George Wallace on Face the Nation, Jul 21, 1968

up next on real America we continue our look back at the 1968 presidential campaign former alabama Governor George Wallace ran as the nominee of the American independent party on July 21st he appeared on CBS's Face the Nation the self proclaimed law and order candidate discusses his chances of winning what he sees as the failures and hypocrisy of the two major parties and his views on segregation urban riots and the Vietnam War governor Wallace is Europe real ambition to win the presidency or is it to get enough votes to dictate who does go to the White House my real purpose in running for the presidency is to win and win outright or November fill and I think if you'll follow me around in the country and see the reception we're getting from one end of the country to the other you can see that we have an excellent chance of winning the election on November 5th at the polls from CBS Washington in color Face the Nation a spontaneous and unrehearsed news interview with George Wallace former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate of the American independent party governor Wallace will be questioned by CBS News correspondent Nelson Benton Joseph Kraft syndicated columnist of publishers hall and CBS News correspondent Martin agronsky we shall resume the interview with governor Wallace in a moment governor despite your own optimism about your chances every poll every indicator of a national opinion shows that you yourself have no hope to win to the presidency your critics contend therefore that you're deliberately adopting the role of spoiler that is trying to throw the election into the House of Representatives how would you answer that analysis well at least mr. gronski we have critics and they're paying attention to our movement as you've noticed in the papers in the last number of days members of both parties have said we must join together to stop this movement headed by George Wallace of course the George Wallace is one individual but I am speaking for many millions of people in our country I might say that there are many polls that I win radio and television polled all the way from New Bedford Massachusetts Syracuse New York all the way to Honolulu I have one on television and radio now the polls the other polls that you're talking about show that we have doubled our strength since April of this last year I believe and we're just now getting into the campaign and if you will follow me around the country you'll see that we have in larger crowds than even the candidates for the two other existing major parties as witnessed our trip to Ohio yesterday we had larger crowds and those who came out to witness the arrival of candidates for one of the party Republican or Democratic nomination so no one can win the election and that's the purpose of running is not to spoil anything but to spoil other than to spoil the chances of the Republican and the Democratic Party which that is both of them neither of them are given the American people a choice coming off you just said you thought you could win could you have indicate the states where you think you're gonna win I think we're going to win every one of the southern and border states from Missouri around through Texas Oklahoma all the way up into the free state of Maryland and we have an excellent chance in states like Pennsylvania New Jersey Ohio Indiana Illinois Wisconsin California Michigan we have an excellent chance in states like Nebraska and in Connecticut and New England in fact we are running well in all of the states even in the western states but I think we're going to win the southern and border states and we're going to win several of the states in the Midwest and a good chance to win California we also have an excellent chance in New York whether some people believe it or not in fact we received more mail probably from the state of New York than any state in the Union governor Wallace are there any conditions now under which you would withdraw from the race before November could platform changes cause no there are no conditions under which I would withdraw from the president for the presidency I said back last year when I was trying to get on the ballot in California under their most difficult law that this ought to be a lesson to one of the two national priorities they ought to give the American people a choice of not only platform but candidate but since that time not only have they not given the American people a choice but both party leadership's join together in the passage of the so-called fair housing law which is really the greatest attack on private property in the history of our country and every aspirant for the Republican and Democratic nomination along with the leaders of both parties in Congress joined together to pass this anti property ownership law and in my judgment if a platform was given to the American people by one of the parties that suited me it would have to be on a 180 degree turn from the present position of the leadership of the two parties but governor in your speeches just as recent as this past week you have occasionally said and this is not an exact quote but this is a gist of it regardless of what happens in November we're going to change some trends yeah yes I'm saying that I say that right now I say that the fact that we are having the largest crowds we're having tumultuous support for our attitude and philosophy throughout the country is today making the leadership of both national parties sit down and think it's making members of the Congress wonder whether we've been voting right whether or not we must change our position and so this movement is going to help change trends in the country well and that is the be spoiling then governors or aren't you talking then about possible spoiling about know the fact that you probably in training win change in trend is not going to sport anything it's going to have correct things and that's exactly what we in the race for is to change directions in our country because neither one of the two national parties are given the people a choice govern in change of directions governor they I mean I quote to you an observation that you made yourself last February when you intended that your campaign role could be that of a spoiler who said that this was in the New York Times on February 8th new recorders having said that and then you said I said that that you said that well I don't exactly know where exactly all the exact quotes that I made on it press conferences and the context in which that or a statement was made well but do Washington sir but let me say this that yes I'm in the in the race to spoil but not the sport in the sense that you're talking about is to spoil a chances of both national parties electing a president well let's try that's of course of what we are doing and I can say this and anybody who votes for the National Republican or National Democratic Party will be throwing their vote away if they think like we do because you certainly don't have a choice there governor let's let's try it this way you also said at that time again according to New York Times said if the election is thrown into the house we that is you have all the gain and nothing to lose and you implied then that that kind of a deadlock might well force important concessions from the presidential candidate whose electoral vote combined with yours would add up and required 270 now if you were thinking along those lines then as you're thinking changed mr. Grunch get the context in which that statement was made came about as a result of a question from a member of the press in the audience I have never voluntarily said we're going to throw it into the house and that's our purpose but the question is asked by members of the press ille governor Wallace the hypothetical question and speculative question if neither one of the two parties getting majority what would be your position well I always answer the hypothetical question by saying well of course if that happened and there always is that probability when there are three or more running because it only takes the plurality of the vote to win but if you don't get a plurality the popular vote which gives you a majority of the electoral vote then it would wind up in the house unless it was settled in the electoral college and I might remind you that the Electoral College meets first and therein would lie probably the solution that is election of the president but I might well be number one in the electoral college instead of number three anyway what I was trying to say when we said we have everything to gain and nothing to lose is that if I were not a candidate for the presidency one of the two major national parties in existence now would win the election and they are Tweedledee and Tweedledum so my running for the presidency and even if I did not win we wouldn't be in no worse position than we would have been had I not run so we have everything to gain and nothing to lose okay governor let's ask another hypothetical question again based on the premise that if you were to win to the presidency what would you do about riots what would I do about riots the first thing that I would say is the president is I give my moral support to the police and firemen in this country and the first thing I would do if a continuation of the breakdown of law and order exists in the District of Columbia where we are talking today where just today pictures of people murdered in the streets I would use the office of the presidency and view of the fact that this is the district to restore order in the District of Columbia if I had to call federal troops into this city and I would give my moral support to the police in the country I would ask the Congress to pass legislation that I did a way with decisions of the courts that handcuffed the police and I would just say we're going to have law and order and when I said that and my election would indicate the people in the Lord the the politicians and leaders of the large cities of our country especially that the people of our country are sick and tired of the breakdown of law and order and they in turn then in my judgment would tell the police enforce the law and in my judgment and enforcement of the law would bring about a restoration of law and order in this country without expended to a billions of dollars as proposed by some of the social engineers you're you were quoted as having observed once that the people know the way to stop a riot is to hit someone on the head yes I've said something similar that when somebody goes out and begins to loot and burn a building down which endanger the health and safety of everybody that's a good way to stop it if you let the police know let the police knock somebody in the head who would break in a plate-glass wonder who was assaulting a policeman who was assaulting a person on the street throwing a firebomb I think they'd be getting out mighty light if somebody knocked him in the head and frankly that's exactly what ought to be done and if I were the President of the United States I would take whatever was necessary to prevent what happened in this city if we had to order there knocking in the head of many people and when you do that you're going to satisfy the overwhelming majority of people of all races in this country because it's not a matter of race it's a matter of anarchists and the government is kowtow to every anarchist group in the United States and as a consequence we don't have any safety in the streets of our large cities now right here in Washington DC tell me you've talked about these trends and reversing the trends but there are a lot of people who are against these trends who feel that the result of your actions and the result of the things you say is to speed up and accelerate these trends senator Sam Ervin for example called called You governor the chief aider and abettor of these civil rights laws you pretend to be against and his argument was the kinds of things in that two more years ago that's are you quoting something that Senator Durbin said four years ago he hadn't said that lately has he I have a quote a lot of years ago I would like to ask you to ask senator Ervin cause he has a right to his opinion I think he's a fine man but don't tell me that I am responsible for what happened in Los Angeles and what happened in Detroit I wasn't there I am NOT the chief aider and abettor to the breakdown of law and order of civil rights programs anything of that sort in fact in Alabama contrary to what you might know we didn't have any breakdown of law and order in that state we had some demonstrations no breakdown no no Liam no sir what breakdown of law and order came there we had some demonstrations that put some water on some people and arrested some folk did to burn the city down what happened what happened after the Selma December March one woman was shot on the highway by some thugs people are shot in Washington every day and in Philadelphia every day but nobody got hurt in the March and we had 30 car I mean I 35,000 people governor and then you cannot say that no one got hurt yeah they are each people got hit in the head if you're talking about the March March 7th March governor and other state patrolman who got hurt well I would estimate conservatively that at least 15 were hurt and low marks teen out of 35 that did one of them have to go to the hospital yes sir well how many well you we're talking about five years ago one person went to the hospital eight got hurt at the Selma bridge not a single person got killed involved in the March and then the next week 50 killed in Detroit 750 of killed in Los Angeles and a few people got their head skint in Selma when there were 35,000 people there and you call that the breakdown of law and order while right here in Washington DC people got killed hundreds and thousands got injured and yet when you talk on these programs you talk about Selma and you say 15 well let's take your word for it 15 got hurt in six weeks marching in Selma 15 got hurt while in in in Washington here the other day over a thousand got injured in one day and so the breakdown of law and order certainly hasn't been in Alabama it's been in Washington it's been the Detroit it's been a New Haven it's been in other places outside of Alabama I'd be glad to take your figures 15 were hurt I'm talking about one day governor we can go out further into the well it was really thrilling healed in the March well there were other killings during that serial oh there was one that took place after the act it was over when it was under the complete jurisdiction of the federal government not on the jurisdiction of the state federal troops were involved and one person was killed on the highway which is very tragic but now compare that one person with how many was killed in Washington how many were killed in Detroit how many were killed in Los Angeles so comparatively speaking we've had peace and it's generally accepted in the press that he had pieces in which I think senator Ervin was trying to make his point was that the that what fallout after that was civil rights law let me say this you go all out after them you're quoting senator Ervin four years ago in fact over four years ago going on years ago is it right or is it wrong that what followed after mel 64 and 65 well every time that somebody wants a law passed they go out and do something now we had martin luther king tragically assassinated and they use that as an excuse to pass the anti property law so-called open house and so what followed after that so you see there's always somebody can say that some reason exists for the passage of some law but i can say to you that if i become the president we're gonna maintain law and order in the nation's capitol and when we do that it's going to be a good moral support for law and order throughout the united states where the women can walk the streets so that people can go to work where people can ride the subways in the transit systems of our country governor you've repeatedly objected to being called a racist yes sir you don't regard yourself as a racist no so I don't regard myself as a racist and I think the biggest racists in the world all of those who call other folks racist okay I think the biggest bigots in the world of those who call other folks big well let me point out my wife got more Negro vote in the general election for Governor of Alabama two years ago than either one of the two opponents and she got near to all of them at Selma so I would say that Negro citizens would not have voted for my wife in Alabama if the massive Negro citizens had considered me a racist on my wife eraser when you were inaugurated you made a very famous observation you said in your inaugural year yes today yesterday for the Mars aggregation forever I said that within the context of Alabama's public school system and I again say that when I said that I was honest and when I come to Washington DC and I see all of these folks who talk one way but moved Virginia and Maryland when I see all these bridges built across the Potomac River to help expedite the rush away from this city of the Liberals or edges it goes all these big bridges that gotta live in here quite a while while I'm being facetious about that but you sure got a lot of them because you got to expedite the rush of people away from the nation's capital only six members of the Congress out of 535 got their children in the public schools in Washington and all these pseudo liberals and intellectuals here who are hypocrites have moved away let's leave one governor and address this question to yourself what do you mean when you say segregation within the country separation of the races no sir no sir what do you mean you see segregation you don't understand mr. gronski yourself evidently there's been more mingling more mixing and more association and togetherness of the races in Alabama then there has been in New York from I believe whence you come or in Washington DC but we did have a social separation in the school system because the school systems of the rural South were the social center so we just quite candidly honestly said we'll have a separate school system and we were honest about it and we think we don't want doubt your honesty in saying you want to talk about the meaning of separation sighs I'm trying to play up the hypocrisy folks in other parts of the country and in the nation's capital who say we for integration you're not relating them to anybody I'm worried about your position I'm related we're president what would you do I would that repeat segregation and if I were president I could care less what the people of Alabama California do in a school system I would only say you run your schools yourself but we're not going to use federal money to bus children in a Chicago from one neighborhood to the other if you want to do it in Chicago or st. Louis or Philadelphia you do it I wouldn't advocate segregation of anything I would advocate only that these domestic institutions be run by the people in Philadelphia and in st. Louis and in Los Angeles and they could then have the type school system they want we have federal laws governor that apply to all the nation not to fill it out under law sad what I'm arguing is it federal what would you do about the laws that we don't have any laws that go as far as hgw guidelines the guidelines today transcend even the civil rights law will obey the law whatever the all happens to be but the law of this country does not say that you've got to transport little children from one neighborhood today or another in fact the civil rights law expressly prohibits that yet ATW is going beyond what the law says and I would stop that and I would ask the Congress to change some of the laws that have taken over the public school systems of New York and Philadelphia and Chicago and turn them back to the people there I don't want in this separate back in white in the country in the sense of separatism you're talking about we have advocated well I have mad vaquita to mr. Bronski not at all I have advocated that at all Tony we have more togetherness in Alabama then you have in Washington DC this is a segregated city here because of the hypocrites have moved out government can I switch you to another subject in the hypocrite capital of the world well governor you you you've said that you you thought you had a chance to be President and I think maybe we ought to address ourselves to some of the questions that a president would have to deal with what would be your approach to the problem of the nuclear arms race to the non-proliferation treaty for instance well of course I I hope and pray that the step in the non dissemination of nuclear information is on it's not information isn't well I mean not information but the the weapons themselves that that's an honest effort on the part of the major powers who must sign of course the treaty and 40 other countries he would you be in favor of signing I would be in favor of that step provided we had adequate inspection programs and adequate safeguards to see that the treaty was not violated does the treaty satisfy you as it is now why does the treaty satisfy you as it's written now well I'm not exactly sure whether it satisfies me or not but I would say they said it is a step in the direction of some dialogue as we like to say between the great powers and the great nuclear powers and the matter of the giving of atomic nuclear weapons to other countries and to prohibit that is good provided we have adequate safeguards don't think the safeguards are adequate and I'm not sure where they are or not I'm just not sure governor they are adequate then that's one thing and if there aren't adequate it's another I don't and of course we understand that under that treaty any nation can withdraw within a certain notice to the other signatories and which really means that it's it's not all that binding but I am for doing something real and concrete in the matter of the spread of nuclear weapons that we can have adequate safeguards and so far as protecting the national interest of the United States on a matter of Vietnam governor around the campaign trail people who support you say they like your stand on Vietnam yet your stand is rather simple could you say just how we should solve that which is certainly one of the great I've said in my speeches you know mr. Benton there's no simple solution that I don't impugn the motives of those in the top echelon of our government because it's an exasperated experience I do say again that we should have not gotten in by ourselves that we should have had a long talk with our Western European allies and non-communist Asian allies and insisted they help us in some manner because we've helped them so much with our money and I nuclear shield but that's water over the dam and we are in Vietnam whether we like it or not so whatever we do should be in the interest of those who are there I pray the Paris peace talks are successful that once they get beyond the propaganda stage that we can have a an honorable peace through political and diplomatic negotiations but if this fails then there's only one conclusion to rely upon a one one method to rely upon and that's a Joint Chiefs of Staff and if they thought that the war could be concluded militarily with conventional weapons that's what I would support and then bring the American servicemen home well let's let's take take this step-by-step sir right now we're in Paris that's right you have not mentioned I don't think as other candidates have whether or not this country should insist on some sort of recognition of a National Liberation Front how do you feel about well I think maybe the sad experience and layoffs and other places where you have had coalition government in which the Vietcong or the Communist terrorists involved that you lay the groundwork for the real takeover of the country by the Communists at the moment and I think I would be even later I am against a terrorist group the Vietcong in the National Liberation Front being involved in the government through by negotiating by through negotiations that is by giving them a place in the government I don't think they deserve to be in the government and I think that if you let them be represented in the peace talks and set up a government with them having an equal voice or voice with the other groups in South Vietnam you are really setting the basis for a takeover the Vietcong of the government of South Vietnam do you see any hope for a political settlement without any recognition of the NLF I don't know exactly whether I couldn't tell you I just don't know what I don't think the president knows and I don't think that the Republicans know I think we're gonna have to wait and see what comes out of the Paris peace talks we can pray about it and we can hope about it but if they do not get a settlement honorable settlement from the Paris peace talks in my judgment we ought to lean on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and have a military conclusion to the war in Southeast Asia and bring the American servicemen home government in that also we should stop these folks in this country from advocating communist victory and building the morale of the Communists I'm tired of our children's realm children house government stop them how by in dieting a professor who makes a speech calling for communist victory and it's printed in the communist world that aids the Communists by a man who raises money blood and clothes for the communists on the college campus and flies a Vietcong flag that's not dissent that's treason you have a right to say let's get out of the war we don't want to be in the war but you don't have a right to call for communist victory and the average man on the street sick and tired of it governor I regret we have run out of time thank you very much for being here to face the nation in Martin today on Face the Nation George Wallace former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate of the American independent party was interviewed by CBS News correspondent Nelson Benton Joseph Kraft syndicated columnist of publisher's Hall CBS News correspondent Martin agronsky led the questioning face the nation originated in color from CBS Washington Sunday on

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Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2019