1968: A Year of War and Uncertainty: Reflecting on a Pivotal Year in History with the Hlavaceks' Reports Filed from Vietnam and Elsewhere

by John Hlavacek, Pegge Parker Hlavacek

In 1968, journalist couple John Hlavacek and Pegge Parker Hlavacek traveled the world to bring us the real stories from a year of social, political and cultural upheaval unlike any other year in the 20th Century. That year, we saw the first live televised pictures from outer space, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy assassinated, and live anti-war protests in the States, while the Hlavaceks were covering the Tet Offensive and the Vietnam War, environmental science in Antarctica, and huge shifts in the cultures, powers and social norms across the World.

Live television had made its debut across the globe, and the world watched and reacted with amazement, awe and sometimes horror. From all corners of the world, the Hlavaceks worked tirelessly to file a story each day with small Omaha station KMTV, and weekly print columns. But the highlights were with John’s inventive, courageous, and tenacious aim to connect our soldiers in Vietnam with their families back in the states.

Through raw footage, photos, journals, letters and the articles published about their travels, John has assembled a truly unique and historic look at one of the most influential years in our history.

212 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2015

About the author

John and Pegge spent their lives traveling the world reporting as foreign press correspondents. John first taught English in China during the 1930s, after graduating from Carleton College. He then joined the United Press in 1944 as a war correspondent. He met Pegge Parker, a beautiful widowed journalist with an eye toward writing her way around the world. They married, living and working in India during the first years of their marriage.

The Hlavaceks were then off to New York and next Jamaica, where John and Pegge supported the family by covering news events across the globe. In 1961, the family moved to Florida when John began work as staff correspondent for NBC in Havana. John and Pegge meticulously chronicled their lives before and after they met—and the stories they brought to us from afar. Today, John resides in Omaha, Nebraska. Pegge passed away in November 2008