It had been less than five years since the image of
Camelot was shattered by a gun man in Dallas.
The tall Texan in the white house had committed US troops to an armed
conflict in Southeast Asia that few had heard of prior to 1965 and even fewer
could find on a map. The dreams of a
slain President of landing a man on the moon were being over shadowed by
tragedy and the Russians forward progress towards that enviable goal. There was strife in the streets as the “Free
Speech” movement begun in Berkley had taken hold across. The Civil Rights amendment had been passed
but Johnson had no intentions of enforcing it in south. America was in a state unlike any it had seen
in over one hundred years but 1968 would be a trying time that would forever
change the course of human events.
The 1960’s had begun with an optimism that was
unrivaled at that point. The prosperity
that Americans had felt after World War Two was still going strong. Then the election of 1960 pitted a young
senator from Massachusetts against Vice President Nixon. And in one of the closest elections in
American history the young Senator would become the 35th President
of the United States. JFK would inspire
a generation of Americans with the fateful words give at his inauguration…
“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you
can do for your country.”
These words were meant to instill the decade instead they would be silenced on that dreadful day in November… That latter half of the 1960’s was a time unlike any other. The patriotic feelings of America that had been so prevalent throughout the 40’s and the 50’s was coming to a quick and painful death. Americans were not happy with President Johnson and many of his policies were flying directly in the face of the dreams that JFK had set forth in 1961.
This brings us to 1968… It had been 3 years since
LBJ had sent the air mobile division into Southeast Asia and the war in Vietnam
was not going well. There were protests
in the street to end the war in Vietnam, a war that would ultimately take the
lives on 58,000 men in Southeast Asia and countless others after they returned
home. Americans were feeling betrayed on
all fronts by a government that they had thought would lead them into even
greater prosperity, but instead only stifled their growth.
But there was a ray of hope on the horizon a
preacher from Atlanta, Georgia had marched on Washington, not to protest and
incite rebellion against the government, but to teach about how all men, “All
God’s Children” could live and work together. And how his dream of equality
would improve us all… But just like that brave man who stood on the Capitol
steps in 1961 and inspired us; this preacher was also slain in the same manner
on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee when a bullet took Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
from us all. The riots that followed from this tragedy have left scars on
America that can still be seen to this day.
But the message of peace and love that Dr. King shared with us have
continued to give hope to millions of Americans.
While Dr. King was preaching his message of love and
equality LBJ had decided that he would not run for reelection and just a few
days prior to the horror in Memphis LBJ announced that he would not run for
President in November. With no other
clear choice for President up stepped the younger brother of the man who had
inspired a nation seven years prior.
Bobby Kennedy walked into the election of 1968 with the same energy and
inspiration of his older brother, he immediately became the front runner and
most probably the 37th President of the United States. In any other year RFK would have won the
election in a walk, but this was 1968 a year that nothing would go as it should
and in June after winning the California Primary, RFK was killed as he walked
through a hotel kitchen after giving a speech.
The turmoil continued through the rest of the campaign and in August at
the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, IL riots broke out. The police were brought in to no relief and
America continued into the inevitable abyss that was 1968.
One of John Kennedy’s dreams was to land a man on
the moon before December 31, 1969 and that clock was ticking shorter and
shorter every day. The space race with
the Russians had not been going well.
The Russians had been moving closer and closer to being first to achieve
that goal and with the Apollo One disaster Congress was looking for any reason
to shut NASA down. But the men and women at NASA achieving JFK’s goal was of
paramount importance. After Frank Borman
had given his very personal speech about the men of Apollo One he persuaded
Congress not to pull the plug on NASA the Apollo Program was back in full
swing. Very fitting that in late
December 1968 a trio of three men 240,000 miles from home read the first ten
verses from the book of Genesis from their command module as they watched the
Earth rise in Lunar Orbit. The actions
of Apollo 8 were so inspiring that NASA received thousands of telegrams from
all over the world but the best was from a woman unknown to anyone at NASA, but
she said it best when Mrs. Valerie Pringle writes, very simply, "Thank you
Apollo 8, You saved 1968."
