us_ch11_info

=**The Age of Upheaval Background Information**=

**The Fractured Decade:**
The 1960s saw turmoil and conflict from policy divisions, racial clashes, and generation strife between the youth and older generations, much of which came from vocal baby boomers --- exaggerated and sharpened by a foreign war, assassination of a president, and economic stagnation toward the end of the decade. The 1960s changed American life more than any other decade and modern society continues to deal with many of the pathologies generated by the era of "free love," "tune in, turn on, and drop out," and rebellion. The Election of 1960 pitted Ike's V.P. **Richard Nixon** (R) against **John F. Kennedy** (D). Nixon benefitted from peace and prosperity in the 1950s as well as being tough on communism where as JFK had youth and charisma on his side. Nixon generated less fondness than Eisenhower and had bad timing since America was looking for a voice with aspirations to lay out a clear vision. The __first televised debates__ were in 1960. Nixon wasn't good on TV whereas JFK was. This began a __new necessity for candidates...appear good on TV__, not just a good voice on radio. The irony of the election was that Nixon and JFK were good friends. They got along better than Nixon and Eisenhower as well as JFK and his V.P. running-mate Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy won by 120,000 votes. Republican leaders suspected fraud in the election especially in Texas and Illinois. There were a large number of votes in Texas that were dismissed for technicalities and Kennedy gained 100,000 phantom ballots. Nixon lost by 46,000 in Texas. In one Texas district where 86 people were registered to vote, Nixon got 24 votes and JFK got 148. Nixon refused to press the issue not wanting an electoral crisis.

**Kennedy and Crisis:**
Joseph Kennedy (JFK's father) rose from poverty to wealth. He was involved in running alcohol during Prohibition (made his fortune illegally on the black market). Then, in the 1929 stock market crash, he bought stock when it bottomed out and became a multi-millionaire when the stock returned. He already decided that his oldest son, Joseph Kennedy Jr. would one day be the president. FDR made the Kennedy (Joseph Sr.) the ambassador to Britain, who often blamed the British for not agreeing with Hitler. JFK had a safe position during the war in naval intelligence in D.C. in which he began a relationship with Inga Arvad, who was suspected of being a Nazi spy. Aware of the political danger, Joseph Kennedy had his son transferred to the South Pacific where he commanded the PT-109, which was sunk, but JFK survived. His story would get exaggerated into making him out to be a hero. Joe Jr. died on a risky mission, which made JFK his father's choice. JFK would get into the House and then the Senate before winning the Presidency.

Coming into office, he had to deal with Cuba and the communist Fidel Castro. Eisenhower had already authorized a CIA plan to train Cuban exiles (those who fled Cuba when Castro came to power) to overthrow Castro. Without Eisenhower's approval, they planned to assassinate Castro with help from members of the mafia. When JFK came into office, he was briefed about the entire plan and pressured to go along with it, which he did. Robert Kennedy had ties to the mob (affair with Judy Exner who he shared with mafia hitman Sam Giancana). JFK approved the **Bay of Pigs Invasion**, a plan that hinged on assassinating Castro. JFK even met with the Cuban national hired by the mafia to eliminate Castro. The Cuban exiles went in assured that the U.S. fleet and CIA-operated warplanes would support the invasion. When the situation went bad, JFK suddenly withheld the support and the exiles were captured and put in prison or executed. Anti-Castro elements never forgot JFK's betrayal. The American public would have supported a U.S. let invasion, but JFK didn't order one. **Nikita Khrushchev** viewed Kennedy as weak.

Khrushchev began to test Kennedy at Berlin. West Germany's chancellor Konrad Adenaur encouraged those in the east to go to the free west in Berlin. The Soviets put up the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop this. JFK didn't act, which added to the perception that he was weak. The wall became a Cold War symbol and showed the main task of Communism was to keep people from leaving. In addition, Castro urged the Soviets to put missiles into Cuba. Khrushchev lied to JFK telling him only anti-aircraft missiles were being sent. U-2 spy plane coverage saw Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles and SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) protected the nuclear missile sites. The cabinet was divided between attacking and going to the U.N. Robert Kennedy and Robert McNamara came up with a third way - a quarantine to keep new missiles from getting into Cuba, which would give the Soviets a chance to back down gracefully. JFK negotiated through ABC newsman John Scali who knew one of the Soviet's top spies in the U.S. Khrushchev agreed in a secret letter to remove the missiles if the U.S. pledged to never invade Cuba, but hardliners wanted more. A second letter wanted missiles out of Turkey. JFK ignored the second letter and publically agreed to the first but made a deal behind the scenes that the U.S. would remove the missiles in Turkey in 6 months. This Cuban Missile Crisis was perceived as a Kennedy victory, but Communists still controlled Cuban and many Cubans fled to the U.S. Castro would be responsible for destabilizing much of Central America over the next 30 years. JFK came out of it as the victor who forced the Soviets to back down.

Kennedy also inherited the space race. Eisenhower's concern over Sputnik led to massive government money given to universities then the USSR put a man into orbit before the U.S. in April 1961. JFK asked his advisors "Is there any place where we can catch them?" Kennedy was unaware that three Soviets died between Sputnik and putting a man into orbit. JFK made it America's goal to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade, which happened on July 20, 1969 when Apollo 11 landed and the first man on the moon **Neil Armstrong** said "**//This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind//**." During the 1960s $5 billion per year was spent on space.

The mind-set that money, education, and research could solve any problem was taking root in the U.S., which added to the Progressive belief that government could solve all problems. Money poured into the government due to JFK's tax cuts (1961-2). In order to generate wealth that would produce more tax revenues, Kennedy used the same idea of Mellon in the 1920s (opposite of the New Deal). The results: personal savings rose from a 2% annual growth to 9%, business investment went up, the gross national product (how much we produce) in the U.S. rose by 40% in 2 years, job growth doubled, unemployment fell by 1/3, and federal revenue increased. Again...this shows that cutting taxes especially on higher income is what truly brings in more revenue.

**Origins of the Vietnam Conflict:**
Eisenhower receives some of the blame for action in Vietnam in terms of not addressing the situation after the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. North Vietnam would be taken over by the Communists led by **Ho Chi Minh**. Vietnam had resisted Japan during WWII and thought they were getting free elections and independence from France. Evidence was showing that elections would put Ho Chi Minh in power with the Communists so Vietnam was divided. Many from the north fled to the south to get away from Ho Chi Minh and the Communists. Eisenhower and many in America feared that if one nation in East Asia fell to Communism, then others would too, known as the **Domino Theory**. Ho Chi Minh and the Communists were fighting for independence from France. The U.S. would help France since the U.S. wanted French support in Berlin. South Vietnam was making progress under Ngo Dinh Diem, even though he was Catholic in a nation that was 99% Buddhist. When the North saw progress being made in the South, they realized sentiment for a Communist revolution could soon disappear. Therefore, **Viet Cong** (South Vietnamese Communists) guerillas assassinated important officials in the South.

JFK wanted to seem like a young cold warrior and couldn't afford another flop like the Bay of Pigs. His **Peace Corps** fought Communism by helping nations in need but needed toughness in Vietnam. He decided he wouldn't let the Vietnam domino fall. Kennedy is responsible for committment to Vietnam, which is a twist in history because he's able to escape historical blame for problems in the conflict. Whether or not he intended to get out of Vietnam after the 1964 elections is a matter of high controversy. He took a strong stand against Communism in Vietnam, but some say it was a deception and that he intended to get out of Vietnam after being re-elected (he was assassinated before the election). Evidence sides with JFK wanting more involvement. Once he was in office, the Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated it would take 40,000 soldiers to combat the estimated 17,000 Viet Cong rebels in the South and if the North got involved it would take three times that amount. Kennedy sent in the first soldiers (Ike only sent CIA advisors). JFK escalated military buildup in Southeast Asia - 17,000 soldiers, helicopters, and naval units by 1963 and when asked about withdrawing, he said it "would mean the collapse of South Vietnam and also most likely Southeast Asia." This was at his final press conference.

Committment to Vietnam meant more than military forces. South Vietnam's premier Ngo Dinh Diem was unpopular. He was anti-Buddhist, which alienated the large majority of his population. Kennedy looked for a way to replace Diem and the U.S. quietly looked for a South Vietnamese general to perform a coup. The U.S. supported coup Nov. 2, 1963 took place with the new leader Duong Van Minh, who had Diem and his brother killed on their way to exile. The U.S. was shocked (as if they really expected civility from a Third World country coup). This helped the Viet Cong portray the new South Vietnamese leader as evil. JFK and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara rapidly moved to isolate the Joint Chiefs of Staff and by the time of his assassination, the JCS had been cut off to a great extent, but still expected to plan, fight, and win. Each military branch was trying to take the lead in Vietnam and often refused to accept each others' recommendations.

**The Crime of the Century:**
By 1963, JFK was hated by Castro, anti-Castro Cubans in America, the Mafia (since he and Robert Kennedy, Attorney General, were going after them), and right-wing Americans due to the Bay of Pigs failure and that JFK used the U.N. to solve problems. On Nov. 22, 1963 JFK went to Dallas to gain support from TX Democrats. His motorcade went by a book depository whens hots rang out and Kennedy was killed. Later, Lee Harvey Oswald was taken into custody. While being led through the police station, Oswald was shot and killed by night club owner Jack Ruby. The events became suspicious. Oswald was quickly captured so there was no thorough investigation. He had a checkered past having became a Soviet citizen in 1959, but grew dissatisfied with the USSR and left. He handed out pro-Castro items, but was an ex-Marine, who was known as an expert marksman.

Lyndon Johnson became president and put together the Warren Commission to investigate since many Americans thought the Soviets or Cubans assassinated JFK. LBJ instructed the commission to (1) determine who was involved and (2) reassure the public - impossible to do #2 if the Soviets or Cubans were involved. Also, LBJ instructed them to act quickly and so they never called in key witnesses to testify, never called in Ruby, and the failure of a thorough investigation led to conspiracy theories. The commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in what became known as the "Magic Bullet" theory.

**Lyndon Johnson Takes Office:**
LBJ was the Senate Majority Leader before being V.P., which is the most powerful position in the Senate. Johnson had a lot of power and was known for the "Johnson treatment," or the use of his dominant stature and persuasion to get legislation accomplished. Johnson had some scandals that almost kept him off the ballot in 1964 as JFK's running-mate, but all in all he was a vote-getter from the South. His programs became known as the **Great Society** in which he wanted to use the government to eliminate poverty (subscribing to the belief that the government can fix all problems and that everyone that was in poverty wanted to work hard to pull themselves out). In 1964, LBJ was seeking an election of his own against the Republican Barry Goldwater. LBJ promised bigger government for the Great Society whereas Goldwater was for small government and more state control (which got associated with states' rights, a pre-Civil War belief that the states should control slavery issue individually, which gave the appearance that Goldwater was against civil rights - this wasn't reality, but some believed it). Goldwater also wanted to abolish the income tax and was known to be tough on Communism. Opponents painted Goldwater as a nuclear bomb thrower as portrayed in LBJ's Daisy Girl ad. Goldwater had said if we are going to fight in Vietnam, we should use all means necessary to win. LBJ was never really part of JFK's team, but ran on his image and won big with the Republican national apparatus in disarray. Regardless, LBJ felt he had a mandate to pass anything he wanted since he won big and therefore he unleashed a large number of new federal spending.

**Race, Rights, and the War on Poverty:**
Civil rights got pushed more into the spotlight after the **Greensboro, NC sit-ins** when four black college students went to the lunch counter at Woolworth's and refused to leave even though they weren't going to get served. Each day more and more came until 60 of the 63 seats were taken by blacks. By the 5th day the owner had to shut it down unsure about how to proceed. This began the sit-in movement. In 1961, a group began **"freedom rides**" to challenge segregated bus terminals as they would ride from town to town. In 1962, James Meredith would become the first black to enroll into Ole Miss with the help of Mississippi civil rights leader **Medgar Evers**. Meredith was blocked by Governor Ross Barnett, which led to Kennedy using federal authority. Afterwards, JFK gave his famous civil rights speech calling for new civil rights legislation.


 * Martin Luther King Jr.** pushed civil disobedience, or non-violent protests while racists took part in public acts of brutality, which could now be seen on TV. This appealled to America's sense of justice and morality. On August 28, 1963, King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech in D.C. saying people should be judged by "the content of their character, not the color of their skin." It was a famous and moving speech. However, the violence was just beginning. Several weeks later a bomb went off at a black Baptist church in Birmingham and killed four children. Protests in Birmingham took place when Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor ordered his men to use dogs, tear gas, electric cattle prods, and clubs. It was all seen on TV. King would be jailed by Connor and while in jail he wrote **Letter from Birmingham Jail**, which was the best statement of the movement's goals using Judeo-Christian thought and Revolutionary era principles quoting both Jefferson and Lincoln. King thought changing minds of Southerners might cost to many lives due to the violence against them, so he turned his focus to sympathetic Northerners.

The movement did have some infiltration of Communists who wanted to radicalize it and in theminds of some (like FBI director J. Egar Hoover) Communists were behind the protests. King wasn't a Communist, but there certainly were radicals in the movement. The **Black Muslim** movement led by Elijah Muhammad, who claimed to be the Messiah, hated the U.S. and became a radical end of the movement. He would recruit Malcolm X who would help lead the movement, which later (along with newcomer Louis Farrakhan) became violent and anti-Semitic.

The **Civil Rights Act of 1964** made all segregation and discrimination illegal and set up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Southern Democrat wing of the Democrat Party tried to hold it up, which meant even though the Democrats controlled Congress, Republican support was needed. It's passage coincided with a King-led movement to register blacks to vote. He led a march from Selma to Montgomery to do so, but state troopers met them and violence was shown on TV. This led to the **Voting Rights Act** in 1965, which saw a higher percentage of Republicans vote for it than Democrats. This is ironic because blacks throw their support to the Democrats.

Race riots began in California and other Northern cities, which led to burning, looting, and destruction. The National Guard was brought into various cities to stop the violence. Black activists like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown blamed whites and began the black power movement, which eventually led to the hate group, the **Black Panthers** with the motto "kill whitey." Malcolm X and other radicals blamed white oppression, which was certainly not the case outside of the Jim Crow South. King might have been able to separate his cause from the radicals, but he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis by James Earl Ray, which led to unrest. The Johnson Administration responded by creating the largest bureaucracy since the New Deal and producing the first class of citizens truly dependent on the government.

**Origins of Welfare Dependency:**
The Civil Rights Act had ended the last legal remnants of slavery and reconstruction, yet LBJ put forth legislation that over the next few decades would re-enslave many poor and minorities into a web of government dependency. LBJ said he wanted to win the "war on poverty" moving "upward to a Great Society." There would be a massive framework of new federal programs under the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Some parts seemed harmless, such as the Job Corps, which taught skills to high school dropouts, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) worked in poverty areas, and Head Start, which was pre-school for low income children.


 * AFDC** (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) was set up in the New Deal and orignally was government money given to widows whose husbands were the main source of income. LBJ and the Congress of the 1960s changed it to any low income single mother. The number eligible soared as it became financially more attractive to not be married than to be married. Caseloads rose 125% in 5 years. In 1950, 88% of white families and 78% of black families consisted of a husband and wife in a traditional marriage. These numbers did not change even through the Depression, but did change after the Great Society. White percentages stayed the same, but percentages for blacks began a steep slide. Within 12 years the percentages of blacks in traditional marriages went down to 59% and in 20 years the percentage of black poor who lived in a single-female household shot up from under 30% to nearly 70%. Why? Because the "war on poverty" gave more incentive to not be married and be poor, and managed to destroy black marriages and family formation at a faster rate than the most brutal slaveholder had ever dreamed. A couple could make more money if they didn't marry and had numerous children out of wedlock through the new welfare system.

AFDC had two other side effects. It inadvertently attacked the most important institution that could assist people in getting out of poverty - marriage. Data shows that married couples generate more wealth than single people living together. Furthermore, AFDC left numerous inner-city boys with no male role models, which led to gangs involved in drugs and crime that became role models to impressionable youth. No jobs programs or assistance of any kind to the poor can substitute for intact families, according to statistics. The Great Society did not bring down poverty rates.


 * Medicaid** was another Great Society program that was set up, which was health care for those with low income. This added to dependency on the government in a very important category...health. The benefit was that people with low income would receive free health care (not actually free...paid for with tax dollars). The negative aspect was and is still today unable to cover a lot in terms of health care and drastically increased government spending as well as power (now the government is deciding medical procedures for individuals in need). **Medicare** was also set up by the Great Society, which would provide health care for the elderly. Like Medicaid, this put a large group, senior citizens, reliant on the government. The benefit was that the elderly defintely had health care (not really free...paid for with tax dollars). The negative aspects was and is still today unable to cover every medical procedure and drastically increased spending as well as power (now the government is deciding medical procedures for the elderly...the largest voting group).

**We're Not Going North and Drop Bombs:**
LBJ tried to deal with Vietnam quietly, which led to disastrous wartime strategies. He inherited JFK's cabinet of which many held LBJ in low esteem so it'd be difficult for him to get loyalty. LBJ and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara thought a __limited war was all that was needed and keeping it quiet__ was the best strategy. They didn't even have the public view the Communist North Vietnamese or the brutal Viet Cong in the South as the enemy. LBJ and McNamara gave the whole propaganda part of the war to the Communists, the complete opposite of previous wars America has fought. This was the first time the U.S. government didn't express spirited animosity toward its enemy and didn't provide the public with any examples of North Vietnamese or Viet Cong atrocities (and there were plenty) and especially held off speaking ill of Ho Chi Minh. In 1995, Colonel Bui Tin of the North Vietnamese army was asked if it was possible to have stopped the Communist takeover and he said if Johnson would've cut off the **Ho Chi Minh Trail** (trail from North to South to get supplies to the Viet Cong) the Communists would have been stopped. U.S. General William Westmoreland requested ability to cut off the trail, but was denied by LBJ. Both JFK and LBJ were reluctant to pursue the war in the first place. The left wing press in America controlled the dialogue involving the war. A few photos of Vietnamese villagers killed and their heads put on posts at the hands of the Communists would no doubt have brought overwhelming support. The media wouldn't do it...they didn't see the Communists as an enemy.

In the **Gulf of Tonkin Incident**, U.S. destroyers were attacked. Debates went on if they were really attacked or not. LBJ still went on TV and announced air responses. Congress passed the **Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions**, which gave LBJ all power to "repel any armed attack against the U.S. forces and prevent further aggression." LBJ had the full support of George McGovern, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy, all who later spoke out against the war. Johnson underestimated the effort needed, but also was aware of the possible implications of war in Asia saying "We're not going north and drop bobms at this states...I want to think about the consequences of getting American boys into a war with 700 million Chinese." The Viet Cong launched various attacks in the South yet LBJ still refused a bombing campaign. More troops were needed to keep aircraft safe, but more air power was needed to keep expanding base areas safe. LBJ approved **Operation Rolling Thunder**, a bombing campapign. LBJ and McNamara picked the targets and limited what was fair game. No oil facilities were targeted and U.S. pilots were restricted on attacking enemy combat positions (could only attack missile sites that actively were attacking them).

By 1965, U.S. troops were at 200,000, well below what the Joint Chiefs of Staff said was needed to win. Based on forces, the war should've been over long before 1965, but the Johnson Administration lacked a strategy. **William Westmoreland** became commanding general in March of 1964. He was impatient with South Vietnam's operation against the Viet Cong, so he developed **search-and-destroy missions** but it put the U.S. troops in the position to have the bulk of the casualties. Still, limited war hurt the American effort. Fighting a war of attrition (who can outlast the other) and counting numbers killed went against the principles of a democratic republic. The Communists welcomed losing 1/3 to 1/2 of their population since human life had little meaning in Communism. North Vietnam was well-supplied with help from the Soviets and were able to ship supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Change in portrayal of the war came with the **Tet Offensive**. This is when the Viet Cong launched assaults on multiple targets Jan. 31, 1968 and surrounded the Marine base of **Khe Sanh**. The net results would be a slaughter of the Viet Cong, but it showed that the Viet Cong was able to attack. There was a 50 to 1 kill ratio achieved by the U.S. yet the media reported it as if it were a Communist victory. In terms of the media and its anti-war bias there would be a printed photo of a South Vietnam police chief shooting a man in the head claiming he was a Viet Cong suspect --- the man was really a Viet Cong colonel in civilian clothes who the police chief personally knew and by the rules of war, was a spy. In addition, scenes were cut and spliced into 30 second clips of marines and body bags, with the text "American troops mauled." Also, after Tet the "most trusted man in America" CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite told his viewers the war was unwinnable. LBJ said if he lost Cronkite he lost the American people. However, LBJ stayed popular with the public and polls showed no more than 20% wanted to withdraw from Vietnam.

With no declaration of war, the administration lost the psychological patriotic edge and people debated Vietnam as a normal policy decision rather than a matter of national security. In addition, the anti-war press led to a negative public view. LBJ's and McNamara's limited war was a bad strategy. The draft was a source of much of the protests (even though it wasn't anything new). Some against the war were simply against it being a limited war. However, a radical movement protesting consisted of die-hard communists, dropouts, social outcasts, militant anti-American groups, and youths who knew very little about foreign policy.

**Three Streams Converge:**
Wars always have protesters, but what was different with Vietnam was several forces combined in the mid-1960s to produce the student mass demonstrations that disrupted colleges and spilled over into cities. The Babyboomers entering college years led to massive amounts of new students. This generation would set records for drunk driving, suicide, illegitimate births, and crime plus the divorce rate went from 1 in 6 in 1940 to 1 in 3 in 1970. They came with a background of abundance, self-centeredness and permissiveness along with instability and lack of direction brought the baby boomers onto college campuses. Lower standards for admissions also led to major rise in college admissions. Government spending on education greatly increased beginning a key shift of the government now being the "financial dynamic of education." It was well-intentioned, but increased government size. Today, numerous large universities rely on government money.

College campuses in the mid-1960s began to lean left (liberal and progressive) especially in English, history, philosophy, and social sciences, all required courses that would reach most students. As a result, students were not getting the basic principles of capitalism or communism. Tenure committees (determine when professors get tenure - job becomes permanent) on campuses began to have more Marxists on them and acted like Joseph McCarthy, only the opposite, even though they criticized McCarthy the most. There would be a generational revolt against the established faculty, which young radicals simply called the "establishment."

It was radical professors who spouted radical ideology, but it was radical students who led protests with many youth leaders called "**red-diaper babies**" - whose parents were Communist Party members or Socialists. Some weren't even students at the time, such as Tom Hayden (known for his marriage to Jane Fonda), a journalest who worked as a field secretary for **SDS**, Students for a Democratic Society, a group he co-founded with Al Haber, a local Michigan radical. Hayden and Haber hated American capitalism. Hayden was often referred to as the "next Lenin" and called his anti-capitalist movement the "New Left." He helped draft the **Port Huron Statement**, which stated that they wanted to seize control of the educational system from the administrators and government, that is from the tax payers. They also claimed that America was the reason for conflict in the world. The large baby boom generation went to college when these radical ideas were on campuses. Not all subscribed to these ideas, but a large number were exposed to these radical thoughts and theories even taught by new radical professors.

Moscow trained and supported a network of radical leaders. After a 1964 protest at the University of California Berkeley, demonstrations got violent. Those protesting were proud of their Marxist-Leninist views, such as Bernadine Dohrn, an SDS leader who said "I consider myself a revolutionary Communist." Militant Communists pushed the radical movement toward street violence and yielded influence to the militant **Weather Underground**. Campus violence wasn't emotions getting out of hand, but rather a radical group with revolutionary tactics filled with and ideology of terror looking to impose their view on the majority. The New Left Yippie group __saw nothing wrong with breaking laws, destroying property, insulting police and city officials, polluting, and breaking the law in any way since to some it was a joke and to others it validated their identity__. Radicals noted the essence of the movement was twofold - (1) repel and alienate mainstream society setting the radicals up as anti-establishment heroes who would appeal to teens and college students seeking to break away from their parents and (2) refuse negotiation to radicalize campuses (they admitted later to always up the demands to keep from compromise). Skewed news reports had students appear to be protesting dress codes or have a say in curriculum. Jane Fonda typified what the radicals believed when she visited Hanoi (North Vietnam) and had a famous picture taken of her in a gunner's seat of a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.

Polls indicated LBJ would lose in 1968 so he announced he would not seek his party's nomination in 1968 and what was equally shocking was one candidate who ran for peace - **Robert Kennedy**, whose brother (JFK) is who committed the U.S. to action in Vietnam. RFK was assassinated though by Arab nationalist Sirhan Sirhan. Hubert Humphrey ended up getting the Democrat Party nomination. The Republicans went with Richard Nixon who was able to make a comeback since Americans really wanted law and order and he claimed to have a secret plan to get out of Vietnam and he appealed to what he called the "silent majority." George Wallace ran as a third independent party candidate. Wallace, the governor of Alabama, wanted to keep the Jim Crow Laws in place in the South and ran against desegregation.

**Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll:**
Timothy Leary's famous call to "tune in, turn on, and drop out" reached innocent ears and many youth believed their parents lied to them about rock 'n' roll, sex, and Vietnam. A new drug was illegally available and abused - LSD. Drug use was a common trait of the violent protests on college campuses. In addition, sexual freedom without consequence was glamorized and pushed by Hollywood as well as the music industry. The Free Love movement supported by Hippies and would be the beginning of homosexual behavior being viewed as desirable. Furthermore, "the Pill" was put on the market in the 1960s, which also led to more socially unacceptable behavior of America's youth.

Rock music (some, not all) promoted drugs and sex specifically the music of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison (Doors), Pink Floyd, and Janis Joplin. Blue jeans became popular in this youth movement as blue jeans were considered teh anti-fashion at that time. **Woodstock** was a famous festival of this new countercountry on a farm in rural New York. "Peace, love, and rock 'n' roll" was the motto of Woodstock and heavy drug use was part as well. Also, so much garbage was left that it was the largest pile of garbage of any event in history (shows trait radical type of protestors then and now) and was left for someone else to clean up.

**Nixon in Office:**

 * Richard Nixon** (the winner in 1968) was largely associated with the anti-communist movement with McCarthy, especially going after Alger Hiss. Nixon is often criticized as being against civil rights and desegregation, but he favored equal rights in 1950 before it was a mass movement, was a member of the NAACP, and received praise from Eleanor Roosevelt for his position. Nixon wasn't a conservative and embraced the basics of New Deal economics saying "We are all Keynesians now" showing his faith in Keynesian economics, which prolonged the Depression and added to the size of government. The cost of LBJ's Great Society came due under Nixon. Government spending had to greatly increase as the cost of welfare to help a person out of poverty was $2,000 in 1965 but would be $167,000 by 1977. Government power expanded with the **EPA** (Enviornmental Protection Agency), which gained power over private property in the name of environmentalism. An early example was that it stopped construction of a dam in Tennessee, because it might effect a fish called a snail darter. Jobs were lost, but the fish would be okay. Farmers and western ranchers were hurt dramatically by the EPA. Environmental attacks also took place on the automobile. New EPA controls on emissions didn't give Detroit the chance to make changes to automobiles through the market.

The increase in government led to more taxes and less personal choice. Other regulations were passed on other industries too. By 1976, the estimated cost for businesses to comply with new legislation was $63 billion per year. This led to higher prices and less jobs, which shows what happens when government over-regulations businesses. Nixon added to the growth of government with the White House Staff. Before JFK, 23 people were part of the White House Staff rising to 1,664 by his assassination and to 5,395 by 1971. The cost of keeping the Great Society programs functioning plus the space race plus Vietnam plus other Cold War policies plus the cost of the EPA and other new agencies led to a massive government debt slowing the economy. The first sign of economic slowdown was inflation and the devaluing of the dollar. Every new deficit called for new taxes, which forced down productivity and employment, generating more deficits.

**The End of Vietnamization:**
"Peace with honor" was Nixon's approach to get out of Vietnam. Nixon and Henry Kissinger (National Security Advisor) tried to negotiate to get the North Vietnamese out of the South, they refused, so the U.S. increased bombing of the North while at the same time resupplying the South, called **Vietnamization**. South Vietnam fought very well as long as they had U.S. air support and supplies. Nixon was able to start withdrawing troops. In May of 1969, Nixon announced a plan to withdraw U.S. troops and hold internationally supervised elections while behind the scenes Kissinger went to convince the USSR to pressure the North to come to an agreement. That June, U.S. ground troops began coming home.

The U.S. would renew its commitment to bombing North Vietnam as well and focused on Hanoi. Senator George McGovern went on NBC and said the U.S. conducted the most murderous aerial bombardment in history. The Pentagon revealed in the fall of 1969 information about the **My Lai Massacre** during Tet (from Jan. 1968) in which Lt. William Calley led his squad in the massacre of a village. Calley was court-martialed and put in military prison. This didn't stop protesters when the news surfaced. Protesters called ALL U.S. soldiers "baby killers." However, it was another action that led to more protests. The U.S. unde Nixon began secret bombings of **Cambodia** (borders Vietnam) to clear out safe havens for North Vietnamese something that should've been done in 1965. New protests included one at **Kent State University** in which students torched the ROTC building then attacked firefighters. Guardsmen unexpectedly fired into the crowd and four were killed. From January 1959 through April 1970, over 4,300 bombings at universities, government buildings, and other facilities took place mostly by the radical and violent Weather Underground.

Protests also took on a different form when former Defense Department official Daniel Ellsburg released secret documents to the New York Times revealing LBJ had lied about involvement in Vietnam. These documents only covered events up to 1965. The major threat was that these documents revealed methods of intelligence gathering. Therefore, Nixon tried to keep the "**Pentagon Papers**" from being made public, but the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon (//New York Times Co. v. United States//). As a result, Nixon was tarred with LBJ's actions and the North Vietnamese became more convinced that the U.S. would give up due to public pressure.

Going into 1970, Nixon believed he had the support of the "silent majority" since polls showed that 65% supported the war effort (opposite of what was portrayed by the anti-war liberal biased media). From April to August 1971, U.S .offensives heavily bombed the North and communist warlords knew they couldn't take much more and were on the verge of collapse and were relying on protesters in the U.S. to coerce the U.S. government into complete withdrawal.

Nixon thought he could establish good relations with China and the USSR. He went to Beijing in 1972 and met with Mao Tse-tung and the foreign minister Chou En-lai. He sensed an opportunity since in the 1970s, Communist China and the Communist USSR didn't have good relations. Nixon would also go to the USSR and meet with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. This led to **detente**, or easing of tensions in the Cold War. The U.S. (Nixon) offered to give the USSR $1 billion in grain (USSR desperately needed it) and in return the USSR would scale down support for terrorist activities around the world and agreed to **SALT I** (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) to limit nuclear weapons. Some say Nixon could've gotten a better deal since the U.S. had much better technology at the time and our nuclear weapons were obsolete anyways (thanks to LBJ and McNamara not improving our arsenal), but on the other hand Nixon did ease the Cold War tensions.

**America's Second Constitutional Crisis:**
The North Vietnamese realized they couldn't beat the U.S. with Nixon in office, so they tried to influence the 1972 election launching a last-ditch invasion effort of the South, which ended in failure for the Communists. Democrat candidate George McGovern was the media's favorite and promised withdrawal plus at home he promised an income floor of $10,000 from the government (he wanted government to guarantee everyone would have $10,000 per year in income whether they worked hard or not). Nixon ran on his record and won with 61% of the vote. The liberal biased media was outraged.

Out of options, North Vietnam signed an agreement with Secretary of State William Rogers ending the war on January 23, 1973 and the North would return U.S. POWs. The war ended with 58,245 American deaths and 600,000 wounded, and a cost of $165 billion. South Vietnam would only be able to stay protected with a committed U.S. president and congress. In 1975, when Nixon was out of office, the Communists attacked the South again. The Congress refused aid and the South was taken over by the Communists. The American victory achieved by 1973 ended up getting portrayed as a loss by the liberal biased media (and supported by anti-war liberal historians). The end of Vietnam saw changes in government too including the **War Powers Act**, which limits the ability of presidents to commit troops into combat and the **26th amendment**, which lowered the voting age to 18 with the idea that if one was old enough to be drafted and sent to war then that person was old enough to vote.

Ever since the Pentagon Papers, Nixon worried about leaks and viewed the press as being out to get him. Before the 1972 campaign, Nixon set up a "special investigations" unit (also called "plumbers" to fix the leaks). Past presidents did similar acts. The Plumbers broke into the **Watergate** building in D.C., which is where the Democrat Party National Headquarters were located in May of 1972. They broke in again in June. It's unclear as to what their major objective was, but they did steal information and wiretapped phones. The group was led by G. Gordon Liddy. Evidence suggested that White House Counsel John Dean was the mastermind. Some evidence suggests that Dean wanted to get photos of a key address book that might prove his girlfriend was part of a call girl ring. A security guard found that burglars broke in and called police. Reporters took it as wanting to embarrass McGovern. The Democrat controlled Congress began to investigate.

Dean told Nixon about the break-in after the fact and misled him about the purpose and convinced Nixon it was a over a national security matter. Nixon was persuaded to order a cover-up. Nixon didn't demand that Dean resign, failed to open his files to the FBI, and refused to cooperate with the investigation and media who were against Nixon. A tape recording system was in the Oval Office, which Nixon kept in since he didn't want his Vietnam policies to be mis represented. A Congressional committee wanted the tapes. This led to a battle with Nixon refusing. The Supreme Court ordered the tapes to be turned over. One of the tapes had Nixon in a conversation about Watergate and then suddenly it went blank for 18 minutes before conversation resumed. Nixon's secretary took the heat saying the pause button was accidently pressed. However, evidence shows that it was purposely erased. Nixon fired the special prosecutor (Archibald Cox). He had first ordered the attorney general, Elliot Richardson, to fire Cox, but Richardson refused and then resigned. Then the deputy attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, refused to fire Cox, and resigned. This became known as the Saturday Night Massacre and produced outrage in Congress. With no support from Congress or the media, Nixon went to the American people and gave a speech saying "I am not a crook," but the public abandoned him. With the Middle East in turmoil, oil prices skyrocketed in 1973, inflation soared, and the economy (Nixon's only hope for political survival) went down. Before the House of Representatives could vote on articles of impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. **Gerald Ford** was sworn into office on that date.

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