Chapter 30: The Crisis Of

Authority

Dominick Argana, Adrian Ascencio, Arnold Ortega, Eduardo

Sorto

I. The Youth Culture• The New Left: Formed in the 1960s by young white

people who emphasized the black and minority cause.

• Students for a Democratic Society: Formed in 1962 by intelligent students who were DISILLUSIONED with society and DETERMINED with politics.

• Free Speech Movement: Began in 1964 at UC Berkeley through a strike for students to politically work on campus.

• People’s Park: The main purpose of another strike in 1969 at UC Berkeley was to establish a “People’s Park” on one of its vacant lots.

- About 85% of the student population supported it.

- Made the students aware of their oppressive administration.

Berkeley, 1969

The Counterculture

• “Hippies”: Young people who expressed their rebelliousness through physical features and the use of illegal drugs.

• Haight-Ashbury: A refuge for hippies to self-cultivate in a corrupt society.

• Rock ‘n’ Roll: Expressed social and political unrest in the late 1960s.

- The Woodstock music festival was a countercultural gathering.

Woodstock

II. The Mobilization Of Minorities

• Native American Grievances: Constituted 1% of the population; little education and low-life expectancy.

• Termination: Enacted in 1953, this made Indians affiliated with the government and local jurisdictions in order to be assimilated.

- Failure: So many tribes were against “termination” that the Eisenhower administration had to bar it.

- The struggle led to a new generation of Indian militants the establishment of the National Congress of American Indians (1944).

- Population doubled in size between 1950-1970.

The Indian Civil Rights Movement

• American Indian Movement: Established in 1968 by a group of young militant Indians who strived for more liberties.

- Most notable liberty by the AIM was the occupation of Alcatraz.

• Wounded Knee: A reservation in South Dakota where the AIM occupied in an effort to make the government promote radical changes and honor its “long forgotten” treaties.

- Notable victories in the courts: United States v. Wheeler(1978); County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation

• Achievements: The Civil Rights Movement won more legal rights and protections that gave Indians a better standing in the nation than they were before.

The Occupation Of Alcatraz

Latino Activism

• Largest group out of all the minorities.- 1960 census: 3 million Latinos (mainly Mexican Americans) occupied the

US.- 2006 census: 44 million Latinos occupied the US. • “Chicanos”: A reference of Mexican-American activists who wanted to

advocate some sort of nationalism.- La Raza Unida: A Chicano political party that wanted to establish a

Mexican-American state within a state.• Cesar Chavez: Leader of the United Farms Workers who began a hunger

strike in order to receive recognition of his union and increase wages. - With the support of Robert F. Kennedy, Chavez won when the growers of

half of California’s table grapes signed contracts with the union.• Bilingualism: A controversy in the 1970s in which non-English-speaking

students should be taught in their own native language. - Legitimized in 1974.

Kennedy and Chavez

Challenging the “Melting Pot” Ideal

“Melting Pot”

• “Melting” (assimilating) in the “Pot” (country).

• Many European immigrants felt that they had advanced in the nation through assimilation.

Challenges

• African Americans, Indians, and Latinos refuted the “melting pot” ideal and supported a “culturally pluralistic society.”

- “Multiculturalism”: A controversy in the 1980s in which ethnic groups attempted to make American education equal to all races.

Gay Liberation

• Homosexuals trying to fight for their rights was very surprising to the country. (Ignored)

• “Stonewall Riot”: On June 27, 1969, the police raided a gay nightclub, the Stonewall Inn, in New York’s Greenwich Village to express resentment toward homosexuals and led to riot between the two groups.

- The “Stonewall Riot” sparked the Gay Liberation movement.• Impact: Made the nation change the outlook of homosexuals and

knew that they not stop for anything until they receive liberation.- Significances: Some openly gay politicians won election to public

office; “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 1993.- Problems: During the 2004 election, same-sex marriage was an

important problem. In an effort, President George W. Bush decided to ban it with a constitutional amendment and soon led to many states supporting the amendment through a referenda.

The Quilt

The New Feminism

• Women had become a weak force for more than forty years after the women's suffrage amendment.

• Books such as The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan and other works of literature by feminists raised awareness as well as spread ideas of the current issues.

• Transformed from an “invisible remnant” into “one of the most powerful movements in American History.”

The Feminine Mystique (1963)

• Written by Betty Friedan, a magazine journalist and graduate from Smith College.

• Compared the women’s lives in the suburbs to “comfortable concentration camps.”

• Kennedy's administration, by the time this book had appeared, made a number of actions such as the establishment of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, Equal Pay Act, and incorporation of protection of women in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

• Friedan joined with other feminists to create the National Organization for Women (NOW) which responded to the complaints of women in Friedan's book.

The New Feminists

• These new feminists were much for younger, radical as shown in their literature.

• The new idea argued with what Friedan had proposed and claimed a different idea.

• The women saw themselves an exploited group organizing against oppression and developing a culture of their own.

Achievements

• Major education institutions started to become co-educational.

• Two-career families were beginning to become a norm.

• Women were beginning to become formidable competition towards men in politics.

• The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) lost support due to the fear that it would disrupt current social patterns.

Women in Politics

• First Female Supreme Court Justice (1981) Sandra Day O’Connor

• Second Female Supreme Court Justice (1993)

• Ruth Bader

• Female Representative for vice presidency in the Democratic party, Geraldine Ferraro (1984)

• Presidential Candidate for the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton (2008)

Abortion

• Women wanted to gain control of their reproductive lives.

• Used to be legal, but was banned in the beginning of the 20th century

• Roe v. Wade(1973), a court decision based on a relatively new theory, a constitutional “right to privacy.”

• All laws prohibiting abortion during the “first trimester” were invalidated.

Environmentalism

• Similar to feminism, started with little support, but grew into a big movement.

• The growth of the science of ecology helped provide new and powerful arguments.

• These arguments would reject industry and would have a calling to return to a more natural lifestyle.

Ecology

• The science of the interrelatedness of the natural world.

• The Sand County Almanac (1949) written by Aldo Leopold in which it is argued that humans have a responsibility to understand and maintain the balance of nature. Humans should behave according to a “land ethic.”

• Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson projected eloquently the setting of a “silent spring” in which birds would no longer sing and death as well as sickness threatened large animals, and possibly people.

Major Organizations

• Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation, and the National Parks and Conservation Association.

• All were committed to the new concepts of environmentalism.

• Found allies with non-profit organizations whom have never even experienced environmentalism.

• Ex: AFL-CIO

Environmental Problems

• Water pollution was a problem in some parts of the country and mostly in in major cities.

• The air itself was becoming unhealthy due to factories, cars, and power plants. So much so weather forecasts began referring to "smog" levels.

• The rapid depletion of irreplaceable fossil fuels was brought attention to as well as acid rain.

• Global warming, a well-known issue today was also brought awareness to.

Earth Day and Beyond

• Over 20 million gathered all over the United States for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

• Important event in the development of the environmental movement. Developed by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson.

• Environmentalism was not just about demonstrations and protests.

• 1970- Congress passed and President Nixon signed the National Environmental Protection Act

• The Clean Air Act (1970) and Clean Water Act (1972) were passed to further stop environmental degradation.

Vietnamization

• Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor.

• The administration devised a new “lottery” system- 19 yr. olds with low lottery numbers would be subject to conscription. President later wanted the creation of an all-volunteer army.

• 1973-Selective Service System was on its way to extinction.

• New policy of “Vietnamization” of the war.

• Nixon announced reducing the troops in Vietnam to 60,000. Reductions continued for the next three years.

Escalation

• Nixon and Kissinger wanted to destroy the bases in Cambodia. US military believed that the North Vietnamese were launching most of their attacks there.

• Nixon told air force to start the bombing in Cambodian territory, destroying enemy sanctuaries. Kept the raids a secret to Congress and the public.

• May 4-Everything was escalated when four college students were killed and nine were injured.

• The trial and conviction in 1971 of Lieutenant William Calley.

“Peace with Honor”

• Henry Kissinger was meeting up privately in Paris with the North Vietnamese foreign secretary, Le Duc Tho, to work out terms for a cease-fire.

• December 17-American B-52s began the heaviest and most destructive air raids of the entire war.

• December 30- Nixon terminated the “Christmas bombing”

Defeat in Indochina

• Contending Vietnamese armies suffered greater battle losses than the Americans had absorbed during ten years of fighting.

• March 1975-North launched a full-scale offensive against the south.

• Late in April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon, shortly after officials of the Thieu regime and the staff of the American embassy had fled the country in humiliating disarray.

• Communist forces occupied the capital and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.

China and the Soviet Union

• Nixon and Kissinger wanted to forge a new relationship with the Chinese communists- in part to strengthen them as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union.

• July 1971-Nixon sent Kissinger on a secret mission to Beijing.

• 1972-US and China began low-level diplomatic relations.

• 1969- talks in Helsinki, Finland, about limiting nuclear weapons.

Problems of Multipolarity

• In 1969 and 1970, the president described what became known as the Nixon Doctrine

• -1973, a military junta seized power from Allende, who was subsequently murdered.

• -October 1973, on the Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israel.

• -The imposed settlement of the Yom Kippur War demonstrated the growing dependence of the United States and its allies on Arab oil.

Politics and Economics Under Nixon

• The Nixon Administration attempted to restore balance between the needs of the poor, desires of the middle-class, and the power of the federal government.

• -How? __________• - Forbade the Dept. of Health, Education, and, Welfare

to cut off federal funds to schools that failed to integrate( segregate)

• - He reduced many social programs of the Great Society and the New Frontier

Domestic Policy

• He wanted to replace the existing welfare system with the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), however, it was killed in the Senate.

• It “killed” because it was attacked by welfare recipients, members of the welfare bureaucracy, and conservatives.

The Warren Court

• The Warren Court evoked anger and bitterness.

• Its rulings on racial matters disrupted traditional social patterns.

• Many people believed that it's staunch defense of civil liberties contributed to the increase in crime, disorder, and moral decay.

• Believed that these rulings weakened the power of law enforcement officials to do their job.

Continued…

• By 1968 the Warren Court had become a the target of Americans of all kinds who felt the balance of power in the United States had shifted too far toward the poor and dispossessed.

The Nixon Court

• Chief Justice Earl Warren resigned early in 1969. Nixon replaced him with Warren Burger.

• Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigned. Nixon tried to replace him with Clement Haynsworth but the Senate rejected him.

• Nixon then chose G. Harold Carswell but the Senate rejected him also.

Continued...

• He then appointed three other members of the Supreme Court: Associate Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist ( the Nixon Court).

• The new court became more committed to social reform.

The Election of 1972

• George Wallace returns to the presidential fray and concerned Nixon. He feared Wallace was going to launch a third party campaign.

• Wallace is shot in Alabama and is unable to continue campaigning.

• Democrats nominate George McGovern.

Continued…

• On election day, Nixon won re-election by one of the largest margins in history: 60.7% of the popular vote to 37.5%

• Electoral margin: 520 to 17!

The Troubled Economy

• What contributed to the troubled economy?• More foreign competition and they no longer had

easy access to raw materials in the Third World.• Inflation, its most visible cause was a significant

increase in federal deficit spending that began when the Johnson administration tried to fund the Vietnam war without raising taxes.

Continued…

• An increase of the cost of energy - The U.S. depended on foreign nations for cheap plentiful fossil fuels.

• In 1973 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced that they would no longer ship petroleum supporting Israel.

• The OPEC nations also agreed to raise their prices by 400%!

• U.S. suffered first it's fuel shortage since WWII.

Continued…

• Decline of the nation’s manufacturing sector.

• The 1970s marked the beginning of the process of deindustrialization.

• Many people lost their jobs, factories closed.

Nixon’s response

• Nixon began to ensure higher interest rates and a contraction (limit) of the money supply.

• Plan = To control the currency and inflation.

• His plan did not do much. Economic growth declined.

• The U.S. faces Stagflation!

• In 1971, Nixon imposed a 90 day freeze on all wages and prices at their existing levels.

• Attempt to keep inflation in check.

Stagflation

Continued…

• Then he launched Phase II of his economic plan: mandatory guidelines for wage and price increases, to be administered by a federal agency

• 2 Boards formed : The Pay Board- said wages had to be held at a maximum 5.5% rise a year. The Price Board - said most items could not have a price rise of more that 2.5% every year.

Continued…

• Because of the fear that the recession would be more damaging than inflation the administration reversed itself in 1971.

• Interest rates were now allowed to drop and government spending increased

• In 1973, prices rose 9%.

• In 1974, (after the Arab oil Embargo and OPEC) prices rose 12%.

Result of the Arab Oil embargo and OPEC’s increase in Prices

Continued...

• The value of the dollar dropped.

• The nation's international trade continued to drop.

• Inflation did not drop until 1985 to an average of 4%.

The End