Transcript Document

1968:
Turning Point of The United States
RIELY CLARK, NISHIKI MAREDIA, LAUREN
RIZZI, KENDALL MEYERTONS, ERIN HAWLEY
BONNECARRERE, 4TH
Prompt
“1968 was a turning point for the United States.” To
what extent is this an accurate assessment? In your
answer, discuss TWO of the following:
 National politics
 Vietnam War
 Civil Rights Movement
Introduction
During the 1960s, the United States was dragged
through many crucial and influential events. From the
Vietnam War to national politics, and even civil rights,
the nation experienced stressing changes and evolved
accordingly. In particular, the year 1968 demonstrated
such extent of the impact of the period of social and
political unrest, with events such as the a major the
“Tet Offense,” violent protests, passing Civil Rights
Act, and other failures accomplishments related to the
Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement.
1967
Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coined the phrase "black power" in a
speech, defining the powerful term as "the coming together of black
people to fight for liberation by any means.“ In the court case Loving v.
Virginia, Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting interracial marriage
unconstitutional and race riots take place in Newark and Detroit. A march
on the Pentagon demonstrated the Civil Rights Network.
Meanwhile, Operation Cedar Falls was designed to disrupt
insurgent operations near Saigon and later discovered to destroy massive
tunnel complex in the Iron Triangle, the head quarters for guerrilla raid
and terrorist attacks. American protest against the US policy in Vietnam
continued and Martin Luther King, Jr. and others called for draft evasion.
The United States Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, admitted to
US bombing raids had failed to meet their objectives.
1968: Vietnam War
The beginning of January
of 1968 marked small operations
Niagara I and II. However, on
January 31st, the turning point of
the war rocked the small
southeastern nation of Vietnam,
as well as the United States.
Almost 90,000 Viet Cong
guerrillas launched the Tet
Offensive, with the assault on Khe
Sanh acting as a mere diversion
while elsewhere hundreds of cities
and towns throughout the
Southern half of the country
suffered attack.
1968: Vietnam War
Horrendous video footage of the attack on the US embassy in
Saigon by Viet Cong commandos and other similarly horrible scenes
during Tet shocked and enraged the American public. Although the
United States emerged the official victor of the military engagement,
clearly the American offensive suffered a great injury as the American
population effectively communicated to the president of its desire to end
the conflict. Further, on March 28, 1968, the My Lai massacre, in which
nearly seventy Viet Cong soldiers are killed and untold amounts of
civilians murdered, occurs but is successfully suppressed for a year. The
little surviving evidence of the carnage committed by American soldiers
haunted the nation.
1968: Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement received a horrific blow when its
famed leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4,
1968. The death of Dr. King resulted in a period of mourning and the
eruption of both violent and peaceful riots. In Baltimore, Boston, Chicago,
Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, Washington, D.C., and more than 100 other
American cities, riots threatened to turn Dr. King’s inspirational
masterpiece of nonviolent protesting into violent turmoil. President
Johnson pressed for rapid action in order to mollify the nation. Shortly
after, the House of Representatives passed the Fair Housing Act of 1968,
which prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and
financing of housing based on religion, race, national origin, and sex. This
act stands as the last major legislative achievement of the Civil Rights era.
1969
In January of 1969, President Nixon became the President of the
United States. His ostensible goal was to negotiate a settlement that
would allow the half million U.S. troops in Vietnam to be withdrawn
without harming South Vietnam. Later, in February, President Nixon
authorized Operation Menu, the bombing of North Vietnamese and
Vietcong bases within Cambodia. Over the following 4 years, U.S. forces
dropped more than half a million tons of bombs there. In April, U.S.
combat deaths in Vietnam exceed the more than 33,000 men killed in the
Korean War. June 8, 1969 President Nixon met with the South
Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Theiu on Midway Island in the Pacific,
and said 25,000 troops would be withdrawn immediately.
Between April and May, African-American students held protests
at universities, including Cornell University and North Carolina A & T
University in Greensboro, asking for changes such as a Black Studies
program and the hiring of African-American faculty. On December 4,
Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther party, was shot and
killed by police during a raid. A federal grand jury refuted the police's
assertion that shots were fired upon Hampton only in self defense, but no
one was ever indicted for Hampton's killing.
Operation Menu
Theiu and Nixon
Fred Hampton
Conclusion
1968 illustrated the conflicting influences of past
conservative policies and the youth’s rejection of
everything previously assumed. The oft violent
reaction to the then military conflict of the time, the
Vietnam War, demonstrated this social dissonance,
especially after the devastation of the Tet Offensive. At
home, the United States was torn apart by social
unrest, culminating in President Johnson’s signature
on the Civil Rights Act. Despite peaceful rhetoric by
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1968 was still rocked by
violence and passionate defense of both sides’
philosophies.
Works Cited
Bailey, Thomas Andrew, David M. Kennedy, and Lizabeth
Cohen. The American Pageant. 12th ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.
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Rosenberg, Jennifer. "1968 - Tet Offensive." About.com 20th
Century History. About.com, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
"Vietnam War 1965-1968." The History Place - Vietnam War
1965-1968. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
Vox, Lisa. "Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement, 19681969." About.com African-American History. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.