American History Discussion #12

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U.S. A NARRATIVE HISTORY, SEVENTH EDITION DAVIDSON • DELAY • HEYRMAN • LYTLE • STOFF

“Defeat in Vietnam marked the end of liberalism triumphant and offered a stark reminder of the limits of American power. No longer did most Americans believe that the world could be remade in their image.”

 The Road to Vietnam  Social Consequences of the War  The Unraveling  The Nixon Era  The New Identity Politics  Value Politics: The Consumer and Environmental

Movements  Pragmatic Conservatism

• Ho Chi Minh

 Lyndon Johnson’s War • The domino theory • Tonkin Gulf incident

 Publicized as “open aggression on the high sea”

 Rolling Thunder • Escalation • Air strikes

 By 1966 almost 185,000 American troops had landed; in 1968, 536,000 American troops were on the ground

 The Soldiers’ War • Effects of the draft

 Sons of blue-collar Americans most likely to accept draft • Body counts

 Number of Vietcong killed might include innocent civilians • The air war and Agent Orange

 The War at Home • Hawks and doves

 Muhammad Ali • McNamara loses faith • Inflation

• Tet Offensive • One of the great American intelligence failures • Military success and the “credibility gap”

• Between administration’s optimistic reports and reality • Stalemate • “Clean for Gene”

• Senator Eugene McCarthy intended to challenge Johnson • LBJ withdraws

 The Shocks of 1968 • King and Kennedy assassinated

 Both men exemplified the liberal tradition  Johnson chose Hubert Humphrey as his successor;

Republicans chose Richard Nixon • Convention mayhem

 Chicago demonstrations turn into a police riot

 Revolutionary Clashes Worldwide • Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution • Student revolutionaries in Europe

“The clashes in Chicago seemed homegrown, but

they took place against the backdrop of a global

surge in radical, often violent, student upheavals.”

 Whose Silent Majority? • George Wallace • Nixon’s “silent majority”

 Outcome of the election of 1968

 Vietnamization—and Cambodia • Henry Kissinger

 “Peace with honor” and “Vietnamization” • Invading Cambodia

 Wave of protests

 Fighting a No-Win War • Low morale

 Became a serious problem for American soldiers  Drugs among soldiers in Vietnam

• The Move toward Détente • Nixon Doctrine

• U.S. would remain engaged in Asia but shift some of the military burden to other allies

• Détente • SALT I

• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, 1972: U.S. and Soviet Union pledged to limit ICBMs deployed

“Despite Nixon’s insistence…Vietnam was not a war

he had chosen to fight…. By 1968 the United States

no longer had the resources to dominate international

relations around the globe.”

• Pluralism versus assimilation • Affirmative action

 Latino Activism • Puerto Ricans and Cubans • César Chávez and the UFW • Chicano activists • La Raza Unida

 The Choices of American Indians • Termination

 Reduction of federal services, selling off tribal lands, push the people into “mainstream”

• American Indian Movement (AIM)  Indians of All Tribes  Seizure of Alcatraz and calls for a national Pan-Indian rights

movement  Militant takeover of Wounded Knee

 Asian Americans • New wave of Asian immigration

 Many middle-class professionals; more from Southeast and South Asia

 Seen as “model minorities”  Asian students joined with African Americans, Chicanos,

and Native Americans for a “third world revolution”

 Gay Rights • Growing political activism • Stonewall incident

 1969: New York police raided the Stonewall Inn; patrons fought back

 Feminism • The Feminine Mystique

 Betty Friedan, 1963  Women accounted for half the “Freedom Summers”

students • National Organization for Women (NOW)

 Equal Rights and Abortion • Roe v. Wade

 1973; struck down state laws restricting access to abortion  Sharp backlash

• Failure of the Equal Rights Amendment

• Technology and Unbridled Growth • Sources of pollution

• Smog, radioactive fallout, lethal pesticides, polluted rivers • Rising fatality rates on American highways

• Consumer advocates and corporate failures: Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed (1965)

• Nader’s Raiders • 1969: Center for the Study of Responsive Law

• Focus on Ecology • Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (1971)

• Modern society courted disaster by trying to “improve on nature”

 Political Action • Environmental Protection Agency • Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) • Clean Water and Clean Air Acts • Earth Day

 The Legacy of Identity and Value Politics • No consensus on environmental ethic • Nixon’s “southern strategy”

 Replace New Deal coalition with new Republican majority

 The End of the War

• Philadelphia Plan

 Nixon’s New Federalism • Revenue sharing • Nixon favored an “income strategy”

 Stagflation • Nixon’s wage and price controls

 Social Policies and the Court • School busing • The Nixon Court

 Triumph and Revenge • George McGovern and liberal Democrats

 Split between “us” and “them” Nixon wanted  Nixon received almost 61 percent of the popular vote

• “The plumbers” and the Pentagon Papers  Abuse of presidential powers

 Break-In • June 1972: Democratic National Committee headquarters in

Watergate apartment complex burglarized

• To the Oval Office • White House tapes

• Discovery of taped conversations in the Oval Office • Vice President Agnew found to be soliciting bribes;

Gerald R. Ford appointed to replace him • The “Saturday Night Massacre”

• Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox

• Resignation • Articles of impeachment

• Three articles of impeachment drafted by House committee • Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974, to avoid impeachment

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