Path to War Page #4

killed the New Deal,

well there ain't gonna

be World War III, I promise you.

I'm gonna nip this in the bud, I am.

And as soon as I do,

I'll send that bill up and more,

I promise you.

There will be no delay.

Well, Mr. President,

we're going to be down in Selma,

marching for the vote,

and we expect you'll take notice to

what we do down there.

During preparations for Martin Luther

King's second attempt

to march to Montgomery,

four white men beat to death

a Boston clergyman,

one of the fifteen hundred marchers.

The slain reverend, James Reed,

had come to Selma in solidarity

with Negroes attempting

to register to vote.

Amidst growing concern

about increasing racial violence

in Alabama,

Governor George Wallace

is reportedly preparing a trip to

Washington D.C. to see the President.

Meanwhile, demonstrations continue

in front of the White House.

Call em off!

Well, we didn't organize it,

Mr. President.

Call em off, get out there,

both of ya! Call em off!

Daddy?

Why you up?

Those goddamn agitators wake you?

No, I heard you yellin .

Oh, sorry, honey.

....always find ways to tell you

how it can't be done.

It ' still strange to us though

how millions of dollars

can be spent everyday to hold troops

in South Vietnam

and our country cannot protect

the rights of Negros

in Selma and Marian, Alabama!

He's outrageous!

So we have... Now! Now! Now!

Everything's gotta be now.

What they want

the whole goddamn world

with a fence around it?

I just gave Standby authorization

to Federalize the Alabama Guard,

we just need your order.

We have to do it, Mr. President.

Wallace won't protect those marchers.

Hold-hold on, you want me

to send troops into Alabama,

lose Stennis, Dirksen, Russell,

every conservative vote I got hangin

on a thread of a spittle!?

It'll be Reconstruction

all over again!

Hell, your friend Bobby Kennedy

coulda given me that advice!

Governor George Wallace

of the Alabama State Legislature...

Martin Luther King

and his group of procommunists

have instigated these demonstrations

by lawless n*gger mobs in Birmingham.

But the law abidin citizens

of both races there are fed up

with this riotin and disruption

led by so-called clergy men

and their communist inspired values!

I am therefore sending two hundred

and fifty state

troopers into that city

supported y five hundred law

officers of this state.

I will meet our enemies face to face.

I will not surrender!

Mr. President,

Wallace is only coming up here

in order to placate you.

He wants things to get

so bad down there

that you have to put the troops in.

Then he'll lambaste you for invading

his sovereign state

and that's how he'll save himself.

Goddamn runty little bastard!

I want his pecker in my pocket.

The thing we have to do,

we have to get him

to ask for the troops to say

he wants rights,

he wants peace, but he just

can't control his own people.

Make it his failure,

that's what we ought to do.

In an interview today,

Governor Wallace denies

that Alabama State Troopers

and Sheriff's Deputies used

unnecessary force in routing Negro

marchers in Selma.

Call the Speaker.

Tell him I want to address Congress.

On television.

That goddamn bill is goin up now.

One more, Governor Wallace.

A little closer.

Thank you.

All right, right here,

let's sit down, Governor.

Over here, that's it.

Over there, oooh, right in the corner.

The corner, Governor, that's it.

All right, Governor,

you wanted to see me?

Uh, yes, uh, Mr. President.

I want to thank you

for agreeing to see me...

Goddamn demonstrators!

Keepin Lady Bird up,

disturbin my daughters rest.

Turn that thing off!

Subversives, most of em.

Communist party's behind

the whole thing.

You know what I'd do,

I'd send some of them

secret service boys out there

with itchin powder.

Sprinkle it on the back of some

of their necks,

they'd drop them signs

they're carryin,

scratch themselves raw..

That's a great idea.

I'm gonna get my people on that.

Better than that, Governor,

we aughta go out there.

We got all of those

television cameras,

you see this television camera

I got out there?

Yes, sir.

Why don't we go out there

and we turn them cameras around

and we'll announce that youm decided

to register every Negro in Alabama?

Mr. President, as much as I...

Nick, give me one

of them Constitutions.

Yes, sir.

Nick's got the Constitution.

Eh, thank you, Nick. Now, Governor,

I'm sure that somewhere

in here it says

that Negros have the right to vote.

Ah, yes, Mr. President.

And uh, they have the right

to vote in Alabama,

but uh, it's the County Registrars,

they uh, they under Alabama law

they independent

and I don't have the power.

George... now don't you sh*t me

about who's got the power in Alabama.

Mr. President.

Now, come on, Governor.

You're a persuasive man.

Hell, I was watchin you this mornin

on all three networks.

You were attackin me.

I wasn't attackin you, Mr. President,

I was attackin the idea.

Idea, hell, you were attackin me,

George,

and I'll tell ya,

you're so damn persuasive,

I nearly changed my mind.

You have marvelous powers

of persuasion, don't you, Governor.

Governor Wallace,

you and I shouldn't be sittin here,

thinkin about 1965,

we aught to be thinkin about 1995,

when you and I will be long

in our graves.

Now you got a lot of poor people

down there in Alabama,

a lot of ignorant people.

People who need jobs, people

who need a future.

You could do a lot for em.

In 1995, Governor,

what do you want left behind?

You want a great big marble monument

sayin George Wallace,

he built, he protected the weak,

the poor,

the impoverished people

of this great state?

Or do you want a little piece of

scrawny pine layin there

in the harsh, caliche soil sayin,

George Wallace, he hated.

I'm sorry, Governor.

I interrupted you.

Now, you wanted to tell me something?

Mr. President, I uh,

I've had the opportunity to

uh, reevaluate and uh...

I think that uh,

I just may not be able to get things

under control

without some uh, assistance.

Governor, I'll give you

any assistance that's mine to provide.

Now, what specific measures

would you suggest?

The President and I

have spoken and uh,

I have assured him

that I abhor brutality

and in my total commitment to law

and order,

I will do whatever it takes to uh,

maintain the peace.

Mr. Speaker, the President

of the United States.

I speak tonight to the dignity of men

and the destiny of democracy.

There is no Negro problem.

There is no Southern problem.

There is no Northern problem.

There is only an American problem.

There is no cause for pride in

what has happened in Selma.

The cries of pain and the hymns

and protests of oppressed people

have summoned into convocation

all the majesty

of this great government.

Our mission is at once the oldest

and the most basic of this country

to right wrong,

to do justice, to serve man.

This Wednesday,

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