ABSTRACT
The "days of decision", folksinger Phil Ochs called the difficult years, a time when the sixties experienced "a change in the wind, a split in the road". Those days first appeared with two events during the remaining months of 1965, one in a ghetto at home and another in a valley in South Vietnam. Watts faded the glow of LBJ liberalism that autumn, and so did Vietnam. Some began wondering about the war, especially about Johnson's escalation of American involvement. On the weekend of October 15-16, 1965, activists held the International Days of Protest. Most Americans agreed, especially a few days later as US troops engaged the enemy in the first major battle of the war- and the second event that initiated the days of decision- the IaDrang Valley. Radical tactics proved counterproductive, for during the days of decision uncivil behavior only appalled the public. Most citizens then accepted the notion that activists were beatniks, subversives, even Communists.
