APUSH Period 8

Harry Truman (1945-1953 D)

• Fair Deal

  • "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.“ – State of the Union (1949)

• Labor Relations

  • Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

    • Prohibited closed shops, political contributions, sympathy strikes

    • Permitted “right to work” states

  • Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

    • President order to seize national steel mills unconstitutional

• Presidential Succession Act of 1947

• Social and Cultural Developments

  • Civil Rights

    • Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 (1948)

      • Desegregated the federal government and military

• Foreign Developments

  • Containment

  • Marshall Plan

  • Berlin Airlift

  • Korean Conflict

Post WWII

• US played a significant role in the Allied victory

  • “Arsenal of Democracy”

  • Atomic Weapons

• Postwar Peace Settlements

  • US is more involved in World Affairs

    • Specifically in peace talks → creating the United Nations

    • Very different from Post-WWI

• America as a “Superpower”

  • Asia and Europe have large amounts of devastation after WWII

  • US will provide economic aid → Marshall Plan

    • Food and financial assistance

  • US wants to limit the influence of Soviet Union (USSR)

    • USSR → communism & authoritarian

    • US → capitalism & democracy

Beginning of Cold War

• Cold War (1945-1991)  - a power struggle and competition between the former allies (USA & USSR); ideological, economic, and military and nature; Never became a “hot war” between the two powers, BUT there will be proxy wars that occur during the period.

• United States vs Soviet Union (USSR)

  • Alliance from WWII is temporary

• Both emerge as WWII super powers

• US foreign policy through the Cold War will focus on foreign policy that work to directly oppose communism & the expansion of communism

German Occupation Zone

• Allied-occupied zones established in war conferences

• Soviet Union zone

  • Demanded Germany weakened

  • Stripped manufacturing for reparations

• United States/United Kingdom/France zones

  • Unified zones

  • Began economic investment

Containment

• George Kennan

• The Long Telegram (1946)

  • Driven by fear of capitalism and the West, Russian nationalism, and Marxist-Leninist ideology, Stalin and Soviets would expand sphere of influence

  • United States and allies could contain communism through show of force

• The Sources of Soviet Conduct (“X Article”) (1947)

  • “Balanced against this are the facts that Russia, as opposed to the western world in general, is still by far the weaker party, that Soviet policy is highly flexible, and that Soviet society may well contain deficiencies which will eventually weaken its own total potential. This would of itself warrant the United States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon he interests of a peaceful and stable world.”

Truman Doctrine

• Speech given to joint session of Congress (March 12, 1947)

• Becomes the basis of American Cold War foreign policy

• Concerns:

  • Communist victory in Greece could endanger Turkey

  • Loss of Turkey destabilizes Middle East

  • Spread of authoritarianism and communism; loss of freedom and democracy

• Objectives:

  • I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

  • I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

  • I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes

Cold War Impact on American Government

• National Security Act (1947)

  • Restructuring of military and intelligence agencies

  • Department of Defense

    • Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force

    • Joint Chiefs of Staff

  • Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

  • National Security Council

• NSC-68 (1950)

  • Advocated for:

    • expansion of defense budget

    • Increased military aid for allies

    • Development of hydrogen bomb

    • Rollback policies of infiltrating nations for regime change

Occupation of Japan

• Reform

  • Emperor as ceremonial role

  • Democratization

  • Breakup of conglomerates (zaibatsu)

    • Led to development of keiretsu

  • Demilitarization

• Economic Recovery

  • Avoid communist incursion

• Treaty of San Francisco (1952)

  • Ended Allied occupation of Japan

• Japanese Self-Defense Forces (1954)

• Yoshida Doctrine

  • Japan focused on economic recovery

  • Dependence on American forces for national security

Marshall Plan

• European Recovery Program

  • $13 billion in grants

  • Rebuild and modernize Western European markets and industries

  • Prevent spread of communism

Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• Soviet Union establishes blockade of West Berlin

  • In response to capitalist-based reforms in Western Germany

• U.S. and allies launch aerial campaign from 1948-1949

  • Drop food and fuel to citizens

  • Success of Airlift Campaign

    • Over 200,000 flights

    • 47,000 tons daily

• Germany officially split

  • Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany)

  • Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

Cold War Alliances

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1949)

  • Permanent alliance between U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Greece, Turkey

  • Article V: Collective security

    •  If one member is attacked, all treaty nations will defend

• Warsaw Pact (1955)

  • “Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance”

  • Soviet Union’s version of NATO

  • Eastern European satellite nations

China (1949)

• China engaged in civil war (1927-1949)

  • Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek

  • Communists led by Mao Zedong

• People’s Republic of China (1949)

  • United States recognized Chiang Kai-shek’s exile government in Taiwan

• Loss of China

  • Perceived as avoidable

  • Fueled communist hysteria in United States

  • Exploited in 1952 election

Korea Conflict (1950-1953)

• Korean Peninsula divided by World War II occupation

  • Communist North under Kim Il-sung

  • Capitalist South under Syngman Rhee

• North Korean Invasion (1950)

  • Advised by Soviet Union and China

• United Nations Security Council

  • Resolution 83: “Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.”

  • Truman received congressional approval as a “police action”

• UN Counter-offensive

  • Conducted by General Douglas MacArthur

  • Battle of Inchon (Sept. 1950)

  • U.S.-led UN forces pushed North Korean forces to Yalu River on northern Chinese border

• Chinese intervention

  • Chinese launched offensive in support of North Koreans

  • Pushed UN forces to 38th parallel

• MacArthur vs. Truman

  • MacArthur demanded to blockade China, bomb Manchuria, and potentially use nuclear arsenal – “There is no substitute for victory.”

  • Truman fired MacArthur for insubordination

• War dragged on for two years after stalemate at 38th parallel

• Armistice signed July 27, 1953

  • Korean Demilitarized Zone along 38th parallel

• Effects

  • United States-led forces dropped 635,000 tons of bombs – more than Pacific War theater

  • 33,686 American battle deaths

  • 2,5 million civilians killed or wounded

• Truman win/lose

  • Communism contained

  • “soft on Communism”

  • Approval ratings plummeted to 22%

Second Red Scare

• Propaganda

  • Duck and Cover

  • “He May Be a Communist” and propaganda film

• Cold War Cultural Policy

  • Joint Resolution 243 (1954) – “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance

  • “In God We Trust” (1956)

• Espionage

  • Alger Hiss

    • State Department accused of espionage

  • Klaus Fuchs

    • Worked on Manhattan Project and sent atomic secrets to Soviet Union

  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

    • American citizen spies for Soviet Union

    • Gave secrets on jet propulsion, radar, sonar, and atomic energy

• Loyalty Oaths

  • EO 9835 

  • McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)

• Blacklisting

  • Hollywood 10

• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

  • Walt Disney

  • John Howard Lawson

• Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI)

  • "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."

• Army Hearings

  • Decency

• Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now

  • “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.”

• Senate Censure of McCarthy

Postwar Economic Effects

• What do with…

  • 12 million returning veterans

  • Women workers

  • African-American workers

  • Reconversion to consumer goods production

  • Removal of wartime price and wage controls

• Economic issues

  • Inflation increased by 33%

  • Strike wave in 1946 of over 5 million workers

Postwar Economic Policies

• G.I. Bill (1944)

  • Zero down, low-interest mortgages and business loans

  • Free college tuition

• Employment Act of 1946

  • Council of Economic Advisers

  • “coordinate and utilize all its plans, functions, and resources . . . to foster and promote free competitive enterprise and the general welfare; conditions under which there will be afforded useful employment for those able, willing, and seeking to work; and to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.”

Truman’s Fair Deal

• "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.“ – President Truman’s State of the Union (1949)

• The federal government should now address the benefits of the abundance of wealth as the New Deal addressed depression scarcity 

• 21-Point Domestic Program for economic development and social welfare

  • Increase minimum wage

  • Expand Social Security coverage and benefits

  • National health insurance

  • Increased public housing

  • Farm aid program

  • Federal aid for education

  • Large tax cut for low-income earners

  • $4 billion tax increase toward national debt and financing Fair Deal policies

  • Abolition of poll taxes

  • Anti-lynching law

  • Permanent anti-discrimination employment laws

Midterm Elections of 1946 and 80th Congress

• Issues

  • Fair Deal initiatives

  • Inflation

  • Labor strikes

  • Concerns over communism

• Republicans gained majorities in House and Senate

• 80th Congress

  • 22nd Amendment 

  • Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

    • Right-to-work for states

    • Prohibited closed shops

    • Forbids unions to contribute to political campaigns

  • GOP Congress supported Containment measures

Election of 1948

• Democrat

  • Harry S. Truman

    • “Give ‘em hell, Harry!”

    • “Do-Nothing Congress”

• States’ Rights Party (Dixiecrats)

  • Strom Thurmond

  • “We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.”

• Republican

  • Thomas Dewey

    • Conducted a cautious campaign

    • “You know that your future is still ahead of you.”

Election of 1952

• Republican

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower ®

    • “Korea, Communism, Corruption”

    • I Like Ike

    • Richard Nixon as VP

      • Checkers speech

• Democrat

  • Adlai Stevenson (D)

    • Campaigned on rift between Taft conservatives and mode

Dwight D Eisenhower (1953-1961 R)

• Domestic Developments

  • Interstate Highway System (1956)

  • National Defense Education Act (1958)

• Social and Cultural Developments

  • Second Red Scare

  • Affluent Society

  • Conformity and Consensus of Values

  • Civil Rights Movement

    • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

    • Rosa Parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)

    • Little Rock Nine (1957)

    • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

      • Sit-ins

• Foreign Developments

  • Brinkmanship

  • Sputnik

  • U-2 Incident

Interstate Highway System

• Federal Aid Highway Act (1956)

• Inspired by two-month military convoy journey in 1919 and the German autobahn seen during WWII

• Purpose

  • Evacuation of metropolitan areas

  • Military mobilization

• Impact

  • Construction jobs and investment

  • Rise of suburbia

  • Rise of shopping malls, plazas

  • Decline of old highways “Main Street” towns

    • Route 66

  • Demand for automobiles, new rest stops and gas stations

  • Decline of short-haul rail

  • Increase in trucking industry

  • Expansion of agricultural land

Dwight D Eisenhower Foreign Policy

• Secretary of State John F. Dulles

  • Brinkmanship

    • "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art."

  • Massive Retaliation - Deterrence

    • “We need allies and collective security. Our purpose is to make these relations more effective, less costly. This can be done by placing more reliance on deterrent power and less dependence on local defensive power... Local defense will always be important. But there is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty landpower of the Communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power. A potential aggressor must know that he cannot always prescribe battle conditions that suit him.”

• Arms race

  • Bomber gap and missile gap

  • Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)

    • V-2 technology for Atlas rocket

  • Nuclear-powered submarines

    • Polaris rocket

Domino Theory

• Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. – President Eisenhower, in an interview about communism in Indochina, April 7, 1954

• North Korea (1948)

• People’s Republic of China (1949)

• North Vietnam (1954)

• Cuba (1959)

Space Race

• Sputnik (1957)

  • "While we devote our industrial and technological power to producing new model automobiles and more gadgets, the Soviet Union is conquering space. ... It is Russia, not the United States, who has had the imagination to hitch its wagon to the stars and the skill to reach for the moon and all but grasp it. America is worried. It should be.” – Bernard Baruch, “The Lessons of Defeat”

  • Explorer 1 (1958)

• Lunar Probe (1959)

• Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961)

  • Alan Shepard (May 5, 1961)

National Defense Education Act (1958)

• Purpose

  • Encourage pursuit of higher education

  • Emphasis on fields of mathematics, science, engineering, modern foreign languages

• DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  • Military-based technology research

  • Led to development of internet (ARPANET)

• Research and Development (R&D) and Think Tanks

  • Rand Corporation

NASA (1958)

• National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958)

• Independent federal agency for civilian space program and aerospace research

• “It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space ... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency ... NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.” – Hugh Dryden (1958)

• Wernher von Braun and V-2 rocket technology program

• Acquired Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1958)

• Project Mercury – human spaceflight

• Project Gemini – human crew spaceflight and EVA

• Project Apollo – lunar missions

Cuban Revolution (1953-1959)

• 26th of July Movement

  • Distribution of land to peasants

  • Nationalization of public services

  • Education reform

• Overthrow of authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista (1959)

• Castro meets with Nixon (April 1959)

  • Eisenhower refuses to meet with Castro

• U.S. initiates a series of trade embargoes as Castro expands nationalization of Cuban economy

U-2 Incident (1960)

• U-2

  • high-altitude reconnaissance spy plane

• Soviets Shoot Down U-2

  • May 1, 1960

  • Pilot Francis Gary Powers

• Cold War Relations

  • U.S. denials

  • Summit collapse

• Spy Swap

  • Powers exchanged for Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel

Baby Boom (1946-1964)

• Babies

  • 78.3 million Americans born

  • 50 million in the 1950s

• Economic impact

  • Provided market for baby product manufacturers

  • Teenage consumerism in 1960s

• Generational characteristics

  • Parents had economic opportunities

  • Not driven by materialism (Great Depression, WWII)

  • Baby boomers lived comfortably and driven by consumer culture

American Suburbia

• Causes

  • Postwar economic expansion

  • G.I. Bill and FHA

  • Baby boom

  • Great Migration

  • Interstate highways

• Details

  • Single-family homes

  • Subdivisions and zoning

  • Shopping malls

  • Chain stores and franchises

  • Drive-in cafes

• Effects

  • “White flight”

  • Urban decay

Levittown

• William Levitt - Levitt and Sons

• Built for veterans living in cramped urban apartments

• Assembly line-type “cookie-cutter” production cut construction costs

• Series of Levittown communities

  • First Levittown built in New York (1947-1951)

American Dream

• American Economy

  • National economy grew by 37%

  • Average American family had 30% more purchasing power

  • Unemployment dropped to 4.5%

• Booming Economy

  • 60% of families owned a home

  • 87% of families owned a TV

  • 75% of families owned a car

  • 60% of population as middle-class

    • $3,000-$10,000 a year ($25,000-$85,000)

American Consumerism

• Consumerism

  • Credit cards

  • Shopping malls

  • Strip malls

• Advertising/Brand Names/Franchising

  • "The reason we have such a high standard of living is because advertising has created an American frame of mind that makes people want more things, better things, and newer things.“ – Robert Sarnoff, President of NBC (1956)

  • Sponsorship of television shows: Hollywood Screen Test

  • Kool-Aid

  • Ford

  • Chef Boyardee

The Affluent Society (1958)

• Written by John Kenneth Galbraith

• Argument

  • Perpetuated income disparities

    • 22-25% of American in poverty

  • New demand created by advertisers and marketing machines

  • Transition from private production economy to public investment economy

  • Eliminate poverty, invest in public education

1950s Women

• Suburban and middle-class growth and mainstream media culture reinforced cult of domesticity

  • “Know your role”

• “M.R.S Degree”

• Increased employment opportunities

  • 40% of women held jobs

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

• Decision

  • We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?

  • We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

  • Cited white and black dolls psychological experiment 

• Brown v. Board II (1955)

  • “with all deliberate speed”

• The Southern Manifesto (1956)

  • 99 Southern U.S. Representatives and Senators sign

    • Drafted by Strom Thurmond (D-SC) and Richard Russell (D-GA)

    • Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) and Albert Gore Sr. and Estes Kefauver (D-TN) refuse to sign

  • "The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law."

  • "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding."

• Little Rock Nine (1957)

  • Governor Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas National Guard to block integration of Central High

  • President Eisenhower federalized Arkansas National Guard and sent the 101st Airborne to integrate

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks (Dec. 1, 1955)

  • Segregation on Montgomery, AL buses

• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)

  • Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional

Civil Rights Movement

• Passive Resistance

  • Bayard Rustin

  • "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.”

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

  • Network of churches to organize non-violent civil rights demonstrations

CIvil Rights Tragedies

• Emmett Till

  • Lynched and brutally murdered in Mississippi (August 28, 1955)

  • Open-casket funeral

  • Murderers were acquitted

• Medgar Evers

  • NAACP civil rights activist

  • Murdered by Byron De La Beckwith of the White Citizens’ Council and KKK  (June 12, 1963)

• 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (Sunday, September 15, 1963)

  • Four Klansmen planted dynamite

  • Bombing killed four female children (11-14 years old)

Eisenhower Brinkmanship and Farwell Address

• “Military-Industrial Complex”

  • Cold War and Arms Race implications

  • Warning of a military-corporate state

Election of 1960

• John F. Kennedy (D)

  • Catholic

  • Lyndon Johnson as VP

• Richard Nixon (R)

• First nationally televised debate

John F Kennedy (1961-1963 D)

• New Frontier

  • Expansion of social welfare

  • Clean Air Act (1963)

  • Peace Corps

• “Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.”

• 23rd Amendment (1961)

  • Electoral votes for D.C.

• Social and Cultural Developments

  • Civil Rights Movement

    • Freedom Rides

    • March on Washington (Aug 28, 1963)

  • Feminism

    • The Feminine Mystique (1963)

  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)

• Foreign Developments

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)

  • Berlin Wall

  • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

• Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

• Stages of Flexible Response

  • Direct Defense

  • Deliberate Escalation

  • General Nuclear Response

• Alliance for Progress (1961)

  • Economic cooperation with Latin America

• Peace Corps (1961)

• American University Speech (1963)

  • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)

Bay of Pigs Invasion

• CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade and overthrow Castro’s Cuba 

  • training and plan started under Eisenhower but Kennedy needed to execute

• Planned air assault by U.S. bombers and 1,400-member ground invasion force

• Botched operation led to over a 118 killed and 1,202 taken prison

• Kennedy will not send in US forces

• Major failure

• Castro’s Response → get more aid from the Soviet Union & strengthen his power

Kennedy and Berlin Wall

• Berlin Crisis (1961)

• Berlin Wall (1961)

  • Checkpoint Charlie

• “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” (1963)

Cuban Missile Crisis

• U.S. antagonism over Cuba emboldened the Cuban-Soviet relationship

  • Soviet Union provided Cuban military equipment

  • Soviet Union placed medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba

• U-2 spy planes uncovered the missile sites and Russian ships headed to Cuba

• Kennedy’s Actions

  • Kennedy orders a “quarantine” – a naval blockade in international waters

  • Kennedy addresses the nation of the situation 

• Negotiations and Aftermath

  • Soviet Union removes nuclear missiles from Cuba

  • United States removes Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy*

  • United States promises to not invade Cuba

  • Nuclear hotline and reduced Cold War tensions

Kennedy New Frontier

• Initiatives

  • Propose tax cuts to encourage private investment

  • Address poverty in America and provide poor Americans with jobs

  • Proposed increased investment in education

  • Address civil rights issues such as discrimination, segregation, and voting rights

  • Proposed increased funding for space programs

• Opposition

  • Close election meant limited mandate for Kennedy

  • Republicans in Senate criticized deficit spending

  • Southern Democrats in Senate challenged civil rights initiatives

Kennedy Assassination

• Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963

• Lyndon B. Johnson assumes office

• Warren Commission

  • Investigations and hearings ruled Lee Harvey Oswald as lone assassin

  • Conspiracy theories led to doubt of federal government

  • Zapruder film

Lyndon B Johnson (1963-1969 D)

• Great Society

• War on Poverty

• 24th Amendment (1964)

  • Poll taxes unconstitutional

• 25th Amendment (1967)

  • Presidential succession

• Social and Cultural Developments

  • Civil Rights Movement

    • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    • March to Selma (March 1965)

    • Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • Counterculture Movement

    • Free Speech Movement (1964)

    • Woodstock Music Festival (1969)

  • Feminism

    • National Organization for Women (NOW) (1966)

• Foreign Developments

  • Vietnam

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The Great Society

• War on Poverty

  • Economic Opportunity Act/Office of Economic Opportunity

    • Job Corps

      • Vocational training for young people

    • Community Action Program

  • Food Stamp Act (1964)

    • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

• Civil Rights Legislation

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    • Prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin in public accommodations

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    • Prohibits racial discrimination in voting

    • Prohibits literacy tests

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    • Prohibits discrimination in housing opportunities

• Immigration

  • Immigration Act of 1965

    • Abolished the national origins and quota system

• Education

  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)

    • Head Start (1965)

      • Preschool education for low-income children

  • Higher Education Act (1965)

  • Bilingual Education Act (1968)

• Health Care

  • Medicare

    • Health services for elderly

  • Medicaid

    • Health services for low-income families

• Housing

  • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

• Department of Transportation

  • National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act

    • Safety belts, redesigns for protection, drunk driving awareness

• Environmental Protection

  • Wilderness Act

  • Endangered Species Act

• Cultural Promotion

  • National Historic Preservation

  • National Endowment for the Arts AND the Humanities

  • Public broadcasting (PBS) and public radio (NPR)

• Consumer Protection

  • Fair Packaging and Labeling Act

  • Wholesome Meat Act

  • Child Safety Act

  • Truth-in-Lending Act

• The problems in American society:

  • 20-25% of Americans lived in poverty

    • 1/3 of 65 or older

  • Unskilled labor demand in decline

  • 44% of seniors had no health care coverage

  • Almost 25% of Americans with no high school education

  • White flight from cities to suburbs

  • Businesses and industries migrating to Sunbelt

  • Jim Crow laws and disenfranchisement laws

• A set of domestic initiatives and policies to achieve the following:

  • End poverty

  • Promote equality

  • Improve education

  • Rejuvenate urban areas

  • Protect the environment

• Education

  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

    • Federal funding toward state and local school districts

    • Head Start

  • Higher Education Act

    • Pell grants and student financial aid

  • Bilingual Education Act

  • Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

  • National Public Radio (NPR)

  • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

Election of 1964

• Democrats

  • Lyndon B. Johnson

• Republicans

  • Barry Goldwater

  • Criticized welfare state policies

Vietnam War

• North Vietnam

  • Ho Chi Minh

  • People’s Army of Vietnam aka North Vietnamese Army (NVA)

    • Used conventional military means

• South Vietnam

  • Ngo Dinh Diem and his assassination

  • National Liberation Front (NLF) aka Viet Cong

    • Guerilla tactics

• U.S. Involvement

  • Military advisors and CIA operatives

Gulf of Tonkin (1964)

• Incident

  • Alleged attack on U.S.S. Maddox by North Vietnamese torpedo boats

  • President Johnson described it as an unprovoked attack in international waters

• Resolution

  • Congress authorized President Johnson "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom“

• Why We Are In Vietnam – Lyndon Johnson

Vietnam Escalation

• General William Westmoreland

  • U.S. commitment to winning

  • U.S. mount major offensives to destroy guerillas and organized enemy

• Operation Rolling Thunder

  • Gradual and sustained aerial bombing of North Vietnamese targets

  • March 1965 to October 1968

  • Designed to force NVA to accept non-communist South Vietnam and weaken Viet Cong

Tet Offensive (1968)

• Coordinated attacks and assaults by NVA and Viet Cong on populated areas with major U.S. troop presence

• U.S. and South Vietnamese successful counterattack

• Impact

  • American public opinion increasingly anti-war

Vietnam Draft

• Conscription under peacetime draft

• Draft Lottery (1969-1973)

  • Established under Nixon to address socio economic concerns of fairness and general 

  • Based on birthdays

• Socioeconomic breakdown

  • 55% from lower class/working class

  • 20% from middle class

• Draft Dodging

  • Deferments

  • Burning draft cards

Hawks vs Doves

• Hawks

  • General Curtis LeMay

    • “My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces.”

• Doves

  • Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

  • Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Muhammad Ali

  • Give Peace a Chance

  • Burning of draft cards

• Clashes

  • Democratic National Convention ‘68

  • Republican National Convention ‘72

Vietnam Numbers

• Estimated Number of U.S. Combat Troops

  • End of 1965: 200,000

  • End of 1966: 389,000

• U.S. Combat Troop Casualties

  • Total Deaths: 58,193

  • Deaths in 1968: 16,592

  • African-American Death % - 12.5% (11% of total U.S. population)

• Vietnamese Deaths

  • Ranges between 1 to 3 million

Years of Rage (1968)

• Tet Offensive (Jan. 30)

• Nguyen Van Lem Assassinated (Feb. 1)

• My Lai Massacre (Mar. 16)

• LBJ Withdraws (Mar. 31)

• MLK Assassination (Apr. 4)

• Columbia University Protests (Apr. 23-30)

• Robert Kennedy Assassination (June 5)

• Democratic National Convention Riots (Aug. 22-30)

• Nixon wins election (Nov. 5)

Democratic National Convention

• Lyndon Johnson withdraws from re-election (March 31)

• Robert Kennedy assassinated (June 5)

• Brokered Convention

  • Vice President Hubert Humphrey 

  • George McGovern

  • Eugene McCarthy

• Riots

Election of 1968

• Richard Nixon ®

  • Law and Order

  • Southern Strategy

• Hubert Humphrey (D)

  • National Convention Riots in Chicago

• George Wallace

  • American Independent Party

Space Race

• Kennedy’s Race to the Moon

• Apollo Program

  • Apollo 11 (1969)

    • “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” - Neil Armstrong

Democrats (6th Party System)

• Platform

  • Liberalism

  • Equal opportunity and social welfare

  • Keynesian economics and progressive taxes

  • National health insurance

  • Affirmative action

  • Environmentalism

  • Multinational coalitions

  • Judicial activism

  • Pro-choice

• Electoral Events

  • 1968 Democratic National Convention

  • 2006 Mid-Term Elections

  • 2008 Presidential Election

• Demographics

  • Professionals/Academics

  • Women, Youth, and Minorities

  • Urban sectors

  • Unions

  • Northeast and Pacific West (Left Coast)

Republicans (6th Party System)

• Platform

  • Conservatism

  • New Federalism

  • Supply-Side Economics

  • Privatization

  • Southern Strategy

  • Christian Coalition/Moral Majority

  • Proactive and expanded military

  • Judicial restraint

  • Pro-life

• Electoral Events

  • Republican Revolution

    • 1994 Mid-Term Elections

    • Contract with America

• Demographics

  • Business Professionals/Corporations

  • Blue-Collar Workers

  • Bible Belt, Midwest, Rocky Mountains

Richard Nixon (1969-1974 R)

• Political Policy

  • Silent Majority

    • WWII veterans, Midwest, South, blue collar, suburbia, rural America

  • New Federalism

  • War Powers Act (1973)

  • War on Drugs

• Energy Crisis and Stagflation

  • OPEC oil embargo (1973)

  • “I am now a Keynesian in economics.”

    • 90-day price and wage controls

• Conservation

  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • Clean Air Act of 1970

• Watergate and Resignation (1973-1974)

• 26th Amendment (1971)

  • Right to vote at 18 years old

• Social and Cultural Developments

  • Kent State University (1970)

• Foreign Developments

  • Détente

  • Visit to China and Soviet Union

  • Vietnamization

Nixon anf Cold War

• Détente

  • Easing of tensions between the superpowers through dialogue and summits

• Henry Kissinger

• Nixon Visits China

  • Meets with Chairman Mao (Feb 1972)

  • Pressured Soviet Union to engage in détente to avoid strong Sino-American relations

  • Led to immense America public popularity and support

• Nixon Visits Soviet Union

  • Moscow Summit with Brezhnev (May 1972)

    • Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)

      • Froze the number of existing ballistic missile launchers and reduced ICBMs

    • Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

Vietnamization

• Purpose

  • Expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese

  • Reduce American troop involvement

  • “Peace with honor”

• Cambodia bombings

• My Lai Massacre (1968)

  • U.S. troops slaughtered women and children

• Pentagon Papers (1971)

  • Avoid defeat and ensure containment

  • NOT to help a friend

  • New York Times v. United States (1971)

• War Powers Act (1973)

  • 48 hours advance notice

  • 60 day military authorization, 30 day withdrawal

• Paris Peace Accords (1973)

Kent State University (1970)

• Student protests of Cambodia invasion

• Ohio National Guard opened fire, killing 4 students and wounding 9 students (May 4, 1970)

• President Nixon responded with indifference

• Majority of Americans blamed students

• Emphasized turmoil in America over Vietnam and the youth-based counterculture

War Powers Act/Resolution (1973)

• Background

  • Police action in Korea

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in Vietnam

  • Cambodia bombings

  • A perception of eroding congressional authority on military use

• Provisions

  • President orders troops into combat only by: congressional declaration of war, statutory authorization, national emergency of attack on American interests

  • President notifies Congress within 48 hours of commitment

  • Armed forces authorized for 60 days and 30-day withdrawal period (if no congressional reauthorization)

• Congress overrode Nixon’s veto

Paris Peace Accords (1973)

• Peace treaty signed between United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam on January 27, 1973

• American withdraws its forces in exchange for American POWs in Hanoi

• North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam two years later with no American response