ABSTRACT
Nationally, 1968 was not a particularly good year for the United States. The light at the end of the Viet Nam tunnel went out with the Tet offensive, and President Johnson withdrew as a candidate amidst increasing discontent with the war. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were murdered. Continued attempts to solve long-standing social problems through civil rights and social equity legislation and massive funding programs were often overshadowed by the violent nature of the times. The Kerner Commission report blamed racism for the riots that continued throughout the year in cities like Cleveland, Seattle, Gary, and Peoria. Most notable and noticed were the confrontations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. As the year drew to an end, Richard Nixon was elected President after an end-the-war-with-honor and law-and-order campaign.
