THE BROADER VIEW : Forty years — forward and backward Parallels and paradoxes
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/65075/
As we proceed through
this year, there will be
many references to and recollections of 1968 — that tumultuous time 40 years ago. It was a year of tragedy, assassinations, riots, upheaval, divisive conflicts and political surprises.
It was a chaotic time in the United States, but some of the most remarkable events of that unforgettable year occurred 40 years ago this week in France. I found myself in Paris in May 1968 as the streets were filled with youthful protesters. Sections of the picturesque city that I knew well from my student days were now barricaded and the scene of violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Even for the outside observer, it was hard to stay clear of the tear gas that filled the air.
It was a revolutionary time and it seemed for a brief moment that in France a real revolution might be occurring. It was a revolt with political dimensions, and there was undeniable political fallout, but the eventual impact was stronger in social and cultural terms.
Teachers and workers joined the students in a massive march through Paris that drew an estimated 800, 000 participants. From my observation post near the Seine, I watched waves of banner-carrying, chanting protesters file past for several hours. A strike spread across the country, bringing not only classes but factories and transportation to a halt and eventually involving 10 million workers.
The dramatic images from Paris, like those in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, were seen around the world, but in both cases they were ultimately more symbolic than politically pivotal.
President Charles de Gaulle became a principal target of the protests, but the De Gaulle government took a hard line against the protesters, and in a national election he called the following month, De Gaulle’s party easily triumphed. Despite the French tendency to romanticize revolution, it was widely perceived that the French had grown weary of the turmoil and inconvenience of the strikes and protests. Although De Gaulle survived the events of 1968, his stature had been seriously undermined, and a year later French voters rejected his national administration reorganization plan, leading him to resign.
The 1968 protests did bring about some dramatic changes in France’s education system, including numerous additional universities and what was supposed to be the “ democratization” of higher education. It also helped diminish some of the stratification of French society, though education “ reform ” remains a major issue in France.
The Paris revolt of 1968 was part of an international tide of protest. Music, cinema, graphic arts, “ underground” newspapers, were all elements of this international phenomenon. However, it was the war in Vietnam that provided the impetus for much of the protest, especially in this country, where the civil rights movement was also driving activism.
That year began with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, which has been characterized as a tactical defeat for the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, but a strategic and psychological victory. It demonstrated their relentless determination after a long period in which Americans had been told that there was “ light at the end of the tunnel. ” A Vietcong assault team even got inside the walls of the U. S. Embassy in Saigon before being repelled. Television footage of this dramatic incident seemed to symbolize U. S futility. Before the year ended, 16, 511 more Americans lost their lives in Vietnam.
As 1968 began, President Lyndon Johnson was expected to seek another term in office, despite the growing opposition to the war. When anti-war Sen. Eugene McCarthy decided to oppose LBJ in the Democratic primaries, at first no one paid much notice. However, with large numbers of young people taking up the McCarthy cause, the campaign became a crusade. McCarthy made a strong showing in the opening Democratic primary in New Hampshire. In March, Johnson stunned the nation with an announcement that he would not be a candidate for re-election.
Only days later, the nation was shocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. In the aftermath, 125 cities were hit by violence and rioting. In several, including Washington, D. C., there was widespread looting and burning. In Washington several of the city’s corridors were decimated.
By then, Robert Kennedy had entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He, too, drew strong support from young people. But two months later, he was assassinated in Los Angeles.
While some had channeled their energy into support for McCarthy or Kennedy, there were ongoing protests around the country. Shortly before the Paris events, students at Columbia University in New York occupied university buildings, including the president’s office, protesting the university’s connection to a Defense Department think tank and a plan to build what the students called a “ racist” gym in a nearby neighborhood.
With Robert Kennedy dead, and the candidacy of the enigmatic Gene McCarthy fading, LBJ’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, eventually emerged as the Democratic candidate. Humphrey’s nomination came at his party’s convention in Chicago, overshadowed by street demonstrations that turned into confrontations with an aggressive police force, with scenes reminiscent of Paris three months earlier.
Humphrey was matched against Republican Richard Nixon, making a comeback after his political career was thought to be over, and Alabama’s segregationist governor, George Wallace. Late in the campaign, Humphrey finally put some distance between himself and LBJ on Vietnam. For weeks, he trailed far behind Nixon in the polls, but drew close as election day approached. Still, Nixon, who said he had a “ secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam, won with 43. 4 percent of the national vote. Humphrey had 42. 7 percent, Wallace 13. 5. Democrats retained clear control of the Congress.
Political chronicler Theodore H. White called it the “ most thoroughly blurred” American election since 1876. Arkansas was cited as the foremost example of this blurring. The racist, hawkish Wallace won the state’s electoral votes with 38. 7 percent to Nixon’s 31 and Humphrey’s 30. 3. At the same time, the state re-elected liberal Republican governor Winthrop Rockefeller, and Sen. J. William Fulbright, leader of congressional opposition to the Vietnam War.
Nixon was re-elected in 1972, but the war continued through most of his time in office and divisions and discord within the country heightened. By 1974, he resigned in disgrace, his abuses of power having been exposed, leaving him facing almost certain impeachment.
There are lingering effects of that divisive and dramatic period in our history. What some call the “ culture wars ” still stir strong sentiments in certain quarters
Unquestionably, 1968 stands as one of the most traumatic and dramatic years in our history. There are parallels between 1968 and 2008, but there are also paradoxes — and not just the lack of large-scale protests, peaceful or violent, this year.
In 2008, as in 1968, we have a lame-duck Texan in the White House, with the nation bogged down in an unpopular war.
The Democratic Party appears to be on the verge of nominating an African-American candidate for president, something that would have been extremely unlikely in 1968, when racial tensions were palpable. Barack Obama is seen as an heir to the Kennedy political tradition. John McCain, the Republican candidate, is closely tied to the current administration and its policies on Iraq, and that might present a challenge to his candidacy, comparable to that experienced by Democrat Humphrey in 1968.
There is one undeniable commonality: Just as 1968 brought a series of political surprises, the 2008 campaign for presidency has been marked by unexpected twists and turns, with perhaps more to come.
Hoyt Purvis is a journalism and international relations professor and served as press secretary to Sen. J. William Fulbright, foreign / defense policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, and as chairman of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. His column appears on Sundays.