Video: 'American Experience The Kennedys 2' (Aug. 21, 1968, at 1:31:37)

(Wednesday, August 21, 1968) — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, announcing that he was picking up the fallen standard of his brothers, called today for the removal of “our men and our future” from the “bottomless pit” of Vietnam.

It was by far his strongest indictment of the Johnson administration’s conduct of the war and, will undoubtedly bolster the chances of the Democratic National convention next week to adopt a dovish pose on the conflict.

In his first public appearance since Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, the 36-year-old heir to the Kennedy political fortunes erased any doubt about his being a future contender for national leadership.

“Today,” he said, “I resume my public responsibilities to the people of Massachusetts. Like my three brothers before me I pick up a fallen standard.”

His three older brothers met violent death. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., was killed in a plane crash in World War II, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963 and Robert Kennedy was fatally shot while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination this year.

His speech took a strong anti-administration position on Vietnam, similar to that advocated by Senators Eugene J. McCarthy and George S. McGovern, the two anti-war candidates for the Presidency.

Kennedy called the war in Vietnam, “the tragedy of our generation” and said the government must bring an end to it, “not five or 10 years from now; not after the expenditure of another $100 billion and the lives of another 25.000 of our finest sons; but as quickly as it is physically possible to reach the essential agreements and extradite our men and our future from this bottomless pit.”