Story highlights Some political observers have drawn comparisons between 2016 and 1968

Just as Trump has dubbed himself the "law and order candidate," Nixon also spoke of restoring "law and order"

Cleveland (CNN) Previewing the most anticipated speech of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's campaign chairman said Monday the presumptive GOP nominee will model his convention speech after that of Richard Nixon's in 1968.

Paul Manafort, Trump's top aide, said the real estate mogul will embody the spirit of the nearly 50-year-old speech that came at a time thick with racial tension, escalated earlier that year by the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

"The Nixon 1968 speech -- if you go back and read that speech -- is pretty much on line with a lot of the issues that are going on today. And it was an instructive speech," Manafort said at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg.

In 1968, riots broke out in more than 100 cities, despite calls from civil rights leaders for nonviolent demonstrations. Widespread, angry protests against the country's involvement in the Vietnam War were also fueling unrest at the time.

Some political observers have drawn comparisons between 2016 and 1968, given the current turbulence and civil unrest over the shooting deaths of black men by police and retaliatory attacks against police forces.

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