50 years later: 1968 was a year of historic importance

By
Suzanne Downing
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MANY RETROSPECTIVES AHEAD IN 2018

This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is arguably the most historic year in modern American history. We’ll be reading and watching videos about the social unrest, the war in Vietnam, and the anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism movement that swept the globe.

Here are just a few of the anniversaries that will be noted by history buffs as the year unfolds. Not noted here is a multitude of other important battles and events in the Vietnam War and the associated growing unrest among American college students, much of which was encouraged by a growing communist movement in America.

JAN. 21: The 50th anniversary of the siege at the Khe Sanh Combat Base, during which the 26th ­Marine Regiment was encircled by tens of thousands of North Vietnamese fighters. The Marines went through their ammunition and supplies quickly and stayed alive with air drops supported by the U.S. Army and Air Force. In the end, 205 U.S. Marines were killed, 1,668 were wounded and as many as 15,000 enemy fighters were killed. Once the siege ended, 1,600 North Vietnamese bodies were found just outside the base. The seige lasted until July. 11, 1968, when the base was finally closed and evacuated. Read more about this amazing battle at Wikipedia.

JAN. 23: North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, a surveillance ship. This heightened Cold War tensions in the region, coming just 15 years after the Korean War. The Navy ship had been monitoring the North Korean military from the channel between Korea and Japan. The 82 members of the crew who survived being captured were starved and tortured, but were forced to say during a news conference that they were treated kindly. They snuck in comments that showed they were being forced into those statements and extended their middle fingers to show what they really thought. When the North Koreans eventually discovered what the sailors had done, they beat them severely.

JAN. 30: North Vietnam launched what became known as the Tet Offensive. It was the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Some 85,000 North Vietnamese fighters attacked 36 targets in South Vietnam, taking the U.S. and South Vietnamese by surprise. More about this event is written by Mark Bowden (author of Blackhawk Down) in Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.

JAN. 31: Viet Cong attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

MAR. 13: An oil discovery at Prudhoe Bay is confirmed by Humble Oil, (which later became part of Exxon) and Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).

MAR. 16: Mai Lai Massacre, American troops killed Vietnamese civilians in Mai Lai, but the event is not known until November, 1969, and it fuels public sentiment against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

MAR. 18: Congress repeals the “Gold Standard,” the requirement for a gold reserve to back all U.S. currency.

APR. 4: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray was arrested on June 8 for the assassination.

MAY 13: After French Communists and French Socialists formed an electoral alliance in February, Paris riots begin, where more than one million students, Communists and Socialists took to the streets to protest capitalism, American imperialism, and traditional institutions. At one point during the unrest, President Charles de Gaulle fled the country for a few hours.

JUNE 5: Robert Kennedy, who was a candidate for president, was shot and killed by an assassin at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after he had given a campaign address in the ballroom. He underwent brain surgery, but died 26 hours after the attack. He was 42.
AUG. 5-8: The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla. nominates Richard Nixon for President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President. He goes on to defeat Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat, and George Wallace, the Independent.

AUG. 26-29: The Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. President Lyndon B. Johnson had earlier announced he would not run for re-election. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine were nominated for president and vice president.

AUG. 28: Chicago riots during the Democratic National Convention came to a head. Later, the trials of the Chicago Seven became a media sensation.
NOV. 6: What became the longest student-led strike in United States history began at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley.
DECEMBER, 1968: Mao Zedong’s brand of communism continued to expand in China with the “Down to the Countryside Movement“. For the next decade, 17 million young “intellectuals” living in cities were ordered to go to the countryside to work in farming collectives. The term “intellectuals” applied to middle school graduates, or “educated” who were sent away from their homes to be “rusticated.”
DEC. 11: After the death of Sen. Bob Bartlett, Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel appointed Ted Stevens to fill his position in the U.S. Senate.
DEC. 24: Apollo 8 was the first manned space craft to orbit the moon. Among the memories of that event were the first photos taken of Earth from deep space, including “Earthrise.” The mission was part of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the book,  A Man on the Moon, author Andrew Chaikin said the astronauts received thousands of telegrams after returning, but the one that stood out from the others simply said: “You saved 1968.”
WHAT BIG EVENTS DID WE MISS?
What events of 1968 did you find important in an historical sense? Led Zeppelin’s first American concert? The Gun Control Act of 1968? Your comments and additions are welcome below.