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. after walter cronkite, johnson s popularity sinks. to most ordinary citizens, it has become obvious the war is not being won. opposition to the war was rising. it wasn t just beatniks and young kids. we are fighting a war. and i am convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. 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. he said, they re intertwined. you can t separate them. president kennedy said on one occasion, mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
be used. a democratic convention is about to begin in a police state. there just doesn t seem to be any other way to say it. 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. [ applause ] the two men who most still believe this is all about arrived in chicago today to begin their final drive for delegate votes. 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. arriving now, senator george mcgovern of south dakota. mcgovern got into the race because there was a big hole in the anti-war side.
kennedy s 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 all around the globe. [ cheers and applause ] my thanks to all of you. and now it s on to chicago, and let s win there. [ cheers and applause ] senator, this way. this way. i was upstairs in the ambassador hotel. we were getting ready for a victory party. somebody called. i picked up the phone in the suite. this colleague said, something s happened to the senator. senator kennedy has been shot! is that possible?
that mean you re for humphrey all the way? well, i wouldn t say all the way. i m a democrat, and he s the nominee. 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. vice president humphrey remains, by any basis of measurement available, a complete underdog. my feeling is, that if he could cut himself off from the president, be his own man, that he has a chance of winning this election and would make it very easy for all of us to support him. humphrey desperately needed to separate himself from the administration, and he did. 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 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. from nbc news, election central.
as you all know, no words can really fully convey the feeling that one must have for the nation in the face of this tragedy, this new tragedy. people say, well, it was inevitable. his brother was murdered, and so was he. nothing s inevitable. it just happened. this plane will take back the body of robert francis kennedy to new york. also onboard this plane today will be mrs. john f. kennedy. also onboard will be another widow, mrs. martin luther king jr. somehow and in some way, we seem 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