People who were around in 1968, what would your reaction have been if THIS happened?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, this question’s been percolating in the back of my mind for awhile, for a story I have to admit I’m probably never going to be able to get around to writing. But never let it be said I don’t do the research.

If you’ll allow me the conceit of being vague on some of the details, I was curious to what the reaction, response, and/or thoughts would be from the normal person-on-the-street who WOULDN’T be privy to any of the details going on behind the scenes would’ve been to something like this slapping them in the face one morning.

Here’s the setup: it’s mid February, 1968. The announcement comes out on the news, from the US government, that there’s been some kind of commando raid on Hanoi, with the goal of rescuing US POWs. The objective was achieved, but—although details are sparse—during a series of firefights, it seems that Ho Chi Minh, General Giap, and a good portion of the upper echelons North Vietnamese political and military leadership were “caught in the crossfire” and killed.

The North Vietnamese general who’s taken control in the aftermath with an “emergency government” has publicly raged against this shocking and monstrous act by the western imperialists, that has caused such a grievous wound to the heart of his nation that he has been forced to call an immediate armistice in the ongoing conflict, effective immediately.

In the south—something happened, less flashy if not less dramatic, behind closed doors, with fuzzy reports of some kind of attempted putsch or palace coup, actually uncertain if related to the ongoing Tet Offensive. Thiệu and Kỳ are both dead, but some ARVN Colonel no one’s heard of somehow popped up and is keeping things together.

The Soviets, for their part, are VERY subdued in their response, deploring and condemning the loss of life, and urging calm and restraint for all sides involved.

Formal peace talks are scheduled to begin in Tahiti sometime in the spring. In March, President Johnson confirms he will be seeking the nomination of his party for another term as President in that year’s election.

So…thoughts? Freakouts? Effects on party plans?

2

My reaction would be: That’s interesting. I’ll keep my eye on this and see how it develops further.

3

I’d pay good money to see this written as an alternate-timeline Rambo reboot.

4

I was a junior in high school - not particularly interested in current events or politics. I still had a vague trust in “the government” - so I think I’d have been somewhat proud that we took decisive action and finished my physics homework.

5

In 1968 I was too young to care about the news, so I can’t offer any personal reaction to your ideas. But I might suggest that you take into account one more issue that you haven’t mentioned at all : the draft.

The huge issue in 1968 wasn’t just the war and the deaths of a few soldiers, (many from poor families)…it was the fact that suddenly ALL the boomer kids were facing the draft, and having their private lives interfered with. There is even a thread running right now about the protests.
Did the 1960's anti-Vietnam-war protests achieve anything? - #38 by Alessan

The draft was what made it personal.
If you write an alternative history about LBJ, peace talks, Ho Chi Minh, etc…it’s just abstract theory, the stuff that makes for a good discussion in a political science classroom. Put the draft, (or cancellation of it,) in the plot, and you get personal involvement that might make for a better story.

6

That sounds to me like just a development in an ongoing war. Probably a pretty big development, and sure to make the papers, but not all that significant to the American public.

7

I was a freshman in college at that time. I hated LBJ, for not entirely rational reasons, and I was politically very immature. I had been excused from the draft for health reasons, so an end to the war would have been less personal for me. The following year there were demonstrations and sit-ins in my university, so if those hadn’t happened that year might have been very different for me, but I didn’t know that at the time.

It’s hard to put myself back into the frame of mind during that period, but I think I would have felt some pride that my country may have actually accomplished something that I would have regarded as positive, instead of continuing to be waist deep in the big muddy. Even if they had to do it covertly and underhanded.

8

My reaction would be “When did I start living in a Chuck Norris movie?”

9

1968? I was in Vietnam, so probably business as usual.

10

I was 7 years old, so I probably would have assumed that Superman would sort it all out.

11

Ditto, except for the physics homework; I didn’t take physics.

I do think I was starting to notice areas where I disagreed with the government. I don’t think I’d have realized the different international political implications of taking out a country’s leadership as opposed to its soldiers; and I would probably have thought it a better and fairer way to go about it, as many or most of the soldiers are usually only fighting because the leadership told them to. There’s still a significant chunk of my head that thinks that, but I’ve got a better understanding of why it isn’t generally considered a good idea.

Depending on your story, of course, you may need the reactions of people who were full adults at the time. There are fewer of them left to consult.

ETA: I’m female, so didn’t have to be worried about being drafted. I remember, however, a couple of years later, sitting in a room full of male and female friends listening on a radio to the draft numbers being drawn for the men in that room. That felt pretty personal. (I still don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “fuck” said with quite as much vehemence.)

12

On Harleys?

13

I’m a decade or two too young to remember 1968 but growing up in the cold war era UK I know the overwhelming reaction would be “oh crap, there’s gonna be a nuclear war, we are all gonna die”. I cannot overstate how that was the main consideration during any American or Soviet military action during the cold war. I don’t know whether the same feelings dominated in the US and Soviet Union.

14

This element actually is planned to come up, around this part or a bit later—Johnson announcing plans to drastically scale down and ultimately eliminate the Draft, along with general troop drawdowns and cutbacks, framed as a “Victory Dividend.”

(With considerable amounts of acrimony and recrimination going on “behind the scenes” between Washingon political and military power blocks, lotsa accusations of under-bus throwing, much of it even true. 'Not sure how much would’ve filtered out into public awareness and polite conversation, back in the day)

15

I would have thought it really big news that the evening news would spend significantly more time on than the standard 2-3 minutes. Maybe 5 or 6. Maybe some follow up in the morning paper, but with no confirmed facts not much. The next night’s news program might have another 2-3 minute piece on it. If there was anything to the reports I’d expect to wait months for any resolution.

16

My reaction? “Will we get milk or juice with our Graham Crackers, today?”

17

I was a junior in high school then, and my reaction would have been: Oh, so a raid freeing POWs just happened to catch the North Vietnamese leadership nearby and caught in a crossfire? The government is lying right again. Assassinating foreign leaders is usually considered a no-no. This could get interesting.

And peace talks? Not bloody likely. Ho Chi Minh was old, I suspect they had a successor, and that person would not be likely to sit down with the people who just killed much of their government. I suspect the war would intensify.
It seems some people here thought that hardly anyone paid attention to the war, btw. Not quite. This would dominate the news for a long time.

18

I didn’t mean that hardly anyone paid attention to the war. I meant that I, 16 years old, wasn’t paying much attention to any form of politics at the time. My father would have been paying lots of attention; but he was by that point vehemently anti-Communist, and I expect that would have affected his reaction; though especially as the South Vietnamese leadership is also taken out in the hypothetical he might instead have reacted to it as a general assassination of national leadership – I agree that a cover story of ‘oh, they just happened to be in the line of fire’ seems pretty thin. I don’t know whether he’d have assumed that both sets were assassinated by the same country/group. It isn’t actually clear in the hypothetical whether they were, and if so whether it was the USA acting alone or in agreement with somebody else.

19

Where did you live? My high school, in NY, was full of politics. I was 17 at the time and I had to worry about the draft, though not until I got out of college.

20

I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts at the time. All girls. We discussed politics occasionally, but as I recall not all that much.