In 1968, the public had been told for years that we were winning the war in Vietnam. Then much of the country, including the American Embassy, came under widespread attacks which were shown with raw film feeds on nightly television for a month. Is it surprising that a sudden cognitive dissonance resulted?
In 1968, MLK had not only been under FBI surveillance for years, but on camera he was seen prophesizing his death the night before it happened. Is it surprising that when he was shot, that his followers suspected the government had something to do with it?
In 1968, RFK stood to challenge the ruling Democratic party establishment when he was struck with a fatal shot which originated at point blank range from his rear. In spite of witnesses and a coroner’s report that placed Sirhan Sirhan to the front of him at all times, the LAPD harassed witnesses and withheld contrary evidence of a likely multiple-shooter scenario in order to arrange a quick one-person conviction in court. Is it surprising that outraged RFK supporters would gather to protest outside the convention hall in Chicago?
The events of 1968 referred to in the editorial, ignore the understandable anger that lay behind them.
In 2012, conservatives are united in their desire to oppose lies which originated from a federal government run by Democrats. Could not the same thing be said of the public in 1968?
Regarding Bobby, Gene McCarthy speculated that he had provoked Sirhan by his demagoging about Israel. McCarthy hsd reason to be bitter. The Kennedy machine had been lying through its teeth about McCarthy’s record. Sad to say, but we are probably better off that Bobby was removed from the scene.
The think that provoked McCarthy into going against the war was that he knew that Johnson was not telling the whole truth. Lyndon was far too optimistic in public. If he had been more guarded, Tet could have been played better.
The North Vietnamese Winter/Spring Offensive of 1968 was actually a massive defeat, as I myself perceived at the time merely from reading newspaper and magazine accounts. The attack on the embassy was a complete failure, and all of the attackers were killed. However, those who failed to look beyond the images on TV may have experienced cognitive dissonance.
In 1968, MLK had not only been under FBI surveillance for years, but on camera he was seen prophesizing his death the night before it happened. Is it surprising that when he was shot, that his followers suspected the government had something to do with it?
Could be. I was never a supporter of his, so I can't speak for them. However, the facts about the FBI surveillance came out later. The initial news reports--that he had been shot by a white man in a white suit who was driving a white car headed south--deeper into white-dominated Dixieland--might have contributed to the anger of the rioters.
In 1968, RFK stood to challenge the ruling Democratic party establishment when he was struck with a fatal shot which originated at point blank range from his rear. In spite of witnesses and a coroner’s report that placed Sirhan Sirhan to the front of him at all times, the LAPD harassed witnesses and withheld contrary evidence of a likely multiple-shooter scenario in order to arrange a quick one-person conviction in court. Is it surprising that outraged RFK supporters would gather to protest outside the convention hall in Chicago?
I'm not an RFK assassination buff, but I recall at the time that Sirhan seemed clearly to have done the deed--he had the pistol in his hand. I don't recall hearing any conspiracy theories about the assassination until much later. And although some of the protesters outside the convention hall in Chicago may have been RFK supporters, they were led by hard-core leftists--Tom "we are all Viet Cong" Hayden, Jerry "kill your parents" Rubin, David Dellinger, a self-proclaimed "non-Russian Communist," and the like.
In any case, the public turned away from this angry crowd of malcontents and elected Richard Nixon, who spoke for “the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators.”