1968: “The Year the Dream Died”

(Brief Overview and Basic Chronology)

Pam Pennock

·        January 31:

The Tet Offensive in Vietnam: a coordinated surprise enemy attack on 26 cities/U.S. strongholds in South Vietnam.  (Even infiltrated the U.S. embassy in Saigon.)  U.S. forces quickly rallied and fought back, and it turned out to be a military victory for the US/ARVN that harmed the VC, depleting their resources.  Despite the fact that it was technically a military victory for the U.S., the Tet Offensive is generally understood to be a psychological defeat for America.  It was shocking to most Americans to see the fierce fighting of an enemy that American leaders had claimed was weakening.  In the wake of Tet, public support for America’s involvement in the war took a nose dive.  More mainstream leaders and politicians joined the anti-war ranks. LBJ’s popularity rating slid to 35%.  Johnson and the Democratic Party were badly damaged.

 

·        March 31:

President Johnson made a television address in which he announced a temporary halt in bombing NV (his first major concession to antiwar forces) and further made the surprise announcement that he would not run for re-election that year.  (Basically, after the Tet Offensive, Johnson stepped down.)

Also that evening, my parents got engaged. 

 

The presidential race of 1968

The Democrats

Until Tet, Democratic liberals hesitated to criticize LBJ.  Now the contest for the Democratic nomination was wide open and anti-war sentiments were fair ground. 

 

Hubert Humphrey:  LBJ’s VP.  Humphrey ran as the mainstream Democratic Party candidate (McCarthy and RFK were the outsiders), and thus Humphrey found himself in a difficult position for he felt that he could not repudiate or even criticize his boss’s policies. Yet somehow he had to differentiate himself from the unpopular Johnson.  For the most part, he was a pro-war candidate.

 

Eugene McCarthy:  the media highlighted the campaign of this anti-war senator from Minnesota.  His campaign had seemed marginal before, but now was building support. McCarthy won the fierce loyalty of anti-war activists and many New Lefters. (Their slogan was “Get Clean for Eugene.” Several of my dad’s friends did this. My dad was at Kent State in graduate school at the time.)  McCarthy, though, had limited cross-racial appeal. 

 

Robert F. Kennedy: currently a Senator from New York.  He had harbored anti-war views for awhile but had been hesitant to enter the race.  Observing McCarthy’s successes in the primaries, RFK decided to enter, also as an anti-war candidate -- irritating many McCarthy supporters.  In addition to his anti-war views, Kennedy spoke passionately about social justice and won the support of blacks, Hispanics, and many white working class people. He was putting together an impressive coalition.

 

The Republicans

Richard Nixon fairly quickly overcame his competition (mainly NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller and CA Governor Ronald Reagan) for the bid for the Republican nomination.  The party did not experience the acrimony and in-fighting that the Democrats did.  Aimed his campaign at white southerners and the silent majority.  Went after the “peace vote” by claiming that he had a plan to end the war.

 

George Wallace (The American Independent Party – 3rd party)

The governor of Alabama stepped into the void created by the disarray of liberalism.  Appealed to disaffected southern whites and northern white ethnics and blue collar workers.

 

April 4:

 Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated at his motel in Memphis.  Riots shook the nation.

 

June 5:

            Robert Kennedy won the crucial California primary and his campaign was gaining momentum. More pundits were picking him to win.  After the primary election results were in, Kennedy made a victory speech at the hotel ballroom in Los Angeles.  After his speech, he was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian man upset about RFK’s pro-Israel stance.

 

“I won’t vote,” one black New Yorker told a pollster in the wake of these assassinations. “Every good man we get, they kill.”  Some believe that the assassination of these leaders left a political vacuum soon filled by the Right.

 

August 18:

My parents got married.  They had a nice ceremony and party in Akron, Ohio: champagne, cake, the whole bit.  My point: normal lives carried on amidst the tumult.  (I often find this hard to believe – normal lives, I mean, not the marriage!)

 

August 26-30: The Democratic National Convention in Chicago

Inside the convention hall, the delegates and the proceedings were very contentious.  Humphrey supporters and McCarthy supporters, mainly impassioned over the war issue, were not very nice to each other.

Meanwhile, outside, many young protesters had journeyed to Chicago from all over the country to stage protests against the war.  The Chicago police brutally beat them, usually without provocation. 

Anti-war delegates and the media who were inside the convention hall learned what was going on outside in the streets and were appalled. They focused their anger at Chicago Mayor Daley who was part of the traditional Democratic Party structure.

Television cameras caught it all, inside and out, and mostly made the Democrats look hopelessly disorganized, contentious, chaotic – just messed up.  (By contrast, the Republican convention, held earlier in the month, went smoothly.)

Humphrey ultimately won the nomination, but his party was seriously divided, and he, crippled by the restraints of being Johnson’s #2, couldn’t unite them.

 

October 10:

The Detroit Tigers won the World Series.  Seriously, it was a big deal for this city.  I have heard and read accounts from residents of the Detroit area who claim that in the face of the turmoil of that year (and the riots the previous summer), the victory in the World Series was a shining moment that brought the deeply divided city together.  It built morale and gave Detroiters something positive to focus on.

 

November 5:

Richard Nixon won the presidency by a small margin.