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1966, in the historic scheme of things, turned out to be a pivotal year for America. Lyndon Johnson was President and we were in the midst of The Great Society – the Civil Rights and Voting Rights landmark legislation was in the midst of growing pains. We were socially becoming freer in our views on sex and relationships – our Music was knee-deep in change; The Beatles were household names and their influence was being felt in every facet of American life – Youth Culture was becoming a force to be reckoned with and we were beginning to not take no for an answer.
But the real changes were still to come – in 1966 the wave of protest against the War in Vietnam was only getting started, as our involvement went from being in an “advisory capacity” to now full-on engagement with Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops. In 1964, under the guise of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, there was considerable popular support for the war in Vietnam, because we had become convinced that losing Vietnam would mean eventually losing all of Southeast Asia and eventually (as some declared) lay claim to the entire Pacific rim to Communist control.
But the deeper we became involved the more those voices supporting the war were slowly turning against it, as it was realized victory in Vietnam was no easy task as was first thought – and that we were inevitably headed into a protracted war, one which many predicted would last a good twenty years and result in the crucial draining of Americas resources as well as its youth.
But in 1966 the “Hawks” were still very much calling the shots and protest was limited to college campuses, for the time. By the end of 1966 that movement would grow and the conversation would start to change.
That wasn’t the only thing going on in the world in 1966 – and this gathering of Correspondents for NBC News goes to considerable lengths to convey that. This one-hour special (which I don’t believe was broadcast) outlines the world as it was in 1966 and devotes the second hour to a question-and-answer period where you get a better idea of what America was concerned about during that pivotal year.
It’s a little over an hour, but it moves fast and offers further evidence we are a complicated nation of people who have always been prone to division.
Here is Great Decisions: Foreign Correspondents 1966.
