Conaway: Deja 1968? A nation’s test
In this June 5, 1968 file photograph, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-NY, speaks to campaign workers, June 5, 1968, as his wife Ethel, left, and California campaign manager and speaker of the California Assembly, Jesse Unruh, look on, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. After making a short speech, Kennedy was shot in an adjacent room. Before the apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, July 13, 2024, there have been multiple instances of political violence targeting U.S. presidents, former presidents and major party presidential candidates. (AP Photo file)
Dan Conaway
Dan Conaway is a lifelong Memphian, fascinated and frustrated with his city, but still in love. A columnist since 2010, his distinguished advertising career has branded ribs in the Rendezvous and ducks in The Peabody, pandas in the zoo and Grizzlies in the NBA. Stories in Memphis tend to write themselves. He’s helped a few along. Two book collections of his columns have been published.
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Fifty-six years ago, we had one of our biggest tests as a nation and certainly our biggest test as a city.
1968 was a horrible year.
Vietnam
January 1968
After assurances that we were winning the war in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive, proving that they could coordinate a major attack. It was becoming obvious we were being misled — no, lied to — about the war. I knew kids who went. We saw kids die on television. I knew kids who died.
The hippies, the New Left, Black Power and other counterculture movements — lots of counterculture movements — sprang up and grew into open clashes between generations and races.
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