1968
by Randall J. Cloud
The year 1968 was a year of turmoil, chaos, and destruction. It was driven by a pandemic, a divisive presidential election, riots, protests, anti-police sentiment, war in Vietnam, culture war, and economic troubles. Investors would be wise to remember past years such as 1968.
Leading up to 1968, Americans had watched the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and experienced the thwarting of the Soviet Union’s attempt to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1961 (ninety miles from Florida) which created a mood that Nuclear War was a real possibility.
While we take television for granted today, more and more Americans were purchasing their first televisions for their homes in the 1960s. With this came the evening television news.
Americans were seeing violence stemming from racism from around the country, the atrocities of the Vietnam War, riots between students and police on college campuses, and assassinations. As well, Americans were seeing the growing drug culture and alternative lifestyles on full display.
A sense of social upheaval was being played out on the evening news in 1960s.
Then came 1968.
January 1968 - Vietnam War
With the threat of Nuclear War looming, January 1968 brought the Tet Offensive. The communist supported Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies showed their persistence by coordinating attacks on multiple cities in South Vietnam.
While our military soundly beat back and defeated the attacks, the horrors of war were aired in prime time to the American public. CBS Nightly News anchor Walter Cronkite declared the U.S. to be in a stalemate in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson was reported to have responded by stating if had lost Walter Cronkite he had lost middle America.
March 1968 - Economic Crisis
The U.S. Economy began slumping in 1968 which ultimately resulted in very high inflation and unemployment during the 1970s. The slumping economy in 1968 represented the end of the post-World War II economic expansion. Americans were beginning to see inflation eat into their standard of living.
April 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr.
On April 4th a gunman murdered the civil rights leader and Christian Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.
June 1968 – Robert Kennedy
Democrat Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy was murdered in California on June 6th after a rally celebrating his primary victory.
September 1968 - Pandemic
In September 1968, the world saw the emergence of a new variant of influenza A known as the H3N2 Virus or Hong Kong Flu. According to the CDC, the virus killed an estimated 100,000 people in the United States and 1 million people worldwide with most of the deaths occurring with those who were 65 and older. The population at the time in the U.S. was 200.7 million according to the Census Bureau.
November 1968 - Presidential Election Turmoil
As the Democrat National Convention was being held in Chicago Convention Center on August 28th, thousands of anti-war protestors, Vietnam veterans, and police officers violently fought one another outside the Chicago Convention Center. All this was broadcasted to Americans around the country.
What can we learn from 1968?
To be a successful investor in any given yar, it is very important to keep a historical perspective.
We should remember Americans and the world suffered through 1968 as well as through even greater turmoil, chaos and destruction during World War I, World War II, and our own Civil War.
Owning a Broadly Diversified Global Portfolio empowers us to survive the most uncertain times and to prosper in the best of times.