|
1868 Presidential Campaign
"Vote Like Your Whole World Depended on it" vs. "Humphrey-Muskie, Two You Can Trust" |
|
Introduction
1968, often referred to as the Year of the Gun, was a violent year in American history. The war in Vietnam was at its height, with over 500,000 American soldiers serving. The war would also see its most bloody affairs in this year with the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre. At home, things were not much better. Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated in April of 1968 and the summer was dominated by race riots in most major cities across the nation. President Johnson, citing a need to focus on the war in Vietnam and not campaigning, declined to run for the Democratic party's nomination. The top choice to replace him, Robert F. Kennedy (President John F. Kennedy's brother and Attorney General) was assassinated after making a campaign speech in California. President Johnson's Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey, would run against the former Republican Vice President (under Eisenhower), Richard Nixon. With much of the country dissatisfied with the directionless and costly Vietnam War, both candidates tried to win voters with messages of ending the conflict responsibly and returning the United States to a role of preeminence in the world.
1968, often referred to as the Year of the Gun, was a violent year in American history. The war in Vietnam was at its height, with over 500,000 American soldiers serving. The war would also see its most bloody affairs in this year with the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre. At home, things were not much better. Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated in April of 1968 and the summer was dominated by race riots in most major cities across the nation. President Johnson, citing a need to focus on the war in Vietnam and not campaigning, declined to run for the Democratic party's nomination. The top choice to replace him, Robert F. Kennedy (President John F. Kennedy's brother and Attorney General) was assassinated after making a campaign speech in California. President Johnson's Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey, would run against the former Republican Vice President (under Eisenhower), Richard Nixon. With much of the country dissatisfied with the directionless and costly Vietnam War, both candidates tried to win voters with messages of ending the conflict responsibly and returning the United States to a role of preeminence in the world.
|
|
|
Campaign Video Prompts
Use your above responses and the electoral college map below to answer the following prompts.
- Create a T-Chart and track the "Mood" of both campaign ads.
- Create a T-Chart and track the "Tone" of both campaign ads.
- Summarize the message of each campaign ad.
- What was the most effective image/argument/phrase/word from each campaign ad?
Use your above responses and the electoral college map below to answer the following prompts.
- Who won the election? (What was the popular and electoral vote count for each candidate?)
- What geographic or regional patterns of electoral votes do you notice?
- What convincing aspects (or unconvincing aspects for the "also-ran") of the winner's ad could help explain their victory (and margin of victory) in that year's Electoral College?
Consulting Primary Source Texts
After completing your investigation and responses to the prompts about the 1968 presidential campaign, you will now examine two primary source documents from this era of Presidential Cold War era.
As you complete a close-read of the provided documents, you should:
Primary Source One: 1967 Foreign Policy Article
Primary Source Two: 1969 Informal Remarks
After completing your investigation and responses to the prompts about the 1968 presidential campaign, you will now examine two primary source documents from this era of Presidential Cold War era.
As you complete a close-read of the provided documents, you should:
- Compose a summary of each document in your own words
- Respond to the given prompts by citing at least two specific pieces of evidence from the text
- Compose a Venn diagram and short paragraph that compares and contrasts the mood, tone, and message of both the documents and the candidate's campaign ads
- Write a brief paragraph prediction as to the successes and/or failures of the president's actions or policies in this Cold War period.
Primary Source One: 1967 Foreign Policy Article
Primary Source Two: 1969 Informal Remarks
Consulting a Secondary Source
In consulting the campaign ads and primary sources from this Cold War presidency, you have only a small lens with which to evaluate their broader foreign policy accomplishments. Now you will review a secondary source treatment of President Nixon's first term foreign policy to assess:
Linked below is the official Office of the Historian summary of President Nixon's foreign policy. You may choose to find your own secondary source(s) in addition to this source. Review the document and answer the prompts that follow citing at least two pieces of evidence from a primary source.
President Nixon's Foreign Policy
Questions
In consulting the campaign ads and primary sources from this Cold War presidency, you have only a small lens with which to evaluate their broader foreign policy accomplishments. Now you will review a secondary source treatment of President Nixon's first term foreign policy to assess:
- the effectiveness of his actions, policies, and/or doctrines
- the ability of the president to live up to their stated campaign promises
Linked below is the official Office of the Historian summary of President Nixon's foreign policy. You may choose to find your own secondary source(s) in addition to this source. Review the document and answer the prompts that follow citing at least two pieces of evidence from a primary source.
President Nixon's Foreign Policy
Questions
- What foreign policy campaign promise(s) did President Nixon make in 1968? Did the primary sources or secondary sources provide evidence of keeping or breaking the promise(s)? Explain.
- How did the secondary source explain the success/failure of those policies?
Interact with History
As a final assessment of your investigations, choose one of the options below to complete and submit to the website as a comment or email (sean@juniorhistorians.com). Your project must contain at least four cited pieces of evidence from the sources provided.
As a final assessment of your investigations, choose one of the options below to complete and submit to the website as a comment or email (sean@juniorhistorians.com). Your project must contain at least four cited pieces of evidence from the sources provided.
- Create a rebuttal campaign ad for the "also-ran" that points out the failures or inaction of the winning president's foreign policy.
- Take a stance and write your own biased secondary source historical review of the president's foreign policy accomplishments.
- Create a Wordle analysis by pasting the text of each document (two separate Wordles) into Wordle.net/create. Then write a paragraph analysis of the word trends and usage that you observe for each text.
- Create a foreign policy briefing for the president that takes a historical event from one of the primary sources and argues for a different course of action. Be sure to explain the situation and justify your proposed changes.
- Find another primary source document related to the president's Cold War foreign policy and submit a video of you completing a close read of that document.
- Create a multimedia presentation that compares and contrasts two additional campaign ad issues. Additional campaign ads can be found at livingroomcandidate.org.
RSS Feed
