Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Americans were anxious for a period of rest after the twenty years of depression and war.
They turned to Ike.
1. Popular view of the new president (John F. Kennedy) and his wife: Young, vital,
glamorous; inspiring high expectations, especially among young adults
2. Kennedy surrounded himself with “the best and the brightest”, including his
younger brother Bobby as attorney general and “business whiz” Robert
McNamara as defense secretary
3. Reforms/Initiatives: recast priorities of FBI toward organized crime and civil
rights; created the Peace Corps
The New Frontier at Home
1. Political challenges: Limited support from Congress, stalled bills for medical
assistance and aid to education
2. Economic challenges: high inflation; disagreement with steel companies hurt
relationship with business leaders, but were won back by large tax cut bill
3. Successes: landed two American astronauts on the moon
Rumblings in Europe
Cuban Confrontations
1. Alliance for Progress did little to help poor in Latin American; efforts against
Castro push him closer to the Soviet Union
2. “Bay of Pigs” failure: anticommunist exiles invaded Cuba; were beat by Castro’s
air force and did not find popular support; invaders “ransomed” with U.S.
pharmaceuticals and other supplies
3. “Nuclear chicken”: Khrushchev places nuclear weapons in Cuba, pointed at the
U.S.; U.S. “quarantines” Cuba and threatens retaliation against Russia; after a one
week standoff, Khrushchev removes missiles, Kennedy ends quarantine and
removes some missiles from Turkey that were pointed at Russia
4. Khrushchev disgraced, Moscow launches enormous military program; American
needs to “keep up with the Russians”
5. “Thaws in the Cold War”: Nuclear test-ban treaty; Moscow-Washington hotline;
Kennedy proposes policy of peaceful coexistence, the beginnings of “détente”
(French for relaxation)
1. Kennedy slow to pursue rights for black voters due to political concerns (shaky
support of southern legislators for social programs)
2. Freedom Riders stage sit-ins; white groups set fires and start riots; Kennedy
responds by sending Federal troops to protect the Freedom Riders, thus
supporting the civil rights movement
3. Voter Education Project supported by Kennedy-encouraged private foundations;
integration of southern universities threatened wholesale violence, requiring 3,000
federal troops to enroll one black man in the University of Mississippi
4. Martin Luther King, Jr. launches campaign against discrimination in Birmingham,
Alabama: repelled by police with attack dogs, cattle prods, and fire hoses;
Kennedy calls the situation a “moral issue” and pledged to find a solution
5. Martin Luther King declares “I have a dream”, Medgar Evans is shot, a Baptist
church is bombed; Kennedy dies with little progress on his civil rights bill
1. Lyndon Johnson political history: in Congress since 1937 at 29 years old; trimmed
his liberal views to retain senate seat; became a “wheeler-dealer” in the Senate;
known for ego and vanity
2. Johnson returns to liberal ideas, strongly supports Kennedy’s previous civil rights
legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed ending public discrimination; Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission was created, eventually aiding women’s
rights as well as minority rights; tax cut bill passed plus a new antipoverty
program called “Great Society”
1. Flood of social legislation: the “Big Four” – aid to education (Head Start),
medical care for the elderly and poor (Medicare, Medicade), immigration reform
(abolished old quota system, enabled more Latin American and Asian
immigrants), and voting rights.
2. Escalated the War on Poverty; appointed the first black cabinet secretary to newly
created Department of Housing and Urban Development; established National
Endowment for the Arts and Humanities
1. Johnson promotes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in response to: intimidation and
discriminatory practices kept southern black voters from registering; 24th
Amendment abolished the “poll tax” in federal elections; Mississippi sees
murders of black and white activists, jury won’t convict white defendants; Martin
Luther King campaigns for voting rights in Alabama, is assaulted by State
troopers with tear gas and whips; more killings
2. After passage of the Act, black voters begin to gain power in the South ending the
era of peaceful civil rights demonstrations
Black Power
1. Watts riots (Los Angeles): blacks in L.A. respond to police brutality by burning
and looting their own neighborhoods, marking new phase of militant
confrontation and calls for black separatism
2. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam: mocked the moderate Martin Luther King,
called for triumph against the “blue-eyed white devils”; was killed by rival Nation
of Islam gunmen in New York
3. Black Panthers take the conflict to the North: openly carried weapons, promoted
“black power” and “Afro” fashions; more riots erupt in big cities, “Burn, baby,
burn”; focus on economic demands;
4. Martin Luther King is killed and more violence costs 40 lives; black voters
quietly make history by holding public offices and integrating into previously all
white schools
Vietnam Vexations
1. Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive: demonstrates the war isn’t nearly won, American
public opinion demands an end; generals ask for 200,000 more troops
2. Others campaign for presidential nomination: Eugene McCarthy organizes
antiwar students; Robert Kennedy stirs supports of workers, minorities, young
people; Johnson “abdicates” nomination, preserving the military status quo
3. North Vietnam talks about peace: troop levels remain constant, while peace talks
progress slowly
1. Democratic party split: Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Senators McCarthy and
Kennedy duel for nomination; Kennedy killed in California; antiwar zealots
demonstrate in Chicago, provoking a “police riot”; Humphrey takes nomination,
vows to continue fighting until the enemy negotiated more willingly
2. Richard Nixon takes Republican nomination: former Vice President, moderate
domestic policy, conservative vice president candidate
3. Independent party fight for re-segregation: George Wallace of Alabama
“Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” with vice
president candidate Curtis LeMay proposing to bomb the North Vietnamese back
to the Stone Age
Victory for Nixon
1. Johnson dies 1973; his party was defeated, but his leadership for a time had been
remarkable: civil rights, the poor, and the ill educated; first three years compared
with the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt
2. Failures: Vietnam “quicksands,” backlash against black movement and the war on
poverty, Vietnam war costs took away from Great Society programs, high
inflation hurt economy
3. Johnson was committed to some degree by his predecessors, but he chose to
continue and enlarge the war; his ultimate decision to limit the fighting
antagonized others; “damned if he did and damned if he did not”
Chapter 40
The Stalemated Seventies
I. Sources of Stagnation
A. Economic boom after WWII
1. Increased productivity of Americans caused them to double their average
standard of living
B.1970s did not witness a productivity advance
1. At the rate productivity advanced in this decade it would take another
500 years to bring about another doubling as seen in the previous two
decades
2. The median income of the average American family stagnated and
failed to decline because of the addition of working wives wages to the
family income
C. What caused slump in productivity
1. Some observers said it was because of the presence of women and
teenager in the work force who had fewer skills
2. Vietnam war precipitated economic distortions which drained tax dollars
from needed improvements in areas like education and it added to the
growing inflation
3. Higher oil prices increased inflation as well. The poor economic
performance of the 1970s hung over the decade like a pall
II. Nixon “Vietnamizes” the War
A. Nixon wanted to withdraw the U.S. from Vietnam
1. His policy of Vietnamization was to take out the 540,000 troops in
Vietnam over an extended period and the South Vietnamese would
gradually take over their own war.
2. Nixon did not want to end the war but wanted to win it without spilling
anymore American blood
3. Nixon widened the war when in 1970 he ordered an attack on Vietnams
neighbor Cambodia.
III. Cambodianizing the Vietnam war
A. Nixon ordered an attack on Cambodia without the consent of congress
1. Ordered American troops to help South Vietnamese clean out the enemy
sanctuaries in neutral Cambodia.
2. After two months with heavy protests over the attack Nixon withdrew the
forces from Cambodia.
IV. Nixon’s Détente with Beijing and Moscow
A. China and the Soviet Union were clashing over their own interpretations of
Marxism, and Nixon saw this as a chance for the U.S. to relax tensions.
1. Nixon sent national security adviser Dr. Henry A. Kissinger to China to
encourage better relations, which he succeeded in.
2. He made the historic journey to China in February of 1972.
B. Nixon travels to Moscow
1. In May 1972, and the Soviets, wanting foodstuffs and alarmed over the
possibility of a U.S.-China alliance against the U.S.S.R., made deals with
America where the U.S. would sell the Soviets at least $750 million worth
of wheat, corn, and other cereals, thus ushering in an era of détente, or
relaxed tensions.
2. The ABM Treaty (anti-ballistic missile treaty) and the SALT (Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks) also lessened tension, but the U.S. also went ahead
with its new MIRV (Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles)
missiles, which could overcome any defense by overwhelming it with a
plethora of missiles; therefore, the U.S.S.R. did the same.
3. However, Nixon’s détente policy did work, at least a little.
V. A New Team on the Supreme Bench
A. Earl Warren is appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and he headed
many controversial but important decisions:
1.Griswold vs. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state law that banned the
use of contraceptives, even by married couples, but creating a “right to
privacy.”
2.Gideon vs. Wainwright (1963) said that all criminals were entitled to
legal counsel, even if they couldn’t afford it.
3.Esobendo (1964) and Miranda (1966) were two cases where the
Supreme Court ruled that the accused could remain silent.
4. Engel vs. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township vs.
Schempp (1963) were two cases that led to the Court ruling against
required prayers and having the Bible in public schools, basing the
judgment on the First Amendment, which separated church and state.
B. Following its ruling against segregation in the case Brown vs. Board of
Education, the Court backed up its ruling with other rulings:
1. Reynolds vs. Sims (1964) ruled that the state legislatures, both upper
and lower houses, would have to be reapportioned according to the
human population, irrespective of cows.
C. Nixon put Warren E. Burger to replace the retiring Earl Warren in 1969 and by
the end of 1971, the Supreme Court had four new members that Nixon had
appointed.
VI. Nixon on the Home Front
A. Nixon expanded Great Society programs
1. He increased appropriations for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Aid
to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and created the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which gave benefits to the aged,
blind, and disabled, and he raised Social Security.
B. Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan of 1969
1.It required construction-trade unions working on the federal pay roll to
establish “goals and timetables” for Black employees.
2. This plan changed “affirmative action” to mean preferable treatment on
groups, not individuals, and the Supreme Court’s decision on Griggs vs.
Duke Power Co. (1971) supported this.
3. Many whites protested to “reverse discrimination”.
C. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created to help nature, as
well as OSHA, the Occupational health and Safety Administration.
C. 1962, Rachel Carson-Silent Spring
1.Boosted the environmental movement with her book Silent spring,
which exposed the disastrous effects of pesticides, and in 1950, LA had
already had an Air Pollution Control Office.
D. The Clean Air Act of 1970/Endangered Species Act of 1973
1.Both aimed to protect and preserve the environment and made notable
progress.
E. Nixon worries about inflation
1.Nixon imposed a 90-day wage freeze and then took the nation off the
gold standard, ending the “Bretton Woods” system of international
currency stabilization, which had functioned for more than a quarter of a
century after WWII.
VII. The Nixon Landslide of 1972
A. 1972, North Vietnamese attack again
1.Nixon ordered massive retaliatory air attacks, which caused the
Vietnamese offense to stop when neither China nor Russia stepped in to
help, thanks to Nixon’s shrew diplomacy.
B.Nixon’s opponent, George McGovern
1. McGovern promised to end the war within 90 days after the election
and also appealed to teens and women, but his running mate, Thomas
Eagleton was found to have undergone psychiatric care before, and
Nixon won in a landslide.
VIII. Bombing North Vietnam to the Peace Table
A. In keeping with Kessinger’s promise of peace being near, Nixon then went on
a bombing rampage that eventually drove the North Vietnamese to the
bargaining table to agree to a cease-fire, which occurred on January 23, 1973
1. This short peace was little more than a barely disguised American
retreat.
B. The U.S. would withdraw its remaining 27,000 troops and get back 560
prisoners of war.
IX. Watergate Woes
A. June 17, 1972, five men working for the Republican Committee for the Re-
election of the President were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel and
fixing some bugs of the room.
1. There was a huge scandal in which many prominent administrators
resigned.
2. It also provoked the improper of illegal use of the FBI and the CIA.
3. Long hearings proceeded, headed by Senator Sam Erving, and John
Dean III testified about all the corruption, illegal activities, and scandal
that took place.
X. The Great Tape Controversy
A. It was found that there were tapes that had recorded conversations that could
solve all the mystery in this case, but Nixon, who had denied participation in
this Watergate Scandal earlier to the American people, refused to yield them to
Congress.
B. Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign in 1973 due to tax evasion.
C. In accordance with the new 25th Amendment, Nixon submitted a name to
Congress to approve as the new vice president which was Gerald Ford.
D.“Saturday Night Massacre” (Oct. 20, 1973)
1.Archibald Cox, special prosecutor of the case who had issued a
subpoena of the tapes, was fired and the attorney general and deputy
general resigned because they didn’t want to fire Cox.
XI. The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers Act
A. It was discovered that there had been secret bombing raids in North
Vietnamese forces in Cambodia that had occurred since March of 1969, despite
federal assurances to the U.S. public that Cambodia’s neutrality was being
respected.
1. The public wondered what kind of a government was there if it couldn’t
be trusted.
B. Nixon ended this bombing in June 1973.
C. Cambodia was taken over by the cruel Pol Pot, who committed genocide by
killing over 2 million people over a span of a few years.
D. The War Powers Act of November 1973 required the president to report all
committance of U.S. troops to foreign exchanges within 48 hours.
E. There was also a “New Isolationism” that discouraged U.S. troops in other
countries, but Nixon fended off all efforts at this.
XII. The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis
A. After the U.S. backed Israel in its war against Syria and Egypt, which had been
trying to regain territory lost in the Six-Day War, the Arab nations imposed an
oil embargo, which strictly limited oil in the U.S. and caused a crisis.
1. A speed limit of 55 MPH was imposed, and the oil pipeline in Alaska
was approved in 1974 despite environmentalists’ cries, and other types
of energy were pursued.
2. Since 1948, the U.S. had been importing more oil than it exported, and
oil production had gone down since 1970; thus marked the end of the
era of cheap energy.
B. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) lifted the embargo in
1974, and then quadrupled the price of oil.
XIII. The Unmaking of a President
A. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to give all tapes to
Congress.
1. Those that had already been given showed Nixon cursing and swearing.
B. Late in July 1974, the House approved its first article of impeachment for
obstruction of the administration of justice.
C. On August 5, 1974, Nixon finally released the three tapes that held the most
damaging information, which were the same three tapes that had been
“missing.”
D. On August 8 of the same year, he resigned, realizing that he would be
convicted if impeached, and with resignation, at least he could still keep the
privileges of a president.
XIV. The First Unelected President
A. Gerald Ford was the first unelected president ever, since his name had been
submitted by Nixon as a VP candidate.
B. He was also seen as a stupid jock of a president, and his popularity and respect
further sank when he issued a full pardon of Nixon, thus setting off accusations
of a “buddy deal.”
C. In July 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki accords, which recognized Soviet
boundaries and kind of helped the situation.
D. Critics charged that détente was making the U.S. lose grain and technology
while gaining nothing from the Soviets.
XV. Defeat in Vietnam
A. Disastrously for Ford, South Vietnam fell in 1975, and American troops had to
be evacuated, the last on April 29, 1975,ending the Vietnam War.
B. America seemed to have lost the war, and it also lost much respect.
XVI. Feminist Victories and Defeats
A. Thousands of women marched in the women’s stride for equality on the
fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage in 1970
B. In 1972 congress passed Title IX
1. This prohibited sex discrimination in any federally assisted educational
program or activity
C. Court case Reed v. Reed (1971)/ Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)
1. In these cases the court challenged sex discrimination in legislation
and employment
D. Feminist movement faced a backlash when in 1972 Nixon vetoed a proposal
to set up nationwide public day care
E. Most bitter defeat for Feminists was the death of the ERA
XVII. The Seventies in Black and White
A. Race remained an explosive issue in the 1970s
B. Milliken v. Bradley (1974) resulted in a ruling that desegregation plans could
not require students to move across school district lines. This decision
exempted suburban districts from shouldering any part of the burden of
desegregating inner-city schools which reinforced white flight
C. Affirmative action also remained highly controversial. White workers were
denied advancement and white students were refused college admission
D. Native Americans made developments in their political power at this time as
well
1.United states v. Wheeler (1978) Supreme Court declared that indian
tribes possessed a unique and limited sovereignty, subject to the will of
congress but not to individual states
XVII. The Bicentennial Campaign and the Carter Victory
A. In 1976, Jimmy Carter barely squeezed by Gerald Ford (297 to 240),
promising to never lie to the American public, and he also had Democratic
majorities in both houses of Congress.
B. In 1978, Carter got an $18 billion tax cut for America, but the economy soon
continued sinking.
C. Despite an early spurt of popularity, Carter soon messed it up.
XIV. Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
A. Carter was a champion for human rights, and in Rhodesia, (later Zimbabwe)
and South Africa, he championed for black rights and privileges.
B. On September 17, 1978, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister
Menachem Begin of Israel signed some accords at Camp David.
1. Mediated by Carter after relations had strained, this was a great success.
2. Israel agreed to withdraw from territory gained in the 1967 war while
Egypt would respect Israel’s territories.
C. In Africa, though, lots of Communist revolutions took place, but not all were
successful, but disheartening and threatening still.
D. Carter also pledged to return the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000
and resumed full diplomatic relations with China in 1979.
XX. Economic and Energy Woes
A. In, in 1979, Iran’s shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, who had been installed by
America in 1953 and had ruled his land as a dictator, was overthrown and
succeeded by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
1. Iranian fundamentalists were very against Western customs, and Iran
stopped exporting oil. OPEC also seized to hike up oil prices, thus
causing another oil crisis.
B. In July 1979, he retreated to Camp David and met with hundreds of leaders of
various things to advise and counsel him, then came back on July 15, 1979 and
chastised the American people for their obsession of material woes and stunned
the nation.
1. Then a few days later, he fired four cabinet secretaries and tightened
the circle around his Georgian advisors even more tightly.
XIX. Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio
A. In 1979 Carter met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna to sign the
long stalled SALT II agreements, which limited the levels of lethal strategic
weapons in the Soviet an American arsenals
B. Political earthquakes in the Persian Gulf region buried hopes of ratifying the
SALT II treaty
1. Nov. 4 1979 mob of anti-American Muslim militants stormed the U.S.
embassy in Tehran Iran and took all the occupants hostage
2. These militants demanded that the American authorities ship back to
Iran the exiled shah, who had arrived two weeks earlier for medical
treatment
C. Dec. 27 1979 the soviet army blitzed into Afghanistan, next door to Iran, and
appeared to be poised for a thrust at the oil-jugular of the gulf
D. Carter Responded to this with a embargo of grain and high technology
machinery and called for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
E. Meanwhile with the Hostage situation Carter sent a highly trained commando
team to rescue the hostages but this mission failed when two helicopters
crashed in the desert and killed 8 men
F. This failure was anguishing for Americans and the stalemate with Iran
dragged on for the rest of Carter’s term.
Chapter 41 Outline
CHAPTER 42