Nixon is the One essays

Nixon is the One essays In Irwin s book Turning Point: 1968, chapter 7, there were several conflicts, which aroused during the Presidential Election of 1968, which was one of the most chaotic in American history, reflecting a time that was in many ways equally chaotic. There was the conflict, which aroused between the Republicans and Democrats for the presidential election, and also the conflict between the Democrats and the protesters at the Democratic Chicago Convention in August 1968. These events displayed the many social conflicts, which people were facing throughout the sixties. At the beginning of the election season, President Lyndon Johnson was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and as a sitting president, he should have won his party's nomination without any trouble. But growing opposition to the war in Vietnam, unrest on college campuses, and urban rioting, made him vulnerable. In November 1967, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination, and that ending the Vietnam War was his central issue. McCarthy mobilized hundreds of student volunteers, who went "clean for Gene," cutting their hair and going door-to-door for him in New Hampshire, home of the nation's first primary election. The effort paid off and in March 1968, McCarthy shocked the political world by winning 42 percent of the vote. He did not win the primary, but the size of his support was a defeat to Johnson. Sensing Johnson's vulnerability, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York entered the race for the Democratic nomination. That, along with renewed opposition to the war in light of the North Vietnamese Tet offensive, prompted President Johnson to announce that he was not running for re-election. In response, Vice President Hubert Humphrey entered the race, but it was too late to run in the primaries. He would have to win delegate support at the nominating convention in Chicago that summer. In the mea...