1968: A Year Of American Transformation

In the duration of one year, 1968, the American national mood shifted from general confidence and optimism to chaotic confusion. Certainly the most turbulent twelve months of the post-WWII period and arguably one of the most disturbing episodes the country has endured since the Civil War, 1968 offers the world a glimpse into the tumultuous workings of a revolution. Although the entire epoch of the 1960's remains significant in US history, 1968 stands alone as the pivotal year of the decade; it was the moment when all of the nation's urges toward violence, sublimity, diversity, and disorder peaked to produce a transformation great enough to blanket an entire society. While some may superficially disagree, the evidence found in the Tet Offensive, race relations, and the counterculture's music of the period undeniably affirm 1968 as a turning point in American history.

The political and societal ramifications of Vietnam's Tet Offensive indubitably illustrate the historical oddity of 1968. 1967 had not been a bad year for most Americans. Four years after the profound panic evoked by the assassination of John Kennedy, the general public seemed to be gaining a restored optimism, and even the regularly protested Vietnam War still possessed the semblance of success (Farber and Bailey 34-54). However, three short weeks following the eve of '68, Americans abruptly obtained a radically different outlook. The Tet Offensive, beginning on January 30, 1968, consisted of a series of military incursions during the Vietnam War, coordinated between the National Liberation Front's People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), or "Viet Cong," and the North Vietnam's People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), against South Vietnam's Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the United States' armed forces (Farber and Bailey 34-54). The introductory attack began spectacularly during celebrations of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year and left global lungs breathless (Farber and Bailey 34-54). Widely seen as the turning point in the Vietnam War, the NLF and PAVN won an enormous psychological and propaganda-associated victory, which ultimately led to the loss of popular support for the War in the United States and the eventual withdrawal of American troops. Additionally, the events surrounding the Tet Offensive piloted American citizens to increased polarization. Attracting members from college campuses, middle-class suburbs, labor unions, and government institutions, the anti-war movement was swollen with aggrieved affiliates (Farber and Bailey 34-54). The observable pathos of the protesters delivered the distrust of a growing population to the White House doors; the budding doubt in governmental affairs was difficult to discard and impossible to ignore. Indisputably, the Tet Offensive of 1968 cleaved the fragile harmony of the public and birthed a political skepticism that continues to subsist in modern American minds.

Civil rights, a significant issue of the '60s, reached a climax in 1968 and hatched a novel approach racial strive. Even though Martin Luther King Jr. had waged a successful campaign of peaceful protests in US southern states, a growing number of younger activists began to feel that nonviolent tactics could not right every social and political injustice (Farber and Bailey 13-22. Blacks may have won the right to vote, eat at white lunch counters, sit at the front of the bus, and attend white colleges by the mid-1960's, but most still lived in poverty (Farber and Bailey 13-22). True social change, many argued, would emerge only with revolution--not mere verbal objection. These embattled enthusiasts grew progressively powerful and came to dominate the civil rights movement in its entirety. Malcolm Little, the son of a civil rights worker who had been murdered by a mob of racist whites arose as one of the country's most vocal advocates of black nationalism and militancy (Farber and Bailey 257-258). Changing his surname to "X" to represent the identity and heritage lost by blacks during the period of African enslavement, he provided the movement with a style of leadership that appeased au courant radicals (Farber and Bailey 257-258). Despite his premature death, Malcolm X's emphasis on self-sufficiency and armed defense was an inspiring ideology for others dissatisfied with King's love and nonviolence. For example, the leader of the SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, began to incorporate black nationalism into his own philosophy in the mid-1960s and even eventually convinced fellow organizers to expel white members (Farber and Bailey 77-89). The term black power, coined in a book co-authored by Carmichael, came to be synonymous with militancy, self-reliance, independence, and nationalism within the ranks of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Farber and Bailey 77-89). The militant philosophies of Malcolm X also prompted frustrated activists in Oakland, California, to form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense--more commonly known as the Black Panthers. Unlike the SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, or CORE, the Black Panthers demanded immediate equality for all blacks, including increased and fair employment opportunities, exemption from military service in Vietnam, health care, and educational services (Farber and Bailey 184-185). Whereas Malcolm X had merely preached revolution against white domination, the Black Panthers actually prepared for war. The Black Panthers' extremism and willingness to use violence alienated and threatened the mainstream, American society, yet the philosophy of black power and the shift away from the passive tactics of days previous clearly reflected a growing restlessness among urban blacks. Poverty, unemployment, and the lack of education and basic health care provoked some inner-city blacks to launch riots throughout the country between 1965 and 1970. Perhaps the most destructive of these societal disturbances were the Watts riots in Los Angeles, occurring in 1965. For six days, more than 50,000 outraged blacks burned and looted the neighborhood, attacking whites and other minorities (Farber and Bailey 77-89. During this time of heightened black militancy, Martin Luther King Jr. had continued to promote racial equality through nonviolent means. In April of 1968, however, King was shot and killed with a high-powered