up next, looking back at c-span's video library at the 1972 democratic national convention in miami beach, florida. and my fellow citizens, i'm

happy to join you for this benediction of our sunrise service. i assume everyone here is impressed with my control of this convention in that my choice for vice president was challenged by only 39 other nominees. i think we learned from watching the republicans four years ago, as they selected their vice presidential nominee, that it pays to take a little more time.

i can tell you that eleanor is grateful that the oregon delegation at least kept her in the race. i congratulate you on your patience and pay my respects to those two super presiding officers of this convention. tonight i accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart.

this afternoon i crossed the missouri to recommend a running mate one of the most eloquent and courageous voices in this land. senator ted kennedy. it's the sweet harvest of the work on tens of thousands of

tireless volunteers young and old alike literally funded by hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation. those who fingers on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign head and soul. and i have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country. it's an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and to a thing that can literally move mountains.

begins and ends and save my glory was i had such friends. this is is a next january we'll restore the government of the people of this country. and i believe that american politics will never be quite the same again. we're entering a new period of important and hopeful change in america. a period comparable to those eras that unleash such remarkable -- in the period of

jefferson and jackson and roosevelt. i treasure the nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the -- men and women our party has to offer. why my old and treasured friend --

and i shall say to governor gill began, ohio is sometimes -- [ applause ] i had is the unwinning unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign. and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge he made ten years ago that next year you won't have richard nixon to kick around anymore.

we have had our fury and frustrations in the past months and at this convention. frankly, i welcome the contrast with the smug and dull and empty event which will take place here in miami next month. we chose this struggle. we reformed our party and let the people in. so we stand today not as a collection of back room strategists, not as a tool of i.t. team or any other special -- so let our opponents

stand on the status quo while we seek to refresh the american spirit. let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged view and let us find one million ordinary americans who will contribute $25 each to this campaign. a million her club with members who will not expect special favors for themselves but a better land for us all.

for america westbound the time has come at last. this is a time for truth no not falsehood. in a democratic nation, no one likes to say that his inspiration came from secret arrangements behind closed doors. i'm here as your candidate tonight in large part because during four administrations of both parties, a terrible war has been charted behind closed doors. i want those doors opened and that war closed.

[ cheers and applause ] and i make these pledges above all overs, the doors of government will be opened and that war will be closed! [ cheers and applause ] now it's a habit of integrity. not a strategy of politics. if we nurture the habit of truth in this campaign, we will continue to be truthful once we're in the white house. [ applause ] let us say to americans as woodrow wilson said in his first campaign of 1912. let me inside the government and i will tell you what is going on

there. wilson believed, and i believe that the destiny of america is always safer in the hands of the people than in the conference rooms of any elite. [ applause ] so let us give our country the chance to elect a government that will see and speak the truth for this is a time for the truth in the life of this country. and this is also a time not for death but for life. in 1968, many americans thought they were voting to bring our sons home from vietnam in peace. since then, 20,000 of our sons have come home in coffins. i have no secret plan for peace. i have a public plan, and as one

whose heart has ached for the past ten years over the agony of vietnam, i will hold the senseless bombing of endo china on inaugural day. [ cheers and applause ] there no more children running from bomb out schools. there will be no more talk of bombing the cities of the north. and within 90 days of my inauguration, every american

soldier and every american prisoner will be out of the jungle and out of their cells and back home in america where they belong. [ cheers and applause ] and then let us resolve that never again will we send the precious young blood of this country to die trying to prop up a corrupt military dictatorship abroad. [ cheers and applause ] this is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. america must be restored to a

proper role in the world but we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in our ourselves. i believe that the greatest contribution america can now make to our fellow mortals is to heal our own brave but deeply troubled land. we must respond. we must respond to that command. now it's necessary in an age of nuclear power and hostile forces that we be militarily strong. america must never become the second great nation. as one who has tasted the bitter fruits of our weakness before pearl harbor 1941, i give you my

pledge that if i become the president of the united states america will keep its defenses alert and fully sufficient to meet any danger. we'll do it not only for ourselves but those who deserve and meet the shield of our strength. our old allies in europe and elsewhere, including the people of israel, who will always have our help with their promiseland. and yet i believe that every man and woman in this convention hall knows that for 30 years we have been so absorbed with danger from abroad that we have permitted our own house to fall into disarray. we must now show peace and

prosperity can exist side by side. indeed each now depends on the existence of the other. national strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad. national security includes schools our children as well as silos for our missiles. it includes the health of -- so while protecting ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home. this is the time for that task. we must also make this a time of justice and jobs for all of our people. for more than 3.5 years, we have tolerated stagnation and a rising level of joblessness with

more than 5 million of our best workers unemployed at this very moment. surely this is the most false and wasteful economics of all. our deep -- [ applause ] our vp is not for eye dahlness but new housing and hop p hospitals or facilities to combat pollution and take us home from work from better products able to compete on vigorous world markets. the highest single domestic priority of the next administration will be to ensure that every american able to work has a job to do [ applause ] that job guarantee will and must depend a reinvigorated private economy. freed at last from the uncertainties and bushds of --

burdens of war. it's our firm commitment whatever employment the private sector does not provide, the groift federal government will either stimulate or provide itself. wha whatever it takes, this country is going back to work. america cannot exist with most of our people working and paying taxes to support too many others mired in a demeaning and hopeless welfare mess. [ applause ] therefore we intend to begin by putting millions back to work and after that is done, we'll assure to those unable to work an income fully adequate to a decent life.

it demands that work be properly rewarded. it means the end of a system of economic controls in which labor is depressed but prices and corporate profits run sky high. it means a system of national health insurance so that a worker can afford decent health care for himself and his family. it means real enforcement of the laws so the drug racketeers are put behind bars and our streets are once again safe for our families. [ applause ] and above all, above all, honest work must be rewarded by a fair and just tax system. the tax system today does not

reward hard work. it penalizes it. inherited or invested wealth frequently multiplies itself while paying no taxes at all but wages on the assembly line or in farming the land, these hard-earned dollars are taxed to the very last penny. there is a depletion allowance. from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me.

may god grant each one of us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us all. now is the time to meet that challenge. good night and good speed to you all. we can nights this month on american history tv, we're featuring the contenders. our series that looks at 14 presidential candidates who lost the election but had a lasting effect on u.s. politics. tonight we feature former texas businessman ross perot as an independent candidate in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. that starts at 8:00 p.m.

eastern. and enjoy american history tv this week and every weekend on c-span3. american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday at 6:00 p.m. on the civil war. a look how historical interpretation changed over the

years. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. during the past two years, i have found that campaigning can be a lonely