Summary Of 1968: Year Of Tragedy

1968: Year Of Tragedies When the year began, there was no sign of how the year was going to turn out. The war in Vietnam was still raging, while the president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was hoping that it would be over soon. He then wanted to slide into his second term of presidency to continue building his “Great Society”. But his plans soon spiralled out of his control.
In February of 1968, the Tet offensive brought a change to the American people’s mind about the war, and to the president. Sensing this vulnerability, Eugene McCarthy challenged Johnson for his own party’s nomination. When votes were tallied in New Hampshire, McCarthy had a walloping 42% against the current president. Johnson knew that while he was fighting the opposing party, he would also have to fight for his party to vote for him as well. His hopes for a second term were only more suppressed when Robert Kennedy entered the race.
Luckily, his vise-president, Hubert Humphrey, entered into the race to continue out the current president’s policies. Humphrey was becoming more and more popular among party elites in many states, but Kennedy was mounting an impressive campaign. He was touching an emotional nerve in America that hadn’t been touched in a while. He wanted to return to the ways his brother, John F. Kennedy, had practiced. Kennedy was receiving support from the poorer classes, and from African Americans who believed Kennedy would push for equal rights. Both Kennedy and McCarthy were judgemental of Humphrey’s hawkish stance on