After being sworn in as the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon called for a time of national renewal and reunification, hoping to heal the wounds wrought by the divisiveness of the 1960s, which — between President Lyndon Johnson's “withdrawal speech,” Martin Luther King Jr.'s and Robert F. Kennedy's assassinations, and the chaotic Democratic National Convention — had found its ultimate expression in the election of 1968.
Though Nixon handily defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Independent George Wallace in the Electoral College (301–191–46), he only won 0.7 percent more of the popular vote than Humphrey. Clearly, the country's divisions ran deep, but not as deep as they might have run, had it not been for the restraint of President Johnson.
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