199. Editorial Note
On November 5, 1968, Republican candidate Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States. He received 43.4 percent of the total vote, which represented a margin of victory over the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, of a scant seven-tenths of one percent of all votes cast, or a difference of a little more than one-half million ballots. While independent candidate George Wallace finished well behind the major candidates, his tally of 13.5 percent of the total vote was considerable. The next day, President Johnson sent a congratulatory telegram to Nixon and one of encouragement to Humphrey. The texts of these messages are in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968-69, Book II, pages 1114-1115.
Also on November 6, the United States announced the indefinite postponement of the first meeting of the expanded four-party talks on Vietnam. The text of the statement as released in Paris is printed in the Department of State Bulletin, November 25, 1968, page 538.