policemen during the 1968 Democratic National Convention did
not help the cause of the anti-Vietnam War protesters. Inadver-
tently, it probably helped the more hawkish presidential candidate,
Richard Nixon, win the election. It made the Democratic Party
look chaotic and unable to manage its followers, a party of rioters
and overzealous police, especially since Democratic stalwart, Mayor
Richard Daley, was responsible for law enforcement in the city.
As attempted leadership interventions, the protests failed to
highlight the issues clearly and place the work where it belonged.
The protests took place in a political context in which the president
who was held responsible for the war, Lyndon Johnson, had already
withdrawn from the presidency. The Chicago ...