The Origins of the “Seventies”

The Election of ’68 & the
origins of the ’70s

Richard M. Nixon & the
politics of Vietnam

The “Silent Majority”
speech (Nov. 3, 1969)

Kevin Philips & the
“Southern Strategy”
– Sweet Home Alabama
– Okie from Muskogee
Vietnam & the Seventies




“changing the color of the
corpses”: Troop
withdrawals & domestic
politics
The “secret plan,”
Congress & the money
The invasion of Cambodia
Kent State, May, 1970
– Ohio

Henry Kissinger, Le Duc
Tho and “Peace with
Honor” in Vietnam
Nixon’s Foreign Policy

The End of the
Vietnam War?
– POW/MIA

The Cold War &
Global unrest

Détente
– The China Game
Watergate & American Political
Culture
The Watergate Breakin
 CREEP: The
Committee to ReElect the President


Nixon Resigns (1974)
Domestic Politics in the ‘70s

The Women’s Movement

Betty Freidan, The Feminine

Mystique
Women’s Liberation

Gloria Steinem: “a women
needs a man like a fish needs
a bicycle”

The “feminization of poverty”

Roe vs. Wade & Reproductive
Rights
The Environmental Movement

The Environmental
Movement
– Silent Spring, 1962
– The EPA, Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act,
– Earth Day, 1970
– Water Pollution
Control Act (1972)
– Endangered Species
Act (1973)
– Three Mile Island
Civil Rights & the Politics of Race

“Urban Renewal” vs.
“white flight”: the
Ghetto
– Whitey on the Moon
– Winter in America

The Jefferson’s:
“Movin’ on Up” vs.
Inner-City Blues
“Good Times” in the Ghetto

Good Times. Any time you meet a
payment.
Good Times. Any time you need a
friend.
Good Times. Any time you're out from
under.
Not getting hassled, not getting
hustled.
Keepin' your head above water,
making a wave when you can.
Temporary lay offs. Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. Good Times.
Scratchin' and surviving. Good Times.
Hangin in a chow line. Good Times.
Ain't we lucky we got 'em. Good
Times.
The Rise of the “New Right”

The “rustbelt” vs. the “sunbelt”
–
Demographic & Political change

The Anti Politics Machine: “big

Phyllis Schlafly & The Eagle Forum

government,” “tax & spend,” “creeping
socialism,” & Bussing
The ERA as the end of American
civilization
The “New Right” Think Tanks:
–

The Scaif Foundation, the Heritage
Foundation, the Cato Institute, the
Hoover Institute, the American
Enterprise Institute, etc.
The Religious Revival (?)
–
Pat Robertson, Jim & Tammy Faye
Bakker, Jerry Fallwell, Jimmy Swaggart,
et al.
The ’70s & Malaise


The Election of Jimmy
Carter
On Domestic Policy
– OPEC, the Oil Embargo &
the energy crisis, October,
1973…
– The economy: the dilemma
of Stagflation

On Foreign Policy
– The Iranian Revolution
 Ayatollah Khomeini
US Trade Balance