November 14, 1965: The Battle of Ia Drang

November 14, 1965: The Battle of Ia Drang is fought, the first major engagement between American and Vietcong troops. Both sides claimed victory. About 1,300 American soldiers were killed.

The battle was part of the Pleiku campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War, in the central highlands of Vietnam, in 1965. It is notable for being the first large scale helicopter air assault, and also the first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role.

General William Westmoreland had been assigned as Commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) on June 20, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson assigned him to the post because Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had told him Westmoreland was "the best we have, without question."

The Pentagon, and the Johnson Administration as a whole, treated Ia Drang as a victory. Time magazine named Westmoreland its Man of the Year for 1965. In a later article, Time suggested Westmoreland as a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1968. After all, successful Generals, even without political experience, were often touted as possible Presidents.

Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire and close air support, while the People's Army of Viet Nam (PAVN) neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range.

In other words, as generals so often do, America's generals were "fighting the last war," and the Vietnam War was not going to be like World War II, because the Vietcong were not the Wehrmacht, nor were they the Imperial Japanese Army. And it wasn't going to be like the Korean War, either. This was guerrilla warfare, and America hadn't been involved in that since... well, since their own Revolution of 1775 to 1783. And the Pentagon didn't know how to handle it. And so, the "quagmire" of Vietnam began.

On July 3, 1968, with the Tet Offensive already well past, and U.S. troop levels in Vietnam having risen from 16,000 to 535,000 under Westmoreland's command, LBJ promoted Westmoreland to Chief of Staff of the Army. At first glance, this would seem to be a reward -- for putting the U.S. in position to win the war, and for not running for President.

In hindsight, it seemed more like "kicking him upstairs," removing him from direct command as a punishment for failure. Westmoreland never achieved a "V-V Day," never got that 5th star, never got serious consideration for President from either major party, never joined the pantheon of legendary American Generals such as George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, John Pershing, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur. Norman Schwarzkopf would eventually join that list, but Westmoreland died in 2005, at the age of 91, remembered as a General who failed.

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November 14, 1965 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Cleveland Browns, 34-21 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 21-14 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Detroit Lions, 27-21 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bears beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 34-13 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 6-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Minnesota Vikings, 41-21 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-17 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

In the American Football League:

* The New York Jets beat the Boston Patriots, 30-20 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 31-7 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Houston Oilers, 31-21 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* And the Buffalo Bills beat the Oakland Raiders, 17-14 at Frank Youell Field in Oakland.

Baseball was out of season. There was 1 game in the NBA: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 129-114 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings, played to a tie, 2-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

April 30, 1975: The Fall of Saigon

April 30, 1975: The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN, representing "the Democratic Republic of Vietnam," a.k.a. North Vietnam) and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF, or "Viet Cong") capture the capital of the Republic of Vietnam, a.k.a. South Vietnam, Saigon. The Vietnam War is finally over: Vietnam is united, and it is Communist.

The capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, more than 2 years after combat operations there had ended; along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the Republic of Vietnam regime.

The sight of civilians climbing a staircase in a desperate attempt to reach the last helicopter, on the roof of the American Embassy, became a symbol of America's 1st true military defeat. The War of 1812 may have been a stalemate, but tends to get treated like a victory. There was no way to spin the Vietnam War as a win for America, or even a draw.

In 1976, the National Assembly of the united Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in the national capital of Hanoi, which had been the capital of North Vietnam, renamed Saigon for the founder of North Vietnam: Hồ Chí Minh City.

Today, with the country still a corrupt one-party state, but embracing free-market reforms since 1986, and thus Communist in name only, Hồ Chí Minh City is home to 9.4 million people, more than New York or London. And the former U.S. Embassy is home to the country's Oil Ministry.

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April 30, 1975 was a Wednesday. Actor Johnny Galecki was born.

These games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-4 at Shea Stadium, where they were playing while the original Yankee Stadium was renovated in the 1974 and '75 seasons. The Yankees trailed 4-1 going into the bottom of the 8th, but won it on a walkoff home run by Bobby Bonds.

Today, following the controversial acquisition of the moody superstar Bonds for the beloved Bobby Murcer in the preceding off-season, we would say, "This was when Bobby Bonds became a real Yankee," or he "earned his Pinstripes."

Who knows: Maybe, under today's conditions, he would have been embraced by Yankee Fans, and he, rather than Reggie Jackson, would have been the complicated superstar in Pinstripes from 1977 to 1981 (and in '75 and '76, too). Reggie might have ended up taking Ray Kroc's burger bucks in San Diego. And maybe, if Bobby Bonds were happy in New York, it would have paved the way for Barry Bonds to be happy there, and he never would have felt the need to artificially inflate his stats, and... But now, we're engaging in counterfactual speculation. So, let's move on:

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. John Stearns hit a home run, and Joe Torre went 1-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Frank Robinson, completing his 1st month as MLB's 1st black manager, did not put himself into the game. He did put former Oriole star John "Boog" Powell into the game, and he hit a home run. Wearing the Indians' all-red uniforms, Boog, a very large man and a chef, said, "I look like the world's biggest Bloody Mary."

For the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3. Gaylord Perry outpitched Luis Tiant. But it would be the Red Sox who won the American League Pennant.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3, but Steve Carlton went the distance for the win.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Jerry Reuss pitched a 5-hit shutout, and Richie Zisk and Willie Stargell hit home runs off Bob Gibson, who retired late in the season.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. George Scott hit a home run for the Brew Crew. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, and Robin Yount went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-6 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. George Brett went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at San Diego Stadium. (It was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium in 1980, and Qualcomm Stadium in 1997.)

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pete Rose went 0-for-4, but Tony Perez hit a home run, Joe Morgan went 3-for-5, and Johnny Bench went 1-for-3. 

* The Minnesota Twins and the Oakland Athletics were supposed to play at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, but were rained out. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The A's won the opener, 11-4. The Twins won the nightcap, 7-6. Reggie Jackson went a ghastly 0-for-10 with in the doubleheader, although, in the opener, he had an RBI on a groundout, and reached on 2 errors, scoring both times. Rod Carew went 1-for-8.

The NBA Playoffs featured Game 2 of both Conference Finals. In the Eastern Conference, the Washington Bullets beat the Boston Celtics, 117-92 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And in the Western Conference, the Chicago Bulls beat the Golden State Warriors, 90-89 at the Chicago Stadium. The Warriors would come back, beat the Bulls, and then sweep the Bullets in the Finals, for their 1st title in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And Game 6 of the ABA Western Conference Finals was played: The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers, 104-99 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. But the Pacers would win Game 7 in Denver. The Louisville-based Kentucky Colonels had already wrapped up the Eastern Conference Finals, beating the Spirits of St. Louis in 5 games. The Colonels won the title, beating the Pacers in 5 games.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in between games, on the way to a Finals in which the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres in 6 games. The World Hockey Association Playoffs were also between games, on the way to a Finals in which the Houston Aeros beat the Quebec Nordiques in 4 straight.

March 31, 1968: LBJ Drops Out

March 31, 1968: President Lyndon Baines Johnson announces that he is dropping out of this year's Presidential election.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Johnson, as Vice President, became President. He inherited JFK's national security team: Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and Bundy's brother, William Bundy, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He also inherited JFK's problem in Vietnam.

We will never know for sure how JFK would have handled Vietnam. We know how LBJ handled it: Badly. In his State of the Union Address in January, he said, "The enemy has been defeated in battle after battle." And it was true. But this was one war where winning battles didn't make a bit of difference.

And the American people weren't buying it. By March 1965, the New York Herald Tribune -- always a Republican-friendly newspaper, but it went out of business the next year -- had introduced the expression "credibility gap" to describe the difference between what Johnson was saying about the war and what was actually happening.

On November 30, 1967, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota announced he was challenging Johnson in the Democratic Primaries for President. While the Vietnam War wasn't the only issue he mentioned in his announcement speech, it was the dominant issue of the speech. And Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, JFK's brother and Attorney General, was also facing questions about whether he would run, with antiwar and civil rights activists begging him to do so. For now, he refused, and said he would support Johnson for 1968.

In 1964, having won one of the biggest landslides ever, Time magazine named Johnson its Man of the Year. Its cover showed a flattering portrait of him, with his ranch in the background. In 1967, the magazine named him Man of the Year. This time, the cover image was not flattering. It showed him as William Shakespeare's King Lear, old and out of touch with the people, with three men dressed as women, Lear's daughters: Vice President Hubert Humphrey as loyal Cordelia, clinging to him; and RFK and the Republicans' Senate Leader, Everett Dirksen, as the scheming Goneril and Regan.

(The story of King Lear is based on the myth of Leir, who supposedly reigned over Britain in the 8th Century BC, around the time of the founding of Rome. It's not clear whether he actually existed: Early British history is so poorly recorded, we're not even sure if King Arthur, who supposedly reigned early in the 6th Century AD, was a real figure.)

On January 31, 1968, the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive. In military terms, it was a massive bungle by the Communists. But in terms of perception, it was a victory for them: The American people saw the enemy overrun the Vietnamese capital of Saigon, and even get inside the U.S. Embassy. The fact that the U.S. won the battle could not be adequately shown on TV. Once again, image was everything.

The Battle of Khe Sanh was also underway, lasting from January 21 to July 9. The U.S. lost 274 men, while Vietcong losses may have been as high as 15,000 -- a ratio of 54 to 1. Still, U.S. troops withdrew from the area, and the Vietcong legitimately claimed victory.

A few days after the Tet Offensive, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to personally see what was going on. He had dinner with General Creighton Abrams, who had become a friend of his in World War II, and was now the commander of all forces in Vietnam. Abrams told Cronkite a painful truth: "We cannot win this goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."

On February 27, 1968, back at the CBS News desk in New York, Cronkite told the nation this:

To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months, we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

Upon seeing this report, Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

McNamara had recently resigned as Secretary of Defense, to accept the Presidency of the World Bank, a United Nations agency. Johnson's new SecDef was Clark Clifford, previously the Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, and White House Counsel to President Harry Truman.

At the next meeting of the National Security Council, Clifford asked the various members -- including General Abrams, and the man he succeeded as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, now the Army's Chief of Staff, General William Westmoreland -- how close the war was to being won, and what had to be changed to make it happen. They all seemed to have the same answer: "We do not know."

On March 12, the New Hampshire Primary was held. Johnson had not officially announced that he was running for a 2nd full term. But he just barely won that Primary, as McCarthy (the Bernie Sanders of his time), having run solely on an antiwar platform, got 42 percent of the vote, to Johnson's 49.

On March 16, Bobby Kennedy announced he was getting into the race. He and LBJ had hated each other for years, and that was one of the worst-kept secrets in America. So it was imperative for RFK to say this: "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policy. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course, and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all that I can."

Now, LBJ was really up against it. There were 2 antiwar candidates in the race. One was a Kennedy, and the man LBJ hated the most. And he could not count on them splitting the antiwar vote, "canceling each other out." What had begun late the previous year as "the Dump Johnson movement," and seemed at first to be just students acting on their white middle-class-and-up privilege, angry and scared over the Vietnam War draft, now had to be taken seriously.

And the war was not going well. Johnson knew that, if he did not end the war before the election on November 5, the election would be a referendum on the war, and incredibly difficult for him to win.

So, on Sunday night, March 31, he spoke from the Oval Office of the White House:

Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. No other question so preoccupies our people...

I am taking the first step to deescalate the conflict. We are reducing, substantially reducing, the present level of hostilities....

The area in which we are stopping our attacks includes almost 90 percent of North Vietnam’s population, and most of its territory. Thus there will be no attacks around the principal populated areas, or in the food-producing areas of North Vietnam...

There has been substantial progress, I think, in building a durable government during these last 3 years. The South Vietnam of 1965 could not have survived the enemy’s Tet offensive of 1968. The elected government of South Vietnam survived that attack, and is rapidly repairing the devastation that it wrought...

So tonight I reaffirm the pledge that we made at Manila, that we are prepared to withdraw our forces from South Vietnam as the other side withdraws its forces to the north, stops the infiltration, and the level of violence thus subsides.

Our goal of peace and self-determination in Vietnam is directly related to the future of all of Southeast Asia, where much has happened to inspire confidence during the past 10 years. We have done all that we knew how to do to contribute and to help build that confidence...

One day, my fellow citizens, there will be peace in Southeast Asia. It will come because the people of Southeast Asia want it: Those whose armies are at war tonight, those who, though threatened, have thus far been spared. Peace will come because Asians were willing to work for it, and to sacrifice for it, and to die by the thousands for it...

What we won when all of our people united just must not now be lost in suspicion, and distrust, and selfishness, and politics among any of our people. And, believing this as I do, I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year.

With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes, or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office, the Presidency of your country.

Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.

But let men everywhere know, however, that a strong, and a confident, and a vigilant America stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace, and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause, whatever the price, whatever the burden, whatever the sacrifice that duty may require.

Thank you for listening. Good night, and God bless all of you.

A President refusing to run for another term in office had been rare, especially in the 20th Century. Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 and Harry Truman in 1952 were eligible to run for what would have amounted to a 3rd term, but didn't. Calvin Coolidge refused to run for a 2nd full term in 1928. But that was it. In every election from 1972 to 2020, every President eligible to run for re-election did so. (UPDATE: In 2024, Joe Biden ended that streak in mid-campaign.)

The next day was April 1, and millions of people who hadn't seen the speech, and hadn't seen the 11:00 local news the night before, saw the headline in their local newspaper, and wondered if it might not be the biggest April Fool's joke of all time. It wasn't. Such a belief was possible in that pre-social media era.

Charles Kaiser, part of the Dump Johnson Movement and a McCarthy campaign worker, would later write in his book 1968 in America that it was a night that began a brief celebration: "We had four days." Then, on April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and all good feeling over LBJ dropping out vanished.

Johnson did stay out of the race, and did devote the last 9 months of his Presidency to seeking a peace deal. He didn't get that deal. Why is a story for another time.

His successor, whoever that was going to be, could have ended the war any time he wanted. The man who became that successor ended it 3 days into his 2nd term, 1 day after Johnson died. A little more than 2 years after that, Vietnam was united, and it was Communist.

Kaiser also wrote in his book, "We haven't had any more Vietnams." That book was in 1988. As of March 31, 2022, he is still alive, and in a subsequent edition, he had to add an epilogue to say that Iraq was the next Vietnam.

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March 31, 1968 was a Sunday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 123-105 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 110-96 at the Boston Garden.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 129-103 at Kiel Auditorium in St. Loius.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 122-99 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

And there was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Denver Rockets beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 108-100.

* There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the brand-news Madison Square Garden in New York.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 5-5 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Middletown, New Jersey.

January 31, 1968: The Tet Offensive

January 31, 1968: The Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive, an attack on American and South Vietnamese installations in South Vietnam, on Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese lunar new year.

More than 80,000 troops hit more than 100 towns, including 36 out of the country's 44 provincial capitals, including the national capital of Saigon. The idea was to trigger a popular uprising that would lead to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, and its replacement by one more favorable to the North Vietnamese government, thus uniting the country under Communism, and forcing the American troops out.

The Viet Cong didn't get that. At least, not in the short term. But they got the next best thing, which gave them their goal in the long term.

Over 4,000 U.S. personnel were killed, and another 5,000 South Vietnamese. But the Viet Cong lost 45,000 men, about as many as America lost in the war from its beginning until 1971 or so. And they were fought back, capturing very little territory, and not getting the popular uprising. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was one of the biggest blunders in the history of warfare.

But that was offset by the psychological victory they gained. They had gotten troops inside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. They couldn't hold it, but they did it. And it was caught on U.S. television.

Also caught on U.S. television was an event on February 1: The Chief of South Vietnam's National Police, Major General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, personally executing Nguyễn Văn Lém. It looked like one of America's best friends in the conflict was shooting a handcuffed teenage boy in the head, a brutal act.

In fact, Lém was 36 years old, held the rank of Captain, and had murdered not just a friend of General Loan, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan, but also Tuan's wife, six of his seven children, and his 80-year-old mother. Women, children, even the elderly were not safe. The Vietcong even went after the families of their enemies. They were worse than the Mafia.

Eddie Adams of the Associated Press was standing next to the NBC cameraman who filmed the shooting, and clicked his shutter at the moment of impact for bullet against head. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the photo, but regretted he hadn't gotten a photo of what Lém did to deserve it.

"Two men died in that photograph," Adams said. "The General killed the Viet Cong. I killed the General with my camera." 

After the fall of Saigon, General Loan fled to America, and lived out his life in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. He died in 1998. Adams lived until 2004.

There was one survivor of Lém's killing of Tuan's family: Huan Nguyen, Tuan's son, was 9, and survived 2 bullet wounds. After the fall of Saigon, he was smuggled out of the country. He grew up in Oklahoma, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1993. He is the highest-ranking officer of Vietnamese descent in U.S. military history: In 2019, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral.

But people saw the film and the photo of the shooting, and began to ask themselves why we were supporting such an ally. Were they unworthy allies? There had been plenty of corruption in the South Vietnamese government. (Loan has never been accused of any of it.)

The Battle of Khe Sanh was also underway, lasting from January 21 to July 9. The U.S. lost 274 men, while Vietcong losses may have been as high as 15,000. Still, U.S. troops withdrew from the area, and the Vietcong legitimately claimed victory.

Each was a "Pyrrhic victory." The phrase originates from a quote from Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose triumph against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum, in what is now Southern Italy, in 279 BC destroyed much of his forces, forcing the end of his campaign. According to legend, he said, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." The more common translation is, "Another such victory, and I am undone."

A few days after the Tet Offensive, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to personally see what was going on. He had dinner with General Creighton Abrams, who had become a friend in World War II, and was now the commander of all forces in Vietnam. Abrams told Cronkite a painful truth: "We cannot win this goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."

On February 27, 1968, back at the CBS News desk in New York, Cronkite said this:

To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

Upon seeing this report, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Just 32 days later, with this in mind, having taken National Security Council meetings where nobody seemed to know how to solve the war, with Senator Eugene McCarthy having come close to beating him in the New Hampshire Primary, and with Senator Robert F. Kennedy having gotten into the race for President, Johnson announced that he would not seek another term as President, and would devote the last 9 months of his Presidency to seeking a peace deal.

He didn't get it. Why is a story for another time. His successor could have ended the war any time he wanted. He ended it 3 days into his 2nd term, 1 day after Johnson died. A little more than 2 years after that, Vietnam was united, and it was Communist.

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January 31, 1968 was a Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. These 4 games were played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 128-126 in overtime at the Cincinnati Gardens. For the Royals, Oscar Robertson scored 42 points, and Jerry Lucas had 22 points and 22 rebounds. For the Knickerbockers, Walt Bellamy had 23 points, Cazzie Russell 21, Willis Reed 20, Walt Frazier 19 and Dick Van Arsdale 18.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 118-109 at the Boston Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 113-108 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Dave Bing scored 41 for the Pistons, while Earl "the Pearl" Monroe got 35 for the Bullets.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks, 110-102 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1st season:

* The New Jersey Americans beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 119-111 at the Teaneck Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey. The next season, the Americans moved to Long Island, and became the New York Nets. The Chaps moved in 1973, to become the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams were admitted to the NBA in 1976, then the Nets became the New Jersey Nets in 1977, and the Brooklyn Nets in 2012.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Pittsburgh Pipers, 119-113 at the Indiana Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. The Pacers were admitted to the NBA in 1976.

* And the Anaheim Amigos beat the Denver Rockets, 112-105 at the Anaheim Convention Center outside Los Angeles. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974, and were admitted to the NBA in 1976.

And there were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Rangers would play only 3 more games there before moving to the new Garden on February 18.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 9-4 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.