1968

U.S.A.

Europe

ROW

January

Dr. Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law (12)

Alexander Dubcek elected First Sec. of the Communist Part in Czechoslovakia (25)

Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia tells U.S. representative that he will not stop American

forces from pursuing Vietcong across the Cambodian border.

Siege of Khe Sanh; U.S. Marine base under siege for 77 days from North Vietnamese/Vietcong mortar attacks (60, 204)

Tet Offensive begins; North Vietnamese and Vietcong simultaneously attack all major

South Vietnamese cities (more than 100) and briefly occupy the American embassy in Saigon (50)

Battle of Hue begins; house by house fighting destroys thousands of homes, inflicting heavy civilian casualties (60)

February

RFK states US cannot win Vietnam War (56)

Eldridge Cleaver publishes Soul on Ice (110)

CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite, who had been at Hue in the midst of the Tet Offensive earlier in February, notes:"Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I‘m not sure.... It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out...will be to negotiate, not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." (61)

10,000 demonstrate in West Berlin against US in Vietnam war (54, 152)

South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu declares martial law

Saigon's police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head captured by photograph and television (53)

Tet Offensive ends (siege of Khe Sanh and the Battle of Saigon end in March)

March

Sen. Eugene McCarthy only narrowly defeated by Pres. LBJ in New Hampshire Democratic primary (103)

Pres. LBJ renounces bib for re-election (104-5)

RFK declares his candidacy for Democratic presidential nomination; like McCarthy also on an anti-war platform (104)

Howard University students seize administration building (82)

Students seize building at Bowie State College, MD

President Johnson increases bombing of Laos

In the hamlet of My Lai, north of Da Nang, over 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians killed by members of Charlie Company, Americal Division (106)

A Miami-bound flight commandeered to Cuba (174)

Israeli army attacks PLO base in Jordan in response to attacks on northern Israel

April

MLK, Jr. assassinated in Memphis; riots across country (116)

Columbia University shut down by strike (202)

Student Mobilization Committee holds largest student strike against the war (5 buildings seized, 628 arrested)

Secretary of the National Assembly in Czechoslovakia promises rehabilitation of political prisoners and freedom of the press, assembly, and religion

North Vietnam agrees to meet U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks (204-5)

Pentagon announces "Vietnamization" of the war; troops will begin coming home

May

FBI director H Hoover sends urgent memo escalating the FBI’s attack on dissent, authorizing operation “Counterintelligence Program–New Left”

Bloody Monday in France: Paris student protest triggers nationwide crisis; 10 million workers go on strike; battles between students and troops leave 1,000 injured (218-37)

Czech government announces liberalizing reforms under Alexander Dubcek (243-50)

U.S. and North Vietnam begin preliminary peace talks in Paris (222)

Vietcong launch Mini-Tet; rocket and mortar attacks against Saigon and other towns across South Vietnam; U.S. responds with air strikes on North Vietnam

June

Poor Peoples’ March on Washington (103)

RFK assassinated in Los Angeles after winning California Democratic primary (261)

Protests in Berkeley in sympathy with French students

Czechoslovak parliament abolishes censorship and provides for rehabilitation of political prisoners

July

Black Panthers sponsor “Free Huey” rally in California for release of Huey P. Newton

Arab Socialist Baath Party stages bloodless coup in Iraq and gains control; July 17 coup becomes national holiday (abolished in 2003) and Saddam Hussein soon becomes strongman of the regime

August

Race riots took place in Gary, Miami, Chicago, and Little Rock

Anti-War protestors and police battle in Chicago during Democratic National Convention; Humphrey wins Democratic presidential nomination

Some 650,000 Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime

Sept.

Women’s liberation groups protest the Miss America Beauty Pageant in Atlantic City

Newton convicted of manslaughter

Student riots in Mexico City subdued by Mexican security forces

October

Anti-war protest organized and led by Vietnam veterans held in San Francisco

Violence erupts in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants

Under Pres. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz soldiers with automatic weapons kill some 300 students in the Mexico City Tlatelolco massacre prior to the start of the summer Olympics; government claims only 50 students killed during 5 hours of gunfire

Summer Olympic games in Mexico City; two athletes

raise their fists in black power salute during their medal ceremony to protest the treatment of African Americans

Pres. LBJ announces halt to bombing of North Vietnam

November

RM Nixon defeats H Humphrey by thinnest margin in history

Eldridge Cleaver other Black Panthers must stand trial for attempted murder after gun battle in April with Oakland police

National Turn Your Draft Card Day observed with rallies and protests (and card burnings) on many college campuses

Student strike at San Francisco State begins

10,000 civil rights demonstrators surge through the streets of Londonderry expressing the grievances of Northern Ireland’s Roman Catholic minority against the Protestant dominated government at Belfast

Student riots in Berlin and Prague

After stalling for months, Vietnamese government joins in the peace talks in Paris; peace talks begin including USA

December

New Jersey Black Panther headquarters firebombed

Police use teargas to stop students breaking into San Francisco State College admin. building

Anti-war marches planned for 6 major U.S. cities, in April

Pres. LBJ announces complete halt to bombing of North Vietnam