Chapter 27 Notes: Uncivil Wars: Liberal Crisis and Conservative Rebirth (1961–1972)

Liberalism at High Tide and the Crisis of the New Deal Coalition

• Overview of Liberal High Tide (1961–1972): Inspired by the civil rights movement, American liberals launched expansive government initiatives to address racial inequality, poverty, health care, environmental protection, education, and women's rights.
  • Congress passed more liberal legislation between 1964 and 1972 than in any era since the 1930s.
  • The peak of legislative productivity occurred during the 1965–1966 session, marking one of the most active legislative periods in United States history.
• Dual Assault on Liberalism:
  • The Left: Young antiwar and civil rights activists became disillusioned by slow racial progress and U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. Rejecting Cold War liberalism, their dissent culminated in violent clashes at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where television cameras broadcast police teargassing and clubbing demonstrators chanting "The whole world is watching!"
  • The Right: Conservatives re-emerged after being politically marginalized in the 1950s. Opposing federal expansion under Lyndon B. Johnson and rejecting the permissive social norms of the era, they championed law and order, criticized welfare programs, and opposed civil rights legislation.
  • Conservative Leadership: Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona became the conservative figurehead, famously warning: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."
• Political Realignment: The decade between John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration and Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection landslide saw intense political polarization, civil rights demonstrations, political assassinations, antiwar marches, and the rise of Black Power, feminist, Chicano, and gay liberation movements.

Chapter Chronology (1961–1975)

• 1961: John F. Kennedy inaugurated as president.
• 1963: John F. Kennedy assassinated (November 22); Lyndon B. Johnson assumes the presidency.
• 1964:
  • Twenty-fourth Amendment passed (outlawed poll taxes in federal elections).
  • Civil Rights Act passed.
  • Economic Opportunity Act inaugurates the War on Poverty.
  • Free Speech Movement erupts at UC Berkeley.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed.
• 1965:
  • Immigration Act abolishes national origin quota system.
  • Medicare and Medicaid programs established.
  • Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign begins (March).
  • First U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
  • Voting Rights Act passed.
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed.
• 1967:
  • Counterculture's "Summer of Love" in San Francisco.
  • 100,000 march in antiwar protest in Washington, D.C. (October).
• 1968:
  • Vietcong launches Tet offensive (January).
  • Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated (April 4).
  • Robert F. Kennedy assassinated (June 5).
  • Women's liberation protest at Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.
  • Police riot at Democratic National Convention in Chicago (August).
  • Richard Nixon elected president (November).
• 1969: Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York City (June).
• 1970: National Women's Strike for Equality.
• 1971: Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg approves countywide busing for school integration.
• 1972:
  • Nixon visits Communist China (February).
  • Title IX passed, prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education.
  • Nixon wins second term in landslide victory (November 7).
• 1973: Paris Peace Accords end direct U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
• 1974: Milliken v. Bradley limits school busing to single district boundaries.
• 1975: Vietnam reunified under Communist rule after the fall of Saigon.

John F. Kennedy's Promise

• Inauguration and Idealism (1961): Kennedy proclaimed that "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans" and issued a call to service: "Ask what you can do for your country." British journalist Henry Fairley described JFK's approach as "the politics of expectation."
• Legislative Stagnation: Despite bold proposals for elderly health insurance, antipoverty programs, tax cuts, and a civil rights bill (pushed by Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations), JFK's domestic program was largely stalled in the Senate by conservative Southern resistance.
• Assassination (November 22, 1963):
  • While riding in an open car past the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, Texas, JFK was fatally shot in the head and neck by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald, aged twenty-four.
  • Oswald was killed two days later while in police custody by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner.
  • Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One before departing Dallas.
• The Kennedy Mystique: Public grief and youthful imagery created a lasting presidential aura. Posthumous canonization masked private realities, including JFK's severe Addison's disease and chronic marital infidelity, establishing media image management as a critical aspect of modern presidential politics.

Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society

• Johnson's Leadership Style: A veteran Texas politician and Senate leader, LBJ brought formidable legislative maneuvering skills to the White House. Retaining deep sympathy for the poor from his modest Texas hill-country upbringing, he aimed to build an expansive social welfare state.
• Civil Rights Strategy: LBJ prioritized civil rights legislation to honor JFK and establish himself as a national leader. Politically, this risked alienating Southern white Democrats while yielding few new Northern Black votes (who were already solidly Democratic).
• War on Poverty: Triggered by the revelation that one-fifth of Americans lived in poverty across Appalachia, urban ghettos, migrant labor camps, and Indian reservations.
  • Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: Established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to manage poverty initiatives:
  • Head Start: Free nursery schooling for disadvantaged preschool children.
  • Job Corps and Upward Bound: Employment training and educational preparation for young adults.
  • Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA): Domestic peace corps providing technical assistance to low-income areas.
  • Regional Development: Targeted capital investment for economically distressed regions (e.g., Appalachian Regional Development Act).

The 1964 Presidential Election

• Candidates and Platforms:
  • Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat): Ran with Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota on a mandate to complete JFK's legacy and expand liberalism.
  • Barry Goldwater (Republican): Conservative senator from Arizona offering "a choice, not an echo." Campaigned against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, income taxes, and welfare, while advocating aggressive Cold War containment. Supported by Ronald Reagan's convention speech "A Time for Choosing."
• Election Outcome:
  • Popular Vote: Johnson won $61.1\%$ ($43,121,085$ votes) vs. Goldwater's $38.5\%$ ($27,145,161$ votes).
  • Electoral Vote: Johnson won $486$ to Goldwater's $52$.
  • Significance: Goldwater won only Arizona and five Deep South states, signaling the South's historic break from the Democratic Party and laying the groundwork for the modern conservative movement.

Great Society Legislative Achievements

• Civil Rights:
  • Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964): Outlawed poll taxes in federal elections.
  • Civil Rights Act (1964): Banned discrimination in employment and public accommodations based on race, religion, sex, or national origin.
  • Voting Rights Act (1965): Outlawed literacy tests and authorized federal oversight of voter registration in low-registration districts.
• Healthcare and Social Welfare:
  • Medical Care Act (1965): Created Medicare (health insurance for the elderly funded via Social Security payroll taxes) and Medicaid (health care for low-income citizens funded by state and federal general revenues).
  • Minimum Wage Act (1966): Raised the minimum wage from $1.25 to $1.40 per hour and broadened coverage.
• Education:
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965): Allocated $1 billion in federal aid for primary and secondary schools serving low-income students.
  • Higher Education Act (1965): Created federal scholarships and financial assistance for college students.
  • National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities (1965): Provided federal funding for artists, writers, and scholars.
• Housing and Urban Infrastructure:
  • Urban Mass Transportation Act (1964): Provided federal funding for urban transit systems (e.g., Washington Metro, Bay Area Rapid Transit [BART]).
  • Omnibus Housing Act (1965) & HUD Act (1965): Created the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and funded public housing and rent subsidies.
  • Demonstration Cities Act (1966): Designated 150 "model cities" for integrated public housing, job training, and social service programs.
• Environment and Consumer Safety:
  • Wilderness Preservation Act (1964): Protected 9.1 million acres of federal land as wilderness.
  • Air and Water Quality Acts (1965): Established air standards and required states to enforce water quality measures.
• Immigration Reform:
  • Immigration Act of 1965: Abolished the national origin quota system established in 1924. Established non-discriminatory national limits and exempted immediate family relatives of U.S. residents from numerical caps, sparking significant immigration from Asia and Latin America.

Assessment of the Great Society

• Poverty Rates: Total proportion of Americans below the poverty line fell from $20\%$ in 1963 to $13\%$ in 1968, and down to $11\%$ by 1973. Black poverty fell by half.
• Critiques: Conservatives argued that economic growth, rather than federal spending, drove poverty reduction, contending that Great Society programs fostered government dependency. Entrenched poverty, structural wealth inequality, and urban racial segregation persisted.

Rebirth of the Women's Movement

• Labor Feminism: Working-class trade union women fought against workplace discrimination, secured maternity leave, and pressed for equal compensation, contributing to the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (establishing equal pay for equal work).
  • By 1970, $40\%$ of married women and $30\%$ of mothers with young children were in the paid workforce, facing a burden known as the "double day" (wage labor followed by domestic labor).
• Betty Friedan and Suburban Domesticity:
  • Published The Feminine Mystique (1963), critiquing the stifling domesticity imposed on middle-class college-educated women.
  • Demographic trends (birth control pill introduced in 1960, rising divorce rates, higher female college enrollment—reaching $42\%$ by 1970) further challenged traditional gender roles.
• Government and Legal Catalyst:
  • Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (1961) published a 1963 report detailing systemic employment and educational discrimination.
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 added "sex" as a protected category against employment discrimination.
• National Organization for Women (NOW): Founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan and labor feminists as a civil rights group for women. NOW grew to 15,000 members by 1971, pushing for complete equality in public and professional life.

The Vietnam War Begins and Escalates

• Kennedy and Ngo Dinh Diem: JFK maintained foreign policy credibility by supporting South Vietnamese dictator Ngo Dinh Diem. Frustrated by Diem's authoritarian rule and repression of political opponents, the U.S. signaled support for a military coup. South Vietnamese generals overthrew and assassinated Diem on November 1, 1963, resulting in political instability in Saigon.
• LBJ's Commitment to Containment: Driven by Cold War containment doctrine, Johnson vowed not to let Southeast Asia fall to communism.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 1964):
  • Reports indicated North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 (causing a single bullet hole) and alleged a second attack on August 4 (later shown to be misread radar readings).
  • Congress passed the resolution with only two dissenting votes, granting the president authorization to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."
• Escalation of Ground and Air War:
  • Troop Deployments: First Marines landed at Da Nang on March 8, 1965. Troop levels rose from 23,300 (1964) to 380,000 (1966), 485,000 (1967), and peaked at 536,000 in 1968.
  • Operation Rolling Thunder (1965–1968): A three-year strategic bombing operation against North Vietnam. The U.S. dropped twice the tonnage of bombs on Vietnam as was dropped in both the European and Pacific theaters during World War II. North Vietnamese forces adapted by moving munitions underground and rebuilding supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia.
  • War of Attrition: Strategy led by General William Westmoreland and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Ground operations produced heavy civilian casualties and ecological destruction (e.g., "destroy the town in order to save it").
• Public Opinion and the Antiwar Movement:
  • Television news coverage created a credibility gap between official administration claims of progress and reported realities (e.g., Morley Safer's 1965 CBS broadcast showing Marines burning the village of Cam Ne).
  • Economic Toll: Vietnam War spending reached $27 billion in 1967, widening the federal budget deficit from $9.8 billion to $23 billion and driving 1970s inflation.
  • Senate Hearings: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator J. William Fulbright, held televised antiwar hearings in 1966.
  • Protests: In April 1965, 15,000 antiwar protesters marched in Washington, D.C. Early opponents included student activists, clergy, civil rights leaders, and Dr. Benjamin Spock.

The Student Movement and Counterculture

• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS): Founded in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1962, Tom Hayden authored the Port Huron Statement, expressing disillusionment with consumerism, racial inequality, and Cold War foreign policy.
• The New Left: Distinct from the Old Left (1930s communists/socialists), this movement grew in university towns like Madison and Berkeley.
  • Free Speech Movement (1964): UC Berkeley administrators banned political activity on campus. Students formed the movement and organized a sit-in, led by Mario Savio, who linked campus rights to civil rights struggles.
  • Anti-Draft Protests: In 1967, the Selective Service System ended automatic college deferments. Students burned draft cards, picketed induction centers, and fled to Canada or Sweden. Mass protests included 100,000 in San Francisco, 250,000 in NYC led by MLK, and 100,000 at the Pentagon.
• Young Americans for Freedom (YAF): The largest student organization in the country, YAF defended free enterprise, limited government, and supported the Vietnam War. Its principles were articulated in The Sharon Statement (1960).
• The Counterculture:
  • Dropouts and youth (dubbed "hippies" or "flower children") rejected middle-class norms, adopting distinct clothing, long hair, and personal experimentation.
  • Music: Evolved from antiwar folk (Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez) to British Invasion rock (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones) and psychedelic rock (The Who, The Doors).
  • Drug Use: Recreational use of marijuana and LSD (acid) was widely embraced within counterculture music and art.
  • Key Events: San Francisco's "Human Be-In" (January 1967) and "Summer of Love" (1967) in Haight-Ashbury; the Woodstock music festival in Bethel, New York (August 1969), which drew 400,000 people.

Days of Rage (1968–1972)

The Tet Offensive (January 1968)

• Military vs. Psychological Impact: Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces launched a surprise assault on 36 provincial capitals and 5 major South Vietnamese cities, briefy threatening the U.S. embassy in Saigon.
  • While a military failure for the Vietcong (who suffered heavy losses), it discredited claims that the U.S. was winning the war.
  • Public support shifted dramatically: hawk identification fell from $56\%$ to $41\%$, while dove identification rose to $42\%$.
• Political Fallout: Antiwar Democrats Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy challenged LBJ for the nomination. On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.

Political Assassinations of 1968

• Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968): Shot in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. Riots erupted in over 100 cities, with heavy damage in Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In Indianapolis, Robert Kennedy delivered an address appealing for nonviolence.
• Robert F. Kennedy (June 5, 1968): After winning the California Democratic primary, Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian opposed to Kennedy's pro-Israel stance.

The 1968 Election and the Democratic Convention

• Chicago Democratic National Convention (August 1968): Outside the hall, Mayor Richard J. Daley's police force clashed with antiwar protesters (including Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman's Youth International Party, or "Yippies," who nominated a pig named Pigasus for president) in a documented "police riot." Inside, the party nominated Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey on a moderate war platform.
• George C. Wallace's Campaign: Segregationist governor of Alabama ran as an American Independent Party candidate, leveraging blue-collar resentment against antiwar protesters, civil rights, and welfare policies ("law and order"). Wallace won $13.5\%$ of the popular vote ($9,906,141$ votes) and carried 5 Southern states (46 electoral votes).
• Richard Nixon's Victory:
  • Southern Strategy: Partnered with South Carolina Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, promising lax civil rights enforcement to win Southern white voters.
  • Nominated by Republicans, Nixon appealed to Northern blue-collar workers and suburbanites as the voice of the "silent majority."
  • Results: Nixon won $43.4\%$ ($31,770,237$ votes, 301 electoral votes) over Humphrey's $42.7\%$ ($31,270,533$ votes, 191 electoral votes), signaling a national political realignment.

Nationalist Turn and Broadening Liberation Movements

• Racial Nationalism and Antiwar Action:
  • Chicano Moratorium Committee: Organized a August 1970 antiwar demonstration in Los Angeles with 20,000 participants under the slogan "Viva la Raza, Afuera Vietnam." Cesar Chavez criticized the war draft as disproportionately affecting low-income populations.
  • Black Power: The Black Panther Party and National Black Antiwar Antidraft League opposed the war. Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali refused army induction in 1967 as a conscientious objector; he was stripped of his title and sentenced to prison (conviction overturned in 1971).
• Women's Liberation:
  • Younger feminists broke off from the New Left and civil rights movements due to entrenched male chauvinism. Women's liberation debuted publicly in 1968 at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City (establishing a "Freedom Trash Can" to discard items like girdles and bras).
  • Organized the National Women's Strike for Equality in August 1970. Key concepts like sexism and sexual politics entered public discourse.
  • Diverse Feminisms: Groups like the Combahee River Collective and National Black Feminist Organization focused on the intersection of racism and sexism. Chicana feminists integrated struggles for reproductive and economic rights with family and community preservation (La Familia de la Raza).
  • Legislative and Educational Reforms:
  • Title IX (1972): Banned sex discrimination in all federally funded educational programs, driving funding for female athletics.
  • National Women's Political Caucus (1971): Founded by Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem (founder of Ms. magazine).
  • Passed federal child-care tax deductions (1972) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974), enabling married women to acquire credit cards and mortgages independently.
• Stonewall and Gay Liberation:
  • On June 27, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Patrons resisted, generating two days of street riots against police harassment.
  • Accelerated the gay liberation movement, sparking organizations like the National Gay Task Force (1975) to lobby against sodomy statutes and advance local non-discrimination ordinances.

Nixon in Vietnam and the Silent Majority

• Vietnamization Policy: Gradual handover of ground combat duties to South Vietnamese forces (ARVN). American military personnel dropped from 543,000 in 1968 to 334,000 in 1971, and down to 24,000 by early 1973.
• Escalation and Campus Protests:
  • In November 1969, 500,000 people attended the Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, D.C.
  • Cambodian Incursion (April 30, 1970): Joint U.S.-ARVN troops invaded neutral Cambodia to clear Vietcong supply bases.
  • Kent State Shooting (May 4, 1970): Ohio National Guardsmen fired into an antiwar rally at Kent State University, killing 4 students and wounding 11. Shortly after, National Guardsmen killed 2 Black students at Jackson State College. Over 450 colleges closed in response.
• My Lai Massacre: In 1968, U.S. Army troops under Lieutenant William Calley executed nearly 500 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in My Lai village. Broken by journalist Seymour Hersh in 1969, the story damaged international U.S. standing. In 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War protested by throwing combat medals onto the Capitol steps.
• Détente Strategy:
  • Soviet Union: Nixon and Henry Kissinger established détente (a easing of Cold War tensions). Nixon met Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).
  • China Visit (February 1972): Nixon became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Communist China, establishing peaceful coexistence policies and leveraging Sino-Soviet rivalry to extract concessions at the Paris Peace Talks.
• Exit from Vietnam:
  • Following the heavy December 1972 "Christmas bombings" of North Vietnamese cities, the U.S., North Vietnam, and South Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973.
  • Fall of Saigon (March–April 1975): North Vietnamese forces launched a final invasion, reunifying the country under Communist rule. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
  • Human and Financial Costs: 58,000 Americans killed; 300,000 wounded; $150 billion in direct federal expenditure. Millions of Vietnamese casualties. In neighboring Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge seized power and executed 1.7 million people.

Conservative Rebirth and the Silent Majority Speaks Out

• The Warren Court (1954–1969): Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court expanded civil rights and civil liberties:
  • Expanded rights for criminal defendants: right to counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright [1963], Escobedo v. Illinois [1964]) and protection against self-incrimination (Miranda v. Arizona [1966]).
  • Obscenity and Religion: In Roth v. United States (1957), material had to be "utterly without redeeming social importance" to be banned. In Miller v. California (1972), the Burger Court shifted the standard to "contemporary community standards." The Court also struck down mandatory prayer and Bible reading in public schools as a violation of church-state separation.
• School Integration and Busing:
  • Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971): Upheld countywide school busing plans to achieve racial balance. By the mid-1970s, $86\%$ of Southern Black children attended integrated schools.
  • Milliken v. Bradley (1974): Reversed a lower court order requiring cross-district busing between suburban Detroit and the inner city, limiting busing remedies to single school district lines and entrenching Northern suburban segregation.
• The 1972 Presidential Election:
  • Democratic Party Reforms: Modernized nominating rules to increase minority, youth, and female delegate participation. Unseated Richard J. Daley's traditional Illinois delegation in favor of Jesse Jackson's group.
  • Nominees: Democrats nominated antiwar Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, who alienated organized labor (AFL-CIO). Republicans re-nominated Richard Nixon.
  • Results: Nixon won in an electoral landslide:
  • Popular Vote: Nixon $60.7\%$ ($47,169,911$ votes) vs. McGovern $37.5\%$ ($29,170,383$ votes).
  • Electoral Vote: Nixon won $520$ to McGovern's $17$ (carrying 49 states; McGovern carried only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.). Libertarian John Hospers received 1 vote.