Tumultuous Decade

The 1960s soon become a jumble of ominous events. The brief but frightening Cuban Missile Crisis is followed by ten years of American struggle in far-off Vietnam, still trying to stop the advance of communism.

When Kennedy is suddenly assassinated, President Johnson continues the course charted by Kennedy, continually escalating US force. Marines burn villages and release bigger 'kill' counts, but the war grinds on. 

Anti-war protests blend in with Civil Rights struggles, urban riots, and a cluster of disturbing assassinations, to reveal a world that is much darker than the happy-go-lucky 1950s. America suddenly isn't shining so brightly.
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 map

  Khrushchev and Castro
The Cold War begins heating up as Khrushchev teams up with Fidel Castro, and quietly begins shipping ICBM nuclear missiles to Cuba, where they are being secretly deployed in a position to threaten the entire US. American spy planes detect the move, and Kennedy decides to blockade the arriving Soviet ships. Khrushchev backs down, and nuclear war is avoided.

Vietnam War, 1960s map

  Next Stop, Vietnam
When President Johnson is finally persuaded by his advisors to begin deploying combat troops to Vietnam, in 1965, the war is not yet the nightmare it will soon become. The new deployment of Marines marks a significant escalation from the non-combat military advisors Kennedy began sending, three years earlier. Americans are confident they can beat back the communists with superior force, a feat which the French could not accomplish, even with 15 years of quiet American financial support.


Assassinations, 1960s

  What's Going On?
The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, in Dallas, is a deep shock. Two years later, a confrontation between police and residents in a black section of Los Angeles lasts six days, resulting in widespread arson and looting. Black Muslim leader Malcolm X is assassinated the same year, in New York. Two years later, more race riots erupt, this time in Black Detroit. Finally, in 1968, Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, and John F, Kennedy's younger brother, Robert, is gunned down two months later.