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EspañolUNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1968
(Redirected from U.S. presidential election, 1968)
The 'United States presidential election of 1968' was a wrenching national experience, and included the assassination of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses. The election also featured a strong third-party effort by former Alabama governor George Wallace; although Wallace's campaign was frequently accused of promoting racism, he would prove to be a formidable candidate, and through 2007 was the last third-party candidate to win electoral votes. In the end, Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly won the election over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey on a campaign promise to restore "law and order". The 1968 election is sometimes considered to be a realigning election.
In the election of 1964, after serving the 14 remaining months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Democrat Lyndon Johnson had won the largest popular vote landslide in US Presidential election history over Republican Barry Goldwater. During his term, Johnson had seen many political successes, including the passage of his sweeping Great Society domestic programs (also known as the "War on Poverty"), landmark civil rights legislation, and the continued exploration of space. At the same time, however, the country had been undergoing massive violence in the streets of its larger cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. The emergence of the hippie counterculture, the rise of New Left activism, and the emergence of the Black Power movement exacerbated social and cultural cleavages between classes, generations and races. Every summer during Johnson's administration, known thereafter as the "long, hot summers", major US cities erupted in massive race riots that left hundreds dead and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Adding to the national tension, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., sparking further mass rioting and chaos.
A major factor in President Johnson's precipitous decline in popularity was the Vietnam War, which he greatly escalated during his time in office. By late 1967 over 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam and suffering thousands of casualties every month. Johnson was especially hurt when, despite his repeated assurances that the war was being "won", the American news media began to show just the opposite. The Tet Offensive of February 1968, in which Communist Vietcong forces were killed inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon, led to increased criticism from antiwar activists that the war was unwinnable. In response, the U.S. military claimed that only by adding several hundred thousand more soldiers could the war possibly be won. In the months following Tet, Johnson's approval ratings fell below 35%, and the Secret Service refused to let the President make public appearances on the campuses of American colleges and universities, due to his extreme unpopularity among college students. The Secret Service also prevented Johnson from appearing at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because of their fear that his appearance might cause riots..
Though President Lyndon B. Johnson had served during two presidential terms, the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify Johnson from running for another term, because he had only served 14 months following John F. Kennedy's assassination before being elected to his "second" term in 1964. As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Johnson would be the Democratic nominee, and that he would have little trouble in winning the Democratic nomination.
Despite the growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam, no prominent Democratic candidate was prepared to run against a sitting President of his own party. Even Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, an outspoken critic of Johnson's policies with a large base of support, refused to run against Johnson in the primaries. Only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota proved willing to openly challenge Johnson. Running as an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Normally, an incumbent president faces little formidable opposition within his own party. However, McCarthy, although he was trailing badly in the national polls, decided to pour most of his resources into New Hampshire, the first state to hold a primary election. He was boosted by thousands of young college students, who shaved their beards and cut their hair to be "Clean for Gene". These students rang doorbells and worked hard in New Hampshire for McCarthy. On March 12, McCarthy won 42% of the primary vote to Johnson's 49%, an amazingly strong showing for such a challenger, and one which gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. The momentum ended, however, when Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy four days later, on March 16, as McCarthy supporters cried betrayal and vowed to defeat Kennedy. Thereafter McCarthy and Kennedy would engage in an increasingly bitter series of state primaries; although Kennedy won most of the primaries, he could never shake McCarthy and his devoted following of antiwar activists, which included many Hollywood celebrities such as Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Burt Lancaster.
On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primaries and Kennedy's entry into the election, the President startled the nation by announcing he would not seek re-election. (Not discussed publicly at the time was Johnson's concern that he might not survive another term - Johnson's health was poor, and he had suffered a serious heart attack in 1955. Johnson in fact died two days after the end of the succeeding presidential term.) Bleak political forecasts also contributed to Johnson's withdrawal: internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly, and in fact he lost the primary to McCarthy. He did not even leave the White House to campaign in Wisconsin. Johnson had lost control of the Democratic Party, which was splitting into four factions, each of which distrusted the other three.
★ The first faction comprised labor unions and big-city party bosses (led by Mayor Richard J. Daley). This group had traditionally controlled the Democratic Party since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and they feared their loss of control over the party. After Johnson's withdrawal this group rallied to support Hubert H. Humphrey, Johnson's Vice-President; it was also believed that President Johnson himself was covertly supporting Humphrey, despite his public claims of neutrality.
★ The second group, which rallied behind Senator McCarthy, was composed of students and intellectuals who had been the early spokespeople against the war in Vietnam; they perceived themselves as the future of the Democratic Party.
★ The third group was primarily composed of Catholics, African-Americans, and other racial and ethnic minorities; these groups rallied behind Senator Robert Kennedy.
★ The fourth group consisted of conservative white Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats." Some members (probably older ones remembering the New Deal's positive impact upon rural areas) of this group supported Vice-President Humphrey, but most of them would rally behind George C. Wallace and the Alabama governor's third-party campaign in the general election.
Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal Vice-President. As the year developed, it also became clear that Johnson believed he could secure his place in the history books by ending the war before the election in November, thus giving Humphrey the boost he would need to win.[1]
After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Kennedy was successful in four primaries and McCarthy five; however, in primaries where they campaigned directly against one another, Kennedy won three primaries and McCarthy one. Humphrey, for the most part, did not compete in the primaries, leaving that job to favorite sons who were his surrogates, notably Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Governor Roger D. Branigin of Indiana. Kennedy defeated Branigin and McCarthy in the Indiana primary, and then defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary. However, McCarthy upset Kennedy in the Oregon primary - this was considered important because it was the first time a Kennedy had ever lost an election. After Kennedy's defeat in Oregon, the California primary was seen as crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy. McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters. Kennedy and McCarthy engaged in a television debate a few days before the election, it was generally considered a draw. On June 5 Kennedy narrowly defeated McCarthy in California, 46% - 42%. However, McCarthy refused to withdraw from the race and made it clear that he would contest Kennedy in the upcoming New York primary, where McCarthy had much support from antiwar activists in New York City. The New York primary quickly became a moot point, however, for on the night of June 5, Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight; he died twenty-six hours later. Kennedy had just given his victory speech in a crowded ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; he and his aides squeezed into a kitchen on their way to another ballroom to celebrate their victory. In the kitchen Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a young Palestinian militant who disliked Kennedy because of his support for the nation of Israel.
Political historians have debated to this day whether Kennedy could have won the Democratic nomination had he lived. Some historians, such as Theodore H. White and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have argued that Kennedy's broad appeal and famed "charisma" would have convinced the party bosses at the Democratic Convention to give him the nomination. However, other writers such as Tom Wicker, who covered the Kennedy campaign for ''The New York Times'', believe that Humphrey's large lead in delegate votes from non-primary states, combined with Senator McCarthy's refusal to quit the race, would have prevented Kennedy from ever winning a majority at the Democratic Convention, and that Humphrey would have been the Democratic nominee even if Kennedy had lived.
At the moment of RFK's death, the delegate totals were:
★ Hubert Humphrey 561
★ Robert Kennedy 393
★ Eugene McCarthy 258
Robert Kennedy's death altered the dynamics of the race, and threw the Democratic Party into disarray. Although Humphrey appeared the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, thanks to his support from the traditional power blocs of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the anti-war elements within the party, who identified him with Johnson's controversial position on the Vietnam War. However, Kennedy's delegates failed to unite behind a single candidate who could have prevented Humphrey from getting the nomination. Some of Kennedy's support went to McCarthy, but many of Kennedy's delegates, remembering their bitter primary battles with McCarthy, refused to vote for him. Instead, these delegates rallied around the late-starting candidacy of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, a Kennedy supporter in the spring primaries, and who had presidential ambitions. However, by dividing the antiwar votes at the Democratic Convention, it made it easier for Humphrey to gather the delegates he needed to win the nomination.
When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young antiwar activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War. In a clash which was covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago police brutally beating anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago. While the protesters chanted "the world is watching", the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites; in one of them Vice-President Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-arm tactics of Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley (who was seen on television angrily cursing Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police in the riots). In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. The convention then chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled Humphrey's campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. (White, pgs. 377-378)
[Source for roll call votes: Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, ''Convention Decisions and Voting Records'' Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1973.]
Republican Candidates
★ Frank Carlson, U.S. senator from Kansas
★ Clifford P. Case, U.S. senator from New Jersey
★ Hiram L. Fong, U.S. senator from Hawaii
★ John V. Lindsay, Mayor of New York City
★ Richard M. Nixon, former U.S. Vice President and 1960 presidential nominee from New York
★ Ronald W. Reagan, Governor of California
★ James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio and candidate for the 1964 nomintion
★ Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York and candidate for the 1960 and 1964 nominations
★ Winthrop A. Rockefeller, Governor of Arkansas
★ George W. Romney, Governor of Michigan and candidate 1964 nomination
★ Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota and candidate for the 1944, 1948, 1952 and 1964 nominations
★ John A. Volpe, Governor of Massachusetts
The front-runner for the Republican nomination was former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and to a great extent the story of the Republican primary campaign and nomination is the story of one Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then dropping out.
Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. However, in a slip of the tongue, Romney told a news reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Eugene McCarthy (New York Times 2/18/1968). Romney's support faded slowly, and he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968. (New York Times 2/29/1968).
Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, winning 78% of the vote. Antiwar Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's liberal wing, who received 11% of the vote and became Nixon's new challenger. Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign. Rockefeller defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary on April 30 but otherwise fared poorly in the state primaries and conventions.
By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing, had become Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan remained Nixon's leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote and won all the following primaries except for California (June 4), where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's margin in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but when the Republican National Convention assembled, Nixon had 656 delegates according to a UPI poll (with 667 needed for the nomination).
At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Reagan and Rockefeller planned to unite their forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the strategy fell apart when neither man agreed to support the other for the nomination. Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. Nixon then chose Governor of Maryland Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite complaints from within the GOP that Agnew was an unknown quantity, and that a better-known and more popular candidate, such as Romney, should have been the Vice-Presidential nominee.
It was also reported that Nixon's first choice for running mate was his longtime fried and ally, Robert Finch, who was Lt. Governor of California since 1967 and later his HEW Secretary, but Finch declined the offer.
Candidates for the Vice-Presidential nomination
★ Spiro T. Agnew, Governor of Maryland
★ Edward W. Brooke, U.S. senator from Massachusetts
★ George H.W. Bush, U.S. representative from Texas
★ Daniel J. Evans, Governor of Washington
★ Robert H. Finch, Lt. Governor of California
★ Mark O. Hatfield, U.S. senator from Oregon
★ John V. Lindsay, Mayor of New York City
★ John A. Love, Governor of Colorado
★ Rogers C.B. Morton, U.S. representative from Maryland
★ Charles H. Percy, U.S. senator from Illinois
★ Ronald W. Reagan, Governor of California
★ James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio
★ Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York
★ George W. Romney, Governor of Michigan
★ John G. Tower, U.S. senator from Texas
★ John A. Volpe, Governor of Massachusetts
As of 2007, this was the last time two siblings (Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller) ran against each other in a Presidential primary.
The American Independent Party was formed by George Wallace, whose pro-segregation policies had been rejected by the mainstream of the Democratic party. The impact of the Wallace campaign was substantial, winning the electoral votes of several states in the Deep South. Wallace also proved to be popular among blue-collar workers in the North and Midwest, and took many votes which might have gone to Humphrey. Although Wallace did not expect to win the election, his strategy was to prevent either major party candidate from winning a preliminary majority in the Electoral College, which would then give him bargaining power to determine the winner. Wallace's running mate was retired U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay. LeMay embarrassed Wallace's campaign in the fall by suggesting that nuclear weapons could be used in Vietnam.
Also on the ballot in some states was black activist Eldridge Cleaver for the Peace and Freedom Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates. Another presidential candidate for 1968 was a pig named pigasus, a political statement.
Nixon campaigned on a theme to restore "law and order", which appealed to many voters angry at the hundreds of violent riots that had taken place across the country in the previous few years. Following the murder of Dr. King in April 1968, severe rioting in Detroit and Washington, D.C. had forced President Johnson to call out the U.S. Army to protect lives and property, and smoke from burning buildings a few blocks away had drifted across the White House lawn. However, Vice-President Humphrey criticized the "law and order" issue, claiming that it was a subtle appeal to white racial prejudice.
Nixon also developed a "southern strategy," which was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic but were deeply angered by Johnson and Humphrey's support for the civil rights movement. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote and boosting Humphrey's chances. The "southern strategy" would prove more effective in subsequent elections, and would become a staple of Republican presidential campaigns.
After the Democratic Convention in late August Humphrey trailed Nixon by double-digits in most polls, and his chances seemed hopeless. According to ''Time'' magazine, "The old Democratic coalition was disintegrating, with untold numbers of blue-collar workers responding to Wallace's blandishments, Negroes threatening to sit out the election, liberals disaffected over the [Vietnam] War, the South lost. The war chest was almost empty, and the party's machinery, neglected by Lyndon Johnson, creaked in disrepair." [2] Calling for "the politics of joy", and using the still-powerful labor unions as his base, Humphrey fought back. He attacked Wallace as a racist bigot who appealed to the darker impulses of Americans. Labor unions also undertook a major effort to win back union members who were supporting Wallace, with substantial success. Polls which showed Wallace winning almost one-half of union members in the summer of 1968 showed a sharp decline in his union support as election day approached. Humphrey also pledged to continue the Great Society welfare programs initiated by President Johnson.
While Humphrey ran a fighting, slashing campaign, Nixon's campaign was carefully managed and controlled. Nixon often held "town hall" meetings in cities he visited, where he answered questions from voters who had been carefully screened in advance by his aides. Nixon also implied that he had a "solution" to the war in Vietnam, but was vague in providing the details of his plan. As election day approached and Wallace's support in the North and Midwest began to wane, Humphrey finally began to climb in the polls.
In the end, the Vietnam War became the one remaining problem Humphrey could not overcome. In October, Humphrey - who still trailed Nixon in the polls - began to publicly distance himself from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election. Tipped off in advance by Henry Kissinger, and fearing this 'October surprise' might cost him the election, Nixon used Anna Chennault as an intermediary to encourage South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to stay away from the peace talks in the belief that he could expect a better deal under a Nixon Presidency; Thieu obliged. However, the "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.
The election on November 5, 1968 proved to be extremely close, and it was not until the following morning that the television news networks were able to call Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, or a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon's victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's 5 states and 46 electoral votes.
Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. Before 1968 the Democrats had clearly been the majority party, winning seven of the previous nine presidential elections. After 1968, the Republicans won five of the next six presidential elections (and they have won seven of the last ten, as of 2004). Many historians believe the reason for the Democratic Party's decline in strength was the bitter split within the party created by the Vietnam War and other "culture wars" of the 1960's. Most white Southern Democrats (and especially their children) became Republicans in the next two decades, creating a fundamental shift of political power in the nation which favored the GOP. For example, before 1968 the state of North Carolina had voted Republican only once in the twentieth century, and only twice since the American Civil War. However, North Carolina voted for Nixon in 1968 and since that election has voted Republican in every presidential election but one (1976).
Another important result of the 1968 election was that it led to several reforms in how the Democratic Party chose its presidential nominees. After the election, many of McCarthy and Kennedy's supporters gained control of the party machinery, and for the 1972 election they passed a number of initiatives designed to make the nomination process more democratic. A key initiative took the nominating process out of the hands of the party bosses by greatly enlarging the number of states which held presidential primaries. After 1968 the only way to win the party's presidential nomination was through the primary process; Humphrey turned out to be the last nominee of either major party to win his party's nomination without having directly competed in the primaries.
'Source (Popular Vote):'
'Source (Electoral Vote):'
'Source:' ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.'' “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote” XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.
'Source:' ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.'' “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote”, XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.
★ This is the most recent Presidential Election in which any third party candidate won at least one state in the Electoral College.
★ Had LBJ stayed in the race and won and served out the new term, he would have been president for 9 years, second only to FDR.
★ United States House election, 1968
★ United States Senate election, 1968
★ History of the United States (1964–1980)
★ History of the United States Democratic Party
★ History of the United States Republican Party
★ President of the United States
★ List of Presidents of the United States
★ White, Theodore H., ''The Making of the President 1968''. Pocket Books, 1970.
1. Dallek (1998); Woods (2006); Gould (1993).
2. ''Time'' Nov. 15, 1968
★ Nixon: The Education of a Politician, , Stephen E., Ambrose, , 1987,
★ Brown, Stuart Gerry. ''The Presidency on Trial: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Campaign and Afterwards.'' U. Press of Hawaii, 1972. 155 pp.
★ Burner, David and West, Thomas R. ''The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism.'' (1984). 307 pp.
★ The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics, , Dan T., Carter, , 1995,
★ Gallup, George H., ed. ''The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971''. 3 vols. Random House, 1972. press releases
★ An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968, , Chester, Lewis, Viking Press, 1969,
★ Kimball, Warren F. "The Election of 1968." ''Diplomatic History'' 2004 28(4): 513-528. ISSN 0145-2096 Fulltext online in SwetsWise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Comments by others at pp. 563-576; reply, p. 577.
★ Chicago '68, , David, Farber, University of Chicago Press, 1988,
★ Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, , Doris Kearns, Goodwin, St. Martin's Press, 1991,
★ 1968: The Election that Changed America, , Lewis L., Gould, Ivan R. Dee, 1993,
★ The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, , Hubert H., Humphrey, Doubleday, 1976,
★ Jamieson, Patrick E. "Seeing the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency through the March 31, 1968 Withdrawal Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' Vol 29#1 1999 pp. 134+
★ Wallace and the Middle Class, , Michael, Kogin, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1966
★ by Walter LaFeber. ''The Deadly Bet: LBJ, Vietnam, and the 1968 Election'' (2005) short survey
★ Eugene McCarthy, ''The Year of the People'' (1969), memoir
★ The Selling of the President 1968, , Joe, McGinniss, Trident Press, 1969,
★ RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, , Richard, Nixon, , 1978,
★ A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign, , Darcy G., Richardson, , 2002,
★ Clean for Gene: Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Presidential Campaign, , George, Rising, Praeger Publishers, 1997,
★ JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party, , Sean J., Savage, SUNY Albany Press, 2004,
★ Robert Kennedy and His Times, , Arthur M., Jr., Schlesinger, Houghton Mifflin, 1978,
★ Jeff Shesol, ''Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade'' (1997)
★ Turning Point: 1968, , Irwin, Unger, Scribner's, 1988,
★ The Making of the President—1968, , Theodore H., White, Atheneum, 1969,
★ Woods, Randall. ''LBJ: Architect of American Ambition'' (2006)
★ 1968 popular vote by counties
★ 1968 popular vote by states
★ 1968 popular vote by states (with bar graphs)
The 'United States presidential election of 1968' was a wrenching national experience, and included the assassination of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses. The election also featured a strong third-party effort by former Alabama governor George Wallace; although Wallace's campaign was frequently accused of promoting racism, he would prove to be a formidable candidate, and through 2007 was the last third-party candidate to win electoral votes. In the end, Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly won the election over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey on a campaign promise to restore "law and order". The 1968 election is sometimes considered to be a realigning election.
Historical background
In the election of 1964, after serving the 14 remaining months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Democrat Lyndon Johnson had won the largest popular vote landslide in US Presidential election history over Republican Barry Goldwater. During his term, Johnson had seen many political successes, including the passage of his sweeping Great Society domestic programs (also known as the "War on Poverty"), landmark civil rights legislation, and the continued exploration of space. At the same time, however, the country had been undergoing massive violence in the streets of its larger cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. The emergence of the hippie counterculture, the rise of New Left activism, and the emergence of the Black Power movement exacerbated social and cultural cleavages between classes, generations and races. Every summer during Johnson's administration, known thereafter as the "long, hot summers", major US cities erupted in massive race riots that left hundreds dead and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Adding to the national tension, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., sparking further mass rioting and chaos.
A major factor in President Johnson's precipitous decline in popularity was the Vietnam War, which he greatly escalated during his time in office. By late 1967 over 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam and suffering thousands of casualties every month. Johnson was especially hurt when, despite his repeated assurances that the war was being "won", the American news media began to show just the opposite. The Tet Offensive of February 1968, in which Communist Vietcong forces were killed inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon, led to increased criticism from antiwar activists that the war was unwinnable. In response, the U.S. military claimed that only by adding several hundred thousand more soldiers could the war possibly be won. In the months following Tet, Johnson's approval ratings fell below 35%, and the Secret Service refused to let the President make public appearances on the campuses of American colleges and universities, due to his extreme unpopularity among college students. The Secret Service also prevented Johnson from appearing at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because of their fear that his appearance might cause riots..
Nominations
Contenders for the Democratic Party nomination
Though President Lyndon B. Johnson had served during two presidential terms, the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify Johnson from running for another term, because he had only served 14 months following John F. Kennedy's assassination before being elected to his "second" term in 1964. As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Johnson would be the Democratic nominee, and that he would have little trouble in winning the Democratic nomination.
Despite the growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam, no prominent Democratic candidate was prepared to run against a sitting President of his own party. Even Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, an outspoken critic of Johnson's policies with a large base of support, refused to run against Johnson in the primaries. Only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota proved willing to openly challenge Johnson. Running as an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Normally, an incumbent president faces little formidable opposition within his own party. However, McCarthy, although he was trailing badly in the national polls, decided to pour most of his resources into New Hampshire, the first state to hold a primary election. He was boosted by thousands of young college students, who shaved their beards and cut their hair to be "Clean for Gene". These students rang doorbells and worked hard in New Hampshire for McCarthy. On March 12, McCarthy won 42% of the primary vote to Johnson's 49%, an amazingly strong showing for such a challenger, and one which gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. The momentum ended, however, when Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy four days later, on March 16, as McCarthy supporters cried betrayal and vowed to defeat Kennedy. Thereafter McCarthy and Kennedy would engage in an increasingly bitter series of state primaries; although Kennedy won most of the primaries, he could never shake McCarthy and his devoted following of antiwar activists, which included many Hollywood celebrities such as Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Burt Lancaster.
Johnson withdraws
On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primaries and Kennedy's entry into the election, the President startled the nation by announcing he would not seek re-election. (Not discussed publicly at the time was Johnson's concern that he might not survive another term - Johnson's health was poor, and he had suffered a serious heart attack in 1955. Johnson in fact died two days after the end of the succeeding presidential term.) Bleak political forecasts also contributed to Johnson's withdrawal: internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly, and in fact he lost the primary to McCarthy. He did not even leave the White House to campaign in Wisconsin. Johnson had lost control of the Democratic Party, which was splitting into four factions, each of which distrusted the other three.
★ The first faction comprised labor unions and big-city party bosses (led by Mayor Richard J. Daley). This group had traditionally controlled the Democratic Party since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and they feared their loss of control over the party. After Johnson's withdrawal this group rallied to support Hubert H. Humphrey, Johnson's Vice-President; it was also believed that President Johnson himself was covertly supporting Humphrey, despite his public claims of neutrality.
★ The second group, which rallied behind Senator McCarthy, was composed of students and intellectuals who had been the early spokespeople against the war in Vietnam; they perceived themselves as the future of the Democratic Party.
★ The third group was primarily composed of Catholics, African-Americans, and other racial and ethnic minorities; these groups rallied behind Senator Robert Kennedy.
★ The fourth group consisted of conservative white Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats." Some members (probably older ones remembering the New Deal's positive impact upon rural areas) of this group supported Vice-President Humphrey, but most of them would rally behind George C. Wallace and the Alabama governor's third-party campaign in the general election.
Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal Vice-President. As the year developed, it also became clear that Johnson believed he could secure his place in the history books by ending the war before the election in November, thus giving Humphrey the boost he would need to win.[1]
Contest for the Democratic nomination
After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Kennedy was successful in four primaries and McCarthy five; however, in primaries where they campaigned directly against one another, Kennedy won three primaries and McCarthy one. Humphrey, for the most part, did not compete in the primaries, leaving that job to favorite sons who were his surrogates, notably Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Governor Roger D. Branigin of Indiana. Kennedy defeated Branigin and McCarthy in the Indiana primary, and then defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary. However, McCarthy upset Kennedy in the Oregon primary - this was considered important because it was the first time a Kennedy had ever lost an election. After Kennedy's defeat in Oregon, the California primary was seen as crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy. McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters. Kennedy and McCarthy engaged in a television debate a few days before the election, it was generally considered a draw. On June 5 Kennedy narrowly defeated McCarthy in California, 46% - 42%. However, McCarthy refused to withdraw from the race and made it clear that he would contest Kennedy in the upcoming New York primary, where McCarthy had much support from antiwar activists in New York City. The New York primary quickly became a moot point, however, for on the night of June 5, Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight; he died twenty-six hours later. Kennedy had just given his victory speech in a crowded ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; he and his aides squeezed into a kitchen on their way to another ballroom to celebrate their victory. In the kitchen Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a young Palestinian militant who disliked Kennedy because of his support for the nation of Israel.
Political historians have debated to this day whether Kennedy could have won the Democratic nomination had he lived. Some historians, such as Theodore H. White and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have argued that Kennedy's broad appeal and famed "charisma" would have convinced the party bosses at the Democratic Convention to give him the nomination. However, other writers such as Tom Wicker, who covered the Kennedy campaign for ''The New York Times'', believe that Humphrey's large lead in delegate votes from non-primary states, combined with Senator McCarthy's refusal to quit the race, would have prevented Kennedy from ever winning a majority at the Democratic Convention, and that Humphrey would have been the Democratic nominee even if Kennedy had lived.
At the moment of RFK's death, the delegate totals were:
★ Hubert Humphrey 561
★ Robert Kennedy 393
★ Eugene McCarthy 258
Democratic Convention and antiwar riots
Robert Kennedy's death altered the dynamics of the race, and threw the Democratic Party into disarray. Although Humphrey appeared the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, thanks to his support from the traditional power blocs of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the anti-war elements within the party, who identified him with Johnson's controversial position on the Vietnam War. However, Kennedy's delegates failed to unite behind a single candidate who could have prevented Humphrey from getting the nomination. Some of Kennedy's support went to McCarthy, but many of Kennedy's delegates, remembering their bitter primary battles with McCarthy, refused to vote for him. Instead, these delegates rallied around the late-starting candidacy of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, a Kennedy supporter in the spring primaries, and who had presidential ambitions. However, by dividing the antiwar votes at the Democratic Convention, it made it easier for Humphrey to gather the delegates he needed to win the nomination.
When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young antiwar activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War. In a clash which was covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago police brutally beating anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago. While the protesters chanted "the world is watching", the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites; in one of them Vice-President Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-arm tactics of Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley (who was seen on television angrily cursing Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police in the riots). In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. The convention then chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled Humphrey's campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. (White, pgs. 377-378)
| The presidential tally | Vice presidential tally: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hubert Humphrey | 1759.25 | Edmund S. Muskie | 1942.5 |
| Eugene McCarthy | 601 | Not Voting | 604.25 |
| George S. McGovern | 146.5 | Julian Bond | 48.5 |
| Channing Phillips | 67.5 | David Hoeh | 4 |
| Daniel K. Moore | 17.5 | Edward M. Kennedy | 3.5 |
| Others | 30.25 | Others | 19.25 |
[Source for roll call votes: Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, ''Convention Decisions and Voting Records'' Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1973.]
Republican Party nomination
Richard Nixon campaign rally
Republican Candidates
★ Frank Carlson, U.S. senator from Kansas
★ Clifford P. Case, U.S. senator from New Jersey
★ Hiram L. Fong, U.S. senator from Hawaii
★ John V. Lindsay, Mayor of New York City
★ Richard M. Nixon, former U.S. Vice President and 1960 presidential nominee from New York
★ Ronald W. Reagan, Governor of California
★ James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio and candidate for the 1964 nomintion
★ Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York and candidate for the 1960 and 1964 nominations
★ Winthrop A. Rockefeller, Governor of Arkansas
★ George W. Romney, Governor of Michigan and candidate 1964 nomination
★ Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota and candidate for the 1944, 1948, 1952 and 1964 nominations
★ John A. Volpe, Governor of Massachusetts
The front-runner for the Republican nomination was former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and to a great extent the story of the Republican primary campaign and nomination is the story of one Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then dropping out.
Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. However, in a slip of the tongue, Romney told a news reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Eugene McCarthy (New York Times 2/18/1968). Romney's support faded slowly, and he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968. (New York Times 2/29/1968).
Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, winning 78% of the vote. Antiwar Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's liberal wing, who received 11% of the vote and became Nixon's new challenger. Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign. Rockefeller defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary on April 30 but otherwise fared poorly in the state primaries and conventions.
By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing, had become Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan remained Nixon's leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote and won all the following primaries except for California (June 4), where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's margin in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but when the Republican National Convention assembled, Nixon had 656 delegates according to a UPI poll (with 667 needed for the nomination).
At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Reagan and Rockefeller planned to unite their forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the strategy fell apart when neither man agreed to support the other for the nomination. Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. Nixon then chose Governor of Maryland Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite complaints from within the GOP that Agnew was an unknown quantity, and that a better-known and more popular candidate, such as Romney, should have been the Vice-Presidential nominee.
It was also reported that Nixon's first choice for running mate was his longtime fried and ally, Robert Finch, who was Lt. Governor of California since 1967 and later his HEW Secretary, but Finch declined the offer.
Candidates for the Vice-Presidential nomination
★ Spiro T. Agnew, Governor of Maryland
★ Edward W. Brooke, U.S. senator from Massachusetts
★ George H.W. Bush, U.S. representative from Texas
★ Daniel J. Evans, Governor of Washington
★ Robert H. Finch, Lt. Governor of California
★ Mark O. Hatfield, U.S. senator from Oregon
★ John V. Lindsay, Mayor of New York City
★ John A. Love, Governor of Colorado
★ Rogers C.B. Morton, U.S. representative from Maryland
★ Charles H. Percy, U.S. senator from Illinois
★ Ronald W. Reagan, Governor of California
★ James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio
★ Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York
★ George W. Romney, Governor of Michigan
★ John G. Tower, U.S. senator from Texas
★ John A. Volpe, Governor of Massachusetts
| President | (before switches) | (after switches) | Vice President | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard M. Nixon | 692 | 1238 | Spiro T. Agnew | 1119 |
| Nelson Rockefeller | 277 | 93 | George Romney | 186 |
| Ronald Reagan | 182 | 2 | John V. Lindsay | 10 |
| Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes | 55 | — | Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke | 1 |
| Michigan Governor George Romney | 50 | — | James A. Rhodes | 1 |
| New Jersey Senator Clifford Case | 22 | — | Not Voting | 16 |
| Kansas Senator Frank Carlson | 20 | — | ||
| Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller | 18 | — | - | |
| Hawaii Senator Hiram Fong | 14 | - | - | |
| Harold Stassen | 2 | — | ||
| New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay | 1 | — | - |
As of 2007, this was the last time two siblings (Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller) ran against each other in a Presidential primary.
Other candidates
The American Independent Party was formed by George Wallace, whose pro-segregation policies had been rejected by the mainstream of the Democratic party. The impact of the Wallace campaign was substantial, winning the electoral votes of several states in the Deep South. Wallace also proved to be popular among blue-collar workers in the North and Midwest, and took many votes which might have gone to Humphrey. Although Wallace did not expect to win the election, his strategy was to prevent either major party candidate from winning a preliminary majority in the Electoral College, which would then give him bargaining power to determine the winner. Wallace's running mate was retired U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay. LeMay embarrassed Wallace's campaign in the fall by suggesting that nuclear weapons could be used in Vietnam.
Also on the ballot in some states was black activist Eldridge Cleaver for the Peace and Freedom Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates. Another presidential candidate for 1968 was a pig named pigasus, a political statement.
General election
The fall campaign
''The New York Times'' front page from two days after the election: November 7, 1968.
Nixon campaigned on a theme to restore "law and order", which appealed to many voters angry at the hundreds of violent riots that had taken place across the country in the previous few years. Following the murder of Dr. King in April 1968, severe rioting in Detroit and Washington, D.C. had forced President Johnson to call out the U.S. Army to protect lives and property, and smoke from burning buildings a few blocks away had drifted across the White House lawn. However, Vice-President Humphrey criticized the "law and order" issue, claiming that it was a subtle appeal to white racial prejudice.
Nixon also developed a "southern strategy," which was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic but were deeply angered by Johnson and Humphrey's support for the civil rights movement. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote and boosting Humphrey's chances. The "southern strategy" would prove more effective in subsequent elections, and would become a staple of Republican presidential campaigns.
After the Democratic Convention in late August Humphrey trailed Nixon by double-digits in most polls, and his chances seemed hopeless. According to ''Time'' magazine, "The old Democratic coalition was disintegrating, with untold numbers of blue-collar workers responding to Wallace's blandishments, Negroes threatening to sit out the election, liberals disaffected over the [Vietnam] War, the South lost. The war chest was almost empty, and the party's machinery, neglected by Lyndon Johnson, creaked in disrepair." [2] Calling for "the politics of joy", and using the still-powerful labor unions as his base, Humphrey fought back. He attacked Wallace as a racist bigot who appealed to the darker impulses of Americans. Labor unions also undertook a major effort to win back union members who were supporting Wallace, with substantial success. Polls which showed Wallace winning almost one-half of union members in the summer of 1968 showed a sharp decline in his union support as election day approached. Humphrey also pledged to continue the Great Society welfare programs initiated by President Johnson.
While Humphrey ran a fighting, slashing campaign, Nixon's campaign was carefully managed and controlled. Nixon often held "town hall" meetings in cities he visited, where he answered questions from voters who had been carefully screened in advance by his aides. Nixon also implied that he had a "solution" to the war in Vietnam, but was vague in providing the details of his plan. As election day approached and Wallace's support in the North and Midwest began to wane, Humphrey finally began to climb in the polls.
In the end, the Vietnam War became the one remaining problem Humphrey could not overcome. In October, Humphrey - who still trailed Nixon in the polls - began to publicly distance himself from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election. Tipped off in advance by Henry Kissinger, and fearing this 'October surprise' might cost him the election, Nixon used Anna Chennault as an intermediary to encourage South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to stay away from the peace talks in the belief that he could expect a better deal under a Nixon Presidency; Thieu obliged. However, the "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.
The election on November 5, 1968 proved to be extremely close, and it was not until the following morning that the television news networks were able to call Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, or a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon's victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's 5 states and 46 electoral votes.
Aftermath
Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. Before 1968 the Democrats had clearly been the majority party, winning seven of the previous nine presidential elections. After 1968, the Republicans won five of the next six presidential elections (and they have won seven of the last ten, as of 2004). Many historians believe the reason for the Democratic Party's decline in strength was the bitter split within the party created by the Vietnam War and other "culture wars" of the 1960's. Most white Southern Democrats (and especially their children) became Republicans in the next two decades, creating a fundamental shift of political power in the nation which favored the GOP. For example, before 1968 the state of North Carolina had voted Republican only once in the twentieth century, and only twice since the American Civil War. However, North Carolina voted for Nixon in 1968 and since that election has voted Republican in every presidential election but one (1976).
Another important result of the 1968 election was that it led to several reforms in how the Democratic Party chose its presidential nominees. After the election, many of McCarthy and Kennedy's supporters gained control of the party machinery, and for the 1972 election they passed a number of initiatives designed to make the nomination process more democratic. A key initiative took the nominating process out of the hands of the party bosses by greatly enlarging the number of states which held presidential primaries. After 1968 the only way to win the party's presidential nomination was through the primary process; Humphrey turned out to be the last nominee of either major party to win his party's nomination without having directly competed in the primaries.
Results
'Source (Popular Vote):'
'Source (Electoral Vote):'
National voter demographics
| NBC sample precincts 1968 election | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| % Humphrey | % Nixon | % Wallace | |
| High income urban | 29 | 63 | 5 |
| Middle income urban | 43 | 44 | 13 |
| Low income urban | 69 | 19 | 12 |
| Rural (all income) | 33 | 46 | 21 |
| African-American neighborhoods | 94 | 5 | 1 |
| Italian neighborhoods | 51 | 39 | 10 |
| Slavic neighborhoods | 65 | 24 | 11 |
| Jewish neighborhoods | 81 | 17 | 2 |
| Unionized neighborhoods | 61 | 29 | 10 |
'Source:' ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.'' “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote” XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.
Voter demographics in the South
| NBC sample precincts 1968 election: South only | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| % Humphrey | % Nixon | % Wallace | |
| Middle income urban neighborhoods | 28 | 40 | 32 |
| Low income urban neighborhoods | 57 | 18 | 25 |
| Rural (all income) | 29 | 30 | 41 |
| African-American neighborhoods | 95 | 3 | 2 |
| Hispanic neighborhoods | 92 | 7 | 1 |
'Source:' ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report.'' “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote”, XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.
Miscellanea
★ This is the most recent Presidential Election in which any third party candidate won at least one state in the Electoral College.
★ Had LBJ stayed in the race and won and served out the new term, he would have been president for 9 years, second only to FDR.
See also
★ United States House election, 1968
★ United States Senate election, 1968
★ History of the United States (1964–1980)
★ History of the United States Democratic Party
★ History of the United States Republican Party
★ President of the United States
★ List of Presidents of the United States
Source
★ White, Theodore H., ''The Making of the President 1968''. Pocket Books, 1970.
Notes
1. Dallek (1998); Woods (2006); Gould (1993).
2. ''Time'' Nov. 15, 1968
Further reading
★ Nixon: The Education of a Politician, , Stephen E., Ambrose, , 1987,
★ Brown, Stuart Gerry. ''The Presidency on Trial: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Campaign and Afterwards.'' U. Press of Hawaii, 1972. 155 pp.
★ Burner, David and West, Thomas R. ''The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism.'' (1984). 307 pp.
★ The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics, , Dan T., Carter, , 1995,
★ Gallup, George H., ed. ''The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971''. 3 vols. Random House, 1972. press releases
★ An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968, , Chester, Lewis, Viking Press, 1969,
★ Kimball, Warren F. "The Election of 1968." ''Diplomatic History'' 2004 28(4): 513-528. ISSN 0145-2096 Fulltext online in SwetsWise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Comments by others at pp. 563-576; reply, p. 577.
★ Chicago '68, , David, Farber, University of Chicago Press, 1988,
★ Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, , Doris Kearns, Goodwin, St. Martin's Press, 1991,
★ 1968: The Election that Changed America, , Lewis L., Gould, Ivan R. Dee, 1993,
★ The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, , Hubert H., Humphrey, Doubleday, 1976,
★ Jamieson, Patrick E. "Seeing the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency through the March 31, 1968 Withdrawal Speech." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' Vol 29#1 1999 pp. 134+
★ Wallace and the Middle Class, , Michael, Kogin, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1966
★ by Walter LaFeber. ''The Deadly Bet: LBJ, Vietnam, and the 1968 Election'' (2005) short survey
★ Eugene McCarthy, ''The Year of the People'' (1969), memoir
★ The Selling of the President 1968, , Joe, McGinniss, Trident Press, 1969,
★ RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, , Richard, Nixon, , 1978,
★ A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign, , Darcy G., Richardson, , 2002,
★ Clean for Gene: Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Presidential Campaign, , George, Rising, Praeger Publishers, 1997,
★ JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party, , Sean J., Savage, SUNY Albany Press, 2004,
★ Robert Kennedy and His Times, , Arthur M., Jr., Schlesinger, Houghton Mifflin, 1978,
★ Jeff Shesol, ''Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade'' (1997)
★ Turning Point: 1968, , Irwin, Unger, Scribner's, 1988,
★ The Making of the President—1968, , Theodore H., White, Atheneum, 1969,
★ Woods, Randall. ''LBJ: Architect of American Ambition'' (2006)
External links
★ 1968 popular vote by counties
★ 1968 popular vote by states
★ 1968 popular vote by states (with bar graphs)
Navigation
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