Page "Hubert Humphrey" Paragraph 31

Humphrey took office on January 20, 1965.

He was an early skeptic of the-then growing conflict in Vietnam.

Following a successful Vietcong hit and run attack on the US installations at Pleiku on February 7, 1965 ( where 7 Americans were killed and 109 wounded ), Humphrey returned from Georgia to Washington D. C., to attempt to prevent further escalation.

He told President Johnson that bombing North Vietnam was not a solution to the problems in South Vietnam, but bombing would require the injection of US troops to protect the airbases.

Presciently, he noted that a military solution in Vietnam would take years, well beyond the next election cycle.

President Johnson punished him with coldness and a restriction from the inner circle for a number of months, until he decided to " get back on the team.