Michael A. Cohen presented a lecture on his new book “American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division” at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 1, 2016.
“American Maelstrom” presents a gripping story of the 1968 election between the powerful personalities including President Lyndon Johnson, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, George Wallace and Richard Nixon, among others. The book also highlights how future Presidential campaigns were impacted by the 1968 Presidential campaign.
Cohen is an author, columnist, and regular commentator on both national politics and American foreign policy. He is a columnist for the ‘Boston Globe’, ‘World Politics Review’, and is the U.S. Political Corespondent for the ‘London Observer’.
Cohen, who worked on the book for over five years, began his remarks with illustrating the incredible events of 1968 which served as the backdrop including the 500,000 U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam and the Tet Offensive occurred in January which deflated the American notion that the war would end soon. What was originally billed as Democratic Presidential Johnson’s nomination, would soon find Johnson narrowly beating U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy in the first Presidential primary of 1968 in New Hampshire. Sensing an opportunity to beat the President, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy then announces his candidacy, only to have President Johnson withdraw from the race all together. Soon after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated, with also Robert Kennedy being assassinated a few months later.
In 1968, nine candidates in all would campaign for the Presidency. For the Democrats it was President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, and U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy. For the Republicans it was former Vice President Nixon, Governor Ronald Reagan, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and Governor George Romney.
The other candidate was Governor George Wallace. Cohen discussed the impact that Wallace had in 1968, which resonates still today, especially in the themes of the 2016 Presidential Election. Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama, fought the Federal government on keeping segregation intact in schools, was successful as a third-party candidate for the American Independent Party. He was the last third-party candidate to win Electoral votes, and established the anti-government, anti-elitism, anti-federal encroachment campaign narrative themes that continue to this day. He was an example of a modern ‘populist’ candidate, who won 5 states in the South.
Along with the discussion on the 1968 Election and candidates, Cohen also reflected on the social themes in America during the late 1960’s and how they played a role in the campaign. Americans felt that law & order was not as strong as it had been for generations, the crime rate had dramatically increased from 1962 to 1968, the rise of ‘Black Power’, dozens of riots throughout the country, and the Democratic Party cementing its identity as the party of African Americans.
Cohen participated in a lengthy Q&A with attendees, discussing both the 1968 and 2016 Elections.
