Political Storms at Home and Abroad, 1968–1980

Identity Politics in a Fractured Society

  • Learning Objectives
    • Describe 1960s counterculture
    • Origins & activities of American Indian Movement (AIM)
    • Significance of gay-rights & women’s-liberation movements

Counterculture / Hippies

  • Reaction against post-WWII middle-class conformity: patriarchal families, property, unquestioning patriotism
  • Multiple alternative cultures; umbrella term “hippies”
  • Key traits
    • Appearance: long hair/beards (men), non-Western clothes, bell-bottoms
    • Values: peace, personal freedom, anti-Vietnam War, environmental concern, rejection of wealth & materialism
    • Lifestyle experiments: communes, organic farming, shared property, vegetarianism, abolition of traditional marriage (“free love”), spiritual syncretism (e.g., The Farm—Christian + Asian beliefs, est. Tennessee 1971)
    • Drug use: marijuana, LSD, peyote to seek higher consciousness
  • Music central: rock & folk concerts as temporary “communities”
    • Woodstock Festival, Bethel NY, Aug 15{-}17\,1969
    • Attendance ≈ 400{,}000 (planned 50{,}000)
    • 32 acts; heavy marijuana/LSD/alcohol; symbol of generational freedom
    • Glenn Weiser memoir highlights open gates, Orange Sunshine LSD, communal euphoria
  • Social influence questions: aesthetic (psychedelic art, fashion), behavioral (casual sex, drug normalization, mass festivals)

American Indian Movement (AIM)

  • Founded 1968 Minneapolis by Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Clyde Bellecourt
  • Context statistics (circa 1970):
    • Life expectancy Native Americans 46 vs US average 69
    • Suicide rate 2\times national rate
    • Infant mortality highest in U.S.
    • Reservation unemployment \approx50\%; urban Native poverty 20\%
  • Key Actions
  1. Alcatraz Occupation (Nov 20\,1969–Jun 11\,1971)
    • Goal: cultural center, museum, ecology center, sanctuary
    • Proclamation by Mohawk Richard Oakes: sarcastic 24-dollar purchase, lists similarities to reservations (isolation, poor soil, no water, unemployment, held as prisoners)
  2. “Trail of Broken Treaties” March on Washington (1972)
    • Occupied Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); demands: housing, education, economic opportunity, treaty reform, land return, religious/cultural protections
  3. Wounded Knee Siege (Pine Ridge, SD, Feb–May 1973)
    • Historical site of 1890 massacre
    • Protest tribal president Dick Wilson & U.S. treaty violations
    • 71-day standoff; 2 AIM members killed, 1 US marshal + 1 FBI agent wounded
    • Aftermath: Charges vs Banks/Means dismissed; Nixon policies already reversing “termination,” restoring land & increasing funding for Native services

Gay Rights Movement

  • Longstanding criminalization: same-sex relations illegal in most states until 1980s; dress ordinances; frequent police harassment & violence
  • Early organizations
    • Mattachine Society (Los Angeles 1950)
    • Daughters of Bilitis (SF 1955)
    • National Transsexual Counseling Unit (SF 1966)
    • Sexual Freedom League (SF 1967)
  • Stonewall Riot, NYC, June 28\,1969
    • Police raid Stonewall Inn; patrons resist; two nights of riot
    • Outcomes: formation of Gay Liberation Front & Gay Activists’ Alliance; emergence of “come out” strategy & gay pride culture
  • APA removes homosexuality from DSM as mental illness 1974 (reclassified as “sexual-orientation disturbance”)
  • Political gains
    • Kathy Kozachenko elected Ann Arbor MI council 1974 (1st openly lesbian)
    • Harvey Milk elected SF Board 1977; assassinated 1978
  • Decriminalization timeline
    • Illinois 1962 first; by 1969 only CT joins; 1970s 18 more states; nationwide legality 2003 via Lawrence v. Texas

Women’s Liberation

  • Media caricature: “women’s libbers,” focus on radicals (e.g., W.I.T.C.H.)
  • Practical achievements
    • Battered-women shelters, rape-law reform (no witness requirement), criminalization of domestic violence
    • Pregnancy employment protection; Title IX (Education Amendments 1972) spearheaded by Rep. Patsy Mink
    • Roe v. Wade 1973: first-trimester abortion legalized nationwide
  • Political mobilization
    • National Women’s Political Caucus 1971 (Abzug, Steinem, Chisholm, Evers-Williams) fund & train female candidates
    • Shirley Chisholm: 1st Black woman in Congress 1968, presidential run 1972 (earned 10\% of delegates)
    • ERA (Equal Rights Amendment): passed Congress 1972, needed 38 states; stalled at 35, deadline extended to 1982; failed due to conservative opposition

Coming Apart, Coming Together (Nixon Era)

Election of 1968

  • Democratic fractures: Vietnam (Eugene McCarthy antiwar), RFK entry, LBJ withdrawal (Mar 31\,1968), Dixiecrats drift
  • Republican “New Nixon” strategy
    • Southern Strategy: states’ rights rhetoric, slow desegregation, support Strom Thurmond
    • Court “law & order,” Silent Majority (northern blue-collar Whites & suburbanites)
    • Secret Vietnam plan, Supreme Court reform pledge
  • Convention turmoil
    • DNC Chicago: Yippies (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin) nominate pig, police riot (Mayor Daley), Chicago Seven trial
  • General election: Nixon 301 EC vs Humphrey 191, Wallace 46

Domestic Policies

  • Civil rights: slowed school desegregation (sided w/ Mississippi 1969), opposed busing; yet expanded affirmative-action hiring
  • Economy: battling stagflation (unemployment 6.2\%, rising prices)
    • Mixed Keynesian / conservative:
    • Cut spending then shifted to 11 billion (1971) & 25 billion (1972) deficits
    • 90-day wage–price freeze 1971
    • Ended Bretton Woods gold peg Aug 1971 → 8\% dollar devaluation, boosts exports, begins floating exchange
  • Oil Shock 1973{-}74
    • Yom Kippur War; OAPEC embargo Oct 1973–Mar 1974
    • Oil \$3 \to \$12 barrel; gas 0.38 \to 0.55 per gallon
    • Emergency conservation: 55 mph limit, Sunday closures, thermostat reductions
    • Inflation reached 12.2\% 1974
  • Space Race crowning: Apollo 11 moon landing, July 20\,1969; project cost \approx25 billion (≈4\% GNP)

Foreign Policy

  • Nixon Doctrine: allies must self-defend; U.S. limited direct military commitments
  • Opening to China (“China card”)
    • Ping-Pong diplomacy → Nixon meets Mao & Zhou Enlai Feb 1972
    • Initial agreements: trade, eventual normalization
  • Détente & SALT I
    • Moscow summit May 1972 w/ Leonid Brezhnev
    • ABM Treaty (two sites → one each 1974), missile limits, tech/science exchanges, joint space planning

Vietnam: The Downward Spiral

War Realities

  • U.S. troops faced hostile terrain & mistrustful civilians; racism & revenge attacks commonplace
  • Napalm & defoliants; North Vietnamese & Viet Cong also used terror, torture

My Lai Massacre (Mar 16\,1968)

  • Charlie Company, 23rd Infantry; Capt. Ernest Medina; Lt. William Calley
  • 347 \text{–} 504 unarmed civilians killed; no Viet Cong fire
  • Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson intervened
  • Initial cover-up; revealed by Ron Ridenhour letter 1969
  • Calley convicted 1971 → life, reduced to 20 yrs, paroled 1974 (only soldier punished, 3.5 yrs house arrest)
  • Public divided: horror vs “Free Calley” movement

Antiwar & Campus Unrest

  • Vietnamization announced 1969: train ARVN, U.S. withdrawal
  • Secret Cambodia bombing; public invasion announced Apr 30\,1970
  • Kent State shootings May 4\,1970: National Guard kills 4, wounds 9
  • Jackson State shootings May 15 (2 killed)
  • Nationwide strikes, Nixon labels students “bums,” Gallup shows public blames students

Pentagon Papers (June 1971)

  • Leaked by Daniel Ellsberg; showed govt deceit from Diem coup to escalation plans
  • NY Times injunction attempt failed (Supreme Court Jun 30)

Endgame

  • Tonkin Gulf Resolution repealed Jan 1971
  • Christmas Bombing 1972, mining Haiphong
  • Paris Peace Accords Jan 27\,1973 (Kissinger–Le Duc Tho)
    • U.S. withdraw within 60 days; North troops remain in South
  • Operation Frequent Wind evacuation Apr 29{-}30\,1975; Saigon falls; war cost: >1.5 million Vietnamese deaths, 58{,}000 U.S.
  • Legacy: loss of consensus, trust, moral authority

Watergate: Nixon’s Domestic Nightmare

Election 1972

  • Democratic reforms (McGovern-Fraser) → delegate primaries
  • George McGovern wins nomination; seen as radical (abortion, drug views, Eagleton incident)
  • Nixon wins 520 EC vs 17

Dirty Tricks & Plumbers

  • Plumbers: stop leaks (e.g., Ellsberg psychiatrist office break-in)
  • CREEP sabotage: forged letter vs Muskie, spying on McGovern/Kennedy, fake vendor orders
  • Watergate break-in Jun 17\,1972: 5 burglars wiretapping DNC; links to Liddy & Hunt
  • Washington Post reporters Woodward & Bernstein, source “Deep Throat” (Mark Felt)

Investigation & Cover-Up Collapse

  • Trial Jan 1973; Judge Sirica suspicious
  • Senate Watergate Committee Feb 1973; acting FBI dir L. P. Gray admits evidence destruction
  • March 23 letter exposes perjury; Magruder names Mitchell/Dean; Nixon fires Dean & top aides Apr 30; AG Kleindienst resigns → Elliott Richardson → Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox
  • Televised hearings summer 1973; Alexander Butterfield reveals Oval Office taping
  • Nixon cites executive privilege; Saturday Night Massacre Oct 20\,1973 (fires Cox; AG/Deputy resign; Solicitor Gen Bork complies)
  • Public outrage; House Judiciary begins impeachment
  • April 1974 partial transcripts released; July committee passes 3 articles
  • Supreme Court orders tapes; “smoking gun” Aug 5 shows Nixon knew of cover-up
  • Nixon resigns Aug 8\,1974 (first president to do so)
  • Aftermath: erosion of trust; “-gate” suffix for scandals

Ford Presidency (1974-77)

  • First under 25th Amendment; only president never elected
  • Pardons Nixon Sept 8\,1974 → public backlash
  • Domestic challenges: inflation >10\%, recession, energy crisis
    • “Whip Inflation Now” (WIN) button campaign
    • Vetoed spending bills; limited success
  • Foreign policy
    • Continued détente; SALT II prelim talks
    • Helsinki Accords Aug 1975: recognize post-WWII borders, human-rights pledge
    • Congress blocks further Vietnam aid; Saigon falls 1975

Jimmy Carter in the Aftermath

Election 1976

  • Ford vs Ronald Reagan primary battle weakens GOP
  • Carter campaign: outsider, born-again Christian, anti-Washington, promises “I’ll never lie,” combat racism/sexism, tax & welfare reform
  • Results: Carter 297 EC, 50\% popular; Ford 240 EC, 48\%

Domestic Policy

  • Amnesty for Vietnam draft evaders (Day 1)
  • Economy: unemployment 7.5\%, inflation double-digits by 1978
    • Weak 1977 tax reform
    • Deregulation: airlines, trucking → competition, mixed outcomes
    • Expanded social programs, elderly housing, OSHA improvements
  • Energy Crisis
    • Created Department of Energy
    • Promoted insulation (tax credits), alternative energy (coal, nuclear, solar)
    • Removed price controls, encouraged conservation

Foreign Policy

  • Moral-principle approach; human rights central
  • Highlights
    • Panama Canal treaties: canal to Panama 1999
    • Diplomatic recognition of People’s Republic of China
    • Camp David Accords Sept 1978: Begin–Sadat, leads to Egypt–Israel peace 1979
    • SALT II talks with USSR (signed 1979 but not ratified after Afghanistan)
  • Controversial Decisions
    • Soviet invasion Afghanistan Dec 1979 → U.S. Olympic boycott Moscow 1980; half U.S. public support
    • Carter Doctrine Jan 1980: any threat to Persian Gulf interests = act of aggression

Iranian Hostage Crisis

  • Background: 1953 CIA-backed coup ousts Mossadegh; Shah’s autocracy backed by U.S.; resentment grows
  • Shah enters U.S. for medical care Oct 1979
  • Nov 4\,1979 Iranian students seize U.S. embassy Tehran; 66 hostages → release women/African Americans, 53 remain; rescue mission fails Apr 1980
  • Crisis lasts 444 days; hostages freed Jan 20\,1981 as Reagan inaugurated
  • Carter’s perceived impotence → “malaise” mood, rise of Moral Majority

Key Terms

  • Identity politics, counterculture, silent majority, southern strategy, détente, stagflation, Vietnamization, plumbers, Pentagon Papers, executive privilege, Carter Doctrine, etc.