"1968": A Pivotal Year in American History and Politics
It was the year that encapsulated all the tumultuousness, theviolence, the anger and the idealism of the 1960s. So many important andtragic events occurred in 1968 that it is rightly considered the mostpivotal year in recent American history. Vietnam was on everyone's mind in 1968 and it was the bloodiest yearof the entire War[1]. The astonishing Tet offensive by the North Vietnameseforces that swept through South Vietnam and even threatened to over-run theAmerican Embassy in Saigon exploded the myth of an imminent Americanvictory in the War. The event shocked the
American public and convincedthem about the futility of the Vietnam War. The President Johnson, confronted by the ferocity of the anti-warsentiments, saw the writing on the wall and announced his decision not toseek re-election. The year is also significant in American history as the Americanpublic elected Richard Nixon, albeit by a narrow margin, as their Presidentin 1968. The decision served to extend the Vietnam War as Nixon, despitehis campaign pledge to withdraw from the War, further escalated it bybombing Cambodia in 1970. Thebrief optimism generated by Kennedy's candidature was tragically nipped inthe bud when he was assassinated on June 5 in San Francisco. The My Lai Massacre, in whichAmerican soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians on March16, 1968, outraged the world and further reduced support for the War in theUS. It contained the promiseof peace, the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. 1968 was indeed a pivotal year in American history that signified allthe complexities and contradictions of the time. Senator Robert Kennedy decided to run for thePresidential election and evoked enthusiastic support from a broad range ofAmericans, including the increasingly estranged African Americans. dead averaged over 300 a week in 1968 ("1968: United States"). , and the idealism of BobbyKennedy but ended with continuing violence and the flawed "realism" ofRichard Nixon. Coming as itdid on the heels of the killing of Martin Luther King just two monthsearlier, the event signified to many the unraveling of the Americansociety.
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