Global context for 2024 US race is different to 1968

AS THE Democratic presidential convention gets into full swing in Chicago, sweeping comparisons are being drawn with the event in 1968 held in the same city during the Vietnam conflict. However, while there are some similarities, the foreign policy context between then and now is significantly different.

The 1968 election, which pitted Republican Richard Nixon against Democrat Hubert Humphrey, came during a distinctive, roughly quarter of a century political era from 1948 to 1972 during the early Cold War era. During this time, foreign policy was usually the single most salient issue in US elections, as it was in 1968 with the Vietnam war.

The year 1968 saw an unusually turbulent period framed by that Vietnam conflict with then president Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to run for re-election (paralleled this year by President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek a second term); the assassination of Martin Luther King on Apr 4; and the killing of Robert Kennedy on Jun 5.