ABSTRACT
The war in Vietnam was the dominant issue in the election of 1968. The Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, attacked President Lyndon Johnson’s handling of Vietnam, and Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic candidate, attempted a vigorous defense of Johnson on Vietnam almost to the end of the campaign. The political pressure applied by Nixon during his comeback was an added factor, prompting the president to bring US forces actively into the war in Vietnam. Mike Mansfield felt that the chances of ending the war promptly would be greater with Nixon as president than they had been with Johnson. In the Senate, Mansfield had sensed correctly that there were a number of aspirants for the presidency among his Democratic colleagues who would welcome the national spotlight promised by a Watergate investigation. Mansfield suspected that Connally’s refusal was dictated more by the administration’s desire to smoke out Kennedy’s presidential intentions.
