Who is this American politician holding a speech at the beginning of "In the year of the Pig" (1968)?

score:7

Accepted answer

As Tom says, the first politician you see is Hubert Humphrey, the then Vice-President of the United States. It believe it was made to delegates in Chicago in August 1968.

He is immediately followed by President, Lyndon B. Johnson, giving a speech to Delegates to the Conference of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO. (March 25, 1968)


There is a discussion of the intentions of the film and, in particular, these two specific vignettes from Humphrey and Johnson, in the 1970 review of the film by Clyde B. Smith in Film Quarterly (Vol. 24, No. 1, 1970, pp 47 - 49). [That issue is also available as a pdf file here].

Upvote:7

That was Hubert Humphrey, the Vice-President of the United States, who was running for President after his President, Lyndon B. Johnson, dropped out of the race. He was trying to distance himself from the pro-war (in Vietnam) policies of President Johnson.

The line, "Blessed are the peacemakers, I want to underscore the word makers," was a coded message to this effect. Of course, Humphrey didn't want to openly contradict his boss.

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