I Finally Read a Biography of Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911–1978), is one of those political figures who features prominently in chronicles of American political history and who I have long admired but, before picking up this biography of him, was yet to read about in a book where he was the main subject. I was thrilled when I saw Arnold A. Offner, a historian who has written on foreign policy and the Cold War, had written a biography on the ‘Happy Warrior’, and couldn’t wait to get started on it.
Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country takes us from Humphrey’s beginnings in South Dakota and Minnesota and his early political career in Minneapolis, before he was elected to the United States Senate, later becoming Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ’s) Vice President after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, losing the election to Richard Nixon in 1968, before seeing out his career back in the Senate. Throughout, we get a sense of what shaped Humphrey’s liberalism, his hatred of racism in America and his commitment to improving the lot of the ordinary American.
As a young Mayor of Minneapolis running for the Senate, Humphrey was launched into national prominence when he spoke at the 1948 Democratic Convention and called for a pro-civil rights plank, triggering the walk-out of a group of southerners. From that point on, for the rest of his life, few political figures pushed for civil rights in Washington as much as Humphrey. During his first stint in the Senate, when he was Majority Whip, he played a key role in passing the 1957 Civil Rights Act (the first civil rights legislation passed in over eight decades), even earning the admiration of Southern Democrats who for decades had obstructed every civil rights bill introduced in Congress. Writes Offner, “Humphrey mastered every title of the bill, met challenges — often barbed — with knowledge and wit, and never lost his temper.” That could probably sum up every challenge he faced in the Senate. Humphrey’s overall score sheet during his years in the Senate is too extensive to go through here, but it is first-rate. As Offner writes, Humphrey worked tirelessly at legislation, scooping up every “crumb”. He forced myriad liberal issues onto the agenda and he delivered the goods: everything from federal aid for education to food stamps, arms control to a nuclear test ban, humanitarian aid to fair employment. There are many more. Offner also credits Humphrey with paving the way for the Peace Corps. Near the end of his career he was recognised in a poll as the most effective Senator of the past 50 years — and he amusingly offered a reminder of LBJ’s revered tenure as Majority Leader in the 1950s, as he accepted the award.
The ‘LBJ v HHH’ relationship reveals all sorts. Offner tells us how LBJ raged at and adored and depended on Humphrey, and how Humphrey adopted a strange son-like deference towards the President, a man just three years older, during his time as Vice President. The most illuminating parts are when Offner discusses Humphrey’s role in the administration’s decisions on Vietnam. On Humphrey submitting himself to Johnson’s policy, whatever his own thoughts were, Offner writes that Humphrey “tailored his words — and perhaps his thoughts — to conform to what he knew his political superior wanted to hear”, and claims he did not cross Johnson because he wished to remain in the President’s inner circle and protect his own chances at becoming President. I expect Robert Caro will give us the definitive account of LBJ and Vietnam when his next book lands (any inside gossip, anyone?), but I don’t expect anyone to come closer than Offner does in defining Humphrey’s role. The consequences of the decision to escalate America’s involvement were devastating, and many in the White House sat on their hands and supported what they knew to be a catastrophic policy. Humphrey was not the only other person in the room, and plenty of senior administration figures have received opprobrium over the years. But he was Number Two, and despite the habitual bullying and humiliation LBJ administered, he did have the President’s ear. Offner really brings this to life. These passages are full of insight and analysis which, for me, enrich a political biography. A book like this is an opportunity for an author to shape the reader’s perception of its subject, and when Offner commentates on this part of Humphrey’s career, he is giving us so much more than just narrative. It is a shame that this approach wasn’t deployed at other intervals throughout the book.
My eyes really widened when Offner got to the 1968 presidential election. After LBJ went onto TV in March to tell the world he was not going to run, a testy primary campaign, the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, and a riotous convention in Chicago, inside and outside the hall, Humphrey was finally the Democratic nominee. In the election he squared off against Richard Nixon and George Wallace, the demagogic Governor of Alabama, who was running a pro-segregation third-party campaign that was making serious inroads with working class voters, and not just in the South.
Against the backdrop of riots and assassinations, 1968 is often cited as a landmark political realignment where Nixon, back from his years in the wilderness, tapped into voters’ fears about law and order and, with silent nods in the direction of Wallace and other pro-segregation conservatives in the South, redrew the political map and changed American politics forever. This debate will go on, but the winner-takes-all nature of elections in America exaggerates the extent of Nixon’s so-called sweep. In reality, this was a close election. Humphrey was trailing Nixon by double digits in August; by Election Day the polls were at a dead heat. Nixon won the popular vote by 0.75 percent. Offner diligently reshapes the contours of the election campaign, discussing in depth the circumstances that influenced events: LBJ’s unwillingness to throw his weight behind Humphrey, the timing of the bombing halt in Vietnam, Nixon’s campaign undercutting Vietnam peace talks, Wallace’s third-party campaign, Senator Eugene McCarthy’s refusal to endorse Humphrey until it was too late to be effective and even Humphrey not choosing a running mate, like Senator Fred Harris from Oklahoma, who might have connected better with younger, disaffected parts of the electorate. If one thinks of Nixon’s presidency and its legacy, and how it could have easily not come about, one is left wondering what might have been if the course of events had been even the slightest bit different in the run-up to November 1968.
I don’t imagine Hubert Humphrey was the most difficult subject for Offner to take on, especially when compared to some of Humphrey’s contemporaries. He did not have the political genius, mixed with a capacity for deception and a desperate desire to be liked, like LBJ (although I get the sense being liked meant something to Humphrey). Nor did he possess the fierce will and opportunism that eventually gave way to scheming and self-destruction, like Nixon. He didn’t make it to the top job in the White House either, and not having a presidential record to examine and defend probably helps Offner, and allows us to like Humphrey and wonder what a Humphrey presidency might have been like. Nonetheless, Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country is without a doubt a much-needed, extremely well-researched piece of work that opens up the life and legacy of a liberal icon to a new audience, and Arnold O. Offner deserves a great deal of credit for doing so.
After his loss in 1968, an unfinished Humphrey sought a return to the Senate in 1970. His campaign had a slogan which went “You Know He Cares”. It should have been extended to include “…and You Know He Delivers”. When we think about finding the space between the desirable and achievable in politics, Offner has given us an excellent case study in how Humphrey, unapologetically liberal, found a way to get things done and leave his world in a better shape than he found it.
