President Humphrey inherited quite a mess from his predecessor and left-wingers who plugged their nose to vote for him following the "October Surprise" were dismayed by his holdover of several Johnson appointees in the cabinet, notably moving Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford over to the State Department. In addition, in the interim between Election Day and Inauguration, South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu publicly backed out of talks with North Vietnamese leaders, a final humiliation to Lyndon Johnson. Thieu's brief departure from talks did not last long, as Humphrey, well aware of the anti-war mood his country was in, put pressure on the South Vietnamese leader, threatening to reduce American troop presence and assistance to barebones levels to force Thieu back into the talks. Negotiations lasted the better part of 1969, but finally a series of agreements were reached between North Vietnamese leader Le Duan and Secretary Clifford.
Peace came to Vietnam with the Paris Accords of 1970, and the United States withdrew almost all combat soldiers from South Vietnam by New Year's Day 1971, with guarantees that the communist north would respect the south's sovereignty. By 1972, the only American soldiers in Vietnam were US Navy vessels patrolling South Vietnamese waters at the request of the Saigon government and military advisers who seemingly futilely tried to train the poorly-managed and corruption-infested Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Despite the precarious situation in South Vietnam, domestically Humphrey had won a huge victory as thoughts of a primary challenge from the left disappeared with the deescalation of American involvement.
The withdrawal and subsequent breathing room in the federal budget saw inflation decrease from 1970 onwards and the president quickly abandoned the "guns and butter" strategy of his predecessor to strengthen the Great Society programs Johnson had enacted. Humphrey then turned to racial injustices that he believed had caused the riots that had plagued cities since the mid-1960s. With strong opposition from both southern and labor-friendly Democrats, Humphrey scrapped a race-based affirmative action program and instead pushed through one based on income, which, despite being a target of extreme vitriol from the right-wing, succeeding in getting white working-class Democrats on board.
Since Harry Truman, liberals had dreamed of a universal health care program for the United States. With the Democrats barely losing any seats in the 1970 midterms, the Democrats began to push for such a system. In negotiations with congressional leaders, it became clear that a fully universal system was a bridge too far for enough of Congress to mean a sure death to such a proposal. During negotiations with congressional leaders, a compromise was reached: the new health care system would expand Social Security eligibility to all children and adults who made less than $20,000 annually, or nearly three times the median income. Humphrey signed the bill on September 23, 1971, effectively bringing health care to every American.
On other fronts, the president similarly followed the public mood. Humphrey signed legislation establishing the Environmental Protection Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Clean Air Act, managing to please both his labor constituency and the growing number of Americans concerned about the environment.
The Supreme Court saw a great amount of change from 1969 to 1972. Chief Justice Earl Warren had announced his intention to retire in 1968 and Lyndon Johnson had briefly pushed for Associate Justice Abe Fortas to become the new chief, but the bid floundered after ethics problems (and Fortas being a pliable Johnson crony) caused the Senate to reject his bid. Humphrey, upon taking office, nominated moderate Associate Justice William Brennan to replace Warren, which the Senate unanimously approved. To replace Brennan, Humphrey picked ex-Congressman Homer Thornberry of Texas, whom Johnson had nominated to replace Fortas during his attempt to make the latter the chief justice. Soon after Thornberry was confirmed by the Senate, Fortas resigned after more ethics scandals were brought to light. Humphrey picked former Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg, who Johnson had persuaded to resign in order to get Fortas on the Court, to replace Fortas, and the Senate approved, making Goldberg the first justice to serve non-consecutive terms on the court since Charles Evans Hughes. Finally, in 1971, Hugo Black died, and Humphrey made history by appointing Shirley Hufstedler to replace him, giving the court its first female justice while replacing John Harlan III with another southerner, Georgian Griffin Bell.