LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval

380 Pages·6.368 MB·English

by  Kyle Longley

LBJ’S 1968
The year 1968 was unprecedented in terms of upheaval on numerous scales:
political, military, economic, social, cultural. In the United States, perhaps no
one was more undone by the events of 1968 than President Lyndon Baines
Johnson. Kyle Longley leads his readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of what
Johnsoncharacterizedasthe“yearofacontinuousnightmare.”Longleyexplores
how LBJ perceived the most significant events of 1968, including the Vietnam
War,theassassinationsofMartinLutherKing,Jr.andRobertKennedy,andthe
violentDemocraticNationalConventioninChicago.Hisresponsestothecrises
were sometimes effective but often tragic, and LBJ’s refusal to seek reelection
underscores his recognition of the challenges facing the country in 1968. As
muchabiographyofasingleyearasitisofLBJ,LBJ’s1968vividly capturesthe
tumultthatdominatedtheheadlinesonlocalandgloballevels.
Kyle Longley is Snell Family Dean’s Distinguished Professor of History and
PoliticalScienceatArizonaStateUniversity.Heistheauthorofnumerousbooks,
including In the Eagle’s Shadow: The United States and Latin America, Senator Albert
Gore,Sr.,andTheMorenciMarines:ATaleofaSmallTownandtheVietnamWar.

LBJ’S 1968
Power, Politics, and the Presidency in
’
America s Year of Upheaval
Kyle Longley
Arizona State University
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA
477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia
314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–110025,India
79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107193031
DOI:10.1017/9781108140379
©KyleLongley2018
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2018
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabySheridanBooks,Inc.
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Longley,Kyle,author.
Title:LBJ’s1968:power,politics,andthepresidencyinAmerica’syearofupheaval/
KyleLongley,ArizonaStateUniversity.
Description:Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,2017.|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017049388|ISBN9781107193031(hardback:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Johnson,LyndonB.(LyndonBaines),1908-1973.|UnitedStates–Politics
andgovernment–1963-1969.|Presidents–UnitedStates–Election–1968.|
Presidents–UnitedStates–Biography
Classification:LCCE847.L632017|DDC973.923092–dc23LCrecord
availableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017049388
ISBN978-1-107-19303-1Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
To my great friends, Bob Brigham and Laura Belmonte

Contents
List ofFigures page ix
PrefaceandAcknowledgments xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 ANation on the Brink: TheStateof the Union Address,
January 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Those Dirty Bastards,AreThey Trying to Embarrass Us?
ThePuebloIncident,January–December 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3 Tet: AVery Near Thing, January–March 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4 AsaResult, IWill Not Seek Reelection: The March 31,
1968 Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5 TheDaysthe Earth StoodStill: The Assassination of
Martin Luther King, Jr., April 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6 HeHatedHim,but He Loved Him: The Assassination
of Robert Kennedy, June1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7 TheBig Stumble:The FortasAffair,
June–October 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8 TheTanks Are Rolling: CzechoslovakiaCrushed,
August 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
9 ThePerfectDisaster: The Democratic National
Convention, August 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10 IsThis Treason?:The October Surprise that Wasn’t,
October–November1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
vii
TABLEOFCONTENTS
11 The LastDance, January1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Glossary of Participants 283
Notes 287
Bibliography 333
Index 347
viii