o were not actually involved in the demonstration.
15/10/1969, The biggest anti-Vietnam-War demonstration to date took place in America. The war so far had cost the USA the lives of 40,000 servicemen, over 8 years.
16/9/1969. President Nixon announced the withdrawal of a further 36,000 troops from Vietnam by mid-December.
12/9/1969. President Nixon continued B52 bombing raids on Vietnam.
15/8/1969. The famous American rock festival, Woodstock, began. It was attended by 400,000.
18/7/1969. Senator Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappaquidick River on the east coast of the USA. Kennedy escaped but his companion Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. Kennedy didn’t report the incident for ten hours and was found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident.
11/6/1969, John Llewellyn Lewis, US Trades Union leader (born 2/12/1880 in Lucas, Iowa), died.
8/6/1969. President Nixon announced that 25,000 US troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam by the end of August.
28/2/1969, Dwight D Eisenhower, US statesman, died aged 78.
23/2/1969, President Nixon of the USA began a tour of European capitals.
22/2/1969. President Nixon arrived in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
22/12/1968, The captain and crew of the Pueblo were released by the North Koreans at Panmunjom.
31/10/1968. President Johnson of the USA ordered a total halt to US bombing of North Vietnam.
27/10/1968, Violent anti-Vietnam war protests outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London.
1/8/1968. President Nixon said the Vietnam War should be scaled down.
1/7/1968. The USA and the USSR signed the Non-Proliferation treaty regarding nuclear weapons (see 5/8/1963). This bound its signatories not to transfer nuclear weapons or knowledge to non-nuclear countries. This was a recognition that both the USA and the USSR had interests in not assisting China to become nuclear.
26/6/1968, Earl Warren announced his resignation as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
5/6/1968. A Jordanian-Arab called Sirhan Bishara Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy, US Senator (born 1925), in the Hotel Ambassador, Los Angeles. Kennedy, younger brother of President Kennedy, died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested. He was protesting against Kennedy’s outspoken support for Israel, on the first anniversary of the Six Day War.
10/5/1968. Peace talks began between the USA and North Vietnam in Paris. The talks failed because North Vietnam wanted the country unified under the Vietcong, whilst the United States wanted North Vietnam to withdraw from the South which would remain an independent state. Eventually the North agreed to Southern independence and the US agreed not to demand the withdrawal of Communist forces from the North. However the North was to invade the South two years later as US forces withdrew from the South.
30/4/1968, Frankie Lymon, US pop star, died of a heroin overdose.
7/4/1968, US President Johnson ordered a slowdown in the bombing of North Vietnam.
17/3/1968, Violent anti-Vietnam War demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London.
17/3/1968, Violent anti-Vietnam War demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London. 25,000 Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) marchers fought with police. The VSC, which wanted a victory for North Vietnam, had been organised by the Trotskyist International Marxist Group, whose members included Pat Jordan, Tariq Ali and David Horowitz.
16/3/1968. The My Lai massacre; US soldiers massacred over 500 Vietnamese civilians in a raid on hamlets in Son My district, where Communist Vietcong rebels were suspected to be hiding out. US forces believed that 250 Vietcong guerrillas were hiding in My Lai and that all civilians would have left for market. As the 30 US troops went in under the command of Lieutenant William Calley they threw grenades and deployed flamethrowers on the thatched roof huts; it was soon clear that only women, children and the elderly were present. There was no counter fire. However a ‘contagion of slaughter’ had set in and the rape and murder continued. Senior US army officials turned a blind eye to the event; only five people were eve