1968

Essay submitted by Josh

"An Indignant Generation." With all its disruptions and rage, the idea of black revolution

was something many white Americans could at least comprehend, if not agree with.

When rebellion seized their own children, however they were almost completely at a

loss. A product of the posts war "Baby Boom," nurtured in affluence and concentrated

in increasing numbers on college and university campuses. It was a generation marked

by an unusual degree of political awareness and cultural alienation. Some shared with

the beat writers and poets of the late fifties, a deep disillusionment with this status

quo, a restless yearning for something more than a "realistic" conformity. Others had

been aroused by the southern sit-in movement, "The first hint," wore a contemporary,

"That there was a world beyond the campus that demanded some kind of personal

response. "Not so much ideological as moral, in Jessica Mitford's words, "An Indignant

Generation."

Although an image of arrogance, even ruthlessness, had followed him from his early

days as counsel to a Senate committee investigating labor racketeering, Robert

Kennedy had shown a remarkable capacity to understand the suffering of others. More

than this, he had demonstrated an untiring commitment to the welfare of those who

had gotten little more than the crumbs of the Great American Banquet. In fact,

Kennedy Appealed most strongly to precisely those groups most disaffected with

American society in nineteen sixty-eight, they believed in him with a passion

unmatched for any other national political figure, in part for what he had done, but also

for the kind of man he was.

The collapse of communications made it impossible to determine the fate of the

pacification program, but most assessments were pessimistic. When the communists

launched their attacks, the government pulled nearly half of the five hundred and fifty

revolutionary development teams out of the hamlets to help defend the cities, along

with eighteen of the fifty-one army battalions assigned to protect the pacification

teams. In so doing, Saigon abandoned the countryside and dealt the pacification

program what many felt was a considerable setback. "There always was a semi vacuum

in the countryside," said one United States pacification worker. "Now there's a

complete vacuum." By the end of the February, orders have gone out for pacification

teams and some troops to return to the hamlets, but progress was slow. Although

ninety-five percent of the five thousand RD workers in the Saigon region reported back

to their assigned locations once the capital had been secured, by mid-March only

eighty out of three hundred RD teams had returned to the countryside in I Corps, while

in the Delta, entire provinces had to be temporarily abandoned to the Vietcong

For six days prior to the first attack, waves of B-52's blasted enemy weapon sites,

troop concentrations, and bunkers. Despite the tons of explosives rained down on the

valley, the first helicopter assault on April nineteenth came under withering fire from

antiaircraft batteries hidden in the surrounding hills. "There were white puffs of smoke

everywhere," recalled a pilot who flew one of the earliest missions. "I mean, when I

came in, the ground erupted right at me." On the first day of battle communist gunners

brought down ten helicopters, including the first giant flying crane to be lost in the war.

"I'll tell you this," said Major Charles Gilmer, executive officer of the first air cavalry's

helicopter reconnaissance unit, " If you fly over that valley you have a good chance of

getting killed."

Although they found themselves on the defensive in various parts of South Vietnam, it

was imperative for the communists to maintain military pressure on the allies. To the

American public the opening of negotiation became a tactic of warfare and warfare a

tactic of negotiations. By continuing and increasing the intensity of fighting while the

talks went on the communists hoped to demonstrate their capacity to wage a

protracted war, capture territory that could later be given up as part of a face-saving

American withdrawal, and convince the South Vietnamese and American people that

however long it took, they could not be defeated.

By nineteen sixty-five, of course, most Americans had grown accustomed to images of

death and destruction emanating from Vietnam. They littered the pages of daily

newspapers and weekly news magazines and provided common fare for network news

shows. They reminded Americans that the nation was at war and that the war

continued.

HIPPIES

Hippies were set apart from the rest of society in 1968. They had their own ideas and

options about life, love, war, peace, and more. They created something to fit their own

culture. A "Counter Culture," that had its own dress, as well as its own attitudes about

personal relationships. Not to mention that they were suspicious of every person that

had power. They had many groups and get -togethers. One of which, "The Human

Be-In," usually consisted of ten to twenty thousand radicals and hippies. It usually took

place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Also the "Merry Pranksters," a hippie troupe

that traveled west to the LSD induced happenings, Ken Kessey was their leader.

The media called hippies, flower children. They would wear things such as beads, lots

of jewelry, leather, and bright colored clothing that included bell-bottoms. They were

not interested in mechanical or materialistic things but more along the lines of spiritual

enlightenment. Hippies were also more concerned with "being" than "doing," to do this

they looked to drugs like marijuana and LSD.

LYNDON JOHNSON

Lyndon Johnson was born on August 27, 1908 in Stonewall, Texas. As a democrat he

was elected into the United States House of Representatives in 1938. He served for

four terms. He became Senate majority leader in 1953. Johnson was elected vice

president in 1960 and became president on November 22, 1963 upon Kennedy's death.

In 1968 Johnson decided to de-escalate from the Vietnam War after over ninety South

Vietnamese cities were attacked by both Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army forces.

On March 31, 1968, Johnson went on National Television announce that air and naval

bombardment of North Vietnam would stop. At the end of his speech he shocked the

United States by announcing that he will not try to get re-elected.

Johnson returned to his home in Texas in 1969, and died on January 22, 1973,

RICHARD NIXON

Richard Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yurba Linda, California. During World War

II he served as a United States navy officer. In 1946, he was elected to the House of

Representatives and then the Senate in 1950. He served as Dwight Eisenhower's Vice

President from 1952 to 1960. Nixon became the thirty-seventh president in 1968.

President Richard Nixon was the only president who realized that the United States did

not and does not have the funds to win a war as big as the Vietnam War. To disengage

from the Vietnam War, President Nixon came up with a five part strategy. A military

campaign increased emphasis on pacification of South Vietnam, withdrawal of United

States Combat Forces, and diplomatic strategies.

On December 1979, Nixon was no longer president of the United States of America.

NGO DIN DIEM

Ngo Din Diem was born in 1901 in Annam, Vietnam. He was active in Vietnamese politics

during 1930 and 1931 and later on was minister of justice. He was asked to be Ho Chi

Minh's minister of the Interior, but he rejected the offer. In late August of 1968, Diem

initiated a series of assaults on dissidents. After these attacks a complex series of

communications concerning the increasingly volatile situation went through Washington

and Saigon. After considerable planning by the South Vietnamese generals, a coup took

place on November 1, 1963.

Ngo Din Diem and his brother were assassinated on November 2, 1963.

WILLIAM WESTMORELAND

William Westmoreland was born on March 26, 1914 in Spartenburg County, South

Carolina. He was a lieutenant colonel, during World War II and commanded a field

artillery battalion. He also fought in the Korean War as commander of the 187th

Airborne Infantry Regimental Combat Team. He was then promoted to a general when

he returned to the United States. Westmoreland was selected as commander of the

MACV(United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam). William Westmoreland left

Vietnam in 1968 to assume duties as Army Chief of staff in Washington.

William Childs Westmoreland is 84 years of age and is still alive to this day.

HO CHI MINH

Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 in Nghe, a province in the protectorate of Annam(Central

Vietnam). He left Vietnam in 1912 to go to France. In France, under the alias Nguyen Ai

Quoc, he became a member of the French Communist party on December 30, 1941,

where he chaired the eighth Plenum of the Indochina Communist Party and formed the

Viet Minh. For ten years Ho Chi Min stuck to his goal of an Indochina communist party.

North Vietnam suffered more losses than the Japanese in World War II.

On September 2, 1969, Ho Chi Minh died. In honor of Ho Chi Minh, Saigon was then

renamed to Ho Chi Minh City.

There is also dirt road or path called Ho Chi Minh Trail.

WAS 1968 THE WORST WE'VE EXPERIECED

Was Nineteen sixty-eight truly the most devastating year in all of American History? A

few points to prove this statement true is: the Kent shooting, the Martin Luther King Jr.

Assassination, the Robert Kennedy assassination, the TET Offensive, American Riots,

the My Lai Massacre, the Democratic convention, the height of the U.S. involvement in

the Vietnam War was also a big upset in the history of "OUR" country. A few points

that prove this statement false is the Civil War in 1861 untill 1865, the Cold War which

followed immediately after World War II through the 1980's, the crash of the stock

market which was in 1929. These are just a few of the many, many terrible things that

happened in 1968.

My opinion of the statement is that it was the most terrible year in all of America's

History. I feel this way because of how all the terrible things happened in the same

year. I mean, all the terrible incidents I had listed above were bad but they didn't

happen in the same year.

Although I haven't been around that long, I still feel that it was the worst year in all of

America's History. This is just my opinion.

MUSIC IN 1968

Most music in 1968 was about drugs, love, and peace. One of the best bands were the

Beatles. They have many albums which feature drugs, love, and peace. Hippies were

ones that admired these rock and roll bands. The bands that were top ten in 1968

were: #10 "Woman, Woman" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap #9 "Judy in

Disguise(With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy band #8 "This guy's in love with

you" by Herb Alpert #7 "People got to be free" by The Rascals #6 "(Sittin' On) The Dock

of the Bay" by Otis Reading #5 "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro #4 "Love Child" by Diana

ross and the Supremes #3 "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat 2 "I heard it through the

Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye #1 "Hey Jude" by The Beatles.

Certainly, as Paul Simon sang on his Gracdland album, "Every generation throws a hero

up the pop charts." The talent is out there.

But rock doen't seem as important to this generation. The music industry has been in a

downbeat since 1995, with shipments of album-length CD's slipping three percent last

year. Some say CD's are simply too expensive for the younger audience. Others say the

commercialization of rock stragles creativity.

THE THREE HEROES

It has been 30 years since Pham Thi Thuan, now a 60 year old woman, survived the

massacre of Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai, Where American troops shot

and killed about 500 defenseless civilians on March 16, 1968.

Hugh Thompson tried to stop the slaughter. "Why did they come and kill all the women

in my village?" asks Pham, who escaped death by hiding under a pile of dead bodies.

Hugh Thompson of coarse could not explain. "I'm sorry for what happened that day," he

says. "I wish I could have done more." Hugh Thompson was ordered to fly to the

coastal village to provide air cover for the U.S. troops engaged in Firefight with

Vietcong guerrillas, instead, Thompson and his crew found more than a dozen U.S.

soldiers in the process of murdering unarmed women, children, and old men. He landed

his helicopter between a group of nine villagers hiding in a bunker and a line of U.S.

soldiers advancing on them.

Hugh Thomson, ordering his door-gunner, Lawerence Colburn, to shoot if necessary,

coaxed the Vietnamese out and had them airlifted to safety. "There were many

helicopters," recalls survivor Pham Thi Nhanh. The only one that helped.