A View From the Park

Letter to the Editor, New York Times Book Review section, Feb. 14, 2016

TO THE EDITOR:

Ari Berman, in his review of “Let the People Rule,” by Geoffrey Cowan (Jan. 24), writes that the “result” of Hubert Humphrey’s nomination in 1968, “despite not having won a single primary” was “chaos” in Grant Park — as if there were a cause-and-effect relationship. For those of us in the park that week, Humphrey’s lack of primary victories had nothing to do with our disaffection. We were protesting President Johnson’s war, first and foremost, and as the week wore on, Mayor Daley’s tactics in quashing our lawful demonstrations by force.