Nation: THE RENUNCIATION

LYNDON JOHNSON'S renunciation of a second term as President dumfounded all but a score of relatives and top aides, who suspected that it might be coming. It was not included in the advance text of his bombing-pause speech. Only an hour before he went before the television cameras did he order a U.S. Army Signal Corps man to put his climactic words on the TelePrompTers. Even then, Johnson said, "I'm not going to know probably until I get in there whether I'm going to use that speech."

By the time Johnson reached the crucial passage 35 minutes after his address began, many Americans had already switched off their television sets. Others had grown heavy-lidded. Still others slouched, fast asleep, before flickering tubes. Then, with the particular relish he derives from surprises, the President jolted his countrymen out of their Sunday somnolence with the biggest surprise of all. Said he, in a sentence that may already have earned its place among historic American quotations: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

The seismic impact of Johnson's withdrawal statement has only begun to be felt. Politically, it means a bitter battle for the succession among Democrats and an anguished reappraisal among Republicans concerning Richard Nixon's chances for election in November. Within the U.S., it could mark the beginning of a frenetic effort by Johnson to complete the record of domestic legislation that he wants to stand as history's yardstick for his presidency. In foreign affairs, it could bring more intense efforts to end the war—either by negotiations or by heavier fighting. In any event, the President no longer has to adjust his policies, as he put it, "to win a primary or a state convention or please some party leader."

Walking Out. It had long been considered axiomatic that if Lyndon Johnson could walk, he would run for a second term. But in the months preceding his withdrawal, his problems mounted relentlessly. The nation was so divided over Viet Nam that it was no longer possible for the President or many of his Cabinet members to travel without the danger of a rowdy demonstration. Another summer of racial riots in the black ghettos seemed certain. The U.S. dollar was being brutally battered by foreign gold speculators. Not least among the factors affecting his decision was the unforeseen strength of Senators Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy in their challenge to his renomination. So low had Johnson's popularity sunk, said one Democratic official, that last-minute surveys before the Wisconsin primary gave him a humiliating 12% of the vote there.

As Richard Neustadt, director of Harvard's Institute of Politics, observed last week: "It never hurts to walk out at the end, instead of being carried out." And Lyndon Johnson, realizing that he was in danger of being carried out, chose the more graceful exit.