10
Violence, Scandal, and the
End of the Cold War
V
iolence had become a way of life. City streets regularly
erupted in violence. Television, which the Radio Corporation of
America first tested in 1933 with a signal from the Empire State Build-
ing in New York City to Camden, New Jersey, found it an excellent
means of attracting viewers, and so more and more television programs
appeared in which violence was the central component. And the killing
in Vietnam increased. On January 30 , 1968 , the Vietcong launched a
major attack—called the Tet Offensive after the Vietnamese holiday
(the lunar new year) on which it occurred—against every important
South Vietnamese city and town, and also shelled the American em-
bassy in Saigon. In the fighting U.S. forces suffered heavy casualties,
triggering renewed demonstrations and antiwar rallies at home and
necessitating the increase in troops in Vietnam to well over 700 , 000 in
order to achieve victory.
Po litically, the stepped-up offensive had notable consequences. Sen-
ator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota announced his candidacy for the
Democratic presidential nomination on a peace platform, and thou-
sands of young Americans streamed to his side. It was another way of
protesting the war. In the New Hampshire primary McCarthy’s show-
ing was almost even with Johnson’s. The results prompted Robert
Kennedy, the brother of the late President and now a senator from New
York, to announce his candidacy. He had always opposed the war, but