an evil in the universe which
does not lend itself to the optimistic programs of an idealistic
president. Before very long the bright optimism of the Kennedy
presidency had given way to bitterness, cynicism, anger, outright
rebellion, violence -- the phenomenon which we broadly called the New
Left.

Primarily it seemed to have two focal points. The war in Viet Nam
was one. Kennedy historians will debate for a long time who was
primarily responsible for getting the United States into Viet Nam. Some
say Kennedy, some say Lyndon Johnson. A fairly large number of
advisors, so called, were already there during the Kennedy
administration, and it seems likely that had he lived he would have
kept committing more and more. In any case it was Lyndon Johnson who
began sending the troops on a large scale. The war became immensely
unpopular,especially on the college campuses. We had riots,
demonstrations, sit-ins, acts of violence, and so forth, in protest of
the war. The war was called evil, the war was called proof that the
United States is an evil society, though the war began in the same
spirit of optimism and idealism that Kennedy showed in all other
respects -- an idealistic America was going to liberate Southeast Asia
from the tyranny of Communism and show them how much better freedom
is.

In the summer of 1968 at the very moment when there were
demonstrations on the campus of the Catholic University of America
against the Papal birth control encyclical, Humanae Vitae, there
were demonstrations all over the United States against the Viet Nam
war. And at almost that moment, a little before, President Lyndon
Johnson announced that he would not run