The election of 1968 was an extremely controversial election. The entire country was divided between whether or not the United States should be involved in Vietnam. Lyndon B. Johnson was the president who decided to enter into war with Vietnam in 1968, before he was to leave office. He decided not to run for reelection the following term so many people were contemplating running for the office.
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One noticeable name that nominated himself to run for election in the Democratic Party was Robert Kennedy. The brother of the late president John F. Kennedy, he was well liked by the majority of politicians and by the people of the United States. His views toward the war were that the United States had no reason to be in Vietnam fighting in the war and losing innocent lives. His anti-war views were not uncommon in those times because not many people knew what they were really doing in Vietnam. .
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Another candidate for the presidency in the Democratic Party was Eugene McCarthy. Eugene McCarthy was most known for being the Senator of Minnesota. In 1967, McCarthy decided to drop out of the senate and attempt to run for the Democratic nomination in 1968 for presidency, only after hearing that other anti-war politicians had declined to run, such as Robert F. Kennedy. McCarthy did not believe he would be able to win but he announced his candidacy in 1967. His announcement attracted the attention of many college students who have been spending most of their time picketing against this war. McCarthy had supported LBJ when he had entered the war but had had second thoughts about the decision afterwards and he believed that they would just negotiate a settlement for the war. (Clean for Gene) .
Kennedy and McCarthy were both anti-war. McCarthy and Kennedy challenged each other in Democratic Primaries across the country, with Kennedy only losing in Oregon. A little bit after midnight on June 5th 1968, Kennedy was on his way off stage, which took him through the kitchen.