APUSH Chapters 37,37,38,39

What was the turn toward the market?

"Neoconservatives" grew in numbers as a result of the economic downturn. They fought for free-market capitalism and a return to traditional familial roles.

How were we defeated in Vietnam?

Disastrously for Ford, South Vietnam fell to the communist North in 1975, and American troops had to be evacuated, the last on April 29, 1975, thus ending the U.S. role in Vietnam War. America seemed to have lost the war, and it had also lost a lot of respect.

What was black power?

1965 began a period of violent black protests, such as the one in the Watts area of L.A., as black leaders, mocking Martin Luther King, Jr., like Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), who was inspired by the Nation of Islam and its founder, Elijah Muhammed. They urged action now, even if it required violence, to the tune of his battle cry, "by any means necessary." But, Malcolm X was killed in 1965 by an assassin. The Black Panthers openly brandished weapons in Oakland, California. Trinidad-born Stokely Carmichael led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and urged an abandonment of peaceful demonstrations. Black power became a rallying cry by blacks seeking more rights, but just as they were getting them, more riots broke out, and nervous whites threatened with retaliation. Tragically, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Quietly, though, thousands of blacks registered to vote and went into integrated classrooms, and they slowly built themselves into a politically powerful group.

What were the seeds of the civil rights revolution?

After he heard about the 1946 lynchings of black soldiers seeking rights for which they fought overseas, Truman immediately sought to improve black rights by desegregating the armed forces, but Eisenhower failed to continue this trend by failing to support laws. Only the judicial branch was left to improve black civil rights. Earl Warren, appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shocked his conservative backers by actively assailing black injustice and ruling in favor of African-Americans. The 1954 landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, reversed the previous 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson when the Brown case said that "separate but equal" facilities were inherently unequal. Under the Brown case, schools were ordered integrated. However, while the Border States usually obeyed this new ruling, states in the Deep South did everything they could to delay it and disobey it, diverting funds to private schools, signing a "Declaration of Constitutional Principles" that promised not to desegregate, and physically preventing blacks to integrate. Ten years after the ruling, fewer than 2% of eligible black students sat in the same classrooms as whites. Real integration of schools in the Deep South occurred around 1970. On February 1, 1960, four black college freshmen launched a "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina, demanding service at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter, thus sparking the sit-in movement. In April 1960, southern black students formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, to give more focus and force to their civil rights efforts.

What was the arab oil embargo and the energy crisis?

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 fuel crisis. 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. Since 1948, the U.S. had been importing more oil than it exported, and oil production had gone down since 1970; thus, this marked the end of the era of cheap energy. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) lifted the embargo in 1974, and then quadrupled the price of oil by decade's end.

What were the sources of stagnation?

After the flurry of economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. economy grew stagnant in the 1970s. No year during that decade had a growth rate that matched any year of the preceding two decades. Part of the slowdown was caused by more women and teens in the work force who typically had less skill and made less money than males, while deteriorating machinery and U.S. regulations also limited growth. A large reason for the 1970s economic woes was the upward spiral of inflation. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson's spending on the Vietnam War and on his Great Society program also depleted the U.S. treasury, and this caused too much money in people's hands and too little products to buy. Also, since the U.S. did not continue advancing, Americans were caught by the Japanese and the Germans in industries that the U.S. had once dominated: steel, automobiles, consumer electronics.

What were the Vietnam vexations?

America was floundering in Vietnam and was being condemned for its actions there, and French leader Charles de Gaulle also ordered NATO off French soil in 1966. In the Six-Day War, Israel stunned the world by defeating Egypt (and its Soviet backers) and gaining new territory in the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem. Meanwhile, numerous protests in America went against the Vietnam War and the draft. Opposition was headed by the influential Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, headed by Senator William Fullbright of Arkansas. "Doves" (peace lovers) and "Hawks" (war supporters) clashed. Both sides (the U.S. and North Vietnam) did try to have intervals of quiet time in bombings, but they merely used those as excuses to funnel more troops into the area. Johnson also ordered the CIA to spy on domestic antiwar activists, and he encouraged the FBI to use its Counterintelligence Program ("Cointelpro") against the peace movement. More and more, America was trapped in an awful Vietnam War, and it couldn't get out, thus feeding more and more hatred and resentment to the American public.

How was American society being desegregated?

Blacks in the South were bound by the severe Jim Crow laws that segregated every aspect of society, from schools to restrooms to restaurants and beyond. Only about 20% of the eligible blacks could vote, due to intimidation, discrimination, poll taxes, and other schemes meant to keep black suffrage down. Where the law proved sufficient to enforce such oppression, vigilante justice in the form of lynchings did the job, and the white murderers were rarely caught and convicted. In his 1944 book, An American Dilemma, Swedish scholar **Gunnar Myrdal exposed the hypocrisy of American life, noting how while "every man [was] created equal," blacks were certainly treated worse than Whites. He pointed out how the U.S. had failed to achieve its "Double-V" goal during the war—victory overseas against dictatorships (and their racism) and victory at home against racism. Even though Jackie Robinson had cracked the racial barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the nation's conscience still paid little attention to the suffering of blacks, thus prolonging their pain. However, with organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and their rulings such as the 1950 case of Sweatt v. Painter//, where the Supreme Court ruled that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality, such protesters as Rosa Parks, who in December 1955, refused to give up a bus seat in the "whites only" section, and pacifist leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed in peaceful methods of civil rights protests, blacks were making their suffering and discrimination known to the public.

What were the foreign affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio?

Carter signed the SALT II agreements with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, but the U.S. Senate wouldn't ratify it. Then, on November 4, 1979, a bunch of anti-American Muslim militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took the people inside hostage, demanding that the U.S. return the exiled shah who had arrived in the U.S. two weeks earlier for cancer treatments. Then, in December 27, 1979, the U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan, which later turned into their version of Vietnam. However, at the moment, their action threatened precious oil supplies. Carter put an embargo on the Soviet Union and boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow. He also proposed a "Rapid Deployment Force" that could respond to crises anywhere in the world in a quick manner. President Carter and America fell into an Iran hostage mess. The American hostages languished in cruel captivity while night TV news reports showed Iranian mobs burning the American flag and spitting on effigies of Uncle Sam. At first Carter tried economic sanctions, but that didn't work. Later, he tried a daring commando rescue mission, but that had to be aborted, and when two military aircraft collided, eight of the would-be rescuers were killed. It was a humiliating failure for the U.S. and for Carter especially. The stalemated hostage situation dragged on for most of Carter's term, and was never released until January 20, 1981—the inauguration day of Ronald Reagan.

What was Carter's humanitarian diplomacy?

Carter was a champion for human rights, and in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) and South Africa, he championed for black rights and privileges. On September 17, 1978, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel signed peace accords at Camp David. Mediated by Carter after relations had strained, this was Carter's greatest foreign policy success. Israel agreed to withdraw from territory gained in the 1967 war, while Egypt would respect Israel's territories. In Africa, though, several Communist revolutions took place—not all successful, but disheartening and threatening still. Carter also pledged to return the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000, and resumed full diplomatic relations with China in 1979.

What were the feminist victories and defeats?

During the 1970s, the feminist movement became energized and took a decidedly aggressive tone. Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in any federally funded education program. It's largest impact was seen in the emergence of girls' sports. The Supreme Court entered the fray in the feminist movement. The Court's decisions challenged sex discrimination in legislation and employment. The super-hot Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion, arguing that ending a pregnancy was protected under a right to privacy. Even more ambitious was the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) to the Constitution. ERA sought to guarantee gender equality through words. Phyllis Schlafly led other women against ERA. Schlafly said ERA advocates were, "bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems." She used the following arguments against the ERA amendment: It would deprive a woman's right to be a wife. It would require women to serve in combat. It would legalize homosexual marriage. 38 state legislatures adopted the amendment, 41 were necessary, and the ERA ended.

What was Eisenhower republicanism at home?

Eisenhower came into the White House pledging a policy of "dynamic conservatism," which stated that he would be liberal with people, but conservative with their money. Ike decreased government spending by decreasing military spending, trying to transfer control of offshore oil fields to the states, and trying to curb the TVA by setting up a private company to take its place. His secretary of health, education, and welfare condemned free distribution of the Salk anti-polio vaccine as being socialist. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson tackled agriculture issues, but despite the government's purchase of surplus grain which it stored in giant silos costing Americans $2 million a day, farmers didn't see prosperity. Eisenhower also cracked down on illegal Mexican immigration that cut down on the success of the bracero program, by rounding up 1 million Mexicans and returning them to their native country in 1954. With Indians, though, Ike proposed ending the lenient FDR-style treatment toward Indians and reverting to a Dawes Severalty Act-style policy toward Native Americans. But due to protest and resistance, this was disbanded. However, Eisenhower kept many of the New Deal programs, since some, like Social Security and unemployment insurance, simply had to stay in the public's mind. However, he did do some of the New Deal programs better, such as his backing of the Interstate Highway Act, which built 42,000 miles of interstate freeways. Still, Eisenhower only balanced the budget three times in his eight years of office, and in 1959, he incurred the biggest peacetime deficit in U.S. history up to that point. Still, critics said that he was economically timid, blaming the president for the sharp economic downturn of 1957-58.

What was the cultural renaissance?

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and John Steinbeck's East of Eden and Travels with Charlie showed that prewar writers could still be successful, but new writers, who, except for Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's From Here to Eternity, spurned realism, were successful as well. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five crackled with fantastic and psychedelic prose, satirizing the suffering of the war. Authors and books that explored problems created by the new mobility and affluence of American life: John Updike's Rabbit, Run and Couples; John Cheever's The Wapshot Chronicle and The Wapshot Scandal; Louis Auchincloss's books, and Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge. The poetry of Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Theodore Roethke, Robert Lowell (For the Union Dead), Sylvia Plath (Ariel and The Bell-Jar), Anne Sexton, and John Berryman reflected the twisted emotions of the war, but some poets were troubled in their own minds as well, often committing suicide or living miserable lives. Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof were two plays that searched for American values, as were Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun portrayed African-American life while Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? revealed the underside of middle class life. Books by black authors such as Richard Wright (Black Boy), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), and James Baldwin made best-seller's lists; Black playwrights like LeRoi Jones made powerful plays (The Dutchman). The South had literary artists like William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury, Light in August), Walker Percy, and Eudora Welty. Jewish authors also had famous books, such as J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.

Who was the first unelected president?

Gerald Ford was the first unelected president ever, since his name had been submitted by Nixon as a V.P. candidate when Spiro Agnew resigned due to a bribery scandal while he was Maryland governor. All the other V.P.'s that had ascended to the presidency had at least been supported as running mates of the president that had been elected. He was also seen as a dumb jock of a president (he was a former Univ. of Michigan football player), and his popularity and respect further sank when he issued a full pardon of Nixon, thus setting off accusations of a "buddy deal." His popularity also declined when he granted amnesty to "draft dodgers" thus allowing them to return to the U.S. from wherever they'd run to (usually Canada or Europe). In July 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki accords, which recognized Soviet boundaries, guaranteed human rights, and eased the U.S.—Soviet situation. Critics charged that détente was making the U.S. lose grain and technology while gaining nothing from the Soviets.

Why was the cold war continuing on?

Humanity-minded scientists called for an end to atmospheric nuclear testing, lest future generations be deformed and mutated. Beginning October 1958, Washington did halt "dirty" testing, as did the U.S.S.R., but attempts to regularize such suspensions were unsuccessful. However, in 1959, Khrushchev was invited by Ike to America for talks, and when he arrived in New York, he immediately spoke of disarmament, but gave no means of how to do it. Later, at Camp David, talks did show upward signs, as the Soviet premier said that his ultimatum for the evacuation of Berlin would be extended indefinitely. However, at the Paris conference, Khrushchev came in angry that the U.S. had flown a U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory (in this "U-2 incident", the plane had been shot down and Eisenhower embarrassingly took personal responsibility), and tensions immediately tightened again.

What was the advent of Eisenhower?

In 1952, the Democrats chose Adlai E. Stevenson, the witty governor of Illinois, while Republicans rejected isolationist Robert A. Taft and instead chose World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president and anticommunist Richard M. Nixon to be his running mate. Grandfatherly Eisenhower was a war hero and liked by everyone, so he left the rough part of campaigning to Nixon, who attacked Stevenson as soft against communists, corrupt, and weak in the Korean situation. Nixon then almost got caught with a secretly financed "slush fund," but to save his political career, he delivered his famous and touching "Checkers Speech." In it, he denied wrongdoing and spoke of his family and specifically, his daughter's cute little cocker spaniel, Checkers. He was forgiven in the public arena and stayed on as V.P. The "Checkers speech" showed the awesome power of television, since Nixon had pleaded on national TV, and even later, "Ike," as Eisenhower was called, agreed to go into studio and answer some brief "questions," which were later spliced in and edited to make it look like Eisenhower had answered questions from a live audience, when in fact he hadn't. This showed the power that TV would have in the upcoming decades, allowing lone wolves to appeal directly to the American people instead of being influenced by party machines or leaders. Ike won easily (442 to 89), and true to his campaign promise, he flew to Korea to help move along peace negotiations, yet failed. But seven months later, after Ike threatened to use nuclear weapons, an armistice was finally signed (but was later violated often). In Korea, 54,000 Americans had died, and tens of billions of dollars had been wasted in the effort, but Americans took a little comfort in knowing that communism had been "contained." Eisenhower had been an excellent commander and leader who was able to make cooperation possible between anyone, so he seemed to be a perfect leader for Americans weary of two decades of depression, war, and nuclear standoff. He served that aspect of his job well, but he could have used his popularity to champion civil rights more than he actually did.

What were the cold war crises in the middle east?

In 1955, the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact to counteract NATO, but the Cold War did seem to be thawing a bit, as Eisenhower pressed for reduction of arms, and the Soviets were surprisingly cooperative, and Khrushchev publicly denounced Stalin's brutality. However, in 1956, when the Hungarians revolted against the USSR, the Soviets crushed them with brutality and massive bloodshed. The U.S. did change some of its immigration laws to let 30,000 Hungarians into America as immigrants. In 1953, to protect oil supplies in the Middle East, the CIA engineered a coup in Iran that installed the youthful shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, as ruler of the nation, protecting the oil for the time being, but earning the wrath of Arabs that would be repaid in the 70s. The Suez crisis was far messier: President Gamal Abdel Nasser, of Egypt, needed money to build a dam in the upper Nile and flirted openly with the Soviet side as well as the U.S. and Britain, and upon seeing this blatant communist association, Secretary of State Dulles dramatically withdrew his offer, thus forcing Nasser to nationalize the dam. Late in October 1956, Britain, France, and Israel suddenly attacked Egypt, thinking that the U.S. would supply them with needed oil, as had been the case in WWII, but Eisenhower did not, and the attackers had to withdraw. The Suez crisis marked the last time the U.S. could brandish its "oil weapon." In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined to form the cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

What was round 2 for IKE?

In 1956, Eisenhower again ran against Stevenson and won easily by a landslide. The GOP called itself the "party of peace" while the Democrats assaulted Ike's health, since he had had a heart attack in 1955 and a major abdominal operation in '56. However, the Democrats did win the House and Senate. After Secretary of State Dulles died of cancer in 1959 and presidential assistant Sherman Adams was forced to leave under a cloud of scandal due to bribery charges, Eisenhower, without his two most trusted and most helpful aides, was forced to govern more and golf less. A drastic labor-reform bill in 1959 grew from recurrent strikes in critical industries. Teamster chief "Dave" Beck was sent to prison for embezzlement, and his successor, James R. Hoffa's appointment got the Teamsters expelled out of the AF of L-CIO. Hoffa was later jailed for jury tampering and then disappeared in prison, allegedly murdered by some gangsters that he had crossed. The 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and prevent bullying tactics. Anti-laborites forced into the bill bans against "secondary boycotts" and certain types of picketing. A "space-race" began in 1957. On October 4, 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik I into space, and a month later, they sent Sputnik II into orbit as well, thus totally demoralizing Americans, because this seemed to prove communist superiority in the sciences at least. Plus, the Soviets might fire missiles at the U.S. from space. Critics charged that Truman had not spent enough money on missile programs while America had used its science for other things, like television. Four months after Sputnik I, the U.S. sent its own satellite (weighing only 2.5 lbs) into space, but the apparent U.S. lack of technology sent concerns over U.S. education, since American children seemed to be learning less advanced information than Soviet kids. *The 1958 National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) gave $887 million in loads to needy college students and grants for the improvement of schools.

What was the battle between Johnson and Goldwater in 1964?

In 1964, LBJ was opposed by Republican Arizona senator Barry Goldwater who attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society. However, Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf Incident, in which North Vietnamese ships allegedly fired on American ships, to attack (at least partially) Vietnam, and he also got approval for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave him a virtual blank check on what he could do in affairs in Vietnam. But on election day, Johnson won a huge landslide over Goldwater to stay president.

What was the nixon landslide of 1972?

In 1972, the North Vietnamese attacked again, surprisingly, and Nixon ordered massive retaliatory air attacks, which ground the Vietnamese offense to a stop when neither China nor Russia stepped in to help, thanks to Nixon's shrew diplomacy. Nixon was opposed by George McGovern in 1972, who 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. Nixon also sought to "bomb Vietnam to the peace table." Despite Kissinger's promise of peace being near, Nixon 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. This peace was little more than a barely-disguised American retreat. In the terms of the peace, the U.S. would withdraw its remaining 27,000 troops and get back 560 prisoners of war.

What happened in the bicentennial campaign?

In 1976, Jimmy Carter barely squeezed by Gerald Ford (297 to 240) for president, promising to never lie to the American public. He also had Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. He capitalized on being a "Washington outsider," and therefore untainted by the supposed corruption of D.C. (He'd previously been governor of Georgia.) In 1978, Carter got an $18 billion tax cut for America, but the economy soon continued sinking. Despite an early spurt of popularity, Carter soon lost it.

What was the Vietnam nightmare?

In Vietnam, revolutionary Ho Chi Minh had tried to encourage Woodrow Wilson to help the Vietnamese against the French and gained some support from Wilson, but as Ho became increasingly communist, the U.S. began to oppose him. In March 1954, when the French became trapped at Dienbienphu, Eisenhower's aides wanted to bomb the Viet Minh guerilla forces, but Ike held back, fearing plunging the U.S. into another Asian war so soon after Korea. After the Vietnamese won at Dienbienphu, Vietnam was split at the 17th parallel, supposedly temporarily. Ho Chi Minh was supposed to allow free elections, but soon, Vietnam became clearly split between a communist north and a pro-Western south. Dienbienphu marks the start of American interest in Vietnam. Secretary Dulles created the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) to emulate NATO, but this provided little help.

What was the cultural upheaval of the 1960s?

In the 60s, the youth of America experimented with sex, drugs, and defiance. They protested against conventional wisdom, authority, and traditional beliefs. Poets like Allen Ginsberg and novelists like Jack Kerouac (who wrote On the Road) voiced these opinions of the Beatnik generation. Movies like "The Wild One" with Marlon Brando and "Rebel without a Cause" starring James Dean also showed this belief. Essentially, they championed the "ne'er-do-well" and the outcast. At the UC-Berkeley, in 1964, a so-called Free Speech Movement began. Kids tried drugs, "did their own thing" in new institutions, and rejected patriotism. In 1948, Indiana University "sexologist" Dr. Alfred Kinsey had published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, and had followed that book five years later with a female version. His findings about the incidence of premarital sex and adultery were very controversial. He also estimated that 10% of all American males were gay. The Manhattan Society, founded in L.A. in 1951, pioneered gay rights. Students for a Democratic Society, once against war, later spawned an underground terrorist group called the Weathermen. The upheavals of the 1960s and the anti-establishment movement can largely be attributed to the three P's: the youthful population bulge, the protest against racism and the Vietnam War, and the apparent permanence of prosperity, but as the 1970s rolled around, this prosperity gave way to stagnation. However, the "counterculture" of the youths of the 1960s did significantly weaken existing values, ideas, and beliefs.

What were the economic and energy woes?

Inflation had been steadily rising, and by 1979, it was at a huge 13%. Americans would learn that they could no longer hide behind their ocean moats and live happily insulated from foreign affairs. Carter diagnosed America's problems as stemming primarily from the nation's costly dependence on foreign oil, which was true. He called for legislation to improve energy conservation, but the gas-guzzling American people, who had already forgotten about the long gas lines of 1973, didn't like these ideas. Energy problems escalated under Carter. 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 Khomeini. Iranian fundamentalists were very much against Western/U.S. customs, and Iran stopped exporting oil; OPEC also hiked up oil prices, thus causing another oil crisis. In July 1979, Carter retreated to Camp David and met with hundreds of leaders of various things to advise and counsel him, then he came back on July 15, 1979 and chastised the American people for their obsession of material woes ("If it's cold, turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater.") This tough talking stunned the nation. Then, a few days later, he fired four cabinet secretaries and tightened the circle around his Georgian advisors even more tightly.

What was the secret bombing of Cambodia, and the war powers act?

It was then discovered that there had been secret bombing raids of 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. The public now wondered what kind of a government the U.S. had if it couldn't be trusted and the credibility gap widened. Finally, Nixon ended this bombing in June of 1973. However, soon Cambodia was taken over by the cruel Pol Pot, who tried to commit genocide by killing over 2 million people over a span of a few years. The War Powers Act of November 1973 (1) required the president to report all commitments of U.S. troops to Congress within 48 hours and and (2) setting a 60 day limit on those activities. There was also a "New Isolationism" that discouraged the use of U.S. troops in other countries, but Nixon fended off all efforts at this.

What were the foreign flare-ups and the "flexible response?"

JFK met Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev and was threatened, but didn't back down. In August of the 1961, the Soviets began building the Berlin Wall to separate East and West Germany. Western Europe, though, was now prospering after help from the super-successful Marshall Plan. America had also encouraged a Common Market (to keep trade barriers and tariff low in Europe), which later became the European Union(EU). The so-called Kennedy Round of tariff negotiations eased trade between Europe and the U.S. Unfortunately, French leader Charles de Gaulle was one who was suspicious of the U.S., and he rejected Britain's application into the Common Market. Defense Secretary McNamara pushed a strategy of "flexible response," which developed an array of military options that could match the gravity of whatever crises came to hand. The American-backed Diem government had shakily and corruptly ruled Vietnam since 1954, but it was threatened by the communist Viet Cong movement led by Ho Chi Minh. JFK slowly sent more and more U.S. troops to Vietnam to "maintain order," but they usually fought and died, despite the fact that it was "Vietnam's war."

How did Vietnam topple Johnson?

Johnson was personally suffering at the American casualties, and he wept as he signed condolence letters and even prayed with Catholic monks in a nearby church—at night, secretly. And, the fact that North Vietnam had almost taken over Saigon in a blistering attack called the Tet Offensive didn't help either. Johnson also saw a challenge for the Democratic ticket from Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, and the nation, as well as the Democratic party, was starting to be split by Vietnam. LBJ refused to sign an order for more troops to Vietnam. Then, on March 31, 1968, Johnson declared that he would stop sending in troops to Vietnam and that he would not run in 1968, shocking America.

How were black rights being battled?

Johnson's Voting Rights Act of 1965 attacked racial discrimination at the polls by outlawing literacy tests and sending voting registrars to the polls. The 24th Amendment eliminated poll taxes, and in the "freedom summer" of 1964, both blacks and white students joined to combat discrimination and racism. However, in June of 1964, a black and two white civil rights workers were found murdered, and 21 white Mississippians were arrested for the murders, but the all-white jury refused to convict the suspects. Also, an integrated "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party" was denied its seat. Early in 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. resumed a voter-registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, but was assaulted with tear gas by state troopers. LBJ responded by calling for America to overcome bigotry, racism, and discrimination.

What was the great society congress?

Johnson's win was also coupled by sweeping Democratic wins that enabled him to pass his Great Society programs. Congress doubled the appropriation on the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion and granted more than $1 billion to refurbish Appalachia, which had been stagnant. Johnson also created the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), headed by Robert C. Weaver, the first black cabinet secretary in the United States' history. LBJ also wanted aid to education, medical care for the elderly and indigent, immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill. Johnson gave money to students, not schools, thus avoiding the separation of church and state by not technically giving money to Christian schools. In 1965, new programs called Medicare and Medicaid were installed, which gave certain rights to the elderly and the needy in terms of medicine and health maintenance. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the "national origin" quota and doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. annually, up to 290,000. An antipoverty program called Project Head Start improved the performance of the underprivileged in education. It was "pre-school" for the poor.

What was Kennedy's "new frontier" spirit?

Kennedy's "New Frontier" Spirit In 1960, young, energetic John F. Kennedy was elected as president of the United States—the youngest man ever elected to that office. The 1960s would bring a sexual revolution, a civil rights revolution, the emergence of a "youth culture," a devastating war in Vietnam, and the beginnings of a feminist revolution. JFK delivered a stirring inaugural address ("Ask not, what your country can do for you..."), and he also assembled a very young cabinet, including his brother, Robert Kennedy, as attorney general. Robert Kennedy tried to recast the priorities of the FBI, but was resisted by J. Edgar Hoover. Business whiz Robert S. McNamara took over the Defense Department. Early on, JFK proposed the Peace Corps, an army of idealist and mostly youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries. A graduate of Harvard and with a young family, JFK was very vibrant and charming to everyone.

What were the Cuban confrontations?

Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was dubbed the "Marshall Plan for Latin America," and it aimed to close the rich-poor gap in Latin American and thus stem communism. However, too many Latin Americans felt that it was too little, too late. Kennedy also backed a U.S.-aided invasion of Cuba by rebels, but when the Bay of Pigs Invasion occurred, on April 17, 1961, it was a disaster, as Kennedy did not bring in the air support, and the revolt failed. This event pushed recently imposed Cuban leader Fidel Castro closer to the communist camp. JFK took full responsibility for the attack, and his popularity actually went up. Then, in 1962, U.S. spy planes recorded missile installations in Cuba. It was later revealed that these were, in fact, nuclear missiles aimed at America. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted 13 nerve-racking days and put the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and the world at the brink of nuclear war. But in the end, Khrushchev blinked, backed off of a U.S. naval blockade, looked very weak and indecisive, and lost his power soon afterwards. The Soviets agreed to remove their missiles if the U.S. vowed to never invade Cuba again; the U.S. also removed their own Russia-aimed nuclear missiles in Turkey. There was also a direct phone call line (the "hot line") installed between Washington D.C. and Moscow, in case of any crisis. In June, 1963, Kennedy spoke, urging better feelings toward the Soviets and beginning the modest policy of détente, or relaxed tension in the Cold War.

What was the LBJ brand on the presidency?

Lyndon Johnson had been a senator in the 1940s and 50s, his idol was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he could manipulate Congress very well (through his in-your-face "Johnson treatment"); also, he was very vain and egotistical. As a president, LBJ went from conservative to liberal, helping pass a Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned all racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public, including theaters, hospitals, and restaurants. Also created was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was aimed at eliminating discriminatory hiring. Johnson's program was dubbed the "Great Society," and it reflected its New Deal inspirations. Public support for the program was aroused by Michael Harrington's The Other America, which revealed that over 20% of America suffered in poverty.

What was Nixon's detente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow?

Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union were clashing over their own interpretations of Marxism, and Nixon seized this as a chance for the U.S. to relax tensions and establish "détente." He sent national security adviser Dr. Henry A. Kissinger to China to encourage better relations, a mission in which he succeeded, even though he used to be a big anti-Communist. Nixon then traveled to Moscow 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 in which 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. 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. However, Nixon's détente policy did work, at least in part, to relax U.S.—Soviet tensions.

How was Nixon on the home front?

Nixon also expanded Great Society programs by increasing 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 indigent, aged, blind, and disabled, and he raised Social Security. Nixon's so-called "Philadelphia Plan" of 1969 required construction-trade unions working on the federal payroll to establish "goals and timetables" for Black employees. This plan changed "affirmative action" to mean preferable treatment on groups (minorities), not individuals, and the Supreme Court's decision on Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) supported this. However, whites protested to "reverse discrimination" (hiring of minorities for fear of repercussions if too many whites were hired). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was also created to protect nature, as well as OSHA, or the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA). In 1962, Rachel Carson boosted the environmental movement with her book Silent Spring, which exposed the disastrous effects of pesticides (namely, DDT), and in 1950, Los Angeles already had an Air Pollution Control Office. The Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 both aimed to protect and preserve the environment and animals. Worried about inflation, Nixon also imposed a 90-day wage freeze and then took the nation off the gold standard, thus ending the "Bretton Woods" system of international currency stabilization, which had functioned for more than a quarter of a century after WWII.

How was the Vietnam war being Cambodianized?

North Vietnamese had been using Cambodia as a springboard for funneling troops and arms along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and on April 29, 1970, Nixon suddenly ordered U.S. troops to invade Cambodia to stop this. Much uproar was caused, as riots occurred at Kent State University (where the National Guard opened fire and killed 4 people) and at Jackson State College. Two months later, Nixon withdrew U.S. troops from Cambodia. The Cambodian incident split even wider the gap beween the "hawks" and the "doves." The U.S. Senate repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, and in 1971, the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age to eighteen, was also passed. In June 1971, The New York Times published a top-secret Pentagon study of America's involvement of the Vietnam War—papers that had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Pentagon official—these "Pentagon Papers" exposed the deceit used by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations regarding Vietnam and people spoke of a "credibility gap" between what the government said and the reality.

What was watergate and the unmaking of a president?

On June 17, 1972, five men working for the Republican Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP) were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel and planting some bugs in the room. What followed was a huge scandal in which many prominent administrators resigned. It also provoked the improper or illegal use of the FBI and the CIA. Lengthy hearings proceeded, headed by Senator Sam Erving, and John Dean III testified about all the corruption, illegal activities, and scandal that took place. Then, it was discovered that there were tapes that had recorded conversations that could solve all the mysteries in this case. But Nixon, who had explicitly denied participation in this Watergate Scandal earlier to the American people, refused to hand over the tapes to Congress. Also, Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign in 1973 due to tax evasion. Thus, in accordance with the new 25th Amendment, Nixon submitted a name to Congress to approve as the new vice president—Gerald Ford. Then came the "Saturday Night Massacre" (Oct. 20, 1973), in which 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. Nixon's presidency was coming unraveled. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to give all of his tapes to Congress. The tapes that had already been handed over showed Nixon cursing and swearing—poor behavior for our president. Late in July 1974, the House approved its first article of impeachment for obstruction of the administration of justice. On August 5, 1974, Nixon finally released the three tapes that held the most damaging information—the same three tapes that had been "missing." The tapes showed Nixon had indeed ordered a cover-up of the Watergate situation. 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 former president. Through it all, the lesson learned was that the Constitution indeed works.

What were the presidential sweepstakes in 1968?

On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot fatally, and the Democratic ticket went to Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's "heir." The Republicans responded with Richard Nixon, paired with Spiro Agnew, and there was also a third-party candidate: George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, a segregationist who wanted to bomb the Vietnamese to death. Nixon won a nail-biter, and Wallace didn't do that badly either, though worse than expected. A minority president, he owed his presidency to protests over the war, the unfair draft, crime, and rioting. Poor Lyndon Johnson returned to his Texas ranch and died there in 1973. He had committed Americans into Vietnam with noble intentions, and he really wasn't a bad guy, but he was stuck in a time when he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

How was Kennedy killed?

On November 22, 1963, while riding down a street in Dallas, Texas, JFK was shot and killed, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was himself shot by self-proclaimed avenger Jack Ruby, and there was much controversy and scandal and conspiracy in the assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson became the new president of the United States as only the fourth president to succeed an assassinated president. It was only after Kennedy's death that America realized what a charismatic, energetic, and vibrant president they had lost.

What were the 70s in Black and White?

Race was a burning issue, and in the 1974 Milliken v. Bradley case, the Supreme Court ruled that desegregation plans could not require students to move across school-district lines. This reinforced the "white flight" to the suburbs that pitted the poorest whites and blacks against each other, often with explosively violent results. Affirmative action, where minorities were given preference in jobs or school admittance, was another burning issue, but some whites used this to argue "reverse discrimination." In the Bakke case of 1978, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that Allan Bakke (a white applicant claiming reverse discrimination) should be admitted to U.C.—Davis med school. The decision was ambiguous saying (1) admission preference based on any race was not allowed, but conversely that (2) race could be factored into the admission policy. The Supreme Court's only black justice, Thurgood Marshall, warned that the denial of racial preferences might sweep away the progress gained by the civil rights movement.

What was the "new look" in foreign policy?

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated that the policy of containment was not enough and that the U.S. was going to push back communism and liberate the peoples under it. This became known as "rollback." All-the-while he advocated toning down defense spending by building a fleet of superbombers called Strategic Air Command, which could drop massive nuclear bombs in any retaliation. Eisenhower had a "new look" on a policy of Massive Relatiation. Massive Reltaliation was the building up of our forces in the sky to scare the enemys. We created the Strategic Air Command (SAC). This was an airfleet of superbombers equipped with city flattening nuclear bombs. These fearsome weapons would inflict "Massive Retaliation" on the enemy, and were also a great bang for the buck. Ike tried to thaw the Cold War by appealing for peace to new Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the 1955 Geneva Conference, but the Soviet leader rejected such proposals, along with one for "open skies." However, hypocritically, when the Hungarians revolted against the U.S.S.R. and appealed to the U.S. for help, America did nothing, earning the scorn of bitter freedom fighters.

What happened when Kennedy challenged Nixon for presidency?

The Republicans chose Richard Nixon, gifted party leader to some, ruthless opportunist to others, in 1960 with Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate; while John F. Kennedy surprisingly won for the Democrats and had Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate. Kennedy was attacked because he was a Catholic presidential candidate, but defended himself and encouraged Catholics to vote for him. As it turned out, if he lost votes from the South due to his religion, he got them back from the North due to the staunch Catholics there. In four nationally televised debates, JFK held his own and looked more charismatic, perhaps helping him to win the election by a comfortable margin, becoming the youngest president elected (TR was younger after McKinley was assassinated).

What was affluence and the anxieties that came with it?

The economy really sprouted during the 50s, and the invention of the transistor exploded the electronics field, especially in computers, helping such companies as International Business Machines (IBM) expand and prosper. Aerospace industries progressed, as the Boeing company made the first passenger-jet airplane (adapted from the superbombers of the Strategic Air Command), the 707. In 1956, "white-collar" workers outnumbered "blue collar" workers for the first time, meaning that the industrial era was passing on. As this occurred, labor unions peaked in 1954 then started a steady decline. Women appeared more and more in the workplace, despite the stereotypical role of women as housewives that was being portrayed on TV shows such as "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Leave It to Beaver." More than 40 million new jobs were created. Women's expansion into the workplace shocked some, but really wasn't surprising if one observed the trends in history, and now, they were both housewives and workers. Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique was a best-seller and a classic of modern feminine protest literature. She's the godmother of the feminist movement.

What was consumer culture like in the 1950s?

The fifties saw the first Diner's Club cards, the opening of McDonald's, the debut of Disneyland, and an explosion in the number of television stations in the country. Advertisers used television to sell products while "televangelists" like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Fulton J. Sheen used TV to preach the gospel and encourage religion. Sports shifted west, as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, in 1958. Elvis Presley, a white singer of the new "rock and roll" who made girls swoon with his fleshy face, pointing lips, and antic, sexually suggestive gyrations, that redefined popular music. Elvis died from drugs in 1977, at age 42. Traditionalists were shocked by Elvis's shockingly open sexuality, and Marilyn Monroe (in her Playboy magazine spread) continued in the redefinition of the new sensuous sexuality. Critics, such as David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd, William H. Whyte, Jr. in The Organization Man, and Sloan Wilson in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, lamented this new consumerist style. Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith questioned the relation between private wealth and public good in The Affluent Society. Daniel Bell found further such paradoxes, as did C. Wright Mills.

How did Nixon "Vietnamize" the war?

Upon taking office, President Richard Nixon urged American's to stop tearing each other apart and to cooperate. He was very skilled in foreign affairs, and to cope with the Vietnam dilemma, he used a policy called "Vietnamization" in which 540,000 American troops would be pulled out of the Southeast Asian nation and the war would be turned back over to the Vietnamese. The South Vietnamese would slowly fight their own war, and the U.S. would only supply arms and money but not American troops; this was called the "Nixon Doctrine." While outwardly seeming to appease, Nixon divided America into his supporters and opponents. Nixon appealed to the "Silent Majority," Americans who supported the war, but without noise. The war was fought generally by the lesser-privileged Americans, since college students and critically skilled civilians were exempt, and there were also reports of dissension in the army. Soldiers slogged through grimy mud and jungle, trusting nothing and were paranoid and bitter toward a government that "handcuffed" them and a war against a frustrating enemy. The My Lai Massacre of 1968, in which American troops brutally massacred innocent women and children in the village of My Lai, illustrated the frustration and led to more opposition to the war. In 1970, Nixon ordered an attack on Cambodia, Vietnam's neighbor.

What was the new team on the supreme bench?

When Earl Warren was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he headed many controversial but important decisions: Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state law that banned the use of contraceptives, even by married couples, but creating a "right to privacy." Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) said that all criminals were entitled to legal counsel, even if they were too poor to afford it. Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) were two cases in which the Supreme Court ruled that the accused could remain silent. Engel v. 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 was argued separated church and state. Following its ruling against segregation in the case Brown v. Board of Education, the Court backed up its ruling with other rulings: Reynolds v. Sims (1964) ruled that the state legislatures, both upper and lower houses, would have to be reapportioned according to the human population. This was to ensure each person's vote was weighed evenly. Trying to end this liberalism, Nixon chose Warren E. Burger to replace the retiring Earl Warren in 1969, and this succeeded—by the end of 1971, the Supreme Court had four new members that Nixon had appointed. Strangely though, this "conservative" court made the controversial Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion.

What was the struggle for civil rights?

While Kennedy had campaigned a lot to appeal to black voters, when it came time to help them, he was hesitant and seemingly unwilling, taking much action. In the 1960s, groups of Freedom Riders chartered buses to tour through the South to try to end segregation, but white mobs often reacted violently towards them. This drew more attention to the segregation and what went on down South. Slowly but surely, Kennedy urged civil rights along, encouraging the establishment of the SNCC, a Voter Education Project to register the South's blacks to vote. Some places desegregated painlessly, but others were volcanoes. 29 year-old James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi, but white students didn't let him, so Kennedy had to send some 400 federal marshals and 3,000 troops to ensure that Meredith could enroll in his first class. In spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a peaceful campaign against discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama, but police and authorities responded viciously, often using extremely high-pressured water hoses to hose down the sit-in protesters. The entire American public watched in horror as the black protesters were treated with such contempt, since the actions were shown on national TV. Later, on June 11, 1963, JFK made a speech urging immediate action towards this "moral issue" in a passionate plea. Still, more violence followed, as in September 1963, a bomb exploded in a Birmingham church, killing four black girls who had just finished their church lesson.