The Late Great 1968

[74-911]

For those of you around then, this should bring back some memories (good and bad).

For those of you not around or not old enough to remember, 1968 started out with a bang with the Tet Offensive and ended with Apollo 8 orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve. And what happened between those 2 events shook this country and the world...

Hopefully, there will never be another year like that ?

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/world/1968-cnnphotos/index.html

CNN will broadcast a 4 part special Re: 1968 on May 27/28.

Personally: within a 4 month span in 1968 I graduated from college, was reclassified 1A, joined the USAF and got married.... so yea, it was a big year for me.

[stevej37]

I remember it well. Watching the Apollo program on a b/w tv was prob the highlight.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by 74-911

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/world/1968-cnnphotos/index.html

Those pics are heavy. Big year.

I grew up in Toledo and was a Tigers fan. It was the ultimate rush to see them beat the Cardinals in 68. Definitely on B&W TV. Keep in mind I am sadly a Browns fan so you take what you can get.

I did see Bob Gibson rip his last grand slam home run in the St Louis stadium in about 74. Willy Mays played on that day in the back half of a double header. Long day but a vibrant memory.

Thank you.

[tabs]

You forgot MLK and RFK, Chicago's police riot and the advent of RMN. Not to be forgotten was LBJ's putting the SS Trust in the General Account to fund govt spending and to hide the TRUE Deficit.

The pinnacle of American power in the world was when America landed a man on the Moon in July 1969...Momentum... After that it has been a downward slide...First becoming noticeable in the early 70's...Gas lines, inflation, unemployment, stagnation of wages... those were not one off aberrations but trend setting.

It was not fixed by Reagan, but merely swept under the rug. It was during his tenure that the instrument of debt accretion to keep the illusion of prosperity alive was put into play. It was in the 80's that corporations fired it's Middle Management deadwood bureaucrats to become lean and mean. One sarcastically thinks that all those deadheads then found employment within government service.

The end of the Cold War revalued assets upwards, the increase of productivity due to technology and corporations becoming lean an mean all paid off for a boost in the economy in the 90's. However the Great American MC was still being put under more pressure as wages and high paying jobs were still disappearing. Debt was the instrument used to keep the illusion of a prosperous nation alive. By 2000 the party was over with the DOT COM bubble bursting and ENRON's fraudulent accounting practices. In the 2000's the game to keep the illusion alive had moved on to speculation with a RE boom which accounted for 16% of US GDP. By 2008 the great RE debt bubble burst and the US government picked up the slack by creating a NEW AND BIGGER SOVEREIGN DEBT BUBBLE. When that plays out nothing will be left. They are mortgaging the collective lives of society itself.

The fact that has to be taken into account is that the true debt of the USA has to include the SS unfunded liability as those funds collected in payroll taxes for SS were used for decades (1968 to 2010) to fund day to day government spending. You have put the Hamburgers you ate for decades on the credit card of SS accounts payable. Now you have to pay the bill it is coming due with Trillion $$$ deficit spending...BEND OVER.

You can only go on for so long with high blood pressure before you are hit with a stroke.

What I write should put the fear of God into you, but for the most part it doesn't seem to register...but it does register in society in general as society is becoming evermore volatile and fragmented by divisiveness as a result. For the most part you seem bewildered...in trying to make sense of it.

[LWJ]

I started moving out of diapers and into "big boy" pants about then. Good times.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by tabs

You forgot MLK and RFK,

MLK and RFK were prominently demonstrated in the series of pictures in the link.

Just saying.

[R K T]

It was a bad year....It was a good year.

Bad year in that I almost died in a car wreck.

Good year in that I survived.

[gatotom]

68 was a big yr for me as well.
I got drafted in may and out of 100 going thru that day only 4 walked free and I was one. I got a 1Y classification which ment in a yr if no enemy invades American soil, I will get a 4F.
I got that due to a depressed fractured skull when I was 13, they didn't want to take a chance that I might not deal with battle fatigue very well.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

MLK and RFK were prominently demonstrated in the series of pictures in the link.

Just saying.

I said "you" meaning in your original exposition you didn't mention pertinent facts.

[jcommin]

Graduated HS in 1968 - What a turbulent year. A good year for rock/roll.

[Baz]

My brother and I the year before......in many ways it seems like only yesterday. In other ways it seems like an eternity ago....

[CurtEgerer]

Verrrrry interesting ....

[Don Ro]

One yr. out of the military and in college. Not an altogether good time at NDSU, however.
Once the word spread that I was a VN vet, I was not popular...to say the least.
Yes, good rock 'n roll.

[CurtEgerer]

I was 11. The Space Program, the World Champion Detroit Tigers and the introduction of Hot Wheels was pretty much my life. A great time to be a kid.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by tabs

I said "you" meaning in your original exposition you didn't mention pertinent facts.

+1 Tet and Apollo don't even touch the range of events/facts.

I was twelve when this all went down. I learned about Tet in an International Relations class in 83 at Kent State.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by tabs

I said "you" meaning in your original exposition you didn't mention pertinent facts.

He noted something that happened early in the year and something that happened late. Then said, “What happened in between shook the world.” He was VERY inclusive. You just don’t read well Tabs.

[Danimal16]

My Father was the First Member and the First Squadron Sergeant Major of HML-167 (now HMLA-167). He stood the squadron up on April 1, 1968 at Marble Mountain Vietnam. It seems like the worry of him being at war was just yesterday. There was Mom and the Five (with one more to come in 1971) of us. That was an unforgettable time.

Fast forward to this year when the Squadron initiated the NCO Leadership Award in His Name. Dad missed the presentation by one year.
I Miss Dad and Mom.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

One yr. out of the military and in college. Not an altogether good time at NDSU, however.
Once the word spread that I was a VN vet, I was not popular...to say the least.
Yes, good rock 'n roll.

I'm sorry for that, Don....very unfair and very misguided anger. Not much different from today's climate, IMHO.

We still have our rock and roll though, don't we, sir?

[74-911]

Originally Posted by tabs

You forgot MLK and RFK, Chicago's police riot and the advent of RMN. Not to be forgotten was LBJ's putting the SS Trust in the General Account to fund govt spending and to hide the TRUE Deficit.

I didn't forget them Tabby, perhaps you should read the links before you go into your patented rant about Johnson, Social Security and how we are all F%$#$ and to stupid to realize it as it covers many aspects of that screwed up year.

Perhaps you should tune in to the CNN special , You might learn something ??

[wdfifteen]

I graduated from high school and registered for the draft in ‘68. A guy I was friends with who graduated two years before me came home from Vietnam Nam in a box. Yes, good music. But MLK, Bobby Kennedy, the travesty in Chicago, plus Brent and the knowledge that I was now also on the list to become cannon fodder made it a bad year over all.