nomination at that 1972 democratic national convention in miami beach, florida. his speech, the south dakota senator criticizes richard nixon policies on the non-and culture for -- vietnam and calls more policy changes. he lost to richard dixon. his speech is just over 40 minutes and our coverage is from the nixon presidential library museum. , chairwomano'brien kennedy, senator citizens,nd my fellow i'm happy to join you for this benediction of our sunrise service. [applause]

i assume that everyone here is impressed with my control of this convention and that my choice for vice president was challenged by only 39 other nominees. [laughter] but i think we learned from watching the republicans four years ago as they selected their vice president that it pays to take a little more time. [applause] and i can tell you that eleanor

is very grateful that the oregon grateful that the oregon delegation at least kept her in the race with martha mitchell. [applause] i congratulate you on your patience and i pay my respects to those two superb presiding officers of this convention larry o'brien and the bond breakaway bird. bird.on [applause] tonight, accept your nomination with a full and grateful hearts. heart. [applause] the afternoon, i crossed wide missouri to recommend a running mate of wide vision and

compassion, senator tom eagleton. [applause] at my sideo have him and i'm proud to have been introduced a moment ago by one of the most eloquent and courageous voices in this land, senator ted kennedy. [applause] by nomination is all the more -- my nomination is all the more precious and that it is the gift of the most open political process in all of our political history . [applause] harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and by alike, literally funded

hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation. [applause] who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this soulign heart, hand, and and i have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country. [applause] it is an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and the faith that can literally move out and. -- mountains. [applause] and gates puts it, counselor man's glory most begins and ends

and today my glory was i had such friends. this is the people's nomination we will january, restore the government of the people of this country. [applause] i believe that american politics will never be quite the same again. we are entering a new time of importance and helpful change in america. -- comparableable to those areas that unleashed a

remarkable ferment during the period of jefferson, jackson and roosevelt. i tried this nomination because this comes after vigorous competition with the men and women are party has to offer. -- our party has to offer. [applause] my old and treasured trends and neighbors, hubert humphrey. [applause] a gracious and good man from the state of maine, ed muskie. [applause] a fighter for his own conviction, scoop jackson of washington. [applause] and a brave and a spirited woman, shirley chisholm.

[applause] effective lawmaker. [applause] government from north carolina who over the years offered public excellence, terry stanford. [applause] the leader who in 1968 combined book to prevail in the hope of the american spirit, senator eugene mccarthy. [applause] moved as were all of in thishe appearance convention hall of the governor of alabama, george lawless. [applause] primary showhe

clearly the depths of discontent in this country and his courage in the face of pain and diversity is the mark of a man with problems as well. [applause] us despise the senseless act that this ruffled his campaign and governors, we pray for your full recovery so you can stand up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion. [applause] in the months ahead, i deeply covet the health of every democrat, of every republican, of every independent who wants this country to be the brave and good land it can be.

[applause] this is going to be a national campaign carried to every part of the nation, north, south, east and west. we are not conceding a single .tate to richard nixon [applause] i should like to say to my ,riend, frank king that ohio tom eagleton and i are not greater caps off. tom eagleton and i are not going to pass it by. [applause] to governor

gilligan, ohio is sometimes a little slow in counting the votes but when those votes are counted next november, ohio will be in the democratic victory column. [applause] to anyone in this hall and beyond who doubts the ability of democrats to join together in common cause, i say never underestimate the power of richard nixon to bring harmony to democratic wrath. [applause]

he is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign. [applause] and all of us are going to help 10 redeem a pledge he made years ago that next year you won't have richard nixon to kick around anymore. [applause] we have had our fury and prostration in these past months and that this convention. but frankly, i welcome the contrast with the smug and dole

and empty event which will doubtless take place here in miami next month. [applause] we chose the struggle, we read reform of the party and let the people in. [applause] we stand today not as a collection of backroom ofategists, not as a tool any other special interest. let our opponents stand while we seek to refresh the american spirit. opposition collected $10 million in ticket money for the privilege do and let us find one million ordinary americans who

will contribute $25 each to this campaign, a million member club with members who will not expect special papers for themselves but a better land for us all. [applause] in the music of our children, we are told for everything there is a season in a temporary purpose under heaven. america, the time has come at last. this is the time for truth, nepal said. onemocratic nation, no likes to say that his inspiration came from secret arrangements behind closed doors but in a sense, that is how

might candidacy began. today inas a candidate a terriblebecause war has been charted behind closed doors. i want those doors open and i want that war closed. [applause] and that make these pledges above all others.

the doors that government will be open and that war will be closed. [applause] truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics. if we nurture the habit of truth in the campaign, we will continue to be truthful once we are in the white house. [applause] americans as woodrow wilson said in his first 1912.gn of 19:12 -- let me inside the government and i will tell you what is going on there. [applause] wilson believed and i believe that the destiny of america is always safer in the hands of the people than in the conference rooms of any elite. [applause]

country theour chance to elect a government that will seek and speak the truth for this is a time of the truth and the life of this country. [applause] this is also a time, not for death, but for like. in 1968, many americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from vietnam in peace and since then, 20,000 of our sons have come home in coffins. peace.no secret plan for i have a public plan and as one whose heart has eight for the the past 10ed for years, i would hope that , i will end itng

on inaugural day. [applause] there will be no more children running a blaze from bombed out schools print it will be no more talk of bombing the cities of the north. [applause] of mythin 90 days inauguration, every american soldier and every american prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and back home in america where they belong. [applause]

and then let us resolve that spend then will we precious young blood of our country to die trying to pop up a corrupt military dictatorship. this is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. to its must be restored proper role in the world. we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves.

i believe that the greatest contribution that america can break but heal our on very deeply troubled land. we must respond to that ancient command for vision. [applause] now it is necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile forces that we be militarily strong. we must never become the second great nation. faced the bitter proof of our weakness afford ,arbor, i give you my pledge america will keep its defenses

alert and fully sufficient to meet any danger. [applause] that not only for ourselves, but for those who deserve and need the shield of our strength. our oldest allies in europe and elsewhere including the people of israel who will also be our friends. [applause] believe that every man and woman in this convention hallfor 30 years, we have been so absorbed with here and danger from abroad that we have permitted our own house to fall into disarray. [applause] that peace andw prosperity can exist side-by-side.

it did each now depends on the existence of the other. national strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad. [applause] national security include school for our children as well as salads for our missiles. silos for our missiles. the health of our families as much of the size of our bombs. the safety of our street and the conditions of our city. not just the engines of war. [applause] someday choke on the pollution of our own air, there will be little consolation in leaving behind a dying continent with steel. [applause]

while we are taking ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home and this is the time for that. [applause] also make this a time of justice and jobs for all our people. for more than 3.5 years, we have tolerated stagnation in the rising level of joblessness with more than 5 million of our best workers unemployed at this very moment. most wasteful the economics of all. [applause] our directive is not for idleness but for new housing and hospitals or for facilities to combat pollution and take us home from more and better products and the ability to compete on a vigorous world

marker. the highest single domestic priority of the next administration will be to ensure that every american able to work has a job to do. [applause] that job must depend upon a reinvigorated rabbit economy -- private economy. free at last on the uncertainty and burden of war. it is our commitment that whatever employment the private sector does not provide, the federal government will either stimulate or provide itself. [applause] whatever it takes, this country is going back to work. america cannot exist with most of our people working and paying

taxes to support too many others mired in a demeaning and hopeless welfare mess. [applause] byrefore, we intend to begin putting millions right to work -- back to work and after that is done, we will ensure that those unable to work and income fully adequate to a decent life. [applause] this, a program to put america back to work demands that work be properly rewarded. the end of a system of economic controls in which laborers the press but private and corporate profits run skyhigh. [applause] it means a system of national

health insurance so that a decentcan afford even -- health care for himself and his family. [applause] it means real enforcement of the laws so that the drug racketeers are put behind bars and our streets are once again say for our families. [applause] -- safe for our families. [applause] above all. honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system. [applause] system -- the deck system today does not reward hard work. it penalizes it. inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all but wages on dsm thesefarming the land, hard-earned taxes are taxed to the last penny.

there is a depletion allowance for oil wells, but in a depletion for the farmer who feeds us with the worker who serves us all. -- or the worker who serves us all. [applause] us thatnistration tells we should not discuss tax reform in an election year. they would prefer to keep all discussion of the tax laws enclosed rooms where the administration, powerful friends, and their paid lobbyists can turn every effort at reform into a new loophole for the rich and powerful. [applause] year, it isection the people's year to speak. this year the people are going to ensure that the tax system is changed so that work is rewarded and so that those who derive the highest benefits will pay their fair share rather than slipping

through the loophole at the expense of the rest of us. [applause] let us stand for justice and jobs and against special privilege and this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the american spirit. we are not content with things as they are. we reject the view of those who say america, love it or leave it, we reply, let us change it so we may love it some more. [applause] this is the time, the time for this land to become again a witness to the world for what is

just and noble in human affairs. with time to live more safety and less with beer. -- fear. do just that we are truly brothers and sisters. join with me in this campaign. lead senator eagleton and meet your strength and support and together we will call america home to the ideals that nursed us from the very beginning. -- nourished us from the very beginning. [applause] from secrecy to deception in high places, come home america. som military spending wasteful that it weakens our nation, come home america. from the entrenchment of special privilege and tax favoritism,

waste ofweights -- idle hands to the joy of useful laborers. the prejudice a stone race and sex, -- based on race and the despair of the neglected sick, come home america. come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward. come home to the belief that we can seek a new were world and let us -- newer world and let us be joe fall [laughter] joyful. -- joyful. this land is my land. this land is your land. from california to the new york islands. from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters. this land was made or you and me. -- for you and me. [laughter]

-- [applause] let us close on this note. may god grant you one of us the landm to cherish this good and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home. and now is the time to meet that challenge. good night and god speed to all. -- you all.

[applause] ♪ ♪ everyte house rewind runs sunday at 10 a.m. eastern. for the next several weeks, we will feature highlights from the democratic and republican conventions back to 1948. this is american history tv only on c-span three.