General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A question about RFK [View all]WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)He was certainly a mercurial man, and didn't like HHH's Salt Lake City speech, but, he did campaign appearances for HHH in NY, WVA, KY, TX & TN. He appeared with HHH, in fact, at a packed rally for Humphrey two days before the election in Houston, TX and gave an enthusiastic speech for HHH. He did radio speeches for HHH.
Most importantly he announced on October 31, 1968 a bombing halt on North Vietnam. The country responded and briefly HHH went ahead of Nixon in the polls. Then Nixon's campaign (like that of Reagan in 1980) committed treason when it told Hanoi to wait that they could get a better deal under Nixon.
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/681031.asp
Johnson found out about this (yes, he bugged Nixon's campaign plane) and threatened to go public but at the last minute decided not to because he felt it would destroy the country. A big mistake.
Now, I agree RFK, might not have gotten the nomination, but not because of Johnson (though maybe because of him, too), but because most delegates were selected at that time at party conventions and by labor leaders. The party heirarchy was behind HHH and, in fact, he was leading in the delegates at the time of the California Primary.