Summer 1968

I see that there is some interest the Year 1968 this summer.  I have written about this before, and often.  1968 was a Watershed Year for the United States. Some of what I write here may be redundant, but it bears repeating because the events of that year have loomed over largely in shaping how the future of the US played out.

Of course, I think that my view of these events are correct, but everyone who was alive and aware of the Events of that year have a view.  I am not really a writer.  I often write like I think and talk - all over the place.  I will however try to discipline my self to stay on topic.

I was in Vietnam on New Years Day of 1968.  I arrived in Vietnam at the beginning of December, and was assigned to the 15th Medical Battalion attached to The First Air Cavalry.  I was assigned to Landing Zone (LZ) Uplift just north of the Bong Song area where there was a lot of Fighting.  I was not aware of this fighting and LZ Uplift was quiet.  Very soon we moved up close to the DMZ.  I can look up these dates, but for now time is not significant.  We were awakened in the middle of the night and told to pack up everything and flew into Da Nang Air Base and began convoyed to a cleared out piece of land that only had a Medical Pod on it.  We waited there until day light.  Some of our people stayed with the Pod and this became LZ Jane.  We then proceeded through Hue, the old provincial Capital of Vietnam, and on to LZ Sharon outside Quang Tri.

LZ Sharon was where I was for the rest of my stay in Vietnam.  It was also a Camp for Marines.  The Marines had some real good food.  Being in a Medical Battalion with Doctors, we had pretty good food, but the Marines had us beat and we were ahead of our supply chain, so we got to eat with the Marines.

On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese Launched the "Tet" offensive, the largest Offensive of the US - Vietnam War.    It was odd timing because the First Air Cavalry had moved up to the North of South Vietnam, for the specific goal of assisting the Marines at Khe Sanh which was a air base in a valley between two mountain ridges.  The North Vietnamese had pinned the Marines down by keeping them from being able to fly in and out of Khe Sanh so they were stranded.  

Technically, the Tet Offensive was militarily a failure for Vietnam, but for the US it exposed that the US was no closer to a Victory than they were before.  This changed the politics of Vietnam and gave strength to the growing anti war movement. The first tremors of this disruptive year had begun.

References and other sources:

I am a Movie fanatic.  In my life time there have been many movies that are the equivalent of a Book of History or Sociology.  There are several Vietnam Movies that I can recommend that can give you a feel of what the War was like.  And then there is a book that accompanied a special on PBS that has the best history of the US Vietnam Conflict.

Movies:

Full Metal Jacket, Director - Stanley Kubrick

Apocalypse Now, Director - Francis Ford Coppola

Platoon, Director - Oliver Stone


Book

Vietnam: A History, Stanley Karnow

TV Documentary 

Vietnam: A Television History , PBS and Stanley Karnow