A few days later, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to personally see what was going on. He had dinner with General Creighton Abrams, who had become a friend in World War II, and was now the commander of all forces in Vietnam. Abrams told Cronkite a painful truth: "We cannot win this goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."
On February 27, 1968, back at the CBS News desk in New York, Cronkite told the nation this:
To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months, we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.
But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
Upon seeing this report, Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."
McNamara had recently resigned as Secretary of Defense, to accept the Presidency of the World Bank, a United Nations agency. Johnson's new SecDef was Clark Clifford, previously the Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
At the next meeting of the National Security Council, Clifford asked the various members -- including General Abrams, and the man he succeeded as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, now the Army's Chief of Staff, General William Westmoreland -- how close the war was to being won, and what had to be changed to make it happen. They all seemed to have the same answer: "We do not know."
On March 12, the New Hampshire Primary was held. Johnson had not officially announced that he was running for a 2nd full term. But he just barely won that Primary, as Senator Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin, having run solely on an antiwar platform, got 42 percent of the vote, to Johnson's 49.
On March 16, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, brother of JFK, announced he was getting into the race. He and LBJ had hated each other for years, and it was one of the worst-kept secrets in America. So it was imperative for RFK to say this: "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all that I can."
Now, LBJ was really up against it. There were 2 antiwar candidates in the race. One was a Kennedy, and the man LBJ hated the most. What had begun late the previous year as "the Dump Johnson movement," and seemed at first to be just students acting on their white middle-class-and-up privilege, angry and scared over the Vietnam War draft, now had to be taken seriously. And the war was not going well. Johnson knew that, if he did not end the war before the election on November 5, the election would be a referendum on the war, and incredibly difficult for him to win.
So, on Sunday night, March 31, he spoke from the Oval Office of the White House:
Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. No other question so preoccupies our people...
I am taking the first step to deescalate the conflict. We are reducing, substantially reducing, the present level of hostilities....
The area in which we are stopping our attacks includes almost 90 percent of North Vietnam’s population, and most of its territory. Thus there will be no attacks around the principal populated areas, or in the food-producing areas of North Vietnam...
There has been substantial progress, I think, in building a durable government during these last 3 years. The South Vietnam of 1965 could not have survived the enemy’s Tet offensive of 1968. The elected government of South Vietnam survived that attack, and is rapidly repairing the devastation that it wrought...
So tonight I reaffirm the pledge that we made at Manila, that we are prepared to withdraw our forces from South Vietnam as the other side withdraws its forces to the north, stops the infiltration, and the level of violence thus subsides.
Our goal of peace and self-determination in Vietnam is directly related to the future of all of Southeast Asia, where much has happened to inspire confidence during the past 10 years. We have done all that we knew how to do to contribute and to help build that confidence...
One day, my fellow citizens, there will be peace in Southeast Asia. It will come because the people of Southeast Asia want it: Those whose armies are at war tonight, those who, though threatened, have thus far been spared. Peace will come because Asians were willing to work for it, and to sacrifice for it, and to die by the thousands for it...
What we won when all of our people united just must not now be lost in suspicion, and distrust, and selfishness, and politics among any of our people. And, believing this as I do, I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year.
With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office, the Presidency of your country.
Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
But let men everywhere know, however, that a strong, and a confident, and a vigilant America stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace, and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause, whatever the price, whatever the burden, whatever the sacrifice that duty may require.
Thank you for listening. Good night and God bless all of you.
A President refusing to run for another term in office had been rare, especially in the 20th Century. Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 and Harry Truman in 1952 were eligible to run for what would have amounted to a 3rd term, but didn't. Calvin Coolidge refused to run for a 2nd full term in 1928. But that was it. In every election from 1972 to 2020, every President eligible to run for re-election has done so.
The next day was April 1, and millions of people who hadn't seen the speech, and hadn't seen the 11:00 local news the night before, saw the headline in their local newspaper, and wondered if it might not be the biggest April Fool's joke of all time. It wasn't.
The Dump Johnson movement celebrated. For 4 days. On April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and all good feeling over LBJ dropping out vanished.
Johnson did stay out of the race, and did devote the last 9 months of his Presidency to seeking a peace deal.
He didn't get that deal. Why is a story for another time. His successor, whoever that was going to be, could have ended the war any time he wanted. The man who became that successor ended it 3 days into his 2nd term, 1 day after Johnson died. A little more than 2 years after that, Vietnam was united, and it was Communist.
*
March 31, 1968 was a Sunday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 123-105 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 110-96 at the Boston Garden.
* The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 129-103 at Kiel Auditorium in St. Loius.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 122-99 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
And there was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Denver Rockets beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 108-100.
* There were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the brand-news Madison Square Garden in New York.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 5-5 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Middletown, New Jersey.
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