President Lyndon B. Johnson, left, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Humphrey’s advice that the United States should pull back on the Vietnam War nettled Johnson.
“On Feb. 17, 1965, Vice President Hubert Humphrey sent President Lyndon B. Johnson a memorandum stating the United States must begin an exit strategy in Vietnam: ‘It is always hard to cut losses. But the Johnson administration is in a stronger position to do so now than any administration in this century.’ Johnson had trounced Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election — and thus, no longer had to prove he was tough on Communism — and the conflict had not developed into a full-blown war. ‘Nineteen sixty-five is the year of minimum political risk,’ Humphrey wrote. Humphrey gave Johnson the opportunity to change the course of history: By pulling out of Vietnam, he could have avoided opposition from his own party and seeing his vision for the Great Society jeopardized by a foreign war and his aspirations for nuclear disarmament between the Soviet Union and the United States thwarted. Johnson ignored Humphrey’s advice. In fact, he was described as infuriated with the vice president; the day after receiving the memo, Johnson told his national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, that Humphrey should ‘stay out of the peacekeeping and negotiating field’ on Vietnam. The president went further, and more or less banned him from the Oval Office for the remainder of 1965. Humphrey lost his responsibilities in the administration on civil rights — the subject that elevated him to the Senate in 1948, when he told the Democrats at their national convention they needed to ‘get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.’ Humphrey, who had long been the most prominent and productive liberal in the Senate — and the Democrat (other than Johnson) most responsible for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, seemingly vanished from the public eye overnight, In August 1965, the comedian and musician Tom Lehrer sang to a raucous audience, ‘Whatever Became of You, Hubert?’:
Whatever became of you, Hubert?
We miss you, so tell us, please:
Are you sad? Are you cross?
Are you gathering moss
While you wait for the boss to sneeze?
Vietnam destined Humphrey to a miserable four years as Johnson’s vice president. …”
NY Times
1960s: Days of Rage
1960s: Days of Rage 