The Year That Was 1968

Blackfive posted a piece 'John Kerry - Bush Failed in 9/11 Response' that got me to thinkin' about the 2004-as-1968 meme that has taken hold. As I wrote in Matt's comments this election may have far more in common with 1984.

Let's have a look at just how different the world and our nation was in 1968:

JANUARY:

• 10-- The 10,000 US airplane is lost over Vietnam.
  
• 23-- North Korean patrol boats capture the USS Pueblo.
  
• 31-- North Vietnamese launch the Tet offensive at Nha Trang, capture and hold the Saigon Embassy briefly.
  

FEBRUARY:

• 2-- Richard Nixon declares his presidential candidacy.
  
• 4-- Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Promised Land" sermon at his Ebenezer Baptist Church.
  
• 18-- The US State Department announces the highest US casualty toll of the Vietnam War. The previous week saw 543 Americans KIA, and 2547 wounded.
  

MARCH

• 12-- The New Hampshire primary election, Eugene McCarthy comes within 230 votes of defeating the sitting president Lyndon Johnson.
  
• 16-- Senator Robert Kennedy enters the Presidential race.
  
• 22-- The Cold War heats up in Eastern Europe as Antonin Novotny resigns the Czech presidency.
  
• 31-- President Lyndon Johnson addresses the nation outlining steps to end the war and announces he will not seek re-election.
  

APRIL:

• 4-- Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. The King assassination sparks rioting in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
  
• 11-- SecDef Clark Clifford calls 24,500 military reserves to action for 2 year commitments, and announces a new troop ceiling of 549,500.
  

MAY:

• 3-- The US and North Vietnamese delegations agree to begin peace talks in Paris, talks begin May 10th.
  
• 6-- In France, "Bloody Monday" marks one of the most violent days of the Parisian student revolt.
  
• 11-- Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s designated successor, and the Southern Christian Leadership Corps are granted a permit for an encampment on the Mall in Washington, DC which became known as 'Resurrection City'.
  
• 13-- As many as nine million workers go on strike in France. President de Gaulle sends military troops to quell the student and union rebellion.
  

JUNE:

• 5-- On the eve of his California Primary victory, Robert Kennedy is assassinated. The motive for the shooting is believed to be pro-Isreali speeches Kennedy made during the campaign.
  
• 27-- The "Prague Spring" continues in Czechoslovakia as freedom and rebellion spreads. The Soviets begin troop exercises.
  
• 28-- A bill adding a 10 percent surcharge to income taxes and reducing government spending is signed by President Johnson to pay for the war. This is seen as a defeat for Johnson's social programs.
  

JULY:

• 7-- Abbie Hoffman's "The Yippies are Going to Chicago" is published in The Realist. The yippie movement, formed by Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner begins a campaign of demonstrations and public disobedience.
  

AUGUST:

• 8-- Republicans nominate Richard Milhouse Nixon as their Presidential candidate.
  
• 20-- The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia, putting an end to the "Prague Spring" and installs a repressive puppet regime.
  
• 26-- Mayor Richard Daley opens the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and announces an eleven PM curfew, demonstrations are widespread, but generally peaceful. The next two days, however, tensions rise and violence begins.
  
• 28-- Chicago police take action against crowds of demonstrators without provocation. The police beat some marchers unconscious and send at least 100 to emergency rooms while arresting 175.
  

SEPTEMBER:

• 1-- Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey kicks off his presidential campaign at New York City's Labor Day parade.
  
• 7-- Women's Liberation groups, joined by members of New York NOW, target the Miss America Beauty Contest in Atlantic City. The woman's movement for economic equality and job parity begins in earnest.
  

OCTOBER:

• 2-- Police and military troops in Mexico City react violently to a student - led protest in Tlatelolco Square. Hundreds of the demonstrators are killed or injured.
  
• 3-- George Wallace, who has been running an independent campaign for the presidency which has met significant support in the South and the Midwest, names retired Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis E. LeMay to be his running mate.
  
• 11-- Apollo 7 is launched from Florida for an eleven day journey which will orbit the Earth 163 times.
  
• 12-- The Summer Olympic Games open in Mexico City. The games are boycotted by 32 African nations in protest of South Africa's participation. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, US athletes and medalists perform the black power salute during the "Star-Spangled Banner" at their medal ceremony.
  
• 31-- President Johnson announces a total halt to US bombing in North Vietnam.
  

NOVEMBER:

• 5-- Election Day. The results of the popular vote are 31,770,000 for Nixon, 43.4 percent of the total; 31,270,000 or 42.7 percent for Humphrey; 9,906,000 or 13.5 percent for wallace; and 0.4 percent for other candidates.
  
• 14-- National Turn in Your Draft Card Day is observed with rallies and protests on college campuses throughout the country.
  
• 26-- The South Vietnamese government agrees to join in the Paris peace talks.
  

DECEMBER:

• 11-- The unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent, is the lowest it has been in fifteen years.
  
• 21-- The launch of Apollo 8 begins the first US mission to orbit the Moon.
  

That was one hell of a year, in a decade of searing events. However, even as one searches for and lists events it is very apparent that the world and nation in 1968 has very little similarity to 2004.

We've come a long way since 1968. John Kerry can't go home any more than the rest of us who lived through those times can, it changed us, our country and the world forever, and in my opinion, for the better.

A historical footnote: I didn't think this item fit into a timeline of events per se, but it certainly is worth consideration:

September 29, 1968:

This date marks the thirtieth anniversary of Neville Chamberlain's Munich agreement ceding Czechoslovakia's Sudatenland to Hitler. This action widely seen as a major contributing factor to the devastation of World War II.

The domino theory which underlay so much of American action in Vietnam can be seen as a direct response to the failure of international response to the German dictator.

Perhaps this is a lesson we have finally learned?

Posted by feste at March 1, 2004 11:36 AM | TrackBack