What did Hubert Humphrey REALLY think about the Vietnam War?

[DerekG]

I recently read Daniel Ellsberg's sublime book, and I recall a passage in which he regrets his apathy during the '68 election. He laments the idea that people saw little difference between Humphrey and Nixon, and had he known that Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war was a complete lie, Ellsberg would have done as much as he could to stop him.

With that said: What did Humphrey really think about the war? More importantly, is there ANY evidence that would suggest HHH would have ended the war before Nixon?

Replies would be appreciated. Thank you.

[sallyseven]

1. You bet he would have

The happy warrior was a very honest and kind man. He was highly underrated. Johnson should have let him defend himself instead of making him hue the line. We will win in Vietnam. Johnson sometimes could be such a dick.

[Emboldened Chimp]

2. The Good Dr Thompson would disagree

He despised Humphrey almost as much as Nixon.

[bemildred]

4. Ditto that, Humphrey was a political hack.

LBJ was elected on an anti-war platform and
promptly got us in deeper. There is no way
Hubert would have got us out, but he might have
fucked it up differently.

[ijk]

3. don't know about Humphrey but...

There's a pretty fair consensus that starting in '69 or maybe '70, little changed with respect to ending the war. That is - pardon me, I'm not putting this clearly - it was clear enough for any unbiased observer to see that we weren't going to make any progress winning, and we could have had essentially the deal we made in '72. So when the war ended was, from some point not long after the election, pretty much awaiting the president's decision to end it.

From that perspective, even if Humphrey were only mildly more peaceloving or less arrogant or less committed to previous decisions than Nixon, it could have made a big difference in when the war ended (and all the waste and death with it.)