Chicago 1968

 

Chicago 1968 (Image courtesy Washington Post)

1968 is a year I remember very well, gentle reader.

I had begun a teaching career, turned twenty-one (which had greater significance back then) and had reported in Warwick for my national service medical.

Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on my birthday, and I was passed A1 after my medical. Both these events effectively sealed my fate when it came to the following two years, as they combined to send me to Vietnam.

If I had failed my medical, or if Kennedy had the same luck as Trump, my experience would have been very different. When Kennedy announced that he was seeking the Democratic nomination, he made it clear that his campaign agenda prioritised opposition to the war in Vietnam over racial division and the problem of the cities.

From his announcement speech - I run to seek new policies - policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exist between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the rest of the world.

Whether or not his election as US President would have been timely enough to begin a withdrawal of US troops, and whether the Coalition would have followed quickly in this country will of course never be known, but it is feasible.

When Nixon was elected he talked about "peace with honour", but nevertheless began an indiscriminate bombing programme in Cambodia, which led, amongst other things, to the killing fields.

Where the bombs landed in 1972 (red)

Those events in 1968 demonstrate a frightening symmetry with what has so far occured in 2024. Then as now, the incumbent Democratic president will not seek re-election (Lyndon Johnson's decision); there were two assassinations back then, both successful, (Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy); and one this year which was unsuccessful; and the Democratic convention will be held in Chicago. The most significant difference between 1968 and 2024 is that the single (so far) assassination attempt was unsuccessful.

The 1968 Convention was a landmark event which vividly demonstrated the deep divisions within the Democrats, but more significantly within the US community. Those divisions are duplicated in 2024, even if the fault lines are different, but violence is always simmering just below the surface.

I'm reminded of two cliches that go hand in hand when it comes to that country across the Pacific. One is that violence is as American as apple pie, and the other is that history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

However you look at it, the US is clearly at a crossroads now just as it was in 1968. By the time Saigon fell in 1975, fifty-seven thousand Americans, millions of Vietnamese, and five hundred Australians had died as a result of decisions made in the US. Many decisions had been made before those events in 1968, but many were made after that pivotal year. A reading of the Pentagon papers is informative.

Let's hope that the cadence of the rhyme fails, because if it doesn't, and more deadly conflict ensues,  there will be outcomes for Australians, just as there were in 1968, and many will be negative.