The Deadly Bet

March 15, 2005
In 1968, the Vietnam War, political assassinations, and racial unrest buffeted the United States. These crises, claims LaFeber ("The Clash: U.S. Relations Throughout History"), led President Lyndon Johnson and candidates Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace to wager that they could win the war and restore law and order. This brief overview of the 1968 election, which updates Lewis Gould's still excellent "1968: The Election That Changed America", offers a convincing conclusion that domestic concerns were more important than the war in determining the election's outcome. Significantly, the law-and-order candidates, Republican Nixon and Independent Wallace, together received 56 percent of the vote. Useful narratives about the other important players -Eugene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King -are included. LaFeber says that Johnson could have received the Democratic nomination had he chosen to run but at a cost of a humiliating grubbing for support, a price too dear for LBJ's oversized ego. This accessible account is a good choice for high school and college students and is recommended for all public libraries. -Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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