1968 IN PICTURES
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1968 IN PICTURES
With the Vietnam War as a backdrop, 1968 is a landmark year in American history. Many of the notable events of the year were results of the war, some directly connected, some tangential. And from tensions between the United States and North Korea to a controversial silent protest by athletes during the national anthem, some of the stories from 1968 bring to mind stories in the news 50 years later. Here we present some of the enduring stories and images from 1968. — Compiled by John Sucich, More Content Now
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4 Jan. 23, 1968 | North Korea captures U.S. surveillance ship 7 Jan. 31, 1968 | Tet Offensive 10 March 31, 1968 | President Johnson announces he won’t run again 13 April 4, 1968 | Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated 18 April 11, 1968 | President Johnson signs Fair Housing Act 19 June 5, 1968 | Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated 20 Aug. 28, 1968 | Chicago riots during Democratic National Convention 23 October 16, 1968 | Tommie Smith and John Carlos 24 Student protests in America and France 27 Dec. 21, 1968 | First manned moon voyage On the cover: “Earthrise,” taken Dec. 24, 1968, from Apollo 8. Photos from Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. U.S. Marine Corps, Flickr Creative Commons, Wikipedia, NASA ©2018 GATEHOUSE MEDIA LLC
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1968 IN PICTURES
Jan. 23, 1968
North Korea captures U.S. surveillance ship In January, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy intelligence ship. Americans claimed the ship was in international waters, but North Korea argued the boat was within the country’s 12-mile territorial limit. The American crew members were charged with spying and held in prisoner-of-war camps for almost a year. United States and North Korean negotiators reached a settlement 11 months later and the crew members were released, but the USS Pueblo has been held in Pyongyang ever since. It is the only active-duty Navy vessel held by a foreign government.
The U.S. Navy signal intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2) pictured off San Diego, October 1967.
Pueblo’s crew being released by the North Koreans across the Bridge of No Return in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) in Panmunjom, Korea, on Dec. 23, 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
Pueblo, still held by North Korea, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the U.S. Navy. Since early 2013, the ship has been moored along the Potong River in Pyongyang.
A North Korean propaganda photograph of prisoners of the USS Pueblo; photo and explanation from Time magazine. The sailors were flipping the middle finger as a way to protest their captivity in North Korea, and the propaganda on their treatment and guilt. The North Koreans for months photographed them without knowing the real meaning of the middle finger; the sailors explained that the sign meant good luck in Hawaii.
1968 IN PICTURES
U.S. Navy pilots from Attack Squadron 165 (VA-165) conduct preflight inspections of ordnance on their Grumman A-6A Intruder aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA61), prior to launching a strike mission over North Vietnam. On Jan. 26, 1968, Ranger was directed to steam from Vietnamese waters to the Sea of Japan and take station after North Korea’s catpure of the intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo three days earlier.
Crew of USS Pueblo upon their release on Dec. 23, 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
Not long into the new year, North Vietnamese fighters began an intense series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam that came to be known as the Tet Offensive. Tet is the Vietnamese celebration of the Lunar New Year and the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar. The Tet Offensive cost North Vietnam heavy casualties, but it was a strategic victory because it showed that the war was not as close to being over as the American government was saying. Americans watched much of the carnage on television, adding to the rapidly growing anti-war sentiment in the U.S. The Tet Offensive continued into March.
U.S. Marines with M14 rifles battle in Hamo village.
During the Tet Offensive, Vietnamese troops move along a street toward billowing smoke from a building attacked by Viet Cong soldiers in Saigon.
Jan. 31, 1968
TET OFFENSIVE Civilians sort through the ruins of their homes in Cholon, the heavily damaged Chinese section of Saigon.
1968 IN PICTURES
U.S. Marines move through the ruins of the hamlet of Dai Do after several days of intense fighting during the Tet Offensive.
A young South Vietnamese soldier, seriously injured, is carried on a stretcher by his fellow soldiers to the infirmary in Saigon, 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
Interment for 300 unidentified victims of communist occupation of Hue in 1968.
U.S. Marines advance past an M48 Patton tank during the Battle of Hue.
Communists destroyed buildings and U.S. aircraft at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon.
ARVN Rangers defending Saigon in the 1968 Battle of Saigon.
1968 IN PICTURES
March 31, 1968
President Johnson announces he won’t run again Only four years removed from a landslide victory in the 1964 presidential election, President Lyndon Johnson watched his approval ratings plummet as the 1968 election approached. The United States sent more and more troops to Vietnam and the bloodshed showed no signs of letting up. In a televised address updating the country on the war shortly after the New Hampshire presidential primaries, Johnson surprised the country by announcing that he would not run for another term as president.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk (from left), President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, February 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
President Johnson meets with presidential candidate Richard Nixon at the White House, July 26, 1968.
President Johnson watches his grandson play with the telephone, August 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
President Johnson meets in the Oval Office with advisers (clockwise from left) Secretary Clark Clifford, Secretary Dean Rusk, Geri Rudolph, Tom Johnson, Walt Rostow, Gen. Earle Wheeler and Richard Helms, October 1968.
President Johnson speaks to the nation on TV March 31, 1968, announcing a bombing halt in Vietnam and his intention not to run for re-election.
1968 IN PICTURES
April 4, 1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated While in Memphis, Tennessee, to support a sanitation workers’ strike, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. King spoke in Memphis on April 3 and was shot the next evening while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The assassination was followed by rioting across the United States, and increased already-tense race relations in the country. James Earl Ray was arrested two months later. Though he at first pleaded guilty to murdering the civil rights leader, Ray later recanted his confession. Ralph Abernathy took over leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after King’s death. In May, he led the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, when thousands gathered in Washington for more than a month to pressure Congress to improve conditions for America’s impoverished.
A soldier stands guard on the corner of 7th & N Street NW in Washington, D.C., with the ruins of buildings that were destroyed during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
1968 IN PICTURES
Robert F. Kennedy speaks in Indianapolis, after learning King had died.
Garment workers listen to the funeral service for Martin Luther King Jr. on a portable radio April 9, 1968.
Coretta Scott King at her husband’s funeral, photographed by Moneta Sleet of Ebony Magazine.
1968 IN PICTURES
The Lorraine Motel is part of the complex of the National Civil Rights Museum. The wreath marks Dr. King’s approximate place at the time of his assassination.
1968 IN PICTURES
Other photos from the year The prime crew of the first manned Apollo 7 space mission from left to right are Command Module pilot Don F. Eisele, Commander Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Lunar Module pilot Walter Cunningham. Apollo 7 was the first three-person American space mission, and the first to include a live TV broadcast from an American spacecraft. It was launched on Oct. 11, 1968, from what was then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida.
Richard Nixon gives his trademark “victory” sign while in Paoli, Pennsylvania, during his successful 1968 campaign to become president of the United States.
Unidentified dead from the My Lai Massacre on a road, March 1968. The killings of unarmed Vietnamese by U.S. soldiers wasn’t made public until November 1969.
1968 IN PICTURES
An American soldier keeps a wary eye on the hills and a firm hand on his weapon after U.S. forces captured Hill 471 along Highway 9 during “Operation Pegasus.” American forces strengthened their positions April 5, 1968, around the northern border of Khe Sanh, Vietnam, besieged by Communists since Jan. 21.
The ‘68 Comeback Special on NBC produced “one of the most famous images” of Elvis Presley, taken June 29, 1968. It was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969.
A shantytown established in Washington, D.C., to protest economic conditions as a part of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
April 11, 1968
President Johnson signs Fair Housing Act A week after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, President Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act. The bill, which outlawed racial discrimination in housing, had been sitting in Congress with little action being taken. After the assassination, Johnson called on Congress to move the bill through as an appropriate measure in memory of the work King had done in his lifetime. It joined the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as civil rights measures passed during Johnson’s presidency.
President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Suburban homeowners in Detroit installed this sign in 1942. The legacy of housing segregation continued long afterward, nationwide.
1968 IN PICTURES
June 5, 1968
Robert F. Kennedy
is assassinated
The tumult of 1968 and the tragedy of the Kennedy family collided in June when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general and younger brother of assassinated former President John Kennedy, was shot in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. Robert Kennedy was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he was leaving the Ambassador Hotel after winning the California presidential primary when he was shot. Sirhan Sirhan claimed to have shot Kennedy because of Kennedy’s support for Israel, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After Kennedy’s death, Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination.
Grave markers for Robert F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Kennedy in Los Angeles June 1968, shortly before his assassination.
1968 IN PICTURES
Aug. 28, 1968
Chicago riots during DNC
C
hicago was the scene of violent riots in summer 1968 as anti-war protestors gathered at the scene of the Democratic National Convention. Thousands of protestors clashed with thousands of authorities ranging from Chicago police to the National Guard. Hundreds of people were arrested, and when all was said and done, about a hundred protestors were injured as well as more than 100 police officers. The violence of the “Battle of Michigan Avenue,” as the clash came to be known, was matched by ugliness within the convention itself, as Democratic delegates went head-to-head over the party’s stance on Vietnam. The Democrats would go on to lose the presidential election as Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey.
People in Lincoln Park during the convention, being recorded by NBC.
1968 IN PICTURES
This demonstration took place on Aug. 10, 1968, as Chicago was preparing to host the Democratic National Convention.
(Right) A young hippie stands in front of a row of National Guard soldiers, across the street from the Hilton Hotel at Grant Park, Chicago, Aug. 26, 1968.
War protesters gather at the General John Logan Memorial in Grant Park, Chicago.
1968 IN PICTURES
Illinois delegates at the Democratic National Convention of 1968 react to Sen. Abraham Ribicoff’s nominating speech for George McGovern in which he criticized the tactics of the Chicago police.
People in Lincoln Park during the convention.
1968 IN PICTURES
October 16, 1968
Tommie Smith and John Carlos 1968 was an Olympic year – the Winter Olympics were held in February in Grenoble, France, but it was a moment from the Summer Games in Mexico City, Mexico in October that reflected the general tone of the year. Following their gold and bronze medalwinning performances in the men’s 200-meters race, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, respectively, raised their black-gloved fists on the medal stand as the national anthem played. The raised fists symbolized the civil rights battle in the United States. They also wore black socks without shoes to represent black poverty, and beads and a scarf around their necks as a lynching protest. They were booed in the stadium, and what has now become an iconic image stirred controversy at the time and resulted in punishments for the two athletes. Both Smith and Carlos were banned from the national team and sent home from the Olympics.
Gold medalist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) at the 1968 Summer Olympics wearing Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. The third athlete is silver medalist Peter Norman from Australia, who wore an OPHR badge as a sign of support.
1968 IN PICTURES
Protests around the world An ocean apart, students led similar protests in New York City and in Paris. At Columbia University in April, students occupied buildings for almost a week and prevented the dean from leaving his office for 24 hours. They were protesting the Vietnam War and the college’s ties to an institute conducting research for the war, and they were opposing the construction of a gym on public park land with limited access to people who lived in nearby Harlem. After six days, police entered the buildings beating many of the demonstrators. More than 700 people were arrested. That action was followed by a strike by thousands of students and faculty, leading Columbia to effectively shut down for the rest of the semester. In May in France, students protested the outdated university system in that country, and there were multiple battles between police and students that led to hundreds of arrests and injuries. In response, union leaders called for strikes to support the students, who also wanted better working opportunities upon graduation. By the end of the month the protests spread to universities and labor unions across France, involving millions of workers. Some of the protests became violent, and one resulted in the death of a police officer. The protests did lead to an education reform bill, as well as higher wages and improved working conditions.
A demonstration over wages in Hamburg, Germany, November 1968. The middle sign reads, “Do you need a cheap workman, get an apprentice.”
Swedes protest a Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Rhodesia on May 3, 1968. in Båstad, Sweden. Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was an apartheid country.
1968 IN PICTURES
The Mexican Student Movement of 1968 was against the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and occurred in the buildup to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Graffiti in a University of Lyon classroom during a French student revolt in 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
An August 1968 Helsinki, Finland, demonstration against the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Strikers in southern France with a sign reading “Factory Occupied by the Workers.� Behind them is a list of demands.
1968 IN PICTURES
Dec. 21, 1968
First manned moon voyage NASA laid the groundwork for the moon landing in 1969 with the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders launched Dec. 21, and on Christmas Eve they orbited the Earth’s moon 10 times before returning home, splashing down into the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 27. The crew also broadcast live from space on Christmas Eve, reading passages from the Bible. The first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon provided unprecedented views of Earth, and helped NASA make good on President John F. Kennedy’s promise earlier in the 1960s to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
The S-IVB third stage of the Apollo 8 Saturn V, shortly after separation from the Command/ Service Module. Bright objects are floating debris shed by the rocket.
1968 IN PICTURES
Apollo 8 during launch, with a double exposure of the moon, which was not visible at the time.
The Apollo 8 Command Module on the deck of the USS Yorktown after being recovered Dec. 27, 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
Apollo 7 S-IVB rocket stage in Earth orbit Oct. 11, 1968. The photograph was taken as the crew practices rendezvous techniques that would be needed for the later lunar flights. Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island, Florida, can be seen beyond the left side of the lower end of the S-IVB. The mission was launched from Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral. The S-IVB stage was used as the third stage for Saturn V launches. On Saturn V flights the four Spacecraft/LM Adapter panels would be jettisoned to allow access to the Lunar Module.
The first stage of AS-503 being erected in the Vertical Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, Feb. 1, 1968.
1968 IN PICTURES
Rollout to the launch pad of the Apollo 8 Saturn V on Oct. 9, 1968. The Apollo 8 crew on a Kennedy Space Center simulator in their space suits. From left are James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders and Frank Borman.
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