Okay let's talk about the american president 1968 situation. Man, what a wild ride that year was. I mean, just picture it: cities burning, soldiers dying overseas, leaders getting assassinated left and right. It wasn't just picking a president – it felt like the whole country was coming apart at the seams. And honestly? That election changed everything. If you're trying to understand modern American politics, you gotta start right here.
Look, textbooks often breeze past 1968. Big mistake. This wasn't some boring policy debate. It was raw, messy, and deeply personal for millions. Think about watching the nightly news showing body bags from Vietnam while your draft number loomed. Or seeing tanks roll through American streets after MLK got shot. That tension? That's the real story behind the american president 1968 race.
A Nation on the Brink
January 1968 hits like a gut punch. The Tet Offensive blows apart any happy talk about winning in Vietnam. Walter Cronkite – basically the voice of God back then – goes on TV and flat-out says the war's a stalemate. You feel that? The trust in government just evaporates overnight. Soldiers were dying for a lie. Families knew it.
Then April happens. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. murdered in Memphis. I remember talking to my uncle about that day – cities exploded. Washington D.C. in flames? Unthinkable. Army troops with bayonets guarding the Capitol? Insane. And just two months later – BAM – Bobby Kennedy shot in a hotel kitchen after winning California. Two giants gone. You could taste the despair. How do you hold an election amid that?
Why This Matters Now
That sense of national unraveling? The distrust? The feeling institutions can't fix anything? 1968 planted those seeds. Watch any modern protest or divisive election debate – the echoes are deafening. Understanding the american president 1968 contest isn't just history homework. It's cracking the code on why America feels so fractured today.
Lyndon Johnson's Shocking Exit
LBJ entered '68 thinking he'd cruise to reelection. Arrogance? Maybe. He'd won in a landslide in '64. But Vietnam was bleeding him dry. Eugene McCarthy, this kinda bookish senator, almost beats him in New Hampshire. Not wins – almost wins. That signaled disaster. Then Bobby Kennedy jumps in.
March 31st. Johnson gives some routine speech about Vietnam. Suddenly, he drops the bomb: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party..." Jaw. Floor. Nobody saw it coming. Not his staff, not the press. The most powerful man on earth just quit.
Why? Consensus says:
- The War Quagmire: Body counts rising, protests growing. He knew he couldn't win selling that.
- Personal Toll: Dude looked exhausted. The weight of the war, the riots – it aged him decades.
- Party Revolt: McCarthy and Kennedy were peeling away young voters and liberals. Party unity? Gone.
Humphrey slips in as VP without running a single primary. Democratic machine politics at its peak. Felt deeply unfair to the anti-war crowd. This bitterness? It poisons the well for November.
Democrats Tear Themselves Apart
Picture the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey gets the nomination without a single primary win. Meanwhile, outside:
- 10,000 anti-war protestors chanting "The whole world is watching!"
- Mayor Daley's cops losing it – nightsticks swinging, blood on the streets.
- Inside the hall, delegates screaming at each other over Vietnam.
It was televised chaos. My college professor who was there calls it "a nervous breakdown on national TV." Humphrey, a decent guy, looked trapped. He couldn't ditch LBJ's war policy without looking like a traitor, but sticking with it doomed him. Imagine trying to sell unity when your party's convention looks like a war zone.
The Major Democratic Players
| Candidate | Role | Key Issue | Fatal Flaw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eugene McCarthy | Anti-War Challenger | Withdraw from Vietnam NOW | Too intellectual, lacked fire |
| Robert F. Kennedy | Charismatic Healer | Racial justice & ending war | Assassinated June 1968 |
| Hubert Humphrey | LBJ's VP (Nominee) | Great Society programs | Chained to LBJ's Vietnam policy |
Nixon's Quiet Comeback
While Democrats imploded, Nixon played it smart. "The New Nixon"? More like the Cautious Nixon. After losing to JFK in '60 and bombing in the Cali governor's race ('62), he was supposedly finished. Shows what pundits know.
His game plan was brilliant cynicism:
- The "Silent Majority": Pitch to the white, suburban, working-class folks scared of riots and change.
- Law and Order: Code for cracking down on protests and Black unrest. Subtle? Not really. Effective? Absolutely.
- Secret Plan for Vietnam: Genius marketing. Promised peace but gave zero details. Voters desperate for an exit heard what they wanted.
He dodged primaries, let Reagan and Rockefeller split the liberals, and scooped up the delegates. Smooth operator. Felt calculated compared to the Democratic circus.
Republican Field: More Divided Than It Looked
| Candidate | Base | Key Pitch | Why They Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixon | Establishment Conservatives | Experience, Stability | Won Nomination |
| Nelson Rockefeller | Liberal Republicans | Moderate Alternative | Entered Too Late |
| Ronald Reagan | Hardcore Conservatives | Ultra-Hawk on Vietnam | Too Extreme for '68 |
Wildcard: George Wallace Unleashes the Fury
Folks forget how close Wallace came to tipping the whole election. Running third-party? He didn't just run – he ignited a firestorm. His pitch? Pure, undiluted backlash.
- "Segregation Forever": Openly racist. Drew massive crowds in the North and South.
- Attack the "Pointy-Headed Bureaucrats": Blue-collar whites ate this up. Felt like he was speaking their rage.
- Won FIVE States: Not just the Deep South. Maryland? 15% in Michigan? This wasn't a fringe thing.
Wallace showed how deep the racial and cultural resentment ran. Nixon stole his playbook later with the "Southern Strategy". Wallace proved the votes were there for someone willing to stoke the anger. Scary stuff.
The General Election: A Three-Way Knife Fight
Humphrey started way behind. Trapped by Vietnam and Chicago's mess. Nixon played it safe – avoided debates, gave vague speeches. Wallace screamed from the sidelines. But October changed things.
Johnson finally called a bombing halt – Vietnam peace talks started! Humphrey surged. Suddenly, it's neck-and-neck. Nixon panicked (privately). Behind the scenes, he sabotaged the peace talks. Seriously – told South Vietnam to stall, promising a better deal if he won. Treason? Some historians think so. It worked. The surge stalled.
Personal Angle: My neighbor served in 'Nam. Said soldiers were glued to the election news, praying for peace. When Nixon won, they knew they weren't coming home soon. "Four more years in hell," he told me. Makes you wonder about backroom deals costing lives.
1968 Election Results: Closer Than You Think
| Candidate | Party | Electoral Votes | Popular Vote % | States Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixon | Republican | 301 | 43.4% | 32 |
| Hubert Humphrey | Democrat | 191 | 42.7% | 13 + DC |
| George Wallace | American Independent | 46 | 13.5% | 5 (Deep South) |
Look at that popular vote! Less than 1% between Nixon and Humphrey. Switch 55,000 votes in key states (Ohio, Illinois, Missouri) and Humphrey wins. That's how fragile Nixon's "mandate" was. Wallace siphoned off nearly 10 million votes – mostly from blue-collar Democrats. Nixon didn't win that election so much as the Democrats imploded and Wallace split the opposition.
The Aftermath: Nixon's Win Reshapes America
November 5th, 1968. Nixon wins. The "silent majority" spoke. Or did they? Barely 43% of voters picked him.
The consequences were massive:
- Vietnam Drags On: Four more years of war. Thousands more dead. Kent State shootings happen under his watch.
- The "Southern Strategy" Solidifies: Republicans openly court white Southerners abandoning Democrats over civil rights. Still defines the GOP base.
- Erosion of Trust: Watergate seeds get planted. That "law and order" president? Ended up a crook.
Did Nixon's win calm things down? Nope. The 70s were a parade of crises – inflation, oil shocks, Watergate. That yearning for stability in 1968? It backfired spectacularly.
Why the 1968 American President Race Still Haunts Us
Think about today's politics. That playbook Nixon and Wallace wrote? It's still running.
- Cultural Backlash: Wallace's angry voters? They never left. See Trump rallies.
- Third-Party Spoilers: Sound familiar (Nader 2000, anyone)? Wallace proved a strong third party can swing everything.
- Broken Conventions: Chicago '68 damaged faith in parties. Sanders supporters in 2016 felt that same DNC resentment.
- Foreign Meddling Fears: Nixon sabotaging peace talks? Modern parallels with election interference are chilling.
Honestly, studying the american president 1968 contest feels less like history and more like a blueprint for our chaos. The divisions laid bare then – race, class, war, trust – never healed. They just got repackaged.
"The whole world is watching!" - Chant by protestors, 1968 Democratic Convention. What they saw was America tearing itself apart. Feels way too familiar sometimes.
Your Questions About the American President 1968, Answered
Who was technically the US president during most of 1968?
Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) was president until January 20, 1969. So for the entire wild year of 1968 – the assassinations, riots, conventions – he was still the guy in charge, even after announcing he wouldn't run again in March.
Why didn't Lyndon Johnson run for president again in 1968?
Simple answer? Vietnam destroyed him. The war was deeply unpopular, draining support and morale. After anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy nearly beat him in the New Hampshire primary, and Bobby Kennedy jumped in? LBJ knew he'd likely lose. His health was awful too – heart problems, stress. Quitting wasn't noble; it was survival.
Who were the main candidates running for president in 1968?
- Republican: Richard Nixon (Winner), Nelson Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan
- Democrat: Hubert Humphrey (Nominee), Eugene McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy (assassinated)
- Third Party: George Wallace (American Independent Party - won 5 states!)
Did the assassinations of MLK and RFK affect the 1968 election outcome?
Massively. Bobby Kennedy (RFK) was likely heading for the Democratic nomination when killed. His death threw the party into chaos, allowing Humphrey to win without primaries. MLK's assassination triggered nationwide riots, fueling Nixon's "law and order" message. Fear became a top-tier campaign issue.
What were the key issues voters cared about in the 1968 presidential election?
- #1 Vietnam War: Get out? Stay and win? HUGE divide.
- #2 Civil Rights/Race Relations: Backlash against progress dominated.
- #3 "Law and Order": Code for curbing protests and urban unrest.
- #4 The Economy: Inflation was starting to bite.
Nixon won by focusing laser-like on #2 and #3.
How close was the 1968 presidential election?
Razor thin. Nixon won the popular vote by just 0.7% over Humphrey (43.4% vs 42.7%). Flip roughly 110,000 votes across a few states (like Ohio or Illinois), and Humphrey wins the Electoral College. George Wallace taking 13.5% made it insanely volatile.
Did voter turnout change significantly in 1968?
Turnout was actually slightly down (60.8%) from 1964 (61.9%). Shocking, given the stakes. Why? Maybe disillusionment? Both major candidates were deeply flawed. War fatigue. Riots. People tuning out.
What state proved most crucial for Nixon's victory in the 1968 election?
Look at Ohio and Illinois. Nixon won Ohio by just 89,000 votes (2.4% margin) and Illinois by 154,000 votes (2.9%). Lose both, and Humphrey wins the White House. California was huge too (Nixon won by 223,000 votes). These industrial states, swayed by the "silent majority," delivered his win.
What immediate impact did Nixon's win in 1968 have?
Four more brutal years in Vietnam. Escalated bombings (including Cambodia). Massive anti-war protests continued (Kent State happened in 1970). The "Southern Strategy" locked in, driving white Southerners to the GOP for generations. And the seeds of Watergate? Planted in that first term by Nixon's paranoia and dirty tricks.
Legacy of the 1968 American President Election
So why obsess over this particular election half a century later? Because it broke the mold. It showed how fear beats hope sometimes. How race divides us. How wars poison politics. How third parties tip scales. How assassinations alter history. How messy conventions destroy parties.
The search for an american president 1968 wasn't just about filling a job. It was a raw referendum on what kind of country America wanted to be amidst trauma. The path chosen – Nixon's path – led straight to Watergate, deeper polarization, and a playbook still used today.
Feel like politics is uniquely chaotic now? Nah. 1968 holds the gold medal. Studying that year doesn't just tell us about the past. It shouts warnings about our present. That's the power of understanding the fight for the american president 1968. It’s where modern America began, for better or (mostly) worse.
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