''LIVING DURING DIFFICULT TIMES''
By: Agustin Rosales
(1960's and early 70's)
This article is based on real experiences of the 1960's and early 1970's. ''I still remember those horrible times'' said Jean Violette. I remember during that time that John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was running his campaign for the presidency of the United States, his opponent was Richard Nixon, but kennedy looked as a handsome man, from a wealthy and catholic family and of course he won. JFK created a organization called the Peace Corps, that was during 1961 she said. I also remember that in 1962 during the Kennedy's administration, the bay of pigs invasion happened in Cuba, the Americans wanted to take its leader Fidel Castro who was a communnist person and wanted a communist revolution, but he was supported by the Soviet Union. Then the Cuban Missile crisis came when the Soviets put missiles in Cuba to attack the United States in case of war. A year after another problem in the U.S was the racial profile between whites and blacks. An African-American man called Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of a movement called the Civil Rights Movement, on this movement they protested for equal rights and opportunity for all the Americans. MLK is how people called him for the first letters of his name, MLK and the protestants made a march on washington on August 1963 where he gave a speech called ''I have a dream'', I can remember watching the T.V and listening to the speech. Three or four months later JFK visited Dallas, where he was assasinated ''The lights turned off to my family'' and the people had fear of extreme sadness with the country.(1960's and early 70's)
After the assasination of Kennedy in 1965 the Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson took the presidency. He promised not to go to war with the Vietnameses, but he lied to the nation. Johnson sent troops to Vietnam and after years sent even more. Then the Pentagon Papers came out and in Violettes opinion that showed that Johnson, military leaders, and the Central Intelligence Agency had their reasons to keep the country at war with Vietnam. She said that 1966 was a bad year; because, her brother was sent to the war. She also got married that year and did not want her husband to go to Vietnam ,but that did not happen because, he was drefted so he went to Vietnam for 13 months and fortunatelly came back to home.
Continuing with the article she said that she also remembers that in 1968, Robert Kennedy wanted to be president for the elections pf 1968, but he was also assasinated by a man called Sirhan Sirhan she thinks that he was from Lybia or Lebanon. These actions gave the victory to Richard Nixon who became president on that year. In 1969 the war continued and students had overeaction on campuses and the police had to go to stop them. Most of people made peace marches to put pressure on the government to get the American troops out of Vietnam, that happened until 1972, when Nixon wanted the reelection, but he got involved in the watergate scandal, he still won the elections, but that did not helpped him at all; because, the investigationes found that he was completely responsible for what had happened. She remembers the resignation of the president in August 1974. They fired the Vice-President; because, he was another person responsible for breaking the law. The new president was Gerald Ford. He became president because the country was without president and vice-president. Ford was the speaker of the House. Ford wasn't succesful and a year and half later another person called Jimmy Carther was ready to be the new President of the United States, most of the Americans were angry with him because he gave the Panama Canal to the Panamenians and he also cancelled the participation on the Olympic Games. A new election in 1980 came and the new president was Ronald reagan. "The good things that I remember is the music, clothes, and clubs where woman were able to go, I also remember that I was in a concert of a famous rock band" she said.
