Background
Kennedy visited the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948 and wrote dispatches at the time for the Boston Post about his trip and the effect it had on him when he was twenty-two years old. During his stay, he wrote that he grew to admire the Jewish inhabitants of the area. As a Senator, he later became a strong supporter and advocate for Israel.
Kennedy was United States Attorney General from January 1961 until September 3, 1964, when he resigned to run for election to the United States Senate. He took office as Senator from New York on January 3, 1965.
The run up to the 1968 presidential election saw the incumbent president, Lyndon B. Johnson, serving during a period of social unrest. There were riots in the major cities despite Johnson's attempts to introduce anti-poverty and anti-discrimination legislation, and there was significant opposition to the ongoing military action in Vietnam.
The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 led to further riots across the US. Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic Party's nomination for president on March 16, 1968—four days after Senator Eugene McCarthy received a large percentage of the vote in the New Hampshire primary against the incumbent President (42% to Johnson's 49%). Two weeks later, a demoralized Johnson announced he was no longer seeking re-election. One month later, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced he would seek the presidency. Humphrey did not participate in any primaries but he did obtain the support of many Democratic Party delegates. Following the California primary, Kennedy was in second place with 393 delegates compared to Humphrey's 561.
Read more about this topic: Assassination Of Robert F. Kennedy
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)