1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
The Battle of Huế was one of the bloodiest and longest battles. The ARVN and three understrength U.S. Marine battalions attacked and defeated more than 10,000 entrenched PAVN/VC. The PAVN/VC lost 5,113 killed and 98 captured in the battle, the ARVN lost 452 killed and the U.S. 216 killed. 844 Civilians were killed in the fighting. In the Massacre at Huế the PAVN/VC massacred 2,800-6,000 civilians and prisoners of war during their occupation of the city. In the aftermath of the battle South Vietnamese forces killed an estimated 1,000-2,000 people suspected of being VC or VC sympathisers.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
In the deadliest single day for U.S. forces during the war 246 Americans were killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
The PAVN/VC attacked major politico-military installations in and around Saigon. At Tan Son Nhut Air Base more than 670 PAVN are killed and 26 captured for the loss of 22 U.S. and 29 ARVN. In the attack on the Joint General Staff Compound 10 VC are killed and 10 captured for the loss of 17 U.S. killed. In the attacks on Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post 527 VC were killed and 47 captured for the loss of 11 U.S. killed. In the battle of Cholon 170 VC were killed for the loss of 12 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
In the attack on Quảng Trị the PAVN/VC lost 914 killed and 86 captured.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
A VC rocket and mortar attack on Chu Lai Air Base triggered an explosion in the bomb dump destroying three aircraft and damaging a further 23.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
The VC attack on Quảng Ngãi Airfield and Quảng Ngai was repulsed at a cost of 56 ARVN and over 500 VC killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, January, Tet Offensive
The VC attack on Vĩnh Long Airfield was repulsed at a cost of seven U.S. killed and three UH-1 helicopters destroyed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
The ARVN 3rd Armored Cavalry Squadron, fought a pitched battle with the VC H-15 Local Force Battalion near Pleiku. They were later awarded the United States Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism against hostile forces during the Tet Offensive, making them one of only a few non-U.S. military units to receive the highest U.S. military honor awarded at the unit level.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
South Vietnamese National Police chief General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is captured on film executing a VC prisoner by American photographer Eddie Adams. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph becomes yet another rallying point for anti-war protesters.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Former U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Deputy U.S. Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze inaugurated a program to curtail the growing use of marijuana among U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
The Battle of Lang Vei was fought on the night of 6 February 1968, between elements of the PAVN, supported by PT-76 light tanks and the United States-led Detachment A-101, 5th Special Forces Group.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
International reporters arrive at the embattled city of Bến Tre in South Vietnam. Peter Arnett, then of the Associated Press, writes a dispatch quoting an unnamed US major as saying, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
In a telephone conversation with General Westmoreland, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Earle Wheeler advised that the U.S. government "is not prepared to accept a defeat in South Vietnam... In summary... if you need more troops, ask for them."


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
In the Battle of Lo Giang the U.S. 1st Marine Division and elements of the U.S. 23rd Infantry Division defeated an attack by the PAVN 2nd Division on Da Nang Air Base. The battle resulted in 286 PAVN and 18 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Operation Hop Tac I was a road security operation by the U.S. 9th Infantry Division along Route 4 in Dinh Tuong Province. The operation resulted in 345 VC and 92 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
In the Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre the South Korean 2nd Marine Brigade killed 69-79 South Vietnamese civilians in Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất villages, Điện Bàn District.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Operation Coronado XI was conducted by the MRF and ARVN forces to secure Cần Thơ in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. The operation resulted in 297 VC killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
A Gallup poll indicated that 50 percent of the American public disapproved of Johnson's handling of the war, 35 percent approved and the rest were undecided.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
The 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division begins deploying to South Vietnam arriving at Chu Lai Base Area.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
North Vietnam released three American prisoners of war, the first of nine, to the custody of peace activists Daniel Berrigan and Howard Zinn. As part of the propaganda event, the POWs each "expressed their thanks to their captors for the humane and lenient treatment" that they had received, and "expressed remorse over the war". All but one of the nine met the order of release approved by the senior ranking officers (SROs) in each POW camp ("sick and injured first, then enlisted personnel and the remaining officers by order of shoot-down". The exception would be a Navy seaman who was given permission by his superiors to accept release because he had memorized the names of all his fellow prisoners of war.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
The Selective Service System revised its rules for deferments and exemptions from the draft, allowing the induction of most graduate students who were pursuing a master's degree, a decision that affected 600,000 men. Students in medical school, dental school, or other health field remained exempt, as did those in a theological seminary who planned on "going into ministry".


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
A VC rocket and mortar attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base destroyed 6 aircraft and damaged 33 others and killed one person.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Between 8,000 and 20,000 people attended an antiwar demonstration in West Berlin. The city government organised a similarly sized counter-demonstration.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
A VC rocket attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base hit the civilian air terminal at Tan Son Nhut Airport killing one person and six further rocket/mortar attacks over this period killed another six people and wounded 151.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
General Wheeler, Major General William E. DePuy and Philip Habib visited South Vietnam. During the visit Wheeler and Westmoreland prepared a reinforcement request for up to 205,000 additional troops to support all possible contingencies in Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
A VC rocket and mortar attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base killed four U.S. personnel and wounded 21 and damaged base buildings.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
The Khmer Rouge launched their first widespread campaign, "The Blow of 25 February", with simultaneous attacks on military installations in Battambang, Takéo, Kampot, Koh Kong, Kompong Chhnang and Kompong Speu and seized rifles and machine guns.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
PAVN rocket and mortar fire hit Firebase Betty exploding an ammunition bunker and this was followed by a PAVN sapper attack. U.S. losses were three killed and 29 wounded and 21 PAVN killed and one captured.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Operation Houston, a security operation conducted by the U.S. Marines’ Task Force X-Ray to reopen and secure Route 1 between Da Nang and Phu Bai Combat Base, results in 702 PAVN/VC killed and 29 captured for the loss of 117 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Walter Cronkite, reporting after his recent trip to Vietnam for his television special "Who, What, When, Where, Why?" gives a highly critical editorial and urges America to leave Vietnam "...not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
General Wheeler briefed President Johnson and his national security team. Wheeler gave the impression that General Westmoreland needed the entire 205,000 troops simply to repel another PAVN/VC offensive andregain lost ground in South Vietnam. Wheeler portrayed the Tet Offensive as coming close to success in many places, with the Allies’ victory margin "very very small indeed." He predicted that the PAVN/VC would renew the attack with even greater force. The South Vietnamese forces had held together under the first assault and recouped many of their losses. However, their staying power against a renewed offensive was uncertain.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Westmoreland’s US forces were in good shape and fighting well, but they were stretched thin and "he does not have a theater reserve." Under these circumstances, "If the enemy synchronizes hisexpected major attacks with increased pressure throughout the country, General Westmoreland’s margin will be paper thin." The only alternative to the requested reinforcements, would be a decision "to be prepared to give up areas in lieu of more troops," specifically "the 2 northern provinces of South Vietnam." Wheeler’s report was a staggering blow to a politically beleaguered administration already shaken by Tet.


1968 in the Vietnam War, February
Johnson and his advisers were dismayed by Wheeler’s gloomy assessment of the Vietnam situation, which was in sharp contrast to the more reassuring reports they had been receiving from Westmoreland and Ambassador Bunker. In response Johnson appointed a task force, headed by incoming Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, to examine afresh the reinforcement and mobilization issue as part of a major review of Vietnam policy and strategy


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Project Combat Lancer was the combat testing of six USAF F-111A swing-wing fighter-bombers. F-111A #66-0022 disappeared on 28 March, #66-0017 disappeared on 30 March and #66-0024 crashed on 22 April and this halted combat operations and all aircraft were returned to the U.S. in November.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Three North Vietnamese fishing trawlers were destroyed by the U.S. Navy and South Vietnamese forces while attempting to resupply the VC and a fourth was turned back as part of Operation Market Time. Because the fourth trawler got more than 12 miles (19 km) away from the coast and reached international waters, the U.S. Navy was forbidden from firing on the ship.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Patrick was a security operation conducted by the U.S. 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division in Bình Định Province. The operation resulted in 70 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
While patrolling 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Tan Son Nhut Air Base near the small village of Quoi Xuan to locate VC rocket sites, Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment walked into an ambush losing 48 killed in just 8 minutes. U.S. forces claimed they killed 20 VC.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
In the Battle of Tam Kỳ the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment and Company A, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment engaged the PAVN 3rd Regiment, 3rd Division The battle resulted in 436 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
A USAF C-123 was shot down by PAVN anti-aircraft fire near Khe Sanh killing all 44 persons on board.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
The "Clifford Committee" proposed the immediate deployment of about 22,000 reinforcements to South Vietnam, which could be done from existing resources. A decision on deploying the rest of the 205,000 should be deferred, contingent upon a "week-by-week" review of the situation in South Vietnam, effectively killing the request.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Truong Cong Dinh was a security operation to reestablish South Vietnamese control over the northern Mekong Delta conducted by the U.S. 9th Infantry Division, the MRF and the ARVN 7th Division. The operation resulted in 343 VC and 51 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Signed by President Ho Chi Minh four months earlier, a decree took effect in North Vietnam outlawing local opposition to the nation's conduct of the war. A long list of "counterrevolutionary" crimes was subject to punishments ranging from brief detention, to life in prison or the death penalty.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
The New York Times published details of the 205,000-man reinforcement request and Johnson administration policy debates denouncing the proposal as "suicidal escalation" and called for abandonment of this "bankrupt policy." In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike condemned the troop request as a disastrous and futile escalation of the war.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
The Battle of Lima Site 85 was a battle for control of a secret radar site at Phou Pha Thi, Laos. The U.S. lost 13 killed and the RLA and Thai forces lost 42 killed, PAVN losses are unknown.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Quyet Thang was a U.S./ARVN security operation to reestablish South Vietnamese control over the areas immediately around Saigon in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. 2,658 VC were killed and 427 captured.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
President Johnson barely edged out antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the opening event in nominations for the 1968 U.S. presidential election. The vote highlighted deep divisions in the country, and the party, over the war, and would demonstrate Johnson's increasing unpopularity. Johnson received 49.6% of the votes cast, but McCarthy who had campaigned on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in Vietnam got 41.9% despite being relatively unknown outside of his home state.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
After a run on gold buying in Europe, the London gold market closes at the request of the U.S. The U.S. Federal Reserve raises the discount rate to 5% to strengthen the United States dollar and reduce inflation.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
US troops from C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade and B Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 23rd Infantry Division carry out the My Lai Massacre killing more than 500 Vietnamese civilians from infants to the elderly. The event would remain concealed for more than a year.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
An antiwar demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square turned violent; 91 people were injured and 200 demonstrators arrested.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Walker was a security operation conducted by the U.S. 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bình Định Province. The operation resulted in 272 PAVN/VC and 42 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Carentan and Operation Carentan II were security operations conducted by the U.S. 1st and 2nd Brigades, 101st Airborne Division and the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division in Thừa Thiên Province. The operations resulted in 2,320 PAVN and 214 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Generals Westmoreland and Wheeler met at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Wheeler advised Westmoreland that a major reinforcement and expansion of ground operations were out of the question. Westmoreland advised that in the light of the improved situation after the defeat of the Tet Offensive and the strong showing of the South Vietnamese forces, further reinforcements beyond those already committed would not be required.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
President Johnson met with his group of advisers, led by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Clifford, who had come to be known as "The Wise Men". After long supporting and encouraging Johnson's conduct of the war, a majority of the group informed him that "an American military solution in Vietnam was no longer attainable" and that he should take steps to disengage the U.S. from further participation.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Another author would note that former Secretary of State Dean Acheson told Johnson "the financial and social costs of the struggle... would be hard for the United States to sustain" and noted that "The Wise Men's conclusion that the United States had to find a new way out of Vietnam rocked Johnson as nothing else had."


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Operation Cochise Green was a security and pacification operation conducted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bình Định Province. The operation resulted in 929 PAVN/VC killed and 25 captured and 114 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
President Johnson addresses the nation, announcing steps to limit the war in Vietnam and reporting his decision not to seek reelection. The speech announces the first in a series of limitations on US bombing, promising to halt these activities above the 20th parallel north.


1968 in the Vietnam War, March
Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford gets the President to authorize 24,500 more troops on an emergency basis, raising authorized strength to the Vietnam War's peak of 549,500, a figure never reached.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
U.S. aircraft ceased attacking North Vietnam north of the 20th parallel, an area which included Hanoi and Haiphong. Missions would continue for the remainder of the country, between the 17th parallel and 20th parallel.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
In Operation Pegasus the 1st Cavalry Division relieved the Marines at Khe Sanh.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
North Vietnam's official government radio station broadcast that "The North Vietnamese government declares its readiness to send its representatives to make contact with U.S. representatives to decide with the U.S. side the unconditional cessation of bombing and all other war acts... so that talks could begin."


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
Operation Toan Thang I was a US and ARVN operation conducted between 8 April 1968 and 31 May 1968. Toan Thang, or "Complete Victory", was part of a reaction to the Tet Offensive designed to put pressure on the PAVN/VC. The PAVN/VC lost 7,645 killed and 1,708 captured for the loss of 762 ARVN and 564 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
Operation Burlington Trail was a security operation conducted by the U.S. 198th Infantry Brigade in Quảng Nam Province. The operation resulted in 1,931 VC and 129 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
A 250-man PAVN force attempted to block Route 19 west of Landing Zone Schueller. A reaction force from the 1st Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment at Schueller was called forward and quickly overwhelmed the PAVN ambushers some of whom retreated to a nearby hill where they were assaulted by the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment. The engagement resulted in 1 U.S. and 40 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
The Anderson Platoon won the 1967 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film by Pierre Schoendoerffer followed a platoon of the 1st Cavalry Division in September and October 1966.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
Following the relief of Khe Sanh the 3rd Marine Division began Operation Scotland II in the area round Khe Sanh. The operation continued until February 28 1969 and results in 3,304 PAVN killed and 435 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
Operation Baxter Garden was a harvest security operation on the Phu Thu peninsula by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines supported by two ARVN battalions. The operation resulted in 55 PAVN/VC and 13 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
Operation Delaware was a military operation in the A Shau Valley, an important PAVN logistics corridor and base area. American and South Vietnamese had not been present in the area since the Battle of A Shau, when a Special Forces camp located there was overrun. The PAVN lost 869 killed while the U.S. lost 142 killed and 47 missing and the ARVN lost 26 killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
The positions of the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines at Wunder Beach were mistakenly hit by 11-15 rounds of 5" naval gunfire from USS Mullany killing two Marines.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey formally announced that he would seek the Democratic Party nomination to run for President of the United States.


1968 in the Vietnam War, April
In the Battle of Dai Do the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, fight a pitched, hand-to-hand battle with two full-strength battalions of the PAVN 320th Division. The Marines suffer 50% casualties with 81 killed, while the PAVN lose more than 600 men killed. "E" Co & "F" Co Commanders are each awarded the Medal of Honor, while 2/4th Marines Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Weise is awarded the Navy Cross.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The U.S. and North Vietnam agreed that their representatives would meet in Paris on 10 May to begin the first discussions on the format for peace talks to end the war.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Operation Allen Brook was a 1st Marine Division security and pacification operation on Go Noi Island. The operation resulted in 917 PAVN/VC killed and 11 captured and 172 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
May Offensive was launched in the early morning hours of 4 May, in which PAVN/VC units initiated PHASE II of the Tet Offensive of 1968 (also known as the May Offensive, "Little Tet", and "Mini-Tet") by striking 119 targets throughout South Vietnam, including Saigon. The PAVN/VC lost over 24,000 killed and 2,000 captured while the U.S. lost 2,169 killed and the ARVN lost 2,054 killed. The offensive caused extensive destruction in west and south Saigon.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
After midnight the PAVN/VC shelled Bien Hoa Air Base for 3 hours and then shelled it again at dawn wounding 11 USAF personnel and damaging 13 aircraft, 5 trucks and 3 50,000-gallon rubber fuel bladders.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Landing Zone Peanuts located approximately 5 km southwest of Khe Sanh Combat Base  and occupied by Companies A and B, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment and Company A, 1st Battalion, 77th Artillery Regiment was hit by 120mm mortar rounds and B-40 rockets followed by a PAVN sapper attack. The attack was repulsed with 11 U.S. and 32 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
In the Battle of Landing Zone Center the PAVN lost 365 killed in its attacks on a U.S. base in Quảng Tín Province.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
United Press International photographer Toshio Sakai wins the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his photo "Dreams of Better Times".


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Representatives of the U.S. and North Vietnam met at Paris for the first time to discuss peace talks and agreed that discussions would take place at the International Conference Center of the French Foreign Ministry, located in the former Hotel Majestic. W. Averell Harriman led the American delegation with the assistance of Cyrus Vance, and former North Vietnamese foreign minister Xuan Thuy was assisted by Colonel Ha Van Lau.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The Battle of Kham Duc was the struggle for the United States Army Special Forces camp located in Quảng Tín Province. The camp was occupied by the 1st Special Forces detachment consisting of U.S. and South Vietnamese special forces, as well as Montagnard irregulars. A USAF C-130B was shot down after takeoff from the base killing all 155 on board.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The Battle of Coral–Balmoral was a series of actions fought between 1 ATF and PAVN/VC forces, north-east of Saigon. The battle resulted in 267 PAVN/VC killed and 11 captured and 25 Australians killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The first US and North Vietnamese delegations meet at the Paris peace talks to discuss American withdrawal.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The U.S. radio relay station on Nui Ba Den was attacked and overrun by the VC before they were driven off by helicopter gunship and artillery fire. The attack killed 24 U.S. and 25 VC.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
A group of anti-war demonstrators, later dubbed the Catonsville Nine, entered the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, took draft records, and burned them with homemade napalm.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Operation Jeb Stuart III was conducted by the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division to attack PAVN base areas in Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Provinces. The operation resulted in 2,014 PAVN killed and 251 captured and 222 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Operation Nevada Eagle was a security operation conducted by the 101st Airborne Division and 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division in Thừa Thiên Province. The operation resulted in 3,299 PAVN killed and 853 captured and U.S. 175 killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Nguyen Van Loc resigned as Prime Minister of South Vietnam, along with his entire cabinet.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Operation Mameluke Thrust was a 1st Marine Division spoiling attack into the valleys west of Danang and around Thường Ðức Camp. The operation resulted in 2,728 PAVN killed and 47 captured and U.S. losses of 269 killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Long Beach, operating off of the coast of North Vietnam shot down a Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) jet fighter with a RIM-8 Talos missile fired from a distance of 65 nautical miles (120 km; 75 mi) making it the first combat kill by a naval surface to air missile.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The second phase of the May Offensive attacks on Saigon began. The VC lost an estimated 600 killed and another 107 captured in the attacks, while the South Vietnamese lost 42 killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Sustained PAVN mortar and rocket fire hits U.S. 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment at Landing Zone Brillo Pad followed by a ground assault which results in U.S. and 41 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
Trần Văn Hương, a former schoolteacher, was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of South Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, May
The USAF 8th Tactical Fighter Wing conducted combat evaluations of the first generation of Laser-guided bombs: the BOLT-117 and the Paveway 1. The Paveway-1 was found to be superior achieving a circular error probability of 20 feet (6.1 m) with one in every four bombs scoring a direct hit.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
Operation Toan Thang II was designed to keep pressure on PAVN/VC forces in III Corps, the PAVN/VC lost 25,428 killed and 10,724 captured while the U.S. lost 1,798 killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
A gunship from the 120th Assault Helicopter Company fired a 2.75-inch rocket that struck a building that contained the forward command post of the ARVN 30th Ranger Battalion. The blast killed 6 high-ranking South Vietnamese officials allied to Prime Minister Kỳ, including Saigon Police chief Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Luan.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
Operation Robin was a 3rd Marine Division operation into the "Vietnam Salient" of Quảng Trị Province. The operation resulted in 635 PAVN killed and 48 captured and Marine losses of 65+ killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
General Creighton Abrams assumes command of MACV from General Westmoreland who is promoted to Chief of Staff of the United States Army.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
A VC rocket and mortar attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base destroyed two aircraft and killed one USAF airman.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
USAF jets mistakenly sank PCF-19 killing five U.S. Navy crewmen and attacked the USCGC Point Dume, USS Boston and HMAS  Hobart near Tiger Island killing two Royal Australian Navy crewmen.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
The South Vietnamese military mobilization law was promulgated. The law lowered the military draft age from 20 to 18 and allowed the government to conscript males between the ages of 18 and 38 for service in either the ARVN or the territorial Regional Force and Popular Forces. The term of service was made indefinite, or as long as the war lasted. In addition, the legislation specified that youths of 17 and men between the ages of 39 and 43 could be conscripted for noncombat military service, and all other males between 16 and 50 were to serve in a new paramilitary organization, the People's Self-Defense Force, a part-time hamlet militia.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
152 members of the VC Quyet Thang Regiment surrendered to ARVN forces, the largest communist surrender of the war.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
U.S. Secretary of State Rusk stated that nearly three months after the U.S. had limited its bombing to below the 17th parallel, infiltration by PAVN troops into South Vietnam had increased to record levels and North Vietnam had started a campaign of indiscrimate rocket attacks into residential areas of Saigon.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
In a complete reversal from previous statements, North Vietnam (through their representative in Budapest) admitted that it had troops stationed and fighting in South Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
In the Battle of Binh An the U.S. 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment and Troop D, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment defeated the PAVN K14 Battalion, 812th Regiment. The battle resulted in 233 PAVN killed and 44 captured and three U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, June
The VC kill 88 South Vietnamese civilians in Sơn Trà village, Bình Sơn District, Quảng Ngãi Province.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
The Phoenix Program to identify and neutralize the VC infrastructure, was launched by the CIA and South Vietnamese agencies.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
Operation Thor was a U.S. combined arms operation against PAVN positions around, Mũi Lay, North Vietnam. The operation resulted in 125 PAVN killed and 500+ targets destroyed and U.S. losses of one killed and three aircraft shot down.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
A PAVN rocket and mortar attack followed by ground probes against Dầu Tiếng Base Camp resulted in five U.S. and 16 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
The first OV-10 Broncos arrive at Marble Mountain Air Facility for service with VMO-2.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
Operation Pocahontas Forest was a security operation conducted by the U.S. 23rd Infantry Division and the ARVN 2nd Division in the Quế Sơn Valley. The operation resulted in 127 PAVN and 18 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
A U.S. Army Landing Craft Utility (LCU) and its crew of 11 Americans and one South Vietnamese, was seized by Cambodia after veering into the Cambodian side of the Mekong River that marked its border with South Vietnam. Cambodia's leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk, demanded a ransom of 12 bulldozers or tractors for return of the LCU and its men, and refused an American apology. Although treated well during their captivity, the Americans would not be released until December 20.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
In a briefing with his staff after a visit to South Vietnam, Secretary Clifford stated that: "[ We] must get out of there." and that "No way can we terminate the war militarily." He expressed suspicion that the South Vietnamese government "doesn’t want war to stop now" as long as the money kept flowing. "Corruption runs through everything." He saw a need to "convey to our representatives in Saigon they [are] seeing it too narrowly, from GVN pt. of view" and that they should "look at it from interest of U.S."


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
The 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) deployed to South Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
USAF Major General Robert F. Worley is killed when his RF-4C Phantom was hit by ground fire and crashed approximately 65 miles (105 km) northwest of Da Nang Air Base.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
A VC sapper attack on Tuy Hoa Air Base destroyed two C-130s and damaged a further five C-130s, one F-100 and one C-47.


1968 in the Vietnam War, July
Admiral John S. McCain Jr. becomes Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC) replacing Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp Jr., his son John S. McCain III, a naval aviator was a prisoner in North Vietnam having been shot down on 26 October 1967.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
Operation Quyet Chien was a security operation by U.S. 9th Infantry Division, MRF and the ARVN 7th Division in the Mekong Delta. The operation resulted in 1,571 VC killed and 94 U.S. killed and ten missing.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
Operation Somerset Plain was a 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 1st Division operation in the A Sầu Valley. The operation resulted in 181 PAVN killed and four captured and seven U.S. and 11 ARVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
The Phase III Offensive — also known as the "August Offensive" or the "Third Offensive", was launched by the PAVN/VC. The Offensive followed from the May Offensive and had the similar aim of diverting U.S. forces from urban areas through attacking multiple border towns simultaneously. The operation was a failure; American forces pre-emptively stopped an assault on Danang, and some other attacks failed to materialize. PAVN/VC losses exceed 29,000 and 1,0936 civilians are killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
A company from the VC R20 Battalion and a sapper platoon infiltrated Forward Operating Base 4, killing 17 Special Forces soldiers (their largest one-day loss of the war) and wounding another 125 allied soldiers. Thirty-two VC were killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
The PAVN 95C Regiment attempted to overrun Duc Lap Camp. The assault was defeated at a cost of six U.S., one ARVN, 37 CIDG, 20 civilians and over 303 PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
The Rolling Stones released Street Fighting Man, their most political song to date, inspired in part by the Grosvenor Square demonstration on 17 March which Mick Jagger had attended.


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
U.S. Vice President Humphrey was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president on the first ballot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Afterward, after different speakers at Chicago's Grant Park addressed a crowd of 15,000 antiwar protesters, a crowd of about 1,500 people marched along Michigan Avenue toward the convention site at the International Amphitheatre where the convention was taking place, protesting Humphrey's nomination. The Chicago police confronted and attacked the protesters with billy clubs and tear gas at various places between the park and the convention center as violence reached its peak. As one historian would note later, "Millions of Americans turned on their televisions expecting to see Hubert Humphrey win the Democratic presidential nomination," but saw the networks cut away to live coverage of the riots; recognizing what was happening, the protesters began to chant "The whole world is watching! ".


1968 in the Vietnam War, August
African-American inmates rioted at the Long Bình Jail, the military prison for U.S. servicemen near Saigon. The uprising would last for 9 days; one inmate was killed and 52 inmates and 63 military policemen were injured and numerous buildings burnt down.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Operation Champaign Grove was a security operation conducted by elements of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Quảng Ngãi Province. The operation resulted in 378 PAVN/VC and 41 U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Typhoon Bess hit I Corps causing most Allied operations to be suspended and inflicting major damage on civilian homes and rice crops.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
U.S. negotiator W. Averell Harriman had his first private meeting with Le Duc Tho in the Paris suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Harvard University professor Henry Kissinger began a relationship with Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon with a telephone call to the Nixon campaign's foreign policy adviser, Richard V. Allen, offering his services that would lead to Kissinger's appointment as Nixon's National Security Adviser and, later, as the U.S. Secretary of State. Allen recounted later that Kissinger said that he had many friends who were involved in the Paris Peace Talks on behalf of President Johnson, and began providing the Nixon campaign with classified information from the talks. In 2016, notes from another Nixon adviser, H. R. Haldeman, would confirm suspicion that Nixon had used Kissinger's information to sabotage the peace talks in the days before the election.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Operation Vinh Loc was a security operation conducted by the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 54th Regiment on Vinh Loc Island, Phú Vang District. The operation resulted in 154 VC killed, 370 captured and 56 Chieu Hoi. U.S. losses were two killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Wheeler advised President Johnson not to halt bombing of North Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
1st Infantry Division commander Major General Keith L. Ware and seven others are killed when their helicopter is shot down near Lộc Ninh.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
The VC attacked Katum Camp but the attack was repulsed at a cost of 14 CIDG killed and 61 VC killed and 10 captured.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
In the Battle of Thượng Đức the PAVN 2nd Division attempted to overrun Thường Ðức Camp. The attack was repulsed and 70+ PAVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
Trailing Richard Nixon in presidential preference polls, Democratic Party candidate and U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey made the decision to come out against U.S. President Johnson's policy on the war, delivering a speech pledging that if elected, he would halt U.S. bombing of North Vietnam unconditionally. He further stated that he would support the resumption of bombing if the North Vietnamese "were to show bad faith".


1968 in the Vietnam War, September
The battleship USS New Jersey joined the gunline off the coast of South Vietnam initially providing naval gunfire support against PAVN targets in and near the DMZ.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
Operation Maui Peak was a 1st Marine Division operation near Thường Ðức Camp to keep pressure on the PAVN 2nd Division. The operation resulted in 202 PAVN and 28 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
U.S. presidential candidate George C. Wallace, who was running as the American Independent Party selection against Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert  Humphrey, introduced his running mate, retired USAF General Curtis E. LeMay. LeMay told a press conference that although he didn't believe that nuclear weapons would be necessary in the Vietnam War, he wouldn't be opposed to their use. "It doesn't make any difference to the soldier whether he is killed by a rusty knife or a nuclear explosion," LeMay commented, adding, "In fact, I'd lean toward the nuclear weapon."


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
Operation Sealords was launched to disrupt PAVN/VC supply lines in and around the Mekong Delta. As a two-year operation, by 1971 all aspects of Sealords had been turned over to the Republic of Vietnam Navy.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
In a telephone conference call with all three of the major U.S. presidential candidates, President Johnson informed them that he had no plans to change the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
A USAF C-47D crashed 32km south of Buôn Ma Thuột killing all 23 on board.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon instructed H. R. Haldeman to get intermediaries to persuade South Vietnamese President Thiệu to refuse to participate in the Paris Peace Talks to end the war. Efforts by private citizens to "defeat the measures of United States" were a federal crime, but this interference remained secret for 48 years.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
Operation Henderson Hill was a 1st Marine Division operation in Happy Valley, Quảng Nam Province. the operation resulted in 700 PAVN/VC killed and 94 captured and 35 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
The 1st Cavalry Division was ordered to move from northern I Corps to III Corps northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border in an operation named Operation Liberty Canyon. The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division was the lead element of the Division and was air-lifted to Quần Lợi Base Camp to begin operations.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
In the largest anti-American protest in British history, a crowd of 30,000 demonstrators marched through London near the U.S. Embassy.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
A PAVN sapper and mortar attack on Camp Radcliff resulted in two South Vietnamese guards killed, four vehicles destroyed and damage to several buildings.


1968 in the Vietnam War, October
President Johnson announces a total halt to US bombing in North Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
After three-and-a-half years, Operation Rolling Thunder comes to an end. In total, the campaign had cost more than 900 American aircraft. Eight hundred and eighteen pilots are dead or missing and hundreds are in captivity. Nearly 120 VPAF planes have been destroyed in air combat, accidents, or by friendly fire. According to U.S. estimates, 182,000 North Vietnamese civilians have been killed. Twenty thousand Chinese support personnel also have been casualties of the bombing.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
President Thiệu announced to the National Assembly that South Vietnam would refuse to participate in the Paris Peace Talks: "The Republic of Vietnam government is very sorry that such conditions for direct and serious talks between us and Hanoi have not yet come about. And therefore, the Republic of Vietnam cannot participate in the present Paris conference." At the same time, North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris said that it was up to the United States to guarantee that South Vietnam would join the peace talks.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Richard Nixon wins the 1968 United States presidential election. The results of the popular vote are 31,770,000 for Nixon, 43.4 percent of the total; 31,270,000 or 42.7 percent for Humphrey; 9,906,000 or 13.5 percent for Wallace; and 0.4 percent for other candidates.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
The Paris Peace Talks were called off less than 24 hours before they were to open, after the VC negotiator, Nguyen Thi Binh, said at her press conference that the group had a series of demands before it would negotiate, and the conditions were unacceptable to South Vietnam.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Operation Sheridan Sabre was a security operation conducted by the 1st Cavalry Division (which had just moved from I Corps to III Corps), U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and ARVN 36th Rangers in Bình Long Province to prevent PAVN infiltration from Cambodia. The operation resulted in 2,898 PAVN killed and 53 captured, 219 U.S. killed and six missing and 32 ARVN killed and one missing.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
A VC mortar and recoilless rifle attack on Camp Radcliff killed four South Vietnamese civilians and ignited 13,643 barrels of POL, one VC was killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
A 1,000-man PAVN force attacked Landing Zone Dot which was defended by the ARVN 36th Regiment supported by Battery D, 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery. The attack was beaten back with support from aerial rocket artillery and artillery at nearby firebases. PAVN losses were 287 killed, while ARVN losses were 4 killed and 23 wounded.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
PAVN sappers attacked Firebase Vera under cover of mortar fire, killing six U.S. for the loss of six PAVN.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
PFC Francis Baldino, a rifleman with the 2nd Platoon, D Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines was killed by a tiger while on a night patrol out of LZ Alpine 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Khe Sanh Combat Base.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Operation Commando Hunt was a covert USAF Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Operation Meade River was a 1st Marine Division cordon and search operation in Dodge City, Quảng Nam Province. The operation resulted in 1,023 PAVN/VC killed and 123 captured and 108 Marines killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
New rules of engagement (ROE) were promulgated for U.S. Navy and USAF fighters that were escorting reconnaissance aircraft over North Vietnam. Although bombing of North Vietnam had been halted, planes still flew in North Vietnamese airspace as far north as the 19th parallel. Under the new ROE, U.S. escort planes were allowed to fire missiles if they missions came under attack, including not just anti-aircraft weapons, as well as "installations and immediate supporting facilities." "American pilots," a U.S. Navy historian would later note, "became more aggressive over time, occasionally attacking sites that illuminated them with radar even if no shots were fired."


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
An Air America C-46 crashed shortly after takeoff from Savannakhet Airport killing 26 on board.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Under American pressure, President Thiệu reversed his 2 November decision not to participate in the Paris Peace Talks.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
Operation Pigfat was mounted by the RLA against PAVN/Pathet Lao forces around Lima Site 85. While initially successful the arrival of PAVN reinforcements from the 316th Division forced the RLA to withdraw. RLA losses were 300 killed and 400 missing while PAVN/Pathet Lao losses are unknown.


1968 in the Vietnam War, November
North Vietnam announced that it would negotiate only with the United States, or refuse to attend the talks altogether.


1968 in the Vietnam War, December
Operation Speedy Express a controversial United States military operation conducted in the Mekong Delta provinces Kien Hoa and Vĩnh Bình begins. The operation was launched to prevent VC units from interfering with pacification efforts and to interdict lines of communication and deny them the use of base areas.


1968 in the Vietnam War, December
In the Battle of Hat Dich 1ATF and ARVN forces engaged PAVN/VC units in the Hat Dich Secret Zone, Hắc Dịch. The battle resulted in 245 PAVN/VC killed and 17 captured and 22 Australians/New Zealanders and 31 ARVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, December
Operation Taylor Common was a search and destroy operation conducted by Task Force Yankee, a task organized force of the 1st Marine Division. The objective was to clear the An Hoa Basin, neutralize the PAVN's Base Area 112 and develop Fire Support Bases (FSBs) to interdict PAVN infiltration routes leading from the Laotian border. The operation resulted in 1,398 PAVN killed and 29 captured and 183 Marines and 100 ARVN killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, December
Operation Fayette Canyon was a security operation conducted by the 196th Infantry Brigade in "Antenna Valley", Hiệp Đức District and in the Nui Mat Rang mountains northwest of Tam Kỳ. The operation resulted in 327 PAVN/VC killed and four captured and two U.S. killed.


1968 in the Vietnam War, December
The 3rd Marine Division base at Camp Carroll is deactivated and control passed to the ARVN.


1968 in the environment
This is a list of notable events relating to the environment in 1968. They relate to environmental law, conservation, environmentalism and environmental issues.


1968 in the sport of athletics
While the most notable story coming out of 1968 was socio-political, politics involved with the Olympics was not something unique to this year. However, the year marked the beginning of several emerging elements of contemporary track and field.


1968 in the sport of athletics, Automatic timing
While timing to the 100th of a second had been experimented with for many years, the 1968 Summer Olympics  were the first to use Fully Automatic Timing, in not only athletics, but in canoeing, rowing, cycling, equestrian and swimming competitions. Subsequently, systems to record such times became more common and thus the accuracy of Fully Automatic Timing became mandated for World Record acceptance. While this rule was officially put into place in 1977, many 1968 records still stood as the first Automatically timed record.


1968 in the sport of athletics, All weather tracks
This technology too had been developing, but Tartan tracks were used as the competition surface for the first time at an Olympics. Since then an all-weather running track was required for all top level competition. Subsequently, the inconsistency of the running surface became a significantly smaller factor in athletic performance.


1968 in the sport of athletics, Altitude
With the Olympics happening in Mexico City, at high altitude, the effect of the thin air on athletic performance became a factor on world records. This was already a known phenomenon, and the American team was selected by holding the Olympic Trials at high altitude at Echo Summit, California. In 1955, Lou Jones set the world record in the 400 meters at altitude in Mexico City. Following the 1968 Summer Olympics the:


1968 in the sport of athletics, East Africa
1968 marked the emergence of high altitude trained long distance runners from Kenya. While Abebe Bikila's  Ethiopia victories in the two previous Olympic Marathons had announced to the world the potential of East African athletes, Kenya won its first Gold medals in Mexico City, and it won three of them, including the Steeplechase which it would subsequently claim ownership of. Kenya has won the steeplechase in every Olympics they have participated in since 1968. Ethiopia won its third straight marathon. There has been a fierce athletic rivalry between Kenya and Ethiopia ever since, while both countries and their neighbors have dominated long distance running both on the track and on the roads.


1968 in the sport of athletics, Fosbury Flop
Dick Fosbury was the first to do what is now called the "Fosbury Flop" to the High Jump. He learned to take advantage of the new foam landing pads (another technical innovation introduced in this era) by jumping over the bar backwards. Canadian Debbie Brill started doing the "Brill Bend" about the same time, but Fosbury got the most exposure, winning the Olympics. The prevailing methods involved jumping forwards or sideways, styles called the Roll or "Western Roll" and previous to that, the "Scissors" style. After Fosbury's victory, the flop became almost the only style used by elite competitors.


1968 in the sport of athletics, Performance enhancing drugs
This was the first Olympics to do drug testing, though primarily these initial searches were for narcotics and stimulants.


1968 movement in Italy
The 1968 movement in Italy or Sessantotto was inspired by distaste for traditional Italian society and international protests. In May 1968 all universities, except Bocconi, were occupied. In the same month a hundred artists, including Gio Pomodoro, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Ernesto Treccani and Gianni Dova occupied for 15 days the Palazzo della Triennale.


1968 movement in Italy, Movement '68
The background of the movement came from the newly transformed economy of Italy. The country had recently increased industrialization and a new modern culture began to develop. The movement has its roots in the strikes and university occupations of the 1960s, along with international headlines about socialist political triumphs in the Cold War.


1968 movement in Italy, Movement '68
Students of working or peasant backgrounds mainly drove the movement in an effort to change traditional capitalist and patriarchal society. The new education system allowed for a large populace to be educated and with such an education, question societal functions. The unrest began with student protests which were initially underestimated by politicians and the press, this soon turned into "the struggle of workers".


1968 movement in Italy, Movement '68
In the first moments of the student protest, the right-wing in the universities were among the movement's leaders. The Battle of Valle Giulia at Rome University on 1 March 1968 was the last action in which students left and right-wing were together, because on 16 March following the assault on the University La Sapienza, there was a gap between "movementists" and reactionaries. The left came to dominate the movement and the right-wing debates on what actions should be used to further the movement.


1968 movement in Italy, Aftermath
The counter-cultural attitudes of the movement end up creating conflicts within the Italian Left. The movement did bring a form of solidarity among the youth and a new politicized generation was created. There is debate about when and how a new political generation formed.


1968 movement in Pakistan
The 1968 Movement in Pakistan was part of the protest against the dictatorial regime of Ayub Khan. It took the form of a mass uprising of students and workers, attracting people from every profession. The uprising took place from early November 1968, to the end of March 1969, around 10 to 15 million people were involved. The movement resulted in the regime of Ayub Khan being brought down.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Background
Since the nation's birth in 1947, Pakistan had been governed though bureaucracy. In 1958, the army seized power through a coup led by Ayub Khan. Under his rule, the country's economy grew at an average yearly rate of more than 5%. However, due to income inequality, Pakistan became a country with extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Ayub Khan's policies nourished the capitalist class, whose fortunes amassed, but it oppressed ordinary people with increasing material poverty, as well as intellectual poverty due to rigorous political and cultural censorship.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Background
On April 21, 1968, Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, the then Chief Economist of the Planning Commission, identified Pakistan's 22 richest families that controlled 66 percent of the industries and owned 87 percent shares in the country's banking and insurance industry. Similarly, the Ayub regime implemented its own version of land reforms, under which a limit was imposed upon land holding. However, it failed miserably, and over 6,000 landowners exceeded his defined ceilings, owning 7.5 million acres of land. The average income in West Pakistan was a mere £35 per year; in East Pakistan, the figure was lower at £15.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Background
In 1965, presidential elections were held. These elections were not based upon adult franchise but on basic democracy. A few thousand so-called elected representatives of local bodies had to elect the president. There were wide speculations of election interference which also led to the opposition's protest. That same year, Pakistan went to war with India. The costs of the war put an end to economic growth and saw massive increase in defence spending. Private investment growth in Pakistan saw 20% decline in the following years.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
In the early months of 1968, Ayub Khan celebrated what was called the "Decade of Development", outraged citizens erupted into agitations. In response to the "Decade of Development" in early week of October 1968 the National Students Federation (associated with the Maoists faction of the Communist Party of West Pakistan started demands weeks and started a protest campaign to expose the so called "development". Demands week started on 7 October 1968 and the first demonstration took place in front of board of secondary education,Karachi.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
The movement spread across the country when later in November a group of students from Rawalpindi were heading back from Landi Kotal, and were stopped at customs checkpoints near Attock. They were aggressively met by customs officials. On returning to Rawalpindi, they staged a protest against their mishandling by police as result of their experience. Protests grew to a sizeable amount, resulting in the police trying to dismantle the protests and shots being fired. A student of Rawalpindi Polytechnic College, Abdul Hameed, was shot dead. Already, outraged citizens were protesting against a rise in the price of sugar; the death of Hameed sparked the whole society and workers to join. Prominent writer Tariq Ali narrates incident in following words;


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
Without any physical provocation the police, who were fully armed with rifles, batons, and tear-gas bombs, opened fire. One bullet hit Abdul Hamid, a first-year student aged seventeen, who died on the spot. Enraged, the students fought back with bricks and paving stones, and there were casualties on both sides.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
In February and March 1968, a wave of strikes occurred in the country. On February 13, for the first time in ten years, the red flag was hauled up in Lahore, as more than 25,000 rail workers marched along the main street chanting: "Solidarity with the Chinese people: Destroy capitalism." However, there was no mass Marxist party to provide leadership. In the industrial district of Faisalabad, the district administration had to seek the permission of a local labor leader named Mukhtar Rana for the supply of goods through trucks. All censorship failed.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
Trains were carrying the revolutionary messages across the country. Workers invented new methods of communication. It was the industrialisation, exploitation, and oppression widening the gulf between rich and poor which brought this change. In an interview for the book, Pakistan's Other Story-The 1968–69 Revolution, Munnu Bhai revealed some anecdotes of the upsurge. "At a public meeting in Ichra, Lahore, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Maulana Maudoodi held a piece of bread in his one hand and the Holy Koran in the other. He asked the crowd, 'Do you want roti (bread) or the Koran?' The people had replied, 'We have the Koran in our homes, but we don't have bread.' "According to the telegraphic narration of the events of those days in Mubashar Hasan's book, The crises of Pakistan and their solution.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
"In this movement, a total of 239 people were killed, 196 in East Pakistan and 43 in West Pakistan. According to details police firing killed 41 in West Pakistan and 88 in East Pakistan. Most of them were students. In East Pakistan, they included Asad, Matiur, Anwar, Rostom, Dr. Shamsuzzoha and Sergeant Zahrul Huq".


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
By early 1969, the movement was joined by peasant committees and organisations in the country's rural areas. In March 1969, a group of senior military men advised Ayub to step down, fearing the eruption of a full-scale civil war in East Pakistan and the political and social anarchy in the country's west wing. Even Ayub Khan conceded how the movement had paralysed the functioning of the state and society.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Movement '68
"The civilian labor force in Karachi dockyards had struck and stopped work. No loading or unloading of ships was being done. In one case a ship went back empty as it could not be loaded with cotton. Bhashani has been in Karachi and elsewhere spreading disaffection. Expectations were that the situation was likely to deteriorate".


1968 movement in Pakistan, Aftermath
On the 25th of March, Ayub Khan resigned as President of Pakistan and announced he was turning over the government of the nation to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Yahya Khan. Two days later, he highlighted reasons for his resignation in letter to General Yahya Khan in the following words;


1968 movement in Pakistan, Aftermath
I am left with no option but to step aside and leave it to the Defence Forces of Pakistan, which today represent the only effective and legal instrument, to take full control of the country. They are by the grace of God in a position to retrieve the situation and to save the country from utter chaos and total destruction. They alone can restore sanity and put the country back on the road to progress in a civil and constitutional manner.


1968 movement in Pakistan, Aftermath
The Police Service of Pakistan was unable to control the situation and the law and order situation began to worsen in the country, especially in the East where the serious uprising and riots were quelled in 1969. It became so serious that at one point, Home and Defence Minister Vice-Admiral Rahman told the journalists that the "country was under the mob rule and that police were not strong enough to tackle the situation."


1968 movement in Pakistan, Aftermath
In the 1970 Pakistani general election,  the AL won 98 percent of the allotted national and provincial assembly seats in East Pakistan, whereas in West Pakistan, the PPP swept the polls in the region's two largest provinces, Punjab and Sindh. NAP performed well in the former NWFP and Balochistan. Most of the "status quo parties" (such as the many Muslim League factions) and most religious outfits (except Jamiat Ulema Islam) were decimated.


1968 protests in Egypt
The 1968 protests in Egypt involved general strikes and protests against Gamal Abdel Nasser's government. The protesters demanded an end to corruption. The protests started in Helwan after Egypt's defeat to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and quickly swept the country. The zenith of the protest movement occurred on 9–10 June 1967, when Gamal Abdel Nasser’s supporters rallied in their hundreds of thousands against his resignation which made his rescind his resignation. The movement itself lasted until March 1968 when the government used military forces to quell the movement. By March 1968, the Egyptian government ended the protest movement.


1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
Student protests were held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, as the first mass protest in Yugoslavia after World War II. Protests also broke out in other capitals of Yugoslav republics — Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubljana — but they were smaller and shorter than in Belgrade.


1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
After youth protests erupted in Belgrade on the night of 2 June 1968, students of the Belgrade University went into a seven-day strike. Police beat the students and banned all public gatherings. Students then gathered at the Faculty of Philosophy, held debates and speeches on social justice and handed out banned copies of the magazine Student. Students also protested against economic reforms, which led to high unemployment and forced workers to leave the country and find work elsewhere.


1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
The protests were supported by prominent public personalities, including film director Dušan Makavejev, stage actor Stevo Žigon, poet Desanka Maksimović and university professors, whose careers ran into problems because of their links to the protests.


1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
President Josip Broz Tito gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students’ demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech on 9 June, but in the following years dealt with the leaders of the protests by imprisoning students (Vlado Mijanović, Milan Nikolić, Pavluško Imširović, Lazar Stojanović and others) and by firing critical professors from university and Communist party posts.


1968 uprising in Senegal
The 1968 Senegal uprising was a nationwide revolutionary uprising that broke out after Strikes led by young students in Dakar against a proposed scholarship law in universities and high schools turned into an anti-ruling class protest movement that led to a full-scale protest movement nationwide and large-scale violence and chaotic scenes in popular demonstrations, Looting and Riots was witnessed during national protests and civil disobedience movement across the nation.


1968 uprising in Senegal, Background
Students have been angry at the government and it's handling over the conditions and spiralling lifestyle conditions in Senegal and many have been comparing it with other nations. Rallies and marches is rare in Senegalese history, but this time, they won't let the government continue.


1968 uprising in Senegal, Protests
Pretests, fuelled by recession and economic downturn, turned into sustained street rallies, battles and Occupations. Bloody protests against the ruling-class Senegalese in power turned violent as echoes of student unrest and mass civil dissent spread nationwide from Dakar.


1968 uprising in Senegal, Protests
Powerful demonstrations echoed throughout news media and working places; protesters rallied in violent protests and demonstrations demanding the fall of the regime. The student demonstrations that rocked Senegal was short-lived but intense as they used similar demands from the May 68 uprising in France.


1968 uprising in Senegal, Protests
Major protests against the military forces and the government continued and Riots was erupting. After the killing of 28 demonstrators in June, protests were dispersed and uprisings sprung up nationwide. Nationwide and countrywide protests were taking place in early June, after 2 weeks of intense violence and deadly demonstrations. The movement was forcibly quelled by excessive amount of force.


1968 Úrvalsdeild, Overview
It was contested by 6 teams, and KR won the championship. Fram's Helgi Númason, ÍBA's Kári Árnason, KR's Ólafur Lárusson and Valur's Reynir Jónsson were the joint top scorers with 8 goals.


1968/69 NTFL season
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Paul2520 (talk | contribs) at 17:46, 17 November 2019 (Adding short description: "48th season of the NTFL" (Shortdesc helper)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


1968/69 NTFL season
The 1968/69 NTFL season was the 48th season of the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL).


1968/69 NTFL season
Darwin have won there 16th premiership title while defeating St Marys in the grand final by 42 points.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests
In 1968 and 1969, student protests were conducted at several Japanese universities that ultimately forced the closure of campuses nationwide. Known as daigaku funsō (大学紛争, lit. 'university troubles') or  daigaku tōsō (大学闘争, 'university struggles'), the protests were part of the worldwide protest cycle in 1968 and the late-1960s Japanese protest cycle, including the Anpo protests of 1970 and the struggle against the construction of Narita Airport. Students initially demonstrated against practical issues in universities, and they eventually formed the Zenkyōtō in mid-1968 to organize themselves. The protests were dispersed in 1969 by the Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests
The protests were organized to protest against unpaid internships at the University of Tokyo Medical School. Building on years of student organization and protest, New Left student organizations began to occupy buildings around campus. The other main campus where the protests originated was Nihon University, starting from student discontent over alleged corruption in the university board of directors. At Nihon, protests were less driven by ideology and more by pragmatism due to the traditional and conservative nature of the university. From then on, the movement spread to other Japanese universities, escalating in violence both on campus and in the streets.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests
In late 1968, the zenith of the movement, thousands of students entered Shinjuku Station and rioted. Factional infighting (uchi-geba, 内ゲバ) was rampant among these students. In January 1969, the police besieged the University of Tokyo and ended the protests there, which led to renewed fervor from students at other universities, where protests continued. However, as public opinion of students fell and the police began to increase their efforts to stop the protests, the student movement began to wane. The passage of the 1969 Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management gave police the legal basis to more forcefully disperse the bulk of the movement, although splinter groups of the New Left groups, such as the United Red Army, continued their violence into the 1970s.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests
The students drew ideological inspiration from the works of Marxist theorists such as Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, French existentialist philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and the homegrown philosophy of Japanese poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto's ideas of "autonomy" (jiritsusei) and "subjectivity" (shutaisei) were based on Yoshimoto's critique of the progressive liberal interpretations of these ideas from other Japanese intellectuals such as Masao Maruyama, whom he denounced as hypocritical. The students's devotion to shutaisei in particular would ultimately lead to the disintegration of their movement, as they focused increasingly on "self-negation" (jiko hitei) and "self-criticism" (hansei).


1968–1969 Japanese university protests
The university troubles helped in the emergence of Mitsu Tanaka's Women's Liberation (Ūman Ribu) movement. While most things had settled down by the 1970s and many of the students had reintegrated into Japanese society, the protests found their way into the cultural sphere, inspiring writers such as Haruki Murakami and Ryū Murakami. The political demands of the students put education reform at the top of the agenda for the Japanese government, which it tried to address through organizations such as the Central Council for Education. The protests have also been the subject of modern popular media, such as Kōji Wakamatsu's 2007 film United Red Army.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
The Allied Occupation of Japan from the end of the Second World War to 1952 brought significant changes to Japanese politics. The occupation authorities quickly moved to repeal the Peace Preservation Law, which had been enacted before the war to target left-wing groups specifically and arrest their members. Left-wing prisoners incarcerated under the Peace Preservation Law were released. The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and Japanese Socialist Party (JSP) were legalized, and quickly became strong players within Japanese politics.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
Among the main groups the JCP hoped to draw voters from were students, a focus which would eventually lead to the association of students with left-wing activism. Another action taken by the occupation authorities that affected student activism was in their promulgation of the post-war Constitution of Japan, a document which gave political organizations the right to exist and workers the right to organize. The Constitution is thus supported by left-wing groups within Japan, and students aimed to protect it and defend themselves against what they saw as unconstitutional actions taken by the Japanese state.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
The Occupation also restructured the Japanese education system by rescinding the Imperial Rescript on Education, decentralizing the administration of the education system, and introducing the American-based 6-3-3-4 school system (6 years of primary school, 3 years of junior secondary school, 3 years of senior secondary school, 4 years of tertiary education). The occupation authorities made at least 9 years of education mandatory, with high school admission still being rare and competitive.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
The higher education system was also expanded through the 1949 National School Establishment Law, which led to local higher education institutions being consolidated into national universities, ensuring the existence of state-supported universities in every prefecture. This standardization later led to an increasing number of students ready to go on to high school, which led to the creation of more private high schools by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The number of high school graduates thus expanded to 90% of students by the 1960s, putting pressure on higher education institutions to expand, and for secondary education institutions to extend into tertiary education.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
The rise of left-wing sympathies among students led to the creation of the Zengakuren, a socialist student organization formed in 1948. Zengakuren grew out of a 1947–48 protest against an increase in university fees led by student supporters of the JCP. Under Zengakuren, the student movement had a banner to rally under. In the 1950s, New Left movements that had been birthed from Zengakuren and who were unaffiliated with the JCP sprang up within the student movement.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
Some of the student leaders of Zengakuren, for example, split from the JCP to form the Communist League, a Leninist group known as the "Bund", who took their name from the German name of the Communist League of Karl Marx's time. Groups that followed the theory of Leon Trotsky came together to form the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Kakukyōdō), and less radical Zengakuren leaders within the Bund led the Student Socialist League (Shakai Gakusei Dōmei, shortened to Shagakudō). These factions wrested control of Zengakuren from the JCP for the New Left.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
In 1960, a broad coalition of left-wing groups that included the JCP, the JSP, Zengakuren, and the Sōhyō trade federation representing Japanese trade unions carried out massive protests against renewal of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan (known commonly as Anpo). For Zengakuren, Anpo marked a renewal and strengthening of their political program and the eclipsing of the Old Left by the New Left. During the Anpo protests of 1960, a split occurred between two leading left-wing intellectuals – Masao Maruyama and Takaaki Yoshimoto.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
Maruyama saw the protest as an example of the enacting of the concept of shutaisei (subjectivity), or the idea of the autonomy of society from the state and the self, and as a shining beacon of democratic ideals. However, Yoshimoto saw the protest as a reaction against capitalist alienation, not as an act of protecting democracy. Yoshimoto thus accused Maruyama and his supporters of being duplicitous, hypocritical, and going against the idea of shutaisei by deceiving themselves into believing that they were against the war and believing that they were the heralds of popular democracy.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
The New Left, especially the Bund, took up Yoshimoto's ideas and his critique of Maruyama and Japanese progressivism. Zengakuren attacked the JCP, the progressives, and anything else they deemed as the "Establishment" as organizations that threatened shutaisei by destroying the autonomy of the self and replacing it with a vanguard. This marked the turn of the Japanese New Left against mainstream progressivism as well as orthodox Stalinism.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Origins of student activism
By the late 1960s, the number of university students and universities reached an all-time high, with 52 universities in Tokyo providing a safe haven for New Left radicals. The lack of publication censorship post-war, the printing of affordable Marxist texts, and the abundance of free time at university led to the radicalization of many more students. The generation born in the postwar baby boom had reached university, and universities had accommodated this change by opening up thousands of new spaces. Tensions had already risen, and the student movement had been mostly dormant since the Anpo protests. The situation in the universities had become increasingly unstable, setting the stage for the 1968 protests.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Initial skirmishes
Student unrest began to reemerge around 1965 and 1966, with protests at Keio University in 1965 and Waseda University in 1966 being the first to use the name "All-Campus Joint Struggle Committees" (Zenkyōtō) to refer to the student organizations coordinating the protests. The Waseda disturbances, however, only lasted 150 days, ending in student activism calming down nationwide. A controversial reform made by the University of Tokyo (known commonly as Tōdai) in late 1967 regarding medical internship, seen as six years of free labor by medical students, led to a student strike at the university in early 1968.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Initial skirmishes
A fight on February 19 between a tutor and students caused by the controversy over internship reform led to the punishment of 17 students and the expulsion of four. Some of the punishment was deemed absurd, and the medical students who had been alienated by this took further action. At first, they disrupted the graduation ceremonies at the university in March, but as riot police were called in to protect these ceremonies, the students moved to occupy Yasuda Hall in June. The University of Tokyo decided to take measures to take back Yasuda Hall from student occupation. However, this led to outrage amongst the student population, which re-occupied the hall and called a general strike.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Initial skirmishes
The protests by the University of Tokyo medical students spilled over to other universities. One of the first was Nihon University (known commonly as Nichidai), which saw 10,000 out of 86,000 students demonstrating in May 1968 regarding the suspicious use of 2 billion yen of funds by the board of directors of the university. The board was accused of "money-making" in a "mass-production university". A comparison between the two universities shows similarities and differences – both used similar tactics of protest such as the occupation of important university buildings, while the nature of the universities were different. The University of Tokyo was an elite institution with a history of students with left-wing sympathies, whereas Nihon University was more conservative and repressive, without the liberal atmosphere or the academic rigor seen at Tokyo. These similarities in protest allowed later for the formation of Zenkyōtō groups in different universities.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
It was in July 1968 that the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō, or All-Campus Joint Struggle Committee, was formed to coordinate protests at different universities across the country. The non-sectarian postgraduate student Yoshitaka Yamamoto was elected as the leader of this Zenkyōtō. Although Zenkyōtō had previously existed, the University of Tokyo popularized the Zenkyōtō model and its interpretation of said model served as the mainstream interpretation of the idea of Zenkyōtō after this point.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
The Zenkyōtō brought the actions of non-sectarian activists (people who did not follow any set path to revolution and were not affiliated with either Zengakuren or the JCP) to light, in contrast to the pre-Zenkyōtō situation where activists were split into 39 groups affiliated with Zengakuren and opposed to the JCP and 1 group that was pro-JCP. The Zenkyōtō also helped to expand the scope of protestors – whereas only undergraduate students protested against Anpo in 1960, the Zenkyōtō included graduate students and even some members of staff. The Zenkyōtō at Nihon University helped push back against conservative influence on the student movement.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
The Zenkyōtō at the University of Tokyo made demands in July for all senior medical staff within the university to resign, which led to the resignations of the director of the University of Tokyo Hospital and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine on August 10. However, in the same month, talks broke down, restarting the violence on campus, and the Zenkyōtō slowly began to lose control to different organizations. In November, members of the Kakumaru-ha, a breakaway organization of the Trotskyist Japan Revolutionary Communist League, took nine professors hostage, including Literature Faculty Dean Kentarō Hayashi.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
Hayashi, in discussing the protests, spoke about how many professors like him were interrogated ruthlessly for days and verbally abused by students. The Shaseidō Kaihō-ha, another Zengakuren organization, as well as the Minsei Dōmei, a Zengakuren clique aligned with the JCP, also got involved. These factions brought factionalist divisions onto campus, leading to fights where non-sectarian students intervened to either break them up or provide first aid. This three-way internal conflict mostly took place on the Komaba campus of the University of Tokyo.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
In December, a fight between the Shaseidō Kaihō-ha and the Kakumaru-ha at Waseda University that started over an accusation of theft of papers spilled over to the University of Tokyo, where the factions occupied different buildings belonging to the University's Literature Department and built barricades. This dispute lasted 3 weeks, leading to the withdrawal of the Kakumaru-ha from the Zenkyōtō. Different Zengakuren factions controlled different buildings from then.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
In the meantime, the protests spread across many universities in Japan. Students at different universities protested against different things – at Kansei Gakuin University and Tōhoku University, students protested against rising tuition costs. At Kanagawa University and Beppu University, students called for university democratization. At Doshisha University and Waseda University, the main focus was giving the students a role in electing the university rector, and at Nagasaki University and Hanazono University, students aimed to gain control of student association buildings.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
Sophia University saw the complete shutting down of the campus for 6 months, and at Kyushu University, an American jet crashed into the computer center, sparking anti-American protests aimed at shutting down Brady Air Base. By the end of 1968, students had seized control of 67 campuses, with hundreds of campuses having significant student unrest. On the streets, students were also making moves – thousands of students entered Shinjuku Station on October 21 (International Anti-War Day) and rioted, leading to the police invoking the Riotous Assembly Crime Act. The scale of the riot provided public backlash that increased public support for the police, which in turn led to the police using more force and even beginning to assault occupied campuses. The Sophia University occupation, for example, fell in December 1968 after a police siege of the campus.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Zenkyōtō and spread of the movement
Violence escalated in the autumn of 1968. Until this time, the police had regarded students as part of the widespread anti-LDP movement that included opposition parties and labor unions. However, increasing violence, which led to lower public support for the students, made the police single out student radicals. The students fought with staves made of wood or bamboo known as Gewalt Staves, or gebaruto-bō in Japanese (abbreviated as geba-bō). The word Gewalt means "violence" or "force" in German, an idea that meant to the student movement a valid means towards achieving political goals.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
There is silence in the midst of battle,Peace in the midst of war andOrder in the midst of struggle.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
Unknown author, translated poem found on the walls of Yasuda Hall


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
At the beginning of 1969, the students were hopeful that they would hold out against the police. The government canceled the spring 1969 university entrance exams as violence continued. On the University of Tokyo campus in particular, the situation was hectic. Minsei, the pro-JCP clique of Zengakuren, was winning at the time, which pressured the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō to call in student reinforcements from Nihon University and Chuo University. The students themselves began to become disillusioned, resulting in multiple students voting to stop the strikes at the University of Tokyo. The hardliners, however, holed up in buildings such as Yasuda Hall, readying themselves for a siege.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
On 18 January 1969, thousands of police moved into the University of Tokyo. Nationalist writer Yukio Mishima was so alarmed by the siege that he personally contacted the police to tell them to be careful. Conflict still ensued among the disaparate Zengakuren cliques and Zenkyōtō although their power had been greatly reduced. Despite the adamance of the groups in Yasuda Hall that they would win the conflict, the weekend ended with police in control of the roof of Yasuda Hall, the final holdout of the University of Tokyo student movement.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
This fight was a low point for the student movement – the number of occupied university campuses had gone down to 33. Following the siege, Mishima addressed the students, criticizing them for not being convicted enough to die for their cause. However, the fighting in Yasuda Hall, being broadcast on television, only increased the fervor of student activists elsewhere.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
The explosion of student unrest following the Yasuda Hall siege led to the number of occupied campuses skyrocketing from 33 to 77 by March and 111 by April. However, the government began to pay close attention to the protests, with police strengthening their stance against the students. In February, the barricades at Nihon University were broken down and the university reopened its classes and its entrance exams held under heavy police guard. Attention shifted to Kyoto University, where the Kyoto Zenkyōtō and the local Minsei chapter, supported by the Kyoto University authorities, had been viciously fighting.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
Following a fight that ended in Nihon University Zenkyōtō students declaring central Kyoto a "liberated area", riot police was called in to deal with the students. Entrance exams were held in March in emergency centers in Kyoto with police protection, following which the protests at Kyoto University fizzled out. On Okinawa Day, students clashed with police in central Tokyo upon the background of a much larger protest against the American occupation of Okinawa. Student activity spiked again in June, as they allied with multiple other left-wing groups to protest against the Vietnam War.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
In late 1968, Prime Minister Eisaku Sato appointed educationist Michita Sakata, who had previously called for a special investigation into university deficiencies in 1968, as Minister of Education. Sakata, now tasked with trying to deal with calls for government intervention in the universities, did so by promulgating the Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management in May 1969. The government rushed it through the National Diet and implemented it as law in August.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
The law called for the creation of the Extra Council on University Disputes and made it possible for university authorities to call in riot police to resolve disputes with students. This legislation served as a heavy blow for the already-declining students and was one of the main factors for their demise.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Decline and fall
By the end of 1969, then, the students had been broken. A large amount of barricades had been broken down, and violence slowly dissipated. The National Zenkyōtō, formed in 1969 and peaking in activity in September with a rally held in Hibiya Park, fractured from infighting and movements became isolated. Despite the destruction of any unity between Zenkyōtō, students continued to riot in the streets, with their attention turned more to things such as the war in Vietnam and the upcoming renewal of the Anpo treaty. However, in 1970, the situation on campuses once again returned to normal.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Factions
The university struggles were plagued by infighting between Anti- Yoyogi (anti-JCP) groups, Minsei, and others. The Chūkaku-ha and Kakumaru-ha were the two main factions of the Trotskyist Kakukyōdō. The former agreed with the Bund and posited that the institution of the University had been brought under capitalism from its previously free status, and that the struggles represented the contradictions within capitalism. The latter believed that due to the imperialistic nature of the University, students could never influence society through entering administration (they were also anti-Zenkyōtō, having fought against them at Waseda University in late 1969).


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Factions
Both also disagreed politically – although they were both Marxist, Kakumaru-ha advocated for a focus on the creation of an anti-Stalinist party, while the Chūkaku-ha focused more on class war and the mobilization of the proletariat. The Chūkaku-ha criticized Kakumaru-ha as being petite bourgeois. The Shaseidō Kaihō-ha believed that the problem of the University was its educational ideology of preparing students for becoming "slaves" in industry. The Bund was much more hierarchical compared to other student groups. Ideologically, they focused on the defense of Japanese democracy from fascism instead of destroying the University. Minsei, as a more reformist faction aligned with the JCP, believed that compromise was possible with professors and that the real evil was the oppressive force of the Ministry of Education. Minsei was important in working against Zenkyōtō, opposing their occupations of campuses.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Factions
This chart shows the relationships between various factions within the Japanese New Left. However, it is an oversimplification of these relations, with many details not shown. Factions colored yellow were the members of the Sanpa Zengakuren, an anti-JCP alliance. The two splinter factions of Kakukyōdō also had their own factions of Marugakudō, Kakukyōdō's Zengakuren student arm.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Philosophy
The students were influenced greatly by their interpretation of the idea of shutaisei. The protests, once started, became a way for students to get back at the progressives for abandoning shutaisei during the Anpo Protests of 1960. The students wished to have a sense of personal self-hood or agency, and wanted to join with other people looking for shutaisei to affirm this through fighting.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Philosophy
Scholar of the Japanese New Left William Andrews likens the students's interpretation of shutaisei to Jean-Paul Sartre's theory of good and bad faith – it was personal conviction and student agency that the students thought would bring about change, not the following of any party line. This led to an emphasis on self-criticism and self-negation (jikohihan) as a way of becoming more revolutionary.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Philosophy
When University of Tokyo students were asked what they were fighting for, a majority of them claimed that they were fighting for either "asserting the self" or "self-transformation". The students rejected anything they deemed "reformism", such as concrete reform goals. Their goals overall were very vague, and one Zenkyōtō member even claimed to be fighting "for the battle itself". Indeed, some students simply just wanted to join in on the fighting. The students, especially those within the Bund, interpreted shutaisei through a simplified form of Takaaki Yoshimoto's interpretation. Their idea of shutaisei led, then, to their demise – they wanted to have the agency to negate their own selves.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Philosophy
Critics of this interpretation such as then-Dean of the Literature Facility of the University of Tokyo Hayashi Kentaro, who had been taken hostage by the students during the protests, denounced the students's ideas as "the hypocrisy of self-denigration" – despite all of the students's talk about denying "the University of Tokyo within us", the students were hypocritically keeping their privileges as University of Tokyo students. Yoshimoto himself, seen as a "prophet" by the students, was critical of them for being wrapped up in a "communal illusion". Books which influenced the students give a look at their personal philosophies further. Some of the most popular books within the student population of Japan at the time were existentialist works such as Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and Camus's The Stranger.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
The late-1960s protest cycle served as a blow to the Japanese left in terms of public opinion – in the 1969 Japanese general election, the JSP lost 51 seats. The waning influence, power and public image of the left, as well as increased police scrutiny, led eventually to the failure of the 1970 Anpo protests.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
The protests influenced Japanese culture and media greatly. Within the psyche of the 1968 generation, the defeat of the protests generated an identity crisis. This lack of understanding towards the self was one of the main inspirations for writer Haruki Murakami – some of his books even deal directly with the aftermath of the protests in the 1970s, such as Hear the Wind Sing. Other famous books inspired by the protests include the 1977 Zenkyōtō novel Boku tte nani by Masahiro Mita (ja), and 69 by Ryū Murakami (further adapted into a 2004 film).


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
The events at Yasuda Hall eventually led to the creation of a new genre of literature named Zenkyōtō bungaku (Zenkyōtō literature), which consists of books published within the 1970s and 1980s that are set during the protests. These works include intense imagery of strong emotions, disappointment, confusion, and failure. Philosopher and semiotician Roland Barthes even dedicated a section of his book Empire of Signs to the Zengakuren students.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
The student protests did not spawn any reformist political movements, such as the Green Party in Germany. Oguma identifies three reasons for this – the students' rejection of any concrete goals and their own moralistic goals, continuing economic growth in Japan leading to the employment of former activists within traditional Japanese society, and the rigid structure and Marxist nature of the sects. However, some more militant students created their own new movements, such as the Rengo Sekigun (United Red Army) or the Nihon Sekigun (Japanese Red Army).


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
For these students, the student protests were just a step in the right direction, and not the end of their military struggle. Sekigun and other remnant groups of the student groups that participated in the protests were responsible for such incidents as the Yodogō Hijacking Incident and the Asama-Sansō incident. The evolution of these groups from the protests is the subject of Kōji Wakamatsu's 2007 film United Red Army.


1968–1969 Japanese university protests, Legacy
The aftermath of the protests also led to the rise of Japanese feminism. Women were constrained in their ability to protest during the movement, especially in Japanese society, where women's roles were more traditional at the time. However, female students were importantly given a taste of agency and public action. The failure of female students to be treated equally during the protests led to a greater awareness among women towards gender inequality on campus. This new awareness led feminist intellecutal Mitsu Tanaka to write her 1970 work No More Toilets, a seminal work within the Ūman ribu movement. Tanaka criticized the infighting within the New Left groups as overly masculine and capitalistic.


1968–69 1. FC Nürnberg season
1. FC Nürnberg played the 1968–69 season in the Fußball-Bundesliga.


1968–69 1. FC Nürnberg season, Season review
Despite winning the championship at the end of the previous season, coach Max Merkel decided to make significant changes to the squad. Merkel added 13 new players to the first team squad, and several of the club's more experienced players were sold, including Franz Brungs, the team's leading goalscorer in their championship winning season, and Austrian international August Starek.


1968–69 1. FC Nürnberg season, Season review
Nuremberg started the season poorly, losing their opening two games, but soon recovered and spent the next couple of months in a mid-table position. As reigning champions, the club entered the UEFA European Cup, but lost 5–1 on aggregate to Ajax in the first round. Nuremberg began to struggle from November onwards, and went the next ten games without a win, dropping to the bottom of the table. Merkel was sacked on 24 March and replaced by Kuno Klötzer a few weeks later.


1968–69 1. FC Nürnberg season, Season review
With Klötzer in charge, Nuremberg went on to win their next three matches, including a victory against eventual champions Bayern Munich. This was followed by two draws, which took the club to 16th (one place above the relegation zone) with one game in the season remaining. This was a match away at 1. FC Köln, who were also in danger of being relegated. Nuremberg were defeated 3–0, confirming their relegation to the Regionalliga as 17th-placed Borussia Dortmund had won their final match.


1968–69 1. FC Nürnberg season, Aftermath
Nuremberg's relegation came as a major surprise having won the Bundesliga 12 months earlier – former player Max Morlock described the season as being "like a bad dream". They were the first champions of the Bundesliga to be relegated, and did not return to the top flight until 1978. Max Merkel is the figure often blamed for the club's relegation due to the wholesale changes made to the squad during the pre-season, with Horst Leupold later remarking that he "didn't understand why so many new players joined us after we won the title". Defender Ferdinand Wenauer pointed to more sinister reasons, claiming that goalkeeper Jürgen Rynio had been bribed by Borussia Dortmund, although this was never proven.