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In the spring of 1965 the first US troops landed in Vietnam, and at this time most of America supported this decision. -
People in the United States started to realize that the war was perhaps not going as well as the government was leading them to believe. They were told the war was going to go well and be easy, but the footage that they on television showed casualties of Americans on the daily.
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Faculty members and students at the University of Michigan joined in groups to discuss the issues about the war and why they opposed it. By May 122 colleges held a national teach in over the radio for more than 100,00 antiwar demonstrators.
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Thousands of demonstrators held protests against the war. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a march on Washington, D.C., that drew more than 20,000 people. A rally at the Lincoln Memorial drew tens of thousands of protesters as well. Protests continued throughout the period of the war.
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During Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese launched a massive surprise attack. In what was called the Tet Offensive, guerrilla fighters attacked most American airbases in South Vietnam and most of the South’s major cities. Vietcong even blasted their way into the American embassy in Saigon. -
Both Johnson and the war had become increasingly unpopular. With the presidential election of 1968 on the horizon, Johnson declared that he would not be running for president again.
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MLK was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.
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An Arab nationalist, Sirhan Sirhan kills Robert F Kennedey -
A week before the election, President Johnson announced that the bombing of North Vietnam had halted and that a cease-fire would follow.
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Republicans selected former vice president and 1960 presidential hopeful Richard Nixon as their candidate. Nixon defeated Humphrey by more than 100 electoral votes, although he only won the popular vote by a slim margin of 43 percent to 42 percent.