1984: ‘Watershed’ era reminiscent of ’60s
The upcoming election has been term
ed “a critical referendum for the future”
by most concerned parties and in
dividuals. The Mondale-Reagan
presidential campaign. Ballot Measure 2
and various other races all hold keys to
how our future will be affected —
perhaps for years to come.
It seems like we consider each election
year a “watershed” period for com
munities and states, America and the
world as a whole. But the fall of 1984
may truly go down in history as such a
time — as did the fall of 1964.
Commentary
Pres. Lyndon Johnson was waging a
pitched presidential election battle
against Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater.
Goldwater was painted as the war
monger in that battle, a man who would
jump at the chance to wage war — con
ventional or otherwise. Johnson, on the
other hand, was the “peace candidate.”
But during the summer before the elec
tion, LBJ requested and obtained from
Congress a resolution calling for action
against the North Vietnamese, who
allegedly had attacked U.S. vessels in
the Gulf of Tonkin. Despite Johnson's
campaign claims to the contrary, the
stage was set for the introduction of
American combat troops into Southeast
Asia — half a million by the end of the
decade.
One woman later observed, “1 was
told that unless I voted for Johnson,
within six months we’d be at war. I did
— and we were.”
Johnson’s rhetoric of peace and
restraint helped carry him to a landslide
victory over Goldwater. LBJ’s euphoria
was short-lived, however. The most
divisive conflict in American society
since the Civil War lay ahead.
In his role as candidate, Johnson had
little to be concerned about. As presi
dent, the opposite was true. Perhaps two
of the most gnarly happenings on the
world scene that year occurred within
days of each other, in mid-October.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev had
fallen into disfavor with the ruling Polit
buro and the Communist Party after Pres.
John F. Kennedy stood him down in the
Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. A harb
inger of future trouble came to
Khruschev the first week of October
when his son-in-law was removed from
the editorship of Soviet periodical
Izvestia.
On Oct. 15, Khruschev resigned —
perhaps of his own accord, perhaps not.
The reigns of Soviet leadership were
transferred to Alexei Kosygin and
Leonid Brezhnev. The largest military
buildup by one nation in world history
lay ahead.
The following day, as the world con
templated the change of leadership in
Moscow, the People’s Republic of China
joined the world nuclear fraternity. The
Chinese atomic bomb test in Sinkiang
province was viewed with fear and
suspicion by the West and by the
Soviets.
China’s entry into the nuclear age and
its deteriorating relations with the USSR
may have helped contribute to the
diplomatic overtures by Richard Nixon
and Henry Kissinger nearly eight years
later — “Playing the China card,” some
termed it — and to the eventual nor
malization of Sino-American relations.
Meanwhile, back in the United States,
the elections drama played on. And
several actors who made their debuts on
the political stage that year eventually
helped re-write social and political
scripts for years to come.
In Oregon, a Portland television
newscaster named Tom McCall was
elected secretary of state. Before Mc
Call’s ten years in statewide office were
finished, his name and The Oregon Story
would receive national recognition and
provide a springboard for change and, in
particular, for environmental awareness
in other states.
To the south, a television and B-movie
star hit the hustings in support of
Goldwater and right-wing politics. So ef
fective was his delivery, so well-received
his message, that several Southern
California business and political in
terests sought to groom him for elective
office.
Thus embarked Ronald Reagan on a
road that would take him to Sacramento
and, ultimately, to the White House.
Writers of future history books could
cite the fall of 1984 as a “watershed”
period. And it would earn that designa
tion in part because of the events of fall
1964.
By Mike Sims
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