General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 1968 (Your Help, Please!) [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)For the people, events and reasons you listed, the year 1968 is a year like no other. The time is seared in my memory, from the Tet Offensive ringing in the "Chinese New Year" to the assassinations that so changed the course and nature of our country.
Personally, I was a spoiled 11-year old, absolutely obsessed with all things space. Remember the Major Matt Mason toys? Bendable space guy action figure. My dear dad thought it was nuts for a boy to play with dolls. At the time, I didn't understand why he hated my GI Joe. Little did he know that play was good for my imagination and psychic well being.
The loss of the crew of Apollo 1 in a fire in January 1967 made me sad in a way that only the loss of family and friends like family have affected me since. It also changed the way I witnessed and processed the amazing scientific and engineering miracle the manned space program was in 1968. I followed every manned U.S. and Soviet launch, and kept up with the planetary and lunar probes.
My wonderful mother helped me "tape" Walter Cronkite, Jules Bergman and the other news honchos on "reel-to-reel" tape recorder like the kind on "Mission Impossible." She would drive to various stores on the morning of a launch and come home with the precious tape, so I could listen again and again to them describe the mission -- starting about Gemini VIII or IX. I can't find any of the tapes any more, but I still remember the stories. Most of all, I appreciate my mom in a way I didn't at the time.
Dad was a physician and a US Navy vet and wondered WTH the government wanted to spend money on the space program. "We have plenty of problems here on earth to address." I tried to explain that we need to explore new worlds in space, not just to give us something to do, but to solve those problems at home -- war, poverty, ignorance, crime, joblessness, etc. etc. etc.
Nixon was the one who ended the Apollo program early. IIRC, per Joe Trento, he said, "It's a damn Democrat program." And so he did all he could to end it. He even denied a request to name the Apollo 11 mission after John F. Kennedy, something I learned only recently. His defunding of NASA also led to the version of the Space Shuttle that required the dangerous solid rocket boosters, rather than all-liquid fueled design with a manned and navigable booster. More expensive to develop -- cheaper in the long run. Safer, too.
Nixon also taught me about lies and politics in 1968. My sixth grade class election, I voted for the guy over Humphrey. My best friend, Paul R., told me I was nuts for doing so. He said his parents knew Nixon was a liar and a crook. And he told me not to believe his line that he had a "secret plan for peace" in Vietnam. Only recently have we discovered the extent of his criminality and treason. Nixon also is a big reason I can't stand the Bush dynasty, they represent the same forces of greed and tyranny that continued war in Vietnam, most profitably.
Thank you for an outstanding OP and thread, H20 Man. Lot of information -- plus memories.