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Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary. By Ray E. Boomhower. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. xiv, 173 pp. $21.95, isbn 978-0-253-35089-3.)
In March 1968, Robert F. Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination for president against both the incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson and the antiwar senator Eugene McCarthy, who had shown in the New Hampshire primary that there was a strong antiwar sentiment abroad in the land. Kennedy's late entty was seen by many as evidence of his ruthless arrogance - a long-held and harmful perception.
The first head-to-head primary on May 7 between McCarthy, Kennedy, and Johnson's stand-in, Indiana governor Roger D. Branigin, would be an important test of the future direction of the party. From the Tet Offensive, which undermined Johnson's credibility, to Johnson's withdrawal from the presidential race on March 31, to the...