COVER: 1968: The Year That Made Us Who We Are (Atlantic and Latin America editions). Newsweek looks back at the turbulent year of change in Europe and the United States, now summed up in the singular date, "1968." Paris Bureau Chief Christopher Dickey writes that in Europe and the United States, the generation of 1968 had an idealistic core expressed in culture, politics and a distinct way of looking at the world. In May 1968, students ripped up the cobblestones along the rue Gay-Lussac in Paris to build barricades and, in the process, exposed the sand foundation that lay under them. They were heady times. Fractious left-wing ideologues filled the air with strident declamations-Marxist, Trotskyite, Maoist, anarchist, situationist and more. But the reigning sentiment was simple enough: strip away the edifices of established order. Its legacy lives on. The year, ended with a triumph of American technology that unexpectedly created environmental awareness: images of Earth taken from Apollo 8, in what astronaut Jim Lovell called the "vast loneliness" of space. The cover package also includes an excerpt from former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's, forthcoming book, "BOOM! Voices of the Sixties."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69556
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071111/NYSU004 )
Eyes on the Past. Guest columnist and Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, Mark Lilla writes that Europe's '68ers are fighting yesterday's battles. "For the past three decades, the European left has viewed the immigration problem exclusively through the lens of past anti-Semitism and colonialism. Immigration was to be welcomed as a way of making up for past sins," he writes. "Solidarity with the immigrants seemed the noble course, and the '68ers could be found arranging asylum for those threatened with deportation and leading candlelight vigils against racism." But since September 11, 2001, the mood has shifted in Europe, and the '68ers are divided about what to do next.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69557
The Worst Week. Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas writes that in a year of tumult, one five-day span in early spring '68 was disorder distilled culminating in the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader. Lyndon Johnson's presidency was collapsing. Robert Kennedy had openly announced his intention to reclaim the throne in the memory of his brother.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69542
Why I Write. Contributing Editor Ellis Cose writes in a personal essay about how living through the July 1966 Chicago Riots and the April 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. impacted his life. "The same fires that shook my world, upended my life and turned me into a writer," he says. "After the riot, I pondered why it was that my city, my world, was so divided by color. And why was it that the distance between those two worlds seemed so difficult to bridge?"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69543
A Century of Destiny. Senior Editor Jerry Adler writes about the other years that brought about major changes in American history, such as 1908- America's year of destiny-which are equally significant and are jostling for starring roles in history.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69588
What the Beatles Gave Science. Science Columnist Sharon Begley writes about the spring of 1968 when the Beatles traveled to the Maharishi's ashram in northern India to mediate. "The high-profile visit still echoes 40 years later-in, of all places, science, for the trip popularized the notion that the spiritual East has something to teach the rational West.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69587
It's Ms. America To You. Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz explores one of the most iconic moments in the feminist movement, when women dumped symbols of female oppression-girdles, steno pads, and stilettos-into a "freedom trash can." Bras went in, too, but none were burned, in the midst of the infamous and symbolic protest in 1968 staged outside the Miss America pageant. Kantrowitz talks with the lead protester and Judith Ford, who was crowned Miss America '68.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69586
Tuned In, Turned On. Senior Editor David Gates writes that although the times they were a-changin', in the arts, only music kept pace. Despite all the potentially rich tension and upheaval, 1968 didn't produce much fiction, film or art worth remembering. But popular music, in energetic transition from old to new-and new to old-left its mark.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69536
EXCERPT: "The Earth Behind A Man's Thumb" (p. 62). Newsweek features an excerpt of Tom Brokaw's forthcoming book 'BOOM! Voices of the Sixties.' Brokaw writes that, "Apollo 8 would fly to the moon, orbit around the dark side, and return to Earth in the last week of December 1968 ... the training for the momentous flight went on feverishly all during 1968."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69585
COVER: After Musharraf (Pacific edition only). Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes, "Gen. Pervez Musharraf never wanted to be a politician. But his emergency decree has made the return of civilian politics inevitable ... It did not have to come to this for Musharraf ... But Musharraf never tried to build a political base for his moderate approach and ally with other mainstream, secular parties, such as Sharif's Muslim League or Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. His party was built on one man, nothing more, and developed no roots in the body politic. In a way, this reflected his personality. Musharraf disdains politics ... Can he last? Much depends on the Army, which remains the dominant force in Pakistani life. For now it seems to be behind him."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69540
Sunshine in the DMZ. Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl and Special Correspondent B.J. Lee report that the possibility for peace between North and South Korea is not so farfetched. Tension between the countries has been easing since the late 1990s, when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung declared a new "Sunshine Policy" of partnership that allowed very limited access into the North. Now new agreements promise to bring relations between the two countries even closer and open up new areas of the North to a broader array of South Korean firms.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69553
Colombia's City on a Hill. Special Correspondent Daniel Kurtz-Phelan reports on how Latin America's most dangerous city was turned around. Five years ago, Medellin was a bloody microcosm of Colombia's drug-fueled civil war. With President Alvaro Uribe using a "firm hand" on crime and Medellín Mayor Sergio Fajardo's investment in social services, the city improved greatly. The measures have been so successful that they are being replicated elsewhere.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69552
WORLD VIEW: When Mao Meets YouTube. Moises Naim, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, writes that aside from the testing the limits of human athletic performance, the Beijing Olympics will "also test China's ability to thwart a nebulous swarm of foreign activists who will be well-armed with Blackberrys. A police state organized according to 20th-century principles will meet 21st-century global politics; Mao will meet YouTube," he says. Rather than proceeding with its plans to guard against and strike hard at "hostile forces," the Chinese government could agree to some of the protesters' demands. "That said, there is no way that Beijing will be able to come to terms with all the activists, many of whom seek to alter the very nature of the regime and the political and economic system on which it is based," he says.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/69561
LAST WORD: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. Al- Faisal tells Newsweek that while his country maintains a working relationship with Iran, if it continues to be antagonistic, the Arab states "Will defend themselves," he says, and adds that he hopes it will not come to that. "Just think of the consequences of military action around that small lake which is the gulf, which is the place where you have so much of the interests of the international community and its economy. And, God forbid, if violence happens there, what the consequences will be for the economy of the world."
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