1968: A Year Like No Other

Looking back on it, it’s amazing this country survived the year 1968.
Looking back on it, it’s no surprise the scars from that year still cut across the psyche of many people who lived through it.
Tom Brokaw’s documentary “1968” aired on The History Channel this past weekend. For those who somehow forgot the turbulence of that year, the television special brought back the divisiveness and volatility of those 12 months.
Consider the major events that happened in 1968. In just a single year.
In January, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against U.S. forces. The Tet Offensive reached the walls of the American Embassy in Saigon.
In March, President Lyndon Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not seek re-election.
In April, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to death on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.
In June, Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated as he walked through the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel, just hours after winning the California primary.
In August, Richard Nixon, who had lost the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California governor’s race, was nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. A few weeks later, riots erupted outside the Democratic convention in Chicago as that party nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey as its candidate.
In November, middle-class voters rebelled against the anti-war movement and what they considered the excesses of America's youth. The so-called “Silent Majority” elected Nixon by less than 1 percent of the vote.
In December, the crew of Apollo 8 made history when they circled the moon and returned home. It was the first time any human had seen the Earth from the moon’s perspective.
The year 1968 was a culmination of years of festering unrest. It exploded as the civil rights movement, the anti-war demonstrations, the women’s rights campaign and the Baby Boomer generation’s desire to be free and different all climaxed.
The revolution could be seen in all aspects of society, not just in politics. On television, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Laugh-In were breaking new ground. The musical “Hair” brought drugs and sex to the spotlight of Broadway. At the theaters, “Rosemary’s Baby” and “2001” provoked thought and controversy. Rock music reached a pinnacle as The Beatles “Hey Jude” and Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” led a parade of popular tunes. And at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute while accepting their gold and bronze medals.
The year, however, centered on the Vietnam War. In 1968, 500,000 American soldiers were engaged in that conflict in Southeast Asia. That year, 16,500 U.S. troops would be killed in that foreign land. More than 16,000 soldiers dead. In one year.
The assassinations of King and Kennedy jolted an already reeling nation. Bitterness and anger surfaced in virtually every community.
I was just entering ninth grade that fall. I remember feeling the world was coming to an end. What could possibly happen next? How could we go on?
Fortunately, perhaps for almost everybody, that year was not repeated. Things slowly calmed down. By the time President Nixon resigned in 1974, a lot of the steam had dissipated from the engines that drove the forces of 1968.
A lot of things did come from that year. The military draft eventually ended. Pop culture permanently changed. Social programs such as day-care facilities and recycling centers sprung up. And certainly women and minorities have more rights now than they did then.
But even 40 years later, there are reverberations. There are still lingering feelings over the Vietnam War. The reckless use of drugs is now taking its toll on some Baby Boomers’ health. The shock of seeing political leaders gunned down still echoes in the back of many people’s minds.
I’m not sure our country has completely recovered from 1968. The Baby Boom generation bore the brunt of that violent and chaotic year.
Perhaps it’s time to put that year behind us, so we can look ahead to the years we have left.