happened to have. No longer is the vice presidency just another job. That video is from Mick Caouettes documentary on Hubert Humphrey. First of all, the scene of the energetic Hubert Humphrey addressing the crowd and having the crowd eating out of his hand and the cutaway to Lyndon Johnson, who did not seem to share the moment. What was happening . He did not like the spotlight being taken from him. Humphrey was believed to be a better public speaker. He was a little bit upset about a humphrey taking the show away. That was Lyndon Johnson. The goldwater part of that speech was written by a number of people. It was written by there was a call and response kind of thing that caught on. That was an early one. response . Not center goldwater not senator goldwater. Senator humphry had ambitions for the presidency for quite a while. He toyed with it in 1952 and made a real bed in 1960. Bid in 1960. He earned the nickname the happy warrior. He loved politics, right . He loved politics. He was joyful about politics. He believed it was a way to better the country, to change the country. It was an innocent way. He believed in the American People. He really believed in our system. That was the way for him to change the country. Another clip, and this was later on in 1974 when Hubert Humphrey was gathering made audiotapes. He talks a bit, and this is just one example, of the relationships you referenced. And how it became very testy between Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey over vietnam. He reflects on some of the ways that Lyndon Johnson used the powers of the office to keep his vicepresident under control. Lets listen. There was not a time that i ever got a if anybody would ever tell you that johnson was extravagant, it surely was not with this vicepresident. Many times he would say to me, it was better to take a smaller plane. If you have a plan that is too big, there will be too many people who want to ride with you. You will be encumbered with people that see there is an extra seat that has not been used. From time to time, on short trips, up and down the atlantic seaboard, i would take one of the smaller planes that were available. For our lager trips, we used the jet star. Never in the continental United States, did we use air force wind. Those were to be only used for overseas trips. At no time was i ever permitted to bring a newspaperman or a person of the media with me on any track within the United States. The president forbid it. I respected his command and his wish. I gather he felt that the Vice President should be heard and seen, but not reported upon too much. Of course, Lyndon Johnson had been the majority leader in the senate. These two men had a long relationship and served in leadership together. Could you talk more about how johnson used the levers of power to control of Hubert Humphrey . He had an argument with johnson about vietnam, and johnson froze him out for at least a year. He cut off his privileges. He shortened his staff. At one point, he tapped his phones. He did a number of things to control humphrey. He did not want him speaking out against vietnam. He did not want him speaking out about anything. He wanted to keep quiet. He had a way of calling him my planes and my boats. He had a possessive attitude about that. Humphrey dealt with it a lot. There were times when he gave three or four speeches per week. The freeze lasts about a year. Did Hubert Humphrey talk about how he reacted to this . He had to been unhappy. He was miserable for a long time. Johnson was shutting him out of any of the inner circle. He was on the outside. He wanted to be involved in what was going on. It was a bad time for him. Then he was back to his vietnam and things changed in 1966. We are going to walk around this exhibit tonight and give you a sense of the exhibit that has been put together. A focus on politics. I want to remind you about your participation. In about 10 or 12 minutes, we will start taking calls. Here is how you can do it. We really look forward to your comments on 1968. The year in which Hubert Humphrey was a contender for the president of the United States. How did you first get interested in Hubert Humphrey . I grew up here, so he was always in the air when i was a kid. I spent some time working here and saw his archives. The archive for a documentary filmmaker, that is a gold mine. Hubert humphrey had four children. Are they still here . His daughter is no longer alive. His grandson is more involved in politics than the others. The suns are basically in sales. Sons are basically in sales. We are at the exhibit about the politics and political life of Hubert Humphrey. He was not born in minnesota. He was born in south dakota. 90 miles from the minnesota border and one of those Little Railroad towns. He was born in 1911. It was a remarkable little town. His father was the druggist. His mother was his mother was methodist, a social gospel. Great combination of the preacher and the politician. He went to a Pharmacy School himself. How did the end up in politics . He went to Pharmacy School for a job. He always wanted be in politics. He did it for a short time to help his father with the drug store. I do not think he ever really want to be a pharmacist. He ended up getting a doctorate as i understand. He went to get a masters degree. Why was studying politics . I initially, he was going to get a doctorate and teach. He was so good at public speaking and so good at communicating, a lot of people convinced him to run. He ended up coming back to minnesota and becoming the mayor of minneapolis. When did he served as mayor . He came back from lsu from grad school. Minnesota had been a republican state and never elected a democrat to the senate. The non republicans were divided between the democrats and the labor party. He helped to unite the two parties and built himself. The city was corrupt and all kinds of problems with segregation. When he first came, nation magazine called it the capital of the antisemitism in the United States. When he left, he got an award from the National Council of christians and jews for what he did. Hubert humphrey was the founder. He was the greatest negotiator of the group. What does it stand for . Ideology standpoint . At the time, it was a group of farmers and laborers who had differences with a more professional democrats. Fdr democrats. They just did not like each other and humphrey was one of the people that convinced them they will never win an election if they did not get together. He ran for senate, then . He ran for senate in 1948. We will talk a little bit about the speech. From 1960, when he first seriously thought about running for president. This is one of those joy of being a politician. Lets watch. How do you think your race is going . It has been an uphill fight. I think we have been doing quite well. What has been the most exciting part of the campaign . Right now. Thank you, senator. This is good fun. Politics ought to be fun. Boats for hubert, hubert vote for hubert, Hubert Humphrey, the president for you and me ec am enjoying life. Did he bring this to his politics all the time . It would be 11 00 at night and he would get off of a plane and work until 3 00 in the morning. He would still be like that. What were some of his other characteristics . I read that he was known for talking a lot. Absolutely. He was also a good listener. He did talk a lot. He would come with a prepared speech and to stop for an hour. He knew a lot about a lot of things. He was really intelligent. Astounding memory. What a gift, to be able to remember names. He could remember their name, the familys name, what they did for a living. Remarkable memory. We will start taking some calls. And then we will learn more about his political philosophy. First up is ohio. It is a Wonderful Program to be participating in. Thank you. You mentioned 1948. I remember hearing an actor named Ronald Reagan who endorsed Hubert Humphrey in 1948 for the u. S. Senate. When you think about it, were they on the opposite end of the spectrum . I want to find out what Hubert Humphreys relationship was with Barry Goldwater in the senate converses with their private life was like . Did Hubert Humphrey and jack kennedy did along very well when theyre running against each other in 1960 . In 1956, when they vied for the vicepresident ial nomination to run with adlai stevenson. Thank you so much. His relationship with Ronald Reagan . He was a lifelong friend of Ronald Reagan. Ronald reagan was pretty much the same politics back in those days. He was the head of the actors union. He was a democrat and he had the same philosophy. Ronald reagan changed, but humphrey remained the same. But they did remain friends. Goldwater . They were even better friends. They were giving speeches in iowa on the back of a hay wagon. They district each other apart. The district each other apart. Later on, someone saw them having dinner together. Before we talk about kennedy, talk about the United States senate. People recognize the names from history books today. Was there by partisanship . Did people work across the aisle . There was a lot of camaraderie. Humphrey was friends with a lot of republicans. It was more cordial and there was more camaraderie than there is now. I am not in the senate now, but they were very close. Jfk and their relationship . In the early years, they voted together on many of the same bills. Humphrey helped him with farm legislation because he knew nothing about it. Their relationship changed dramatically in 1960. In what way . They have these debates in the primaries in wisconsin and western agenda. They got to know each other that way. West virginia. They got to know each other that way. When kennedy became president , humphrey gave him many of his ideas to use in the administration. He was the idea factory in the Kennedy Administration. Lets take a call from indianapolis. How are you doing . I love your show. I have a question. Back in 1968 1948, humphrey spend time with Martin Luther king we will spend quite a bit of time talking about the Civil Rights Movement. This is from your fellow man from your film. Hubert humphrey talks about his view of the world and its brand of liberalism. [ no audio] we do not have that clip. To answer the question, the civilrights was in him from the time he was born. Lyndon johnson was had to deal more with the idea of the issue of race and getting elected. Humphrey felt and believed deeply what he was up against. What he did in that spee