fuck my whole life i hate my whole life

Birmingham Campaign 

• Campaign in Birmingham, Alabama

• 1963

• drew public attention to protests to publicize the Civil Rights Movement and pressure JFK on Civil Rights

• Birmingham Police led by Commissioner Bull Connor react violently, attacked hella peaceful protesters → broadcasted to general public, sparked wide outrage

• midst of protest, MLK Jr is arrested and writes Letter from a Birmingham Jail

• exposed the brutality of segregation, led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Brown v. Board of Education

• 1954

• Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” doctrine unconstitutional in public education

• exposed inherent inequality in segregation, international perception of American racism and segregation cited

• culmination of legal efforts of NAACP Legal Defense Fund

• major catalyst for broader Civil Rights Movement, provided groundwork for later Civil Rights Act (1964) & Voting Rights Act (1965)

Checkers Speech

• 1952

• Nixon’s response to accusations of bribery threatening his VP campaign with Eisenhower

• Effective use of new TV medium, staged a living room set and included his wife

• Succeeded in shifting media topic away from financial gifts; heavy-handed emotional appeals (Checkers, his kids’ dog, was technically a gift, and to demand to take away his financial gifts would be to take away his kids’ dog, you monsters)

• Saved Nixon’s campaign amidst scandal (kept him on Eisenhower’s electoral ticket), demonstrated TV’s newfound power

Chennault Affair

• Secret effort by Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign, working with Republican Anna Chennault, to persuade the South Vietnamese government not to join President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks

• Nixon’s team told South Vietnam to wait for a better deal once he won

• LBJ discovered the plot but chose not to reveal it publicly to avoid damaging the presidency and exposing US spying on South Vietnam

• Likely undermined peace negotiations, helped Nixon win the 1968 election, and contributed to the deep paranoia that shaped his presidency and eventually led to scandals like Watergate

Containment Doctrine

• Develops out of analysis of Soviet aims in the “Long Telegram” in 1946 from George Kennan, where he states the dangers of the Soviet Union’s aggressive expansionist foreign policies

• Recommends that the U.S should counter Soviet Union expansionism forcefully through pressure and containment to avoid the spread of communism worldwide

• Argued that internal competitions and contradictions would lead to the Soviet Union’s collapse 

• States that there should be no outright warfare with the Soviet Union, instead the U.S should contain communism in general and wait for the Soviet Union to essentially collapse on its own

• Plan of action of future administrations on how to handle the threat of Communism without waging nuclear war

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Kennedy administration, between 10.16-10.28, 1962

• Political and military conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States involving Soviet nuclear warheads placed off of the coast of Cuba

• Considered the closest point of direct military conflict during the Cold War

• Resolved through a diplomatic solution involving the US discretely removing its nuclear warheads in Turkey, to which the Soviet Union reciprocated by removing their warheads from Cuba

• Seen as a diplomatic success for the Kennedy administration, while seen as a failure for the Soviets, resulting in the removal of Premier Khrushchev

• Major example of the philosophy of mutually assured destruction, due to the scale of energy in a nuclear weapon, no nation wanted to use these warheads due to the fact that it all but guarantees the immediate destruction of the planet

• Mutually assured destruction still acts as a major deterrent of all out war between nuclear powers

Domino Theory

• Extension of Cold War Containment Doctrine - the expansion of communism into a particular region would only encourage nearby expansion of communism

• Prominently brought up by Eisenhower in 1954, used to justify US involvement in the Vietnam War (should Vietnam fall to communism, the rest of SE Asia will be susceptible)

• Generated increased fear of communism amongst Americans

• Geopolitical theory that underpinned interest of US in SE Asia

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Passed after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964

• President given wide powers without Congressional Declaration of War - “blank check”

• Lyndon B Johnson allowed to take all necessary measures in executing military operations after Vietnam allegedly attacked US ships at the Gulf of Tonkin

• US military officers were uncertain about what truly happened, leading political policymakers to see their opportunity and use it decisively

• Became legal basis for escalation of Vietnam War, justifying bombing campaigns and combat troops

Iran-Contra Affair

• 1985-1987

• result of Reagan’s anti-communist foreign policy

• 1979 - communists (Sandinistas) in Nicaragua → Contras violently oppose new Sandinista gov, Reagan approves

• Contras start doing terrorism, Reagan’s National Security Advisor (Robert “Bud” McFarlane) uses arms sales to fund Contras beyond Congressional restriction

  • US secretly sells arms to Iran government (long-time opps) to buy new weapons for anticommunist Contras

• All documents shredded before investigation could uncover - unknown extent of Reagan’s involvement

• created a major constitutional crisis over executive power, eroded public trust, and raised questions about accountability, presidential knowledge, and the entanglement of foreign policy with drug trafficking

Iraq War

• 2003

• Extension of 1991 Gulf War (Us repelling of Iraqi invasion in Kuwait)

• conscious decision not to continue war into Iraq/take down Saddam Hussein, leaving neoconservatives dissatisfied

  • US gov justified invasion as an extension of broader War on Terror, claimed Iraq had WMDs & utilized 9/11

• US now had way less international support unlike the immediate aftermath of 9/11

• led to the rise of hella conspiracy theories → Bush lied to the US to begin war for oil

• led to the profound destabilization of the Middle East, the rise of Iranian regional influence, the emergence of new non-state armed groups like ISIS, and a major shift in American foreign policy credibility (major distrust for US government)

Joseph McCarthy

• Republic Senator from Wisconsin who was very unpopular

• Decided in 1950 to make communists in government his political focus

• Claims extensive infiltration of US government by communists without much evidence and holds hearings accusing departments and agencies for not taking issues seriously

• Campaign falls apart when he unsuccessfully tried to investigate communists in US Army

• Was seen as a bully and eventually even lost election

• Caused the spread of “McCarthyism” which was a period of extensive anti-communism in the US and characterized by public accusations of disloyalty with little evidence

Lavender Scare

• Extension of (Second) Red Scare - gays and lesbians viewed as security threats in the federal government because they keep secrets and can easily be blackmailed → systematic persecution

• Queer people viewed as “morally weak” and dangers to American values

• Thousands lost their jobs amidst moral panic (anywhere from 5k to tens of thousands)

• Unlike in the Red Scare, queer people were actually found in the federal government, only fueling more fear and leading to more investigation

• Encouraged the formation of early gay rights organizations

Manhattan Project

• 1939-1946

• secret military research across US, led by Los Alamos lab in NM headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer

• Involved hella German scientists who had previously worked on making a nuke for Hitler

• 8.6.45 Hiroshima, 8.9.45 Nagasaki, amidst strategic bombing & firebombing campaigns

  • Nukes simply viewed as new toy to kill more people than usual, no “decision” to launch nukes

• Only after the nukes were dropped did people realize that was actually really fucked up → Truman made it so nukes needed express presidential approval

• Developed the first atomic bombs & ultimately ended WWII, created the "big science" model for massive research projects, spurred innovations in medicine/energy, set world stage for the mutually assured destruction of the Cold War

March on Washington (1963)

• August 28th, 1963

• Coordinated rally organized by a variety of civil rights organizations (particularly SNCC) that demanded civil rights legislation, that the government protect the right to vote, and the desegregation of public schools 

• Demonstrates the call for an expansion of civil rights during the 1960s; applied pressure to the Kennedy administration to propose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was later passed under Johnson’s administration

New Democrats

• Faction of modern liberals in late 1980s and 90s most prominently associated with political figures such as Bill Clinton

• Motivated by book Chain Reaction that argues that Democrats since 1960s have been captured by “identity politics” that destroys the New Deal Coalition

• Argued that Democrats needed to court white working class voters to win elections

• Their ideas shaped the Democratic Party’s platform in the 1992 presidential election, leading to Clinton’s victory 

• The New Democrats redefined the direction of the Democratic Party at the end of the 20th century, shifting it toward the political center and influencing U.S. policy debates for decades

Oklahoma City Bombing

• Bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19 1995, killed 167 people

• Performed by Timothy McVeigh and some collaborators who work to incite revolution against "tyrannical government”

• Inspired by white supremacist novel “The Turner Diaries”

• Deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history at the time and brought national attention to the growing threat of white supremacist networks and anti-government extremism

Pentagon Papers

• 1971

• series of documents that detailed the secret history of the United States’ efforts during the Vietnam War

• compiled by Department of Defense employee Daniel Ellsberg → disillusioned Ellsberg leaked the documents to the New York Times and Washington Post

• In an attempt to block the publication of these documents, the United States government sued the New York Times (NYT v. US) claiming that the publication of these documents would pose a national security threat jeopardizing their operations in Vietnam

  • Ultimately the Supreme Court sided with the NYT on the grounds of the First Amendment’s protection of the press

• exposed systemic government deception about the Vietnam War, further eroded public trust in US fed gov

Port Huron Statement

• 1962 manifesto of progressive/left-leaning student activist organization Students for a Democratic Society

• Expresses major concerns of students about the world - Cold War, Civil Rights, environmental declaration

  • Calls for “participatory democracy” → let the people make the real decisions so citizens have say in policy

  • American citizens should be not only politically involved but educated and active in their communities

Reaganomics

• Reagan’s economic policy

• based on supply-side economics to stimulate the economy through tax cuts, reduced government spending and deregulation

• lowering taxes, especially for corporations and high-income earners, would lead to increased investment and job creation - “trickle-down effect”

• credited with lowering inflation and creating jobs → also controversial for contributing to increased federal debt and income inequality

Ronald Reagan

• actor and spokesperson for General Electric, advocate for Republican candidate Goldwater during the Election of 1964 against Lyndon B. Johnson

• Later becomes the governor of California where his main campaign revolved around “sending the bums back to work”, repealing California’s Fair Housing Act, and combatting student protest 

• Ronald Reagan’s campaign for Governor demonstrated how Conservatives are now focusing their campaign on social issues as opposed to the economy

September 11 Attacks

• numerous civilian airliners used in Taliban suicide bombing - 2977 victims

• shocked and angered US citizens, unified Americans in newly patriotic support of George Bush

• rise in nationalist rhetoric, only dwindled for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (return of major government distrust)

• burst of hate cries targeting perceived Muslim/Arab Americans → Bush initially separates these Americans from the Taliban but Americans Be Racist

• led to widely-supported War on Terror

Smoking Gun Tape

• Audio recording between Richard Nixon and Bob Haldeman discussing how the CIA will place pressure on the FBI to drop the Watergate investigation

• June 23, 1972

• Audio recording is from the White House, but its impact was national as it dropped support from Nixon 

• Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to hand over all of his recordings and when this one became public and showed Nixon’s part in the wiretapping of the Plumbers and his abuse of executive power

• Forces Nixon to resign if he does not want to be impeached and ends his political career 

The Election of 1960

• Reflection of 1950s “liberal consensus”

• Increased support of welfare state, social security, etc unanimously across parties

•  JFK, R Nixon; both running on maintenance of the welfare state & anticommunism

  • Democrat JFK ran right to Nixon on foreign policy, believing Eisenhower was not tough enough on the Soviet Union

• JFK drew on his youth and white boy swag, bringing in a new generation of politics; heavy emphasis on TV campaigning (utilizing white boy swag)

  • First debate, Nixon looked sickly and blended into the background whereas JFK stood out and looked young, leading radio listeners to be partial to Nixon and TV watchers to be partial to JFK

The Election of 2000

• guess when this one happened

• Democrat Al Gore vs Republican George W Bush

• Extremely close election, came down to Electoral College result from FL

• Many FL ballots had problems getting counted due to faulty hole-punch system and machinery

  • Democratic voters particularly affected due to machinery breaking more often in highly populated areas

• FL governor Jed Bush accused of bias towards George W Bush on account of that being his brother lmfao

• Republican-packed Supreme Court picks Bush → Gore & D party convinced 21st century’s first election was decided by institutions, not people → outrage!!

The Feminine Mystique

• Book by journalist Betty Friedan

• Published in 1963

• Argued that there was growing dissatisfaction amongst women in the 1960s unhappy with their domestic roles.

• Some argued that it overlooked the fact that women (often minorities or poor) already worked in general jobs, outside of the home

• catalyst for second-wave feminism!!!

  • sparked conversation about gender roles, spurred hella women’s activism

The Great Society

• LBJ’s goals for his administration

• Formally proposed in the speech to the University of Michigan in 1964

• Goals centered around support for the arts and public media, good government reform, expanding civil rights (through the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and Affirmative Action Programs)

  • Environmental protections

  • Consumer protections

  • Highway reforms

  • Medicine reforms (vaccinations)

  • War on Poverty, Job Corps, Head Start, Federal aid for  Education, community Action, Medicare/medicaid, SNAP

  • Affirmative Action, Fair Housing Act, Loosens Immigration restrictions 

• Massively expanded US welfare state, fundamentally changed US government’s role in social welfare

The Southern Strategy

• Strategy by republicans to appeal to a new voter base in the South

• Using social and economically conservative stances to appeal to Southern voter base

• Opposing Civil Rights

• Pursued by Nixon in 1968

• led to political realignment of the South to the Republican Party, capitalizing on white racial anxiety and conservative values like “law and order”

Voting Rights Act (1965)

• Act signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement

• Expanded to specifically cover:

  • Bans state actions that ‘result’ in voting discrimination against minorities even if that is not the explicit goal of the law

  • Bans literacy/understanding tests

    • Unfairly targeted minorities

      • White people would get simple tests, while a black person would get a much difficult test → harder to become a voter → less say in policies

  • Places strict oversight rules and enforcement where offending states must get changes to voting laws approved by federal government or federal courts

• Was specifically important in regards to changing how accessible it is to become a registered voter

William F. Buckley

• Conservative activist and founder/editor of the conservative journal National Review in 1955, came from a wealthy New England family

• Managed to build a following for publishing “God and Man at Yale” where he attacked the modern American university for teaching collectivist ideas and turning away from Christian “traditions”

• Influence helped pave the way for conservative political successes, including the rise of Barry Goldwater and later Ronald Reagan, transforming conservatism into a dominant force in late-20th-century American politics