Rebellion and

Reaction in the

1960s and 1970s

Chapter 32Lecture Outline

© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The 1960’s

The Roots of Rebellion

• The New Left

– The new university-trained, middle-class young adults found the

escalating war in Vietnam of grave concern when, in 1966, the

draft was modified to make them eligible.

– This would lead to the birth of the New Left in the antiwar

movement.

– Perhaps the best evidence of how the New Left felt than the 1968

Democratic Convention, where riots broke out, police were sent in

to end them, and it was all televised.

The Roots of Rebellion

• Youth Revolt

– The youth of the 1950s were not the young adults of the 1960s.

They had not experienced major depressions or wars as their

forebears had.

– They fell into the spheres of the civil rights movements, which led

them to apply the demands by African Americans to other groups,

such as women, Native Americans, homosexuals, and Hispanics.

The free-speech movement Mario Savio, a founder of the free-speech movement, speaks at a rally at the University of California at Berkeley.

Upheaval in Chicago The violence that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago seared the nation.

The Roots of Rebellion

• The Counterculture

– The events of the 1960s led many away from the radical politics of

the youth and toward a counterculture, that of the hippies.

– Direct descendants of the Beats, they wore long hair and blue

jeans, took drugs, and were not interested in organized political

action.

– The apex of this era was the three-day-long Woodstock Festival in

August 1969, which half a million people attended.

The Roots of Rebellion

• Feminism

– The mainstream of the

women’s movement was led

by Betty Friedan, whose book,

The Feminine Mystique,

elevated the movement to

national levels.

– Congressional action in 1972

applied affirmative action to

colleges, requiring equal

opportunities for women in

academics and also in sports.

– In 1973, the Supreme Court

ruled in Roe v. Wade and

struck down state laws

prohibiting abortions.

The Woodstock music festival drew nearly half a million people to a farm in Bethel, New York. The concert was billed as three days of “peace, music, . . . and love.”

The Roots of Rebellion

• Hispanic Rights

– The term “Hispanic” came into vogue after 1945 to describe the

Spanish-speaking citizens of the United States.

– After WWII, Hispanic leaders would work along the same lines as

African American civil rights leaders to secure the same rights for

their people as the Anglo citizens had.

– Chicano Movement emerges in the 1960s

Chicano Movement

• Hector Perez Garcia - WWII vet and surgeon, fought for Mexican American

solder from WWII

• Cesar Chavez – organizer of farmer workers in California

• Dolores Huerta – helped Chavez to form National for Workers Association

later United Farm Workers

– In 80s expanded to women's rights and environmental protection and

immigration policy

– 2012 awarded Medal of Freedom

Cesar Chavez: An American Hero Official Trailer https://youtu.be/zeo-q-8MOQ4

Important Court cases

• Mendez v Westminster ISD (1947) – locals schools were

segregating and when sued Supreme Court decided cannot

segregate unless state law

• Delgado v Bastrop ISD (1948) – Stop segregation in

schools (US district Court)

• Hernandez v Texas (1954) – no Mexican American jurors

allowed for 25 years. Right to “equal protection of the law”

under the 14th amendment

• White v Regester (1973) – Texas did not have the right to

discriminate by setting up multi-member districts

• Edgewood ISD v Kirby (1984) – required changes in school

finance to increase funding for students in poorer school

districts

The Roots of Rebellion

• Gay Rights

– Spurred by the liberation other

groups were experiencing

during this time, homosexuals

also worked to secure similar

benefits.

– When a riot erupted at a in

New York homosexual club,

the violence in which the

police put it down elicited

national attention.

– By the end of the 1970s, the

majority of the momentum in

this movement was gone.

The Roots of Rebellion

• Native American Rights

– “Red Power”

– Formed American

Indian Movement

(AIM)

– Introduced term

“Native American”

– Native Americans of

SF took control of

Alcatraz Island for 19

months

Nixon and Middle America

• Economic Malaise

– Nixon’s administration saw the beginning of a rise in inflation

that would last to Reagan’s time.

– By 1970, inflation had reached 6 percent.

– The nation was experiencing a period of economic recession at

the same time as inflation ran rampant. (stagflation)

– When the US supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War against

Egypt and Syria, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC) raised oil 400% for those supporting Israel.

– This had a devastating effect on the American economy: gas

lines stretched for miles and millions lost their jobs.

– The OPEC boycott led many to realize the possibility of running

out of natural resources. Thus, the environmental movement

was born. Nixon would support legislation promoting such

conservation.

Oil crisis, 1973 The scarcity of oil was dealt with by the rationing of gasoline. Gas stations, such as this one in Colorado, closed on Sundays to conserve supplies.

Nixon and Vietnam

• Gradual Withdrawal

– When Nixon was

inaugurated, the United

States had over 530,000

soldiers in Vietnam.

– He believed that victory was

unattainable and planned to

gradually withdraw American

troops as a sufficient

number of

– South Vietnamese troops

were trained to replace

them.

– In 1973, he did away with

the draft and the army

became purely voluntary.

Kent State University National guardsmen shot and killed four student bystanders during anti-war demonstrations on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio.

Later in 1971 the 26th Amendment is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

Nixon Triumphant

• China

– Nixon was the first president

since Eisenhower to have a

Congress of the opposite party.

– He continued the Apollo space

program and beat the Russians

to the moon, landing in July

1969.

– He realized in 1969 that the

cold war dichotomy was giving

way to a multipower system, so

he took the opportunity to open

China to American markets by

recognizing the communist

government there, even visiting

the nation.

Nixon Triumphant

• Détente

– China welcomed American advances as their relations with

their fellow communists in the USSR were deteriorating.

– Upon conclusion of the Sino-American agreements, the

Soviets sought to soften relations with America as well.

– In 1972, Nixon stunned the world by announcing he would

meet with the new Soviet premier, Leonid Brezhnev.

– Nixon would succeed in negotiating the Strategic Arms

Limitation Talks (SALT), limiting both nations’ intercontinental

ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The United States and China With President Richard M. Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, the United States formally recognized China’s Communist government. Here Nixon and Chinese premier Zhou En lai drink a toast.

Nixon Triumphant

• Shuttle Diplomacy

– Nixon would work to show the U.S. recognition of Arab power in the

Middle East and its own dependence on foreign oil through his and

secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s diplomacy during the Middle East

crises of the 1970s.

Nixon and Vietnam

• War without End

– Peace talks in Vietnam preceding

the 1972 presidential election did

not amount to much.

– Eventually, an agreement was

signed to end the war and restore

peace in the land.

– The North did not keep its side of

the agreements and left 150,000

soldiers in the South.

– On March 29, 1973, the last

combat troops left and 600

prisoners of war were released.

– Within two years of American

evacuation, South Vietnam would

fall to northern forces.

Nixon and Vietnam

• The Election of 1972

– The foreign policy accomplishments of Nixon made him

virtually unbeatable in the 1972 election.

– The Democrats would nominate George McGovern to

challenge him, but McGovern was crushed, receiving 17

electoral votes to Nixon’s 520.

– The election was stained only by an odd break-in at the

Democratic National Convention headquarters in

Washington, D.C., at the Watergate Hotel.

Watergate

• Uncovering the Cover-Up

– The trail to the break-in at the Watergate Hotel eventually led

right to the White House.

– As the prosecutors grew closer to Nixon, more members of

his staff involved in concealing the illegal wiretaps began to

cooperate with them. Nixon would refuse to turn over

documents requested by Congress, citing executive privilege.

– When one informer revealed the presence of a taping system

in the Oval Office, a year-long battle for the “Nixon tapes”

began.

– Eventually, Nixon turned the tapes over, and they were found

to have been tampered with.

– Finally, Nixon would resign in August 1974.

Dick, the movie trailer: https://youtu.be/33ALTtt4SIY

Watergate

• The Effects of Watergate

– Although he had been elected

again as vice-president, Spiro

Agnew did not succeed Nixon.

– He had been forced to resign

when it came to light he had

accepted bribes.

– Nixon in turn nominated Gerald

Ford, the minority leader in the

House. Now, Ford became

president.

– One month after taking office,

Ford would pardon Nixon, and

because of this his career would

never recover.

Nixon’s resignation Having resigned his office, Richard M. Nixon waves farewell outside the White House on August 9, 1974.

An Unelected President

• The Ford Years

– Ford would veto thirty-nine bills while in office, more than Hoover,

who had a full term to do so. He would reject pressure to cut taxes

and spending, resulting in a plummeting economy and

unemployment as high as 9 percent. He retained Kissinger as

secretary of state and met with Brezhnev in 1974 to negotiate

SALT II.

• The Collapse of South Vietnam

– The last soldier left Vietnam on March 29, 1973. That same day,

600 prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the Hanoi

Hilton. On April 30, 1975, the day the last U.S. helicopter left the

embassy in South Vietnam, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese

Communists.

An Unelected President

• The Election of 1976

– Ford would battle California governor Ronald

Reagan for the Republican nomination in 1976,

eventually securing it.

– The Democrats nominated governor Jimmy Carter

of Georgia.

– Carter would win the presidency with 297 electoral

votes to 240 for Ford.

– Only 2 million votes separated the two candidates.