1968 Nixon VS. Humphrey VS. Wallace

"Busing/Law and Order"

Transcript

Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Busing/Law and Order," Wallace, 1968

MALE NARRATOR: Why are more and more millions of Americans turning to Governor Wallace?

(Sound of schoolbus engine)

Follow, as your children are bussed across town.

WALLACE: As President, I shall - within the law - turn back the absolute control of the public school systems to the people of the respective states.

(Footsteps)

MALE NARRATOR: Why are more and more millions of Americans turning to Governor Wallace? Take a walk in your street or park tonight.

(Gunshot, glass breaking)

WALLACE: As President, I shall help make it possible for you and your families to walk the streets of our cities in safety.

(Ship engine/horn, seagulls)

MALE NARRATOR: Why are more and more millions of Americans turning to Governor Wallace? Watch your hard-earned tax dollars sail away to anti-American countries.

WALLACE: As President, I will halt the give-away of your American dollars and products to those nations that aid our enemies.

(Applause)

MALE NARRATOR: Wallace has the courage to stand up for America. Give him your support.

[TEXT: GOVERNOR WALLACE FOR PRESIDENT]

Credits

"Busing/Law and Order," American Independent Party, 1968

Maker: Luckie and Forney

From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1968/businglaw-and-order (accessed July 23, 2025).

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1968 Nixon Humphrey Wallace Results

By 1968, one of the most turbulent years in American history, the number of American troops in Vietnam had risen from 16,000 (in 1963) to more than 500,000. Nightly TV coverage of the "living-room war" ignited an antiwar movement. After a weak showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Johnson shocked the country on March 31 by announcing that he would not seek reelection. Just four days later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, sparking riots in more than 100 cities. In June, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California primary. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the race late and had not won any primaries, became the Democratic nominee at a tumultuous convention in Chicago marred by disorder inside the convention hall and by the televised spectacle of violent confrontations between police and antiwar protesters.

The Republicans nominated Richard M. Nixon, who was attempting a political comeback after losing the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial race. Nixon claimed to speak for the "silent majority" of law-abiding citizens whose voices were presumably drowned out amidst the social upheaval, and he promised a return to the stability of the Eisenhower years.

Discontent with major-party candidates led to an independent run by Alabama Governor George Wallace, who waged the most successful third-party candidacy since 1924.

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