John Lindsay for President 1972 Campaign Brochure

‘While Washington’s been talking about our problems,

John Lindsay’s been fighting them.’

Every four years it's the same story. They come out of Washington, promising, talking, pledging, warning, offering

And we elect a President. And back they all go to Washington.

And then…?

And then something seems to happen. Somehow, from the marble halls of Washington, things begin to look different.

Five million Americans are out of work; joblessness is the worst it's been in a decade. And inflation is running away with our wages.

That's called "a new prosperity."

The War in Vietnam goes into its 11th year -- the longest, most expensive war we've ever fought: 55,000 of our sons and brothers lie dead; 250,000 more are wounded, thousands crippled for life.

That's called "a generation of peace."

Crime keeps going up -- despite all the tough talk and the bragging; and Washington, the nation's capital, is perhaps one of the most dangerous cities of all.

That's called "making the streets safe."

A worker earning $150 a week looks at his paycheck -- and sees $40 chopped out in taxes; while millionaires and billion-dollar corporations pay peanuts, thanks to special tax gimmicks and politicians who swap campaign contributions for special favors.

That's called "one man, one vote."

It's time we put a stop to this kind of doubletalk and doublethink. It's time we stopped letting Washington send a President to America. It's time America sent a President to Washington, willing to face the facts of life about life in America  -- and willing to fight for what we need.

We can do it this year -- in 1972.

We can do it with John Lindsay.

John Lindsay's spent the last six years running the second biggest government in America.

In that job -- as Mayor of New York you listen to the people whether you like it or not. You hear about their day-to-day life and death struggles: for jobs, for decent housing, for safe streets, for clean air. Nobody stands between you and the facts.

Maybe that's why John Lindsay learned how to fight -- who to fight and what to fight for.

John Lindsay saw firsthand what the War in Vietnam was doing to America. He saw schools and hospitals go unbuilt, housing unrepaired, men and women go without jobs -- because $125 billion of your tax money was drained away to support a corrupt foreign dictatorship unwilling to stand up for itself. That's why John Lindsay spoke out against the war seven years ago when most politicians were running for cover.

John Lindsay saw what crime -- and the fear of crime -- did to neighborhoods. He knew the difference between loud talk and action. So he didn't play politics with people's fears. Instead, he put 5,000 more cops on the streets and wiped out tons of paperwork handcuffing the police. He put in the fastest citizen-police emergency communications system in America. And he fought for laws to keep handguns out of the hands of criminals -- guns that killed 70 policemen in 1971 -- while Washington did nothing.

John Lindsay saw a million aging New Yorkers living on shamelessly small incomes, unable to buy the food and health care they deserved after a lifetime of work. So he put in a half-fare transit system for New York's elderly the biggest in the world. He set aside room in housing projects for the aging and got meals and companionship for the sick.

John Lindsay knew that it was just plain wrong to balance a budget on the backs of 300,000 city workers. So he helped negotiate more than 600 labor contracts which brought most of these workers out of Depression-level wages for the first time in decades. A few times there were strikes -- and bad ones. But as John DeLury, New York's sanitation union chief said, "he's tough, but he's fair." For thousands of cops, teachers, firemen, and hospital workers, it's meant a shot at something better than working poverty.

John Lindsay saw the children of white and black families with a dream of going to college. He knew how immoral it would be to make them fight each other for the chance to learn. So New York City adopted an Open Enrollment plan -- a program that guarantees a college chance to every high-school graduate.

It's because John Lindsay had to face people and their problems directly that he fought to make a difference for them: like banning automobile traffic through city parks on weekends, putting air-conditioned cars on city subways, providing a record number of day-care centers for the children of working mothers, giving jobs to thousands of city teenagers through the hot summer months.

And it's because John Lindsay learned -- from both his successes and failures -- about the real America that he wants the chance to fight for you.

Nobody -- including the President of the United States -- can solve all of this country's problems.

But a man who's willing to fight hard can make a difference:

-the difference between tax justice and tax subsidies to the rich;

-the difference between endless war in Asia and a final, total end to the War in Vietnam;

-the difference between billions for planes and missiles we don't need and money for jobs and schools and health care for every American.

-the difference between decay and hope for America's cities and towns and suburbs.

It won't be easy. Nothing really worthwhile ever is. And John Lindsay will be standing up to some of the most powerful forces in America in his battle for justice.

But with your help -- your votes -- and the votes of your friends, it can be done.

We your chance to begin to turn this country around. It's our chance for something better.

Make it count.

John Lindsay was born in New York City on November 24, 1921, the grandson of an immigrant from the Isle of Wight. He attended schools in New York and Connecticut, and won a Bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1943 -- in three years.

For the next three years, Lindsay was in the Navy. Beginning as a gunnery officer on the destroyer Swanson, he served in the Mediterranean (participating in the invasion of Sicily); in the Southwest Pacific with the 7th Amphibious Fleet, and in the Western Pacific with the 5th Carrier Strike Fleet. By the end of the war, Lindsay was a full Lieutenant, his ship's executive officer, and the holder of five battle stars. Part of his long opposition to the War in Vietnam comes from his firsthand knowledge of what war means to the men who must fight it.

After graduating Yale Law School in 1948, Lindsay worked in a New York City law firm. In 1955, he went to Washington as Executive Assistant to the Attorney General, where he argued cases before the United States Supreme Court, and served as the Justice Department's Liaison Officer with Congress and the Cabinet.

Lindsay was first elected to public office in 1958, when he ran and won as an insurgent Republican candidate for the United States Congress. He was re-elected in 1960,1962, and 1964 by increasing pluralities.

He was elected Mayor of New York in 1965, the first reform Mayor since Fiorello LaGuardia. He was re-elected in 1969 as an Independent candidate. As Mayor, Lindsay built a coalition of Mayors -- the "Big Six" -- in New York State which won substantial reforms to help local government and local taxpayers. As chairman of the Legislative Action Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he championed the cause of urban America.

In August, 1971, he joined the Democratic Party because, "The Democratic Party can be the dynamic force which restores our nation's lost sense of purpose and brings new direction and promise to America."

He is the author of two books: Journey Into Politics (1969), and The City (1970), and numerous magazine articles.

He married the former Mary Anne Harrison of Richmond, Virginia in 1949. They have four children, Katherine, Margaret, Anne, and John, Jr.