Richard Nixon & the Counterculture (Chapter 28 Part 1)

Nixon Meets Pop Icons (Politics Collides with Celebrity)

1970: Elvis Presley visits the White House
- Presley disliked the 1960s counterculture that had supplanted his 1950s stardom.
- Requested an honorary undercover FBI credential to "sell drugs" to youth and then inform on them.
- Nixon humored him, presenting a badge and staging the famous photo now displayed at the Nixon Library.
Early 1970s: Nixon–James Brown connection
- Brown at peak fame, pioneer of funk; self-help/"pull-yourself-up" philosophy akin to Booker T. Washington.
- Voted for Nixon in 1968 and 1972, attracted by Nixon’s rhetoric of “Black capitalism.”
- Relationship soured when Brown realized it was largely political theater.

Definition: Counterculture = set of movements/values rejecting mainstream post-WWII norms (work → suburbs → family).
Vietnam War, civil-rights activism, and generational affluence drove discontent.

Pre-1945: ~10\% of Americans attended college.
GI Bill doubled graduates within a decade after WWII.
1960s Baby Boom:
- State universities (Ohio State, Michigan, UT-Austin, Georgia, etc.) quadrupled enrollments in ~10 years.
- Administrative strain + resistance to "in loco parentis" rules (curfews, single-sex dorms, mandatory 2 yrs ROTC).

Mario Savio (Mississippi Freedom Summer veteran) challenges ban on on-campus political activity.
Coalition of Left (civil-rights) + Right (Goldwater supporters) initially united.
Sit-in around police car; president concedes → campuses gain political freedom.
Public backlash: students labeled "spoiled brats"; aids Ronald Reagan’s 1966 gubernatorial win.

Students seize administration building for a week; leader lounges in president’s chair with cigars.
NYPD forcibly removes occupiers; confirms image of militant, privileged youth.

Early-’60s protesters: suits, short hair.
Late-’60s: long hair, facial hair, casual/psychedelic clothing—signaling deep cultural break.

1960 norm: abstinence before marriage; cohabitation taboo; average \approx 2 lifetime partners.
Technological catalyst: oral contraceptive pill (FDA 1961).
Griswold v. Connecticut 1965 — Supreme Court invents "right to privacy," voids birth-control bans.
By 1970s: premarital sex and cohabitation normalized; avg partners ~$6$ (tripled).
Roe v. Wade 1973 extends privacy doctrine to abortion.

~75,000 youth flood cheap San Francisco housing; neighborhood nicknamed "Hashbury."
Spread of "free love," psychedelics, communal living nationwide.

Planned for 100{,}000 at \$18 each; fencing unfinished → \approx 500{,}000 attend free.
Logistical chaos (food, water, sanitation) yet only 2 deaths (OD & tractor accident).
Corporate America sees lucrative "youth market": tie-dye, peace belts, natural foods → birth of lifestyle industries (e.g., Whole Foods).

Unregulated pollution produced visible smog, toxic rivers, acid rain.
Catalysts
- 1969 Santa Barbara offshore oil spill.
- 1969 Cuyahoga River (Cleveland) ignites, burns 5 days.
First Earth Day, 22 April 1970: 20{,}000,000 participants → bipartisan demand for clean air/water laws.

Pre-1970: homosexual acts criminal; electro-shock "cures"; NYPD entrapment (≈6{,}000 arrests in 1969).
Stonewall Riots (June 1969) — patrons fight police raid; inspires annual Pride parades each June.
Early ’70s: many states repeal sodomy laws or cease enforcement; APA de-pathologizes homosexuality 1973.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique 1963: exposes "problem that has no name"—stifling domesticity of educated women.
Civil Rights Act 1964 outlaws sex discrimination; National Organization for Women (NOW) founded 1966 to litigate.
Media moment: 1968 Miss America protest — bras/makeup tossed (myth: "bra-burning").
Women’s Strike for Equality, Aug 1970: 50{,}000 march NYC, largest since suffrage era.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
- Drafted 1924 (Alice Paul), revived late ’60s.
- Passed Congress 1972 by 90\% margin; required 38 states, stalled at 35 → never ratified.
- Foreshadows conservative backlash (covered in Chapter 28 part 2).

Early nickname: "Tricky Dick"—won offices by branding opponents communist.
Strategy learned at Whittier College: mobilize the many "uncool" against the elite few → concept of "Forgotten Man."
1968 campaign & presidency: champion of the "Silent Majority"—non-shouters who pay taxes, obey law, dislike protests.
Continues liberal domestic expansion despite rhetoric:
- Creates Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Creates Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

Goal: reduce \text{U.S.}–USSR/China tensions; end Vietnam while preserving South Vietnam.
Phases
1. "Mini-détente" 1963–68 (post-Cuban Missile Crisis, pre-Nixon): limited test-ban & contacts.
2. Peak détente 1969–73 (Nixon):
- Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) ⇒ freeze then reduce arsenals from ~20{,}000 warheads each; modern tally ≈2,000.
- Multiple summits: Brezhnev visits U.S. 1973; Nixon to Moscow 1972.
1. "Zombie détente" 1974–78: ritual summits, few outcomes; mutual suspicions over third-world competition.
By late ’70s Soviet moves in Angola, Ethiopia, Afghanistan + loss of South Vietnam (1975) fuel U.S. distrust; détente collapses.

Since Korean War, no trade or travel; PRC treated as giant "North Korea."
February 1972: Nixon’s 8-day visit—first U.S. leader in PRC.
- One televised globally via new communication satellites—first real-time foreign broadcast for Americans.
- Meets Chairman Mao Zedong (pool-room photo) and Premier Zhou Enlai (charismatic, polished partner).
- Banquet toasts with 120-proof Maotai liquor ("liquid razor blades").
Short-term aim: persuade China to curb aid to North Vietnam; long-term effect: opens path to massive future trade & diplomacy.

Early 1970s: détente + troop withdrawals make Nixon popular, even among some youth.
Critics by 1974: U.S. "shakes hands with dictators, not their people"—moral cost of befriending repressive regimes.

Counterculture, civil-rights, feminist, environmental, and gay-rights movements all crest during Nixon’s first term, reshaping cultural norms.
Universities serve as incubators and flashpoints; media imagery (suits → long hair) dramatizes change and provokes backlash.
Nixon politically leverages backlash (Silent Majority) while pragmatically accommodating certain reforms (EPA) and pursuing bold global moves (China trip).
Détente represents pragmatic risk-reduction (nuclear stockpile cuts) yet contains seeds of mistrust that unravel by decade’s end.
Each movement illustrates dialectic of reform vs. reaction—setting stage for late-’70s conservative resurgence addressed in Chapter 28, Part 2.