Nation: Robert Who?

The date: August 1964. The place: Convention Hall, Atlantic City. The milling throngs at the Democratic National Convention have suddenly thrown themselves into paroxysms of cheers, shrieks and rebel yells. Snaking through the mob come dozens of beach-tanned nubile wenches, smiling, waving placards. The band puffs its zillionth chorus of Happy Days Are Here Again. And then to the spotlighted rostrum moves Lyndon Baines Johnson, who has just been nominated by acclamation as the party's candidate to succeed himself. Humbly, he motions for silence.

He thanks the delegates. He praises Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He promises to...

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