The Deadly Bet: LBJ, Vietnam, And The 1968 Election

Vietnam: America in the War Years

by Walter F. LaFeber

Lyndon Johnson made a life or death bet during his Presidential term, and lost. Intent upon fighting an extended war against a determined foe, he gambled that American society could also endure a vast array of domestic reforms. The result was the turmoil of the 1968 presidential election—a crisis more severe than any since the Civil War. With thousands killed in Vietnam, hundreds dead in civil rights riots, televised chaos at the Democratic National Convention, and two major assassinations, Americans responded by voting for the law and order message of Richard Nixon.

In The Deadly Bet, distinguished historian Walter LaFeber explores the turbulent election of 1968 and its significance in the larger context of American history. Looking through the eyes of the year's most important players—including Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, Nguyen Van Thieu, and Lyndon Johnson—LaFeber argues that the domestic upheaval had more impact on the election than the war in Vietnam.

Clear, concise, and engaging, this work sheds important light on the crucial year of 1968.

Genres: History, Read For School, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2005

About the author

One of the foremost scholars of American foreign policy, Walter Fredrick LaFeber was the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University. Previous to that he served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell.

Reviews

[Ali Topete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a history class on 1968 in the US. It does touch on the years before and after 1968 to add context. It focuses on prominent political figures of the time. I really like how it was written. It was easy to read and provided an understanding of the chaos and impact of 1968. I would recommend to anyone interested in this time period.

[Destiny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have given a 5 star if the author hadn't added the Nguyen Van Thieu chapter because I felt it was pointless to the thesis itself. Overall, enjoyed the book.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book captures the main tensions of the Vietnam War - anticommunism, limited war, civil rights, law and order, race - by focusing on how they played out in the turbulent presidential year 1968. The chapters are organized around the key players - Gen. Westmoreland, Lyndon Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, South Vietnamese President Thieu - to capture the major events of the year. And big they were: the Tet offensive, LBJ's decision not to run for re-election, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and rising crime and civil unrest in the streets of US cities. It would have been easy to overwhelm the dearer with details about each event, but the author caught just the right level of detail to convey the major themes and even to convey some of the feeling of the time, and to keep it interesting and lively.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of a series on Vietnam edited by David L. Anderson, which seems hard to find online, The Deadly Bet is a fairly short work (217 pages with footnotes and index) that cogently summarizes some of the major tides that shaped the 1968 election. LaFeber briefly discusses the Chennault involvement, referring to it mostly as factual reference rather than perhaps murky but potentially explosive revelation. I still believe that Chennault's manipulations might constitute one of the most under-reported episodes of the war, given the (perhaps razor thin, as LeFeber argues) possibility of peace being achieved that might have truncated what turned out to be the longest war in US history.

One notable editing lapse: on page 20, LaFeber refers to "West Point Military Academy," a surprising error that should have been caught.

[Chris Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary of the 1968 presidential election and campaign season defined by the personalities of the time: MLK, RFK, LBJ, Nixon, Humphrey, Wallace. Nothing really groundbreaking covered in this text, reads more like a book for a college introductory course. Author does a good job of defining the personalities and the issues that they all faced.