The year 1968 began after North Vietnamese forces launched the Tet Offensive in January. While American servicemen fought the attack, the public began to question the American govt's Vietnam policy. As a result, President Lyndon Johnson decided to curb military action in Vietnam, as well as renounced his candidacy for a second term as president of the United States. April to June saw the most violence during 1968. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4 caused black neighborhoods around the nation to erupt. The National Guard was called in to maintain the peace. Two month's later, Senator Robert Kennedy, candidate for the democratic nomination for president of the US, was assassinated in Los Angeles, California. The nation entered into a period of mourning and general disbelief. These horrific events altered the presidential election of 1968. Richard Nixon won the presidential election with 56% of the electoral vote, but by only one percent of the popular vote. It became Nixon's job to rebuild the trust and legitimacy of the US as a purveyor of peace and freedom, not only domestically, but throughout the world. We then viewed a short clip of Robert Kennedy informing a crowd at a campaign stop in Indiana that MLK had just been killed. Two months later. RFK will also lose his life. We discussed how the U.S. and world may have been different over the decades to today had JFK, MLK and RFK lived.