Introduction

1968 was a year of serious upheaval in the United States. The nation experienced several traumatic events that made many wonder about America's future. In January, the Tet Offensive undermined the American public's confidence in the Vietnam War. In the spring, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, only one month apart, left many in the nation angry and demoralized. In addition, the presidential election of 1968 seemed to further divide the country.

The Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive was a military campaign launched by the People's Army of Vietnam on January 30, 1968. It was a surprise attack, coming after the Tet holidays, during which time a cease-fire had been customary. The offensive was a well-coordinated assault on positions around the country, with more than 80,000 communist troops striking more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of the six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district towns, and the southern capital of Saigon. The offensive was the largest military operation conducted by either side of the war up to that point.

As a result of continued heavy fighting, 1968 became the deadliest year of the war for the U.S. forces, with 16,592 soldiers killed. During one week, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) posted very high U.S. casualty figures with 543 killed and 2,547 wounded. On February 23, the U.S. Selective Service System announced a new draft call for 48,000 men, the second highest of the war. On February 28, Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense who had overseen the escalation of the war but had eventually turned against it, stepped down from office. Tension rose in the United States as anti-war sentiments continued increased among students, some politicians, and the general public.

Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King, who had been an extremely effective leader in the Civil Rights movement, was in Memphis to lead a protest of unequal wages and working conditions among Memphis' sanitation workers. King was 39 years old. On June 10, 1968, James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the murder of King.

Just before the shooting, King delivered the last speech of his life, now known as the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address. King had been receiving death threats regularly throughout his work as a civil rights organizer, and he referred to his inevitable death in the speech:

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats... or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now.

Millions across the nation were outraged by King's death. King's principles of non-violence, firm and organized resistance through direct action, Christian love, and racial equality had succeeded in bringing civil rights to the attention of mainstream America. Despite the urging of political and community leaders, the assassination incited a wave of riots in more than 100 cities. Civil unrest affected at least 110 U.S. cities; Washington, Chicago, and Baltimore were among the most impacted.

Assassination of Robert Kennedy

Just two months later, on June 5th, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, Senator from New York and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, was assassinated in Los Angeles. RFK, as he was often known, was the brother of the former president John F. Kennedy and had become a leading candidate in the Democratic primaries. On the night of his assassination, he had won a major victory in the California primary and seemed to have clinched a two-man race with Hubert Humphrey. Kennedy addressed supporters shortly after midnight on June 5 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. As he attempted to exit the hotel after his victory speech, Kennedy was shot; he died twenty-six hours later. His killer, Sirhan B. Sirhan, a Jordanian immigrant, had allegedly targeted him for advocating military support for Israel in its violent and oppressive conflict with neighboring Arab states.

As a presidential candidate, Kennedy's platform far outstripped that of his brother, John F. Kennedy, in its liberal vision of social improvement. Kennedy questioned the Democratic party's policy under Johnson. He openly challenged young people who supported the war while benefiting from draft deferments, visited small towns, and made himself available to the masses by participating in long motorcades and street-corner stump speeches, often in under-resourced inner-cities. Kennedy made urban poverty a chief concern of his campaign, which led to enormous crowds at his campaign events in poor urban areas or poor rural areas of Appalachia.

The Election of 1968 

The election of 1968 capped a year of national turmoil. In the election of 1964, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson had won the presidential election with the largest popular vote in American history. By 1968, his popularity had fallen so sharply due to his support of the Vietnam War that he chose not to seek reelection. 

The Democratic Primaries

With Johnson's withdrawal, the Democratic Party quickly split into four factions, each of which distrusted the others: labor unions and big-city supporters of Vice President Hubert Humphrey; college students and upper-middle-class whites who actively opposed the war and rallied behind Senator Eugene McCarthy; Catholics, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other racial and ethnic minorities who were passionate supporters of Senator Robert F. Kennedy; and white Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats", who rallied behind Alabama governor George C. Wallace. 

Kennedy's assassination altered the dynamics of the Democratic race. Although Humphrey appeared to be in the lead, he was an unpopular choice with many of the antiwar elements in the party. The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago erupted in violence as police used clubs and tear gas against thousands of young activists who had gathered from around the nation to protest the Vietnam War. Broadcast on live television, the antiwar riots divided the Democratic Party's base. In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot.

The General Election

Piqued by the race riots following Dr. King's assassination, the Republican campaign under Nixon promised to restore "law and order", which appealed widely especially to whites. On civil rights, Nixon framed his policies as racially egalitarian, stating his opposition to forced desegregation of schools but citing improved education as the key to equality. Nixon also proposed government tax incentives for African Americans to start small businesses and make home improvements in their existing neighborhoods.

Democratic Humphrey, meanwhile, promised to continue and expand the Great Society welfare programs started by President Johnson and to continue the Johnson Administration's "War on Poverty". He also promised to continue the efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Supreme Court, in promoting the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties for minority groups.

The November 5 election proved to be extremely close; it was not until the following morning that the television news networks called Nixon the winner. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, or a victory margin of about one percentage point. Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. From 1932 to 1968, the Democratic Party was the majority party, and the election of 1968 dismantled the Democratic Party's hegemony. From 1968 until 2008, the Republicans won seven of ten presidential elections, and its policies greatly constrained the Democratic administrations in the era, particularly the Clinton administration.

The Lorraine Motel, cite of MLK's assassination.

MLK's assassination on April 4, 1968 prompted riots in cities around the country and was a blow to Americans who believed in civil rights.