Episode 80: RICHARD NIXON 1972 The Foundation of Peace (Part 10) The Democratic Primary, Vietnam and a farewell to J. Edgar Hoover

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After President Richard Nixon returned from China he would have to catch up on all he missed as the Democratic Party began its campaign to challenge him in earnest.  It would be a race that would feature one of the great come from nowhere candidates in all of American history, South Dakota Senator George McGovern.  He would be up against Senator Edmund Muskie, the presumed frontrunner, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey the 1968 nominee, an Alabama Governor George Wallace who had run for President as an independent in 1968. 

McGovern had two things going for him, he was strong against the war in Vietnam and he had a young , bright, aggressive campaign manager named Gary Hart who decided to bet the farm on the Iowa Caucuses and it worked. McGovern shocked the world finishing second. Muskie would end up with a few problems of his own after a letter accusing him of allowing racism popped up in Florida and a New Hampshire Newspaper made ethics an issue about the candidates wife. Muskie had a meltdown in which he may or may not have cried at a snowy press conference  in New Hampshire but either way it would dampen his Presidential hopes.

Then the President had to make a strong move in Vietnam after the North Vietnamese went on an Easter offensive. Nixon addressed the nation, bombed Hanoi, and mined the harbors there. Nixon was now free of worry about an invading Chinese and with the game now so dramatically changed he thought a strong move against Hanoi would do him no harm as he also prepared for his summit in Moscow. It was hardball politics on the world stage.   

Finally, the show ends with a game changing domestic event here at home. A giant of the nations history would pass away suddenly at the age of 72. Whether you liked J. Edgar Hoover or not there was no denying his enormous place in the history of the nation and in the influence of domestic politics here at home, and his passing would create an enormous power vacuum that would have huge ramifications on future events in the life of Richard Nixon and the nation. We end as we listen to President Nixon deliver a eulogy for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. 

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