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VP
The Vice Presidency
Humphrey took office on January 20, 1965. As Vice President, Humphrey was
controversial for his complete and vocal loyalty to Johnson and the policies of
the Johnson Administration, even as many of Humphrey's liberal admirers opposed
Johnson with increasing fervor with respect to activities related to the war in
Vietnam. Critics later learned that Johnson had threatened Humphrey — he would
oppose him for a future presidential nomination if Humphrey broke with the
Johnson administration's Vietnam War stance. Even Humphrey's nickname, the Happy
Warrior, was used against him. The nickname referred not to hawkishness but
rather Humphrey's crusading for social programs.
In Germany, Humphrey indirectly earned fame during an April 1967 visit when some
hippies, armed with what looked like a bomb, planned to cause trouble at the
place Humphrey was to speak. However, the "bomb" contained nothing but pudding,
and the plan was foiled by the police. The would-be vandals were dubbed
"assassins" and "ten little Oswalds" in some widely-read right-leaning German
newspapers; this characterization sparked riots by left-wing student activists.
The well-known left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof wrote in the Konkret at the
time; "It is thought rude to throw custard pies at politicians, but not to
welcome politicians who have villages wiped out and cities bombed...napalm yes,
custard, no." This "pudding assassination" thus became an early defining moment
of the German part of the May 1968 movement, many of whose leaders moved into
national politics later.
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