THE NATION

ASSASSINATIONS An Hour Of Need

Rarely in American memory had hope and horror been so poignantly fused within a single week. President Johnson's announcement of a major peace offensive in Asia, coupled with his renunciation of another term, raised anticipation throughout the world that the long agony of Viet Nam might soon be ended. Even as that hope blossomed, an older blight on the American conscience burst through with the capriciousness of a spring freeze. In Memphis, through the budding branches of trees surrounding a tawdry rooming house, a white sniper's bullet cut down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., preeminent voice of the just aspirations and long-suffering patience of black America.

In the aftermath of King's murder, rioting and looting broke out in 62 cities from coast to coast. In manic reaction, the plunderers went about their business in an almost carnival atmosphere. Looting--"early Easter shopping," as one Harlem resident called it--was the predominant activity, though some ghettos were burned as well.

Great streamers of acrid smoke, drifting from blazing shops in Washington's commercial center, twisted among the cherry blossoms near the Lincoln Memorial, where five years earlier Martin Luther King had proclaimed his vision of black and white harmony. Fires crackled three blocks from the White House, and from the air the capital looked like a bombed city.

In the climate of sorrow and guilt that engulfed most Americans, there was an opening for an accommodation between the races that might otherwise never have presented itself. Lyndon Johnson, looking even graver than he had appeared when he announced his abdication at week's beginning, called at week's end for an extraordinary joint session of Congress to hear "the President's recommendations for action--constructive action instead of destructive action--in this hour of national need." It is not enough, Johnson implied, to mourn Martin Luther King. His death demands expiation.

For Perspective & Determination

Once again the crackle of gunfire. Once again the long journey home, the hushed procession, the lowered flags and harrowed faces of a nation in grief. Once again the simple question: Why?

The second Kennedy assassination--almost two months to the day after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.--immediately prompted, at home and abroad, deep doubts about the stability of America. Many saw the unleashing of a dark, latent psychosis in the national character, a stain that had its start with the first settlement of a hostile continent. For the young people, in particular, who had been persuaded by the new politics of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy to recommit themselves to the American electoral system, the assassination seemed to confirm all their lingering suspicions that society could not be reformed by democratic means.

Americans, contemplating both the inexpungeable crime of Kennedy's killing and the prevalence of violence in their proper perspective, can best maintain the proper processes of American political life by eradicating the conditions that trigger the assassin's finger.

THE ELECTION Narrow Victory

Polled and analyzed as never before, accused of indifference toward the candidates and alarm over the issues, the nation's electorate finally got its turn. It spoke quietly. It expressed no overwhelming preference for a personality or a party. But it acted coolly, picking and choosing among candidates. And it laid to rest some phantoms that had threatened to haunt the Republic and the two-party system for years. Yet the nation denied Richard Nixon the really massive "mandate to govern" he had pleaded for. In fact, the vote was in many ways a reflection of the divisions that have been tormenting the country all year.

Ironically, in a record turnout of more than 72 million, Nixon's victory was painfully narrow--though a triumph in personal terms. With 93% of the count in, Nixon had 29,565,052 (43%); Hubert Humphrey, 29,539,500 (43%); and George Wallace, 9,181,466 (13%). Contrary to many predictions, the voters showed no inclination to boycott the election.

The electorate's biggest message to Washington: Americans want a change. The trend was obviously conservative, away from the omniscient federalism of the Great Society, toward the decentralized approach of the Republicans. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.