In this Moment of Grief

For all of three days there was hope. Lyndon Johnson announced he would not run again; a bombing pause, of sorts, had been declared for North Vietnam; Hanoi’s response indicated that negotiations might at last begin to end the war. We felt this to be a vindication of democracy. We saw it as evidence that with enough popular pressure and involvement, detestable policies could be changed and the men who spoke for them dislodged from office. For three days it seemed as if finally this coun...