ABSTRACT
Exceptional by any standards, 1968 was a year of instability and violent upheaval that saw many remarkable events before the November election. The war in Vietnam was not going well for the Americans; this was the year of the Battle of Khe Sanh, several village massacres by American troops (including My Lai), the Tet Off ensive, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eddie Adams photograph of the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém, and anti-war and civil rights demonstrations in the US. Unrest was widespread. Student demonstrations took place in large cities such as Paris, Mexico City, Warsaw, and Prague. Riots became violent at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In one of a series of famous political debates during the Convention, William F. Buckley allowed himself to be so provoked by Gore Vidal that he called Vidal a “queer” and said that if he didn’t stop calling him a “crypto-Nazi” he would “sock you in the goddamned face and you’ll stay plastered.” Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. There was a shootout between Black Panthers and the Oakland police. In a more violent outbreak of tensions that had been simmering for some time, “The Troubles” between Northern Ireland Protestants and Irish Catholics began.
