The Presidency: Bowing Out

“I shall not seek and I will not^accept the nomination of my party. . . .” Thus on nationwide television this week, almost as a throwaway line, in one of the most painful speeches that he has ever delivered to the American people, did the 36th President of the U.S. declare his intention to bow out of the ] presidential race. Lyndon Johnson’s decision to retire from office, coming as a surprise climax to a surprise speech on Vietnam, gave the President’s newly-stated conditions for ending the war the kind of impact that his own intended departure from the White House had.