he believed that -- we think it was naive now, but it was a honest and sincere belief in our country and politics that we could do anything we wanted. ni anything was possible. he made so many things possible. we think about the health care bill. we have so many things now that are a difficult slog through congress and the senate. the 1964 civil rights act may have been the most difficult piece of legislation especially of the 20th century, and he found a way to get that done against overwhelming odds. he did this with a lot of things. he was one of the first people to come out with legislation to end the arms race. you know, that was really unpopular. he was calmed a communist and all kinds of other things for doing that. he finally with the test ban treaty finally found the result was his work. there can be a lot learned from his persistence and use of our

system for good things. >> so many different moments. when you were looking back and putting this film together and so many focusing on '68 but you encompassed the entire life of hubert humphrey, you almost get whipped at everything that happens in the spring and summer and economic one of the moments after the assassination of bobby kennedy in 1968 in california, his body came back to st. patrick's cathedral in new york city, and the younger brother senator ted kennedy delivered the eulogy. here's what he had to say. >> i want to express what we feel with those that mourn with us today in this cathedral and around the world. we loved him as a brother and as a father and a son. from his parents and from his older brothers and sisters, joe and kathleen, jack, he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us.

he gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. he will always be by our side. love is not an easy feeling to put into words. nor is loyalty or trust or joy. he was all of these. he loved life completely and he lived it intensely. my brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and

what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world. as he said many times in many parts of this nation to those he touched and who sought to touch h him, some men see things as they are and say why. i dream things that never were and say why not? >> so if you would, put those words, that moment and that year into perspective. >> well, that moment for -- especially for ted kennedy had to be just overwhelming because he lost -- he first lost his older brother in world war ii, and then he lost two wroer brothers. he lost three brothers and it had to be nearly impossible to speak in the first place. again, it was in the middle of this chaos, and we were losing people that we began to believe

in. the country began to believe in bobby kennedy or did believe in martin luther king. losing these people, it just felt like all hope was being shot down. that we just -- you know, that everything good was going away. it was a really, really beautiful but just sad speech. eulogy. >> both brittany and ann in the back he row, if they could comment on what they take away from what you have heard so far about the year, the politics of that year, and what the country was dealing with both from the civil rights standpoint, the war in vietnam, and the assassination of these leaders and the rise of richard nixon and hubert humphrey. let's start with you, ann a. >> i think what's striking to me is especially with all the turmoil in the country has been the fact we were still seeing in

black and white, and we were not even in this speech that we heard from mr. kennedy that we were still seeing in black and white. we weren't together as americans. it's amazing how that played out in the presidentialitta, what a? >> i agree with what she was saying. it was amazing how -- i thought it was interesting how bobby kennedy was the one to give a speech when martin luther king jr. died. i would think it would be more someone else, maybe not senator kennedy, but i thought he did a good job. it was still in black and white, and there was so much turmoil going on in america at that time. i wonder had one less thing happened, had bobby ken didn't been shot or had the war -- the turmoil with the war not been going on, would things have turned out differently? >> one of those what-if questions. mick, how do you sfond? >> i think any one of those

events would have certainly helped the situation, and there were moments when the peace process seemed like it was ending the war, which is also in the film. what you see is if the peace process did happen during that election, humphrey would have been elected president because that was in his way. any one of those assassinations would have certainly helped. the war was probably the central issue, and no matter what else happened, that had to be resolved because it's a really divided country. by the way, bobby kennedy was not speaking at the funeral of martin luther king. he was at a different location. i don't remember who spoke at the funeral, but i'm sure it wasn't him. you know, it was just -- the assassinations were just more, you know, fodder on the fire. it was just more -- just added to the confusion. it was really a sad year. >> let me follow-up and

underscore that point, brittany, because the speech you heard was the evening of april 4th, the night that martin luther king was assassinated in memphis, tennessee. bobby kennedy was at a rally in indianapolis. he announced to the gathering who had not heard yet that martin luther king was assassinated and died. that's why we wanted to show you that. there were other people that sfoek that evening as well, and certainly the president, lyndon johnson, attended the funeral services for martin luther king in atlanta, georgia. those remarks were the evening he was assassinated. let's go to one more moment and we'll go to george mason from the convention speech. this is the acceptance speech by senator humphrey in chicago late in the summer, in august 1968. >> as it has been said in the worst of times a great people must do the best of things and let us do it.

we stand at such a moment now in the affairs of this nation because my fellow americans something new, something different has happened. there is an end of an era and there is the beginning of a new day. it is the special genius of the democratic party that it welcomes change not as an enemy but as an ally. not as a force to be suppressed but as progress to be encouraged. >> from 1968, hubert humphrey,

his acceptance speech in chicago. why was he calmed the happy warrior? >> because he loved politics. it started with al smith and fdr tag it had on al smith, i believe. i'm not certain about that, but humphrey picked it up later. it was picked up about humphrey because he just loved politics. he saw battles in the senate and battles -- political battles as he enjoyed it. he enjoyed the contest, and so he was -- he -- to others, you know, in politics who didn't really like campaigning and didn't like some of it, he loved it all. >> let me go to bob at george mason university. bob. >> thanks, steve. i have a student question but a quick comment of my own. i wanted to pick up on nick's comment that 1968 was one of the great forks in the road of history. even in the area of presidential

politics alone, you had a sudden jump in the role of money, the role of personal individual participation in the primaries as opposed to smoke-filled rooms. of course, the role of electronic media all became vastly more important after this. thachs the narrowest change. you have one campaign in which you have an incumbent president deciding not to run because he's so unpopular, two assassinations of major public figures, a riot outside the doors of the democratic national convention in chicago to the degree that there was tear gas wafting into the hall, and even this we should remember was only the american element of what was a worldwide change. there were vast protests against the vietnam war all over europe. there was a kind of generational divide that opened up in that period that really defined all that went after. i wanted do contextualize things

as to the importance of this moment. this was the most important year between the end of world war ii and the fall of communist in 1989. also because this is ancient history to a lot of people, i had a question from one student that i think it would be useful to answer to point up a little bit of what was going on and what hubert humphrey was dealing with at the time. so chris. >> my question is, what was it that made hubert humphrey such an outstanding legislator but an ineffective presidential candidates, especially considering he was running against nixon who already had one failed attempt at the presidency versus jfk? >> chris, to your question we go to mick. >> well, i don't think it's fair to say he was an ineffective presidential candidate. i think in another year he would have been very effective. it was nearly impossible for anybody in the democratic party

that year to win because of the war. i think he did remarkably well considering what he had going against him, and considering the fact he never really came out against the war. when he cams within one-half of 1% of the popular vote of winning, you know, you have to -- to even accomplish that was pretty remarkable. i think it would have been different in another time, in another presidential race. what was the second part of the question again? >> that was it. i just said he'd run against nixon, who already had one failed attempt at the presidency. >> right, right. yeah. >> well, let me underscore that point, mick, because it was 41 million votes for nixon and 41 million votes for hubert humphrey. only a half-million votes separated the two. why did it end up being such a close election?

>> well, that i think as peace grew near, it looked like peace was growing near because of some of the peace process and also because of a speech humphrey gave in october, at the end of october more or less saying, you know, it was -- he wasn't really saying he'd bring the troops home and end the war, but he more or less said that he would like to see the troops come home and he gave kind of a -- i don't know how would you describe it. you'd have to hear the words. he said that he would -- he really wanted to bring the troops home and end the war, but he didn't say it in those words. what happened was right after that money started coming in, and people perceived that and the press perceived that as that he was against the vietnam war and was coming out against johnson's war. after that he just spiked. that's when -- in fact, he was on the rise when the election actually happened. he was still rising in the polls, so he was really close to

winning. there was a -- there was a peace agreement that johnson had everybody come to the peace table three or four days before the election because he went over over the polls. if that peace process would have happened, humphrey probably would have one. chu who was our ally refused to come to the table right before that happened. as it was coming -- as the peace process was coming to a close and they were actually going to sit down and talk together, he referr refused to come. in turns out in the end that richard nixon sent someone there saying you probably didn't want the war to be over, and richard nixon had sent someone there saying if you back out of the peace process, nixon will win and you'll get a better deal from president nixon. that's documented all over the place now. >> what i'd like to do is let's share with the students two ads on the air in 1968. the first one is called failure.

this is an ad by richard nixon taking aim at vietnam and the failed policies of lyndon johnson and hubert humphrey. we'll fom that with an ad from the humphrey campaign to give you a sense of what was going on. we'll start with richard nixon and the failure ad. >> how can a party that can't unite itself unite the nation? how can a party that can't keep order in its own backyard hope to keep order in our 50 states? how can a party that labels the results of its programs the great society ever find any real solutions? how can i party that lets the country get bogged down in an endless war against a fourth-rate military power promise anything but decades of conflict? how in the a lot of all this can the american people fail to see that the united states urgently

needs new leadership. by now it's clear. it's the american people do see the need. >> do you want castro to have the bomb now? do you want any country that doesn't have the bomb to be able to get it? of course you don't. where does richard nixon stand on the u.n. treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons? he says he's in no hurry to pass it. hubert humphrey wants to stop the spread of nuclear weapons now before it mushrooms. hubert humphrey supports the u.n. treaty now, as do the 80 countries who have already signed it. let's stop the spread of the bomb now.

humphrey, there is no alternative. >> so i'll have you address the politics of fear as displayed in those two political spots. >> well, yeah, they're -- humphrey's ad, of course, was the play on the warmongers that were republicans that were, you know -- it's something they did earlier, and it patrol didn't work so well fin this election. nixon's ads were right on target, because all he had to do was sit back and watch the democratic party disintegrate, and that's what he did. he put out an ad like that and said, look at these people. you don't want them governing. it was pretty simple for him. he was well-funded and he knew he was the candidate early and he had a loot of time. the democratic convention was late, so nixon had a jump on that.

he had -- he was well-financed and had very good tv ads and gave a good speech at convention when they broke up in small spots and used in the tv ads. that might be what it is. you know, he played that so well, because that's what the country saw. they weren't in the middle of that vietnam war they may have thought about nuclear bombs and we were, but it wasn't as up front as the vietnam war and the protests against it, what was going on in the country and nixon played on that very well throughout the pam contain. >> i want to share another moment from your documentary in a moment. comments from either of you? linwood, let's start with you. what are you taking away so far? >> i would like the comment. i haven't studied 1960 all that much. it's amazing how tumultuous it

was. it's amazing how splint ered and fractured they were. i have a question. if lyndon johnson ainru why you think he would or would not have won the election? >> that's a tough one. i think that that's the kind of question that can't be answered except to say that his election would have depended on the war as well, i believe. he might have been more adamant about ending it or fintiding so way to not have the war work against him if he had run. he might have had better luck that way. and i don't know if he would have won. it would have been really interesting. i think it would have still been a close election. this was in such con start to 1964 when he won before vietnam was really an issue. this is also makes it clear how vietnam had become the decisive

issue. in 1964, he went some 43 of 50 states or something along those lines. if the north vietnam meche saw a divided government that can be

used against him, so he had to still serve the president as vice president. he had johnson tells him he would cut all the funds and everybody -- and all the support he had, what little support he had if he came out against the war. he had at least a half dozen different influences working against him. in our film michael points out that he wanted to say it and couldn't. so people thought he was for the war because he couldn't come out and say it. that's what lost the election. but there are many reasons why that didn't happen, and that's why this speech in october, he sort of hinted at it but couldn't go all the way. johnson was mad about that even. he had a lot of pressures against him not to come out. it's been said that gene mccarthy was one of the more likely vice presidential choices of lbj do humphrey. if gene mccarthy was lbj's vice president, humphrey may have been anti-war candidate in 1968,

which is an interesting concept because whoever was johnson's vice president would have been in the same situation. >> let me turn to bob for final question from one of his students at george mason. >> by the way, there was another force a third party candidate george wallace who pulled aaway a lot of white southerners angry over the civil rights legislation that johnson passed and denied what was the solid south to the democratic party. why didn't humphrey attempt to run for president after the 1968 election considering he only lost by a small percentage of the popular vote?

at some point he decided he didn't want to be president anymore. he was getting too late and he didn't want to do it. in 1970 after 1968 he was re-elected to the senate by the largest landslide in his history, in his political history. he took the seat of gene mccarthy in minnesota, which is always funny. gene mccarthy's popularity in minnesota after this year had just fallen, and humphrey took his seat when went back for the senate. i think he -- i don't think his heart was in running for president again in the end. >> let's turn to one of the questions from the students at the washington center. steve, go ahead. >> we talked a little bit about

the ted offensive earlier in the session. can you talk about what impact reporters had in vietnam while in the election? >> it was the first time that tv was really involved in the war. the visual image in general, it was probably 16 millimeter film at the time brought back to the tv stations. there was no embedding going on. there was no control by the military of this. they just went. she showed battle scenes and things you don't see now. they brought the war really into the living roo

>> 1964, the dixie crowds who were in segregationists, many of them moved to the republican party or retired. that had a lot to do with losing the south. wallace, it's hard to say which side he heard more, but any one of these things, including gene mccarthy's support of humphrey could have won the election for him. >> so plrks caouette, let me conclude where your documentary ends and where hubert humphrey's life ends in his battle with cancer, and i think it pretty much encapsulates that phrase you used earlier, the so-called happy warrior that was, in many ways, hubert humphrey's life. so let's watch. >> in november of 1977, his colleagues gathered together in the first joint tribute to a single senator in u.s. history.

>> friends, we asked you here so we could tell you we love you. [ applause ] >> mr. speaker, knowing full well the dangers of what i'm about to do, i yield as much time as he wishes to consume to the senior center from minnesota. [ applause ] >> and i know where i'm standing. i'm standing where the president of the united states gives his state of the union address. my goodness, how i long for that opportunity. [ applause ]

>> he was optimistic in the possibilities of reforming america. and he loved people. there was just a palpable humanity in that man. >> from the film, the art of the possible, nick couatte, as you put this together, what did you learn and what do you want to share with these students about the year and the man, hubert humphrey, 1968? >> i think from his life we can gain hope for our society. i think people always say, well, things are different now. i hear people say this all the time and it could never be like that again. well, we had the world on the edge of nuclear war, we have the most divisive war going on in our history with vietnam, we had the civil rights movement.

there have been these kind of things before and this country has been in really bad shape, and things that were just as dire as they seem now to many of us. so i think that there's hope with someone like humphrey that people will get into office and do the right thing. also during that period of time, the cameraderie and the by pa bipartisanship is a model for the way a senate and congress can be run. >> the film is called "hubert h. humphrey: the art of the possible." people joining me, thank you for being part of the cspan class project. [ applause ] a look at cspan-3's pr