2008-6-22
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we look back forty years, to a year that shook American society.
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VOICE ONE:
U.S. Army helicopters and South Vietnamese ground troops attack a Viet Cong camp near the Cambodian border in March 1965 |
Many people thought the conflict would end soon. Americans had been told that the forces of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong were losing. Americans called it the Vietnam War; Vietnamese called it the American war.
The end of January was the time for the Vietnamese to celebrate Tet, the lunar new year. But the communists launched attacks throughout South Vietnam.
The Tet Offensive was a military failure. Yet in America it became a turning point in public opinion. It raised questions about whether the war could be won, and at what cost.
VOICE TWO:
Supporters of the war said the United States was fighting to prevent the spread of communism. Opponents said it was a civil war and that the United States was wrong to intervene.
Antiwar protesters of all ages marched and demonstrated in major cities. In New York, Columbia University halted classes in the spring because of student protests and clashes with police.
Government officials and some influential journalists denounced the antiwar protests. They said open dissension with government policy would only lengthen the war.
The president was Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat who sent more troops to Vietnam. Johnson was formerly vice president. He became president when John Kennedy was shot in Dallas in nineteen sixty-three. Johnson was then elected the following year.
He was expected to seek re-election in nineteen sixty-eight. But on March thirty-first, as antiwar protests grew, Lyndon Johnson made an announcement.
President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, at a signing ceremony for a bill at the White House on July 26, 1968 |
VOICE ONE:
Americans were still reacting to President Johnson's announcement when another shock followed a few days later.
ROBERT KENNEDY: "Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis.... Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort."
VOICE TWO:
Senator Robert Kennedy broke the news to a crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana. The crowd, mostly black, had been waiting for Kennedy to give a campaign speech. He had served his brother John as attorney general, the nation's top law enforcement official. Now the young senator was an antiwar candidate for president.
But on this night, he was appealing for calm.
Martin Luther King Jr., center, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 3, 1968, a day before he was shot dead there. He stands between aides Jesse Jackson Jr., left, and Ralph Abernathy. |
The murder of the civil rights leader led to fiery riots in African-American neighborhoods in many cities. There were no riots, though, in Indianapolis where Robert Kennedy spoke.
VOICE ONE:
The following March, a white man named James Earl Ray, an armed robber who had escaped from prison, pleaded guilty to the murder. He did so as part of an agreement to avoid a death sentence and instead receive ninety-nine years in prison.
But within three days of his guilty plea, Ray withdrew his admission and asked for a new trial. No, said the courts. For the next thirty years, he would say that he was not the killer and had been tricked into a plot. A congressional investigating committee found his excuses "not worthy of belief." In the end, Ray developed liver disease. He died in nineteen ninety-eight.
VOICE TWO:
Robert Kennedy holds two fingers up in a victory sign on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly before the presidential candidate was shot |
A hotel worker was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Officials said Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, was angry that Kennedy supported Israel. Sirhan Sirhan has always said he cannot remember the shooting.
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VOICE ONE:
In late August of nineteen sixty-eight, the Democratic Party held its presidential nominating convention. Delegates gathered in Chicago. Also gathered in Chicago were thousands of antiwar protesters and civil rights activists.
Before the events of 1968, hippies gathered in San Francisco, California, in 1967 for what became known as the ''Summer of Love'' |
VOICE TWO:
In addition to hippies there were Yippies -- members of the Youth International Party. Yippies protested everything. And they made threats, like a threat to put drugs into the Chicago water supply. The Yippies later said they were joking.
But Mayor Richard Daley and other Chicago officials were not laughing. The protesters tested the limits of even a traditionally Democratic city like Chicago. The city refused permission for a march by demonstrators.
VOICE ONE:
Chicago police officers break up a demonstration on August 29, 1968, outside the Democratic National Convention |
At one point, several thousand demonstrators were gathered near a hotel. Police suddenly moved into the crowd and beat the protesters with sticks. Many people were taken to hospitals. The police also beat and arrested some people who happened to be on the street.
VOICE TWO:
President Johnson ordered a federal investigation of the violence at the Democratic convention. The investigators said the Chicago police at times had been abused by protesters, but the report called the violence a "police riot."
Joel Havemann, now a Washington writer, reported on the convention for a Chicago newspaper. He remembers seeing police strike demonstrators for no reason. But he also believes that the demonstrations cost the Democratic Party the presidency.
VOICE ONE:
Inside the convention hall, Eugene McCarthy, a senator who opposed the war in Vietnam, lost his campaign for the presidential nomination. Instead, the delegates chose Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey supported the war but promised to look for ways to end it.
VOICE TWO:
Richard Nixon raises his arms in victory after accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican convention in Miami Beach on August 8, 1968 |
Blacks in nearby Miami rioted during the Republican convention. But the convention was very different from what the Democrats experienced later in August in Chicago.
VOICE ONE:
In the November elections, Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey for the presidency. Nixon would withdraw the last American troops in March of nineteen seventy-three.
The war lasted two more years, until North Vietnam captured Saigon. The South Vietnamese capital was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
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VOICE TWO:
' |
Long hair, on men and women, was a part of hippie culture. Female hippies wore flowers in their hair.
While peace activists talked about "flower power," the cast of "Hair" was singing about "the age of Aquarius."
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When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars,
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars.
This is the dawning of the age of Acquarius, the age of Aquarius, Aquarius ...
VOICE ONE:
One of the most popular songs in America in nineteen sixty-eight was about "Revolution" -- in fact, that was the name of it. It was from the four-member British group the Beatles.
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You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world ...
VOICE TWO:
Nineteen sixty-eight was a year of protest and change around the world.
Today, some Americans say the energy of Barack Obama's presidential campaign reminds them of the student activism of forty years ago. Yet many of those former hippies grew up and joined the establishment.
Many are still socially active, though, but in less dramatic ways. Says one Chicago woman: "I finished college. I got married and had children. After that, I was too busy to rebel against society."
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You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We don't love to see the plan
VOICE ONE:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.