Has there ever been a year like 1968? Assassinations, racial unrest, nationwide riots, and an endless war in Vietnam put the nation on edge and produced a historic three-way presidential election where all the candidates were deeply flawed. Backed into a corner by rising casualties in Vietnam and with no easy exit strategy, President Johnson stunned the nation in March 1968 when he announced he would not seek a second full term in the White House. As his efforts to secure a compromise peace proved futile, LBJ's popularity plummeted further. Even darker hours came when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were cut down by assassins' bullets. Race riots and anti-war protests erupted in hundreds of cities across the country and the world. The hostilities and bitterness spilled over onto the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where massive demonstrations and an unforgiving police response nearly tore the party apart. The American voters faced an unwelcome but unavoidable dilemma: Coul