1972

Party Democratic Republican

Candidate George S. McGovern Richard M. Nixon

Electoral Count 17 520

Popular Vote 37.5% 60.7%

Key Terms: 1972 Election Chappaquiddick/Kennedy gone assassination attempt/Wallace gone CREEP and Watergate Liddy and Hunt/dirty tricks/Muskie gone the Eagleton debacle Kissinger: "peace is at hand" "the hippie candidate" McGovern American "withdrawal from Vietnam" Nixon visits Beijing and Moscow

Key Terms: Nixon Administration Alger Hiss/HUAC Checkers Speech kitchen Debate TV Debate/'60 New Nixon/'68 Buger Court Secret Plan/Vietnam Vietnamization Cambodia/Secret War "Peace With Honor" War Powers Act China Card/détente/SALT I wage and price freeze [Keyensian?] Pentagon Papers/CREEP Watergate/Creditability Gap

When McGovern spoke to the Gridiron Club in Washington after his calamitous defeat, he told the journalists: "Last year we opened the doors of the Democratic party, as we promised we would, and twenty million Democrats stalked out." He added: "For years, I wanted to run for President in the worst possible way-and I'm sure I did!" Though most Democratic leaders pressed McGovern to drop Eagleton because he had been treated for mental illness, a few McGovernites took the issue lightly. "At least we know ours had treatment," said Georgia's Julian Bond. "What about theirs?" Presidential Campaigns, Paul F. Boller, Jr., Oxford University Press, New York, 1984.