American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division

by Michael A. Cohen,
Tulsa World, May 15, 2016

In the United States, 1968 was a turbulent and traumatic year. The Tet offensive convinced many Americans that the communists were winning the war in Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and riots erupted in dozens of cities. Moments after he declared victory in the California presidential primary, Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-Mass., was murdered. While delegates at the Democratic National Convention were selecting Hubert Humphrey as their candidate for president, clashes between protesters and police bloodied the streets of Chicago.