THE 60’s & 70’s COUNTER-

CULTURE

CAUSES OF COUNTER-CULTURE

• Baby boom generation

• Post-WWII sustained affluence

• Concerns over racism and war

CHARACTERISTICS OF COUNTER-CULTURE• Skepticism about authority• Discard traditional mores and taboos• Resentment about Vietnam• Drug use/experimentation• “acid rock”• “sexual revolution”

– Alfred Kinsey– “The Pill”– NOW – increasing calls for gender equality

• Communes/Cults• Increasing activism social disorder

– Protests evolve into riots– SDS evolves into “Weathermen”– Drug experimentation addiction

Hippies in their garden of grass"Grass opened up a new space for middle class white kids," wrote chronicler of the drug culture Jay Stevens, "an inner space as well as outer space. It became a ritual--sitting around with your friends, passing a joint from person to person, listening to music, eating, talking, joking, maybe making out--all the senses heightened." (John and Leni Sinclair Collection, Bentley Historical Library,University of Michigan)

Hippies in their garden of grass

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"Girls say yes to boys who say no," 1968Those opposing the war in Vietnam not only demonstrated against the war but also encouraged young men to resist the draft. Here, singer and activist Joan Baez (left) and her sisters suggest one "benefit" those who say "no" to the draft might expect. (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

"Girls say yes to boys who say no," 1968

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THE NEW LEFT• 1959: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS):

Port Huron Statement“We are the people of this generation, bred in at least

moderate comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.”

NOTE: SDS evolved into the Weathermen

• 1964: Free Speech Movement, Berkeley, CA

BOTH GROUPS ARGUE THAT CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT

BUREAUCRACIES HAVE STOLEN POWER FROM THE PEOPLE.

STUDENT ACTIVISM

• Teach-ins: 1st at Michigan State in 1965

• Protests• April 1965: SDS leads 20,000 march in DC• 1967: Central Park Draft card burnings;

500,000 protesters• 10,000 draft-dodgers go to Canada• 200,000 draft offenders, according to govt.

STUDENT PROTESTS• Oct. 1967: 75,000 protest at Lincoln

Memorial and then 30,000 march on Pentagon

• 1968: 40,000 students on more than 100 campuses had 221 protests

• 1970: General Student Strike over Cambodia ‘incursion” = 1.5 million students in 1,200 campuses

• 1970: Kent State and Jackson State shootings

• Gov. Ronald Reagan closes CA colleges

26th Amendment (1971)Lowers voting age to 18

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What happened to the Counter-culture?

What long-term impacts, if any,did the 60’s protest movement

have any the US?

On Vietnam?

1968The year of…CHANGEDISORDERWARUPSETSDIVISIONASSASSINATION

CONTEXT

• What happened before 1968?

• What was the mood of the country?

• What were the moods of the country?

YOUR EXPERIENCE

• What year is the most important year of your generation?

• Why?

• What makes it significant?

• How would you describe that year to younger Americans?

TETJanuary 30, 1968

• What was the short-term significance of Tet?– 100 towns under attack in S. Vietnam– 32,000 VC killed– 3,000 US soldiers killed– US military victory

• What was the long-term significance of Tet?– 28% Americans “doves”/56% “hawks” before Tet– 40% “doves”/40% “hawks” after– Credibility Gap– Psychological and Political victory for VC

http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Music/Change4.gif

“…more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end

in a stalemate.” - CBS anchorman, Walter Cronkite

“If I’ve lost Walter, then it’s over. I’ve lost Mr. Average Citizen.” - LBJ

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/cronkite/

HAWKS VS. DOVES• Sen. Eugene McCarthy runs

on anti-war platform, AKA “doves”

• McCarthy ALMOST wins New Hampshire primary

• Robert Kennedy enters the race

• LBJ “abdicates” on March 31, 1968

• LBJ’s VP, Hubert Humphrey, runs for the party establishment and “Hawks”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rfk/gallery/images/g_12.jpg

HEROES FALLENMLK April 4th RFK June 4th

http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/robertkennedyonmartinlutherking.html

REACTIONS

MLK• Race riots• 100 cities• 46 killed• 3,000 wounded• 27,000 arrested• 700 fires in DC• 45,000 guardsman in

DC alone

RFK• Race now Hawks v.

Doves• Humphrey has party• McCarthy refused at

Convention• Wallace runs

independent• “Center” collapses

Don’t Forget!Wallace and May

• Southern Democrat• Running independent• “white backlash”• Captures the South• Northern, blue-collar

voters• Strongest 3rd party

candidate in history

TROUBLE IN CHICAGOCONTEXT:

RFK dead, LBJ abdicates, Humphrey is “Hawk,” McCarthy leads “Doves”

CONFLICT:

Dems. want unity at convention. Hawks and Doves are ideologically opposed.

RESULT:

Daley tries to deliver “law and order” and unity, by force.

Dems appear disordered and leaderless.

OUTCOME:

Nixon exploits Democratic chaos.

Violence at Democratic ConventionPhotographs and televised pictures of the Chicago police beating and gassing antiwar protesters and innocent bystanders at the Democratic convention in 1968 linked Democrats in the public mind with violence and mayhem. The scenes made Republican Richard Nixon a reassuring presence to those he would term "the silent majority." ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)

Violence at Democratic Convention

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Map: Presidential Election, 1968

Presidential Election, 1968The popular vote was almost evenly split between Richard M. Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, but Nixon won 31 states to Humphrey's 14 and triumphed easily in electoral votes. George Wallace, the American Independent Party candidate, won 5 states in the Deep South.

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1968

Assassination

Election

TET

RFK

MLK

Dovesrevolt

Race Riots

LBJ Abdicates

RFK shot

Eugene McCarthy

CHICAGO

NIXONwins

WALLACEindependent

McNamararesigns

Clark Clifford

PROTESTS

CronkiteMiddle-America

Defect

Columbia Univ.Riots

Map: The Vietnam War to 1968

The Vietnam War to 1968Wishing to guarantee an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson remarked in 1965, "We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny. To withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the next."

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