278 a short history of the united states
he did it privately. Now he came out publicly and declared that the war
could not be won and that the United States should withdraw from
Vietnam. “Our enemy,” he declared, “has finally shattered the mask of
official illusion with which we have concealed our true circumstances,
even from ourselves.”
Recognizing that his popularity had shriveled to the point where his
reelection had become impossible, Johnson announced to a televised
audience on March 31 that he was withdrawing his candidacy. He also
declared that he would end all U.S. air and naval bombardment of
North Vietnam in the hope that peace talks could begin so as to bring
about a negotiated settlement. North Vietnam agreed to this condition,
the bombing halted, and delegates assembled in Paris on May 10 to ini-
tiate preliminary talks. Formal negotiations began on January 16 , 1969.
Then, a savage act of violence erupted again when, on April 4 , 1968 ,
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James
Earl Ray in Memphis. This killing aroused further violence in more
than 100 cities, including Washington, D.C. The country was faced
with the fact that its streets at home and the streets in Vietnam were
soaked with blood because of Americans intent on killing to settle op-
posing social and political problems.
Indeed, 1968 proved to be a very bloody year. Two months later, on
June 5 , Robert Kennedy, while campaigning in California, was assas-
sinated by a deranged Jordanian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan. Again the
nation wept. Many people wondered aloud if this country had begun to
descend into unrecognizable chaos. Later, a study showed—to no one’s
surprise—that the United States sold more firearms than any other
country on the globe, and its citizens owned more firearms than any
other people. Worse, more Americans died from firearms than was
true in any other industrial nation. It was an unenviable record, but
since the Second Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed the right
to bear arms, the government made no serious attempt to control the
distribution of guns, since so many citizens owned weapons and did not
wish their right infringed in any way. Politically, it guaranteed defeat at
the polls for any official to attempt to enact controlling legislation.
To make matters even more alarming, the Democratic Nominating
Convention, meeting in Chicago between August 26 and 29 , became a
battleground between the city’s police and angry antiwar protesters.