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The
decade of
the Sixties
changed
all
of
us. No matter
where we live, the world
events of
the
past
JO
years
created
a
different
world
-
and promise
a vastly
different future.
T
HE
SIXTIES, the
incredible
Sixties
are past. It was a different kind
of decade, an ironic decade -
tn
many ways a paradox. Knowledge
and technological achievement soared to
unprecedeoted heights. World troubles
and despair sank to unprecedented lows.
And the basic problems confronting
humanity remained unsolved.
Who Would Have Believed I t?
Who would have believed that a little
orbiting Soviet "ball" called Sputnik I
in October, 1957, would result in an al–
most "Ho-hum" attitude from mankind
toward the second manned landiag on
the moon of Apollo
12
in November,
1969?
In 1961, how many really believed
that President Kennedy's commissioned
goal of placing an American on the
moon before 1970 actually would be
reached? Yet man has twice landed,
walked on and returned from the sur–
face of the moon without a major
problem.
Vietnam Was Irrelevant
Recall 1960 - Vietnam was as
relevant to the lives of Americans as
Afghanistan. Laos was the biggest South–
east Asían trouble spot then. Yet by
the end of the decade, the mighty
United States was split, divided and
confused from fighting a war into which
it had poured nearly $100 billion along
with the sacrifice of 40,000 American
lives. At the end of the Sixties the war
is far from concluded, and South Viet–
nam's security far from secure!
NASA
Photo
In 1960, no one had heard of "Black
Power." Who could have possibly fore–
seen that hundreds of cities in the
United States were destined to be–
come charred battlegrounds of riots,
burning, looting, killing and racial
fratricide? This too was the Sixties.
In 1960, the term "political assassina–
tion" would have forced us to think
back to Abraham Lincoln and John
Wilkes Booth. But during the incredi–
ble decade, the deaths of John F. Ken–
nedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martín
Luther King, Medgar Evers and others
were vivid examples of the brutal assas–
sinations of major leaders in the United
States.
Around the world, other leaders fell
before the assassins' gnn or sword:
Hendrik F. Verwoerd, South Africa's
Prime Minister; Tom Mboya of Kenya;
General Raphael Trujillo, dictator of
the Dominican Republic, and others.
Pollution and Population
Turning the calendar into 1960 we
were told the tools of technology would
provide most of mankind's physical
needs and wants. But now, a scant dec–
ade later, the whole world stands threat–
ened with destruction from the by–
products of that very same advanced
technology, resulting in the wanton
pollution of our air, water, and land.
Marching arm and arm with global
pollution through the Sixties was the
ugly specter of the population explosion
and impending world famines.
Now, say demographers, the last half