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This is the seventh installment of our NHPRC funded project to digitize Hubert H. Humphrey's speech texts. This month we focus on the year 1965, the beginning of Humphrey's tenure as Vice President of the United States.

For Humphrey, inauguration day of 1965 was "a day of immense satisfaction, of success without struggle or other distracting circumstances... It was a moment of pure joy" (Education of a Public Man, p. 233).

The moment, however, was not to last. In the first days of February, while Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to organize nonviolent demonstrations for voting rights in the country, mass arrests and police attacks against protestors increased, followed on February 18 by the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church deacon from Marion, Alabama as he attempted to protect his mother. The night before, Humphrey had given this speech to the Pacem In Terris (The Pursuit of Peace) conference of the United Nations and declared that "The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of generations. In concept it requires a master architect, in execution, the labors of many" (p. 30). Less than a week later, one of the many, Malcolm X, was assassinated.

In March civil rights activists marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In his book Beyond Civil Rights: A New Day of Equality, Humphrey described this time in history: "Once again--as in 1963--the brutality of the resistance furnished the public support and indignation to spur legislation through Congress. President Johnson responded to the moment with the full powers of moral leadership of his office; he went before Congress and the public to ask for a bill to allow the federal government to register voters in the intransigent counties of the Deep South" (p. 112).

But at the same time that Johnson was calling for troops to protect the marchers in Alabama and initiating national voting rights legislation, he was also authorizing the use of ground troops in Vietnam.

Humphrey had strong opinions on both the issue of civil rights and Vietnam. Now that Johnson required his loyal support, however, a markedly different approach to politics was outlined for him. Since he had previously questioned some of Johnson's policies, Humphrey was no longer allowed to assert his own opinion concerning Vietnam. Humphrey's speeches, from the moment he took office, were now reviewed by the White House in advance and rarely could he express his own convictions and opinions as openly and humorously as in a speech like this one, at the Gridiron Club on March 20.

Instead, Humphrey was encouraged to focus on those domestic issues that Johnson's Great Society programs addressed. Social reforms focusing on the issues of transportation, the environment, the elderly, housing, medicine and health, education, unemployment and unequal opportunity, poverty and civil rights were all discussed in this speech given by Humphrey on March 6, 1965 at a testimonial dinner for Senator Dodd of Connecticut.

Now that Humphrey was the Vice President, his responsibilities included not only being President of the Senate, a cabinet member and a member of the National Security Council, he also oversaw the space and marine programs, the poverty program, served as the administration's conduit to mayors and local governments, led the President's Committee on Youth Employment, and headed the Discover America program to promote stateside tourism. "On taking office, he received as many as a thousand speaking invitations a month" (Carl Solberg, Hubert Humphrey: A Biography, 1984, p. 278).

Humphrey packed his schedule with appearances at colleges and universities, raised funds for Johnson, and witnessed some of Johnson's domestic programs, which he had worked on in the Senate, finally become law. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act became law in April, the Head Start program began as an 8-week summer

program in May and the Medicare amendment was signed in July.

Vietnam, however, was the topic many audiences wanted to hear about more. In this speech given at Michigan State University on June 1st, shortly after President Johnson himself spoke at Johns Hopkins University about "unconditional negotiations" in Vietnam, Humphrey spelled out the basis of the administration's policy in Vietnam: there would be no withdrawal, a political solution to the conflict was essential, and the Vietnamese people could only hope for better days.

The same day Humphrey gave a speech to the National War College in Washington, D.C. on the importance of having a balanced military force that was flexible and experienced in guerilla and psychological warfare. Where Johnson would not yield, Humphrey cautioned that military power alone was not an adequate response (pages 8-9).

At the end of July Humphrey attended a national governor's conference and had the text of his speech released as usual before his appearance. The text of the speech originally read that Vietnam would be "long, costly, and ugly." The President's office hadn't read the speech before its release and was not happy with this characterization. Though the speech had already been released, Humphrey changed his text for the actual appearance. Included here is his copy of the speech where he stated that "we must learn patience. In Southeast Asia we must be prepared to endure. The plain truth is that we must face the prospect of a long and difficult ordeal" (p. 12).

On August 6th, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Humphrey gave a speech at the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Convention on August 9th dedicated to the topics of civil rights and the end of discrimination, and reminisced about a speech he had given to the same organization in 1948. That same month, riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles took place over five days causing millions of dollars of property damage, left 34 people dead and thousands injured and arrested.

As Humphrey's first year as Vice President drew to a close he began to realize how limited the parameters of his new office were. "As the winter of 1965-66 approached, I was still outside. In fairness, it must be said that Johnson probably never intended for me to have any greater role in foreign-policy formulation than he himself had had during the Kennedy years. And there is good reason for that" (Education of a Public Man, p. 245). The end of 1965 witnessed tens of thousands of troops sent to Vietnam and protests against the war in Washington, D.C. itself.

Regardless of his differences with Johnson, Humphrey promoted and supported his political party and it's agenda, encouraging those who were coming up in the ranks to continue to fight for political reform. Humphrey gave particular attention to Walter "Fritz" Mondale, newly elected to the Senate to fill out Humphrey's term. In this speech during Mondale's testimonial dinner on October 23, Humphrey thanked Mondale for supporting him during his mayoral run in 1947, for cosponsoring Medicare, and for supporting the recently passed Voting Rights Act. Mondale would later be elected Vice President in 1977, during the end of Humphrey's life. After consulting Humphrey about his experiences in the office, Mondale would forever change the Vice President's office into the advisory and participatory one it is today.

These speech texts, as well as all of Humphrey's speeches from 1941-1965 are linked to the inventory of his Speech Text Files. More of Humphrey's speeches will be made available each month throughout this project. Look for the years 1966-1967 in April!

This project was awarded the support of a $46,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) administered by the National Archives.

Learn more about how the NHPRC helps preserve records of enduring national historical value and promotes their public access and interpretation through archival and documentary programs.