1968:
The Year of Turmoil
1968
■1968 was one of the most
turbulent years in U.S. history
–Martin Luther King Jr. & Robert
Kennedy were assassinated
–Riots broke out at the
Democratic National Convention
–The Tet Offensive showed that
the USA was not winning the
Vietnam War
Protesting the Vietnam War
■The most dramatic focus of
youthful rebellion was Vietnam:
–Mostly led by college students
who escaped the draft
–Students protested the draft,
military research on college
campuses, & disproportionate
use of black & Hispanic soldiers
–Protests got stronger as fighting
intensified in Vietnam in 1966
U.S.
Troop
Levels in
Vietnam
Vietnam in 1968
■In 1968, the Vietcong launched
the Tet Offensive against U.S.
forces in South Vietnam
–The attack was contrary to
media reports that the U.S. was
winning the Vietnam War
–The attack led LBJ to believe
that Vietnam could not be won
■In 1968, LBJ began discussions
to seek a truce & announced that
he would not seek re-election
The Tet
Offensive,
1968
Assassinations in 1968
■In 1968, leading
■In 1968, Martin
Democratic
Luther King was
presidential
assassinated in
candidate
Memphis & race
Robert Kennedy
riots broke out in
was shot during
over 100 cities
the California
primary
The 1968 Democratic Convention
■The withdraw of LBJ & death of
RFK, left 2 candidates for the
Democratic nomination in 1968:
–MN Senator Eugene McCarthy
–VP
Hubert
Humphrey
Idealistic & anti-war—supported by uppermiddle
class whites
& college
students
■TV showed
angry
protestors
&
police fight outside the convention
Truman-style
Cold Warrior—supported
by
when Humphrey
was nominated
Democratic party leaders; Did not campaign
1968 Democratic National Convention
Republicans benefited from the Vietnam
disaster & a shattered Democratic party;
Nixon won the election as a reconciler
The Presidency of
Richard Nixon
Foreign Policy
Nixon
hoped for
a relaxing
■Nixon
proved
to be
an effective
of Cold War tensions
foreign-policy president:
–Most foreign policy decisions
were made by Nixon & National
Security Advisor Henry Kissinger
■Developed a plan for détente:
–An “honorable” exit from Vietnam
–Using U.S. trade to induce
cooperation from the USSR
–Improved relations with China
These
bombings
conducted
without
In 1973,
Congress
passed
the
War Powers
Act
Ending
thewere
Vietnam
War
the consent
or approval
requiring
Congress’
approval of
to Congress
send U.S.
■Nixon’s
plan
for
an
“honorable
forces into combat for more than 90 days &
was “Vietnamization”:
mustpeace”
inform Congress
within 48 hours as to
the
reasons for
military intervention
–Gradual
withdraw
of U.S. troops
–Handing
over
the&fighting
to
Protests
at Kent
State
Jackson State
South
troops
resultedVietnamese
in bloody confrontations
between students
National
■Privately,
Nixon&hoped
forGuard
a
“knockout blow” & ordered U.S.
troops into Cambodia & Laos
■The effect was the largest series
of protests in American history
Kent
Ohio student
protests
Kent State,
State student
protest,
1970
Ending the Vietnam War
■In January 1973, the U.S. & North
Vietnam agreed to a cease fire
–By March 1973, U.S. troops
were withdrawn
–By 1975, the South Vietnamese
capital of Saigon fell & Vietnam
became unified under the
Communist government
–Vietnam proved Containment
could not be sustained
In
Search
of
Détente
“Ping-pong diplomacy”
■In Feb 1972, Nixon became 1st
U.S. president to visit & recognize
the People’s Republic of China:
–These improved Sino-American
relations helped eased Cold War
tensions & forced the USSR to
consider diplomacy with the U.S.
–Presented the U.S. with its 1st
economic access to China
But…the SALT
treatyof
didDétente
not target the
In Search
construction of Multiple Independently
■Nixon
Moscow
to meet
Targetedtraveled
Reentryto
Vehicles
(MIRVs)
with Soviet leader Brezhnev:
–The U.S. agreed to sell the
USSR $1 billion worth of grain
–USSR agreed to Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT), the 1st
Cold War nuclear arms treaty
■Kissinger negotiated an end to the
Yom Kippur War in 1973 between
Israel & Egypt
Nixon’s Covert Operations
■Despite Nixon’s public détente
with the USSR & China, most
foreign policy was covert:
–CIA funded the leaders of brutal
gov’ts in Iran, South Africa, the
Philippines, & Nicaragua
–CIA assassinated Chilean
president Salvador Allende
Nixon’s Domestic Policy
■Nixon entered office as a
moderate who kept LBJ’s Great
Society in place
–But, Nixon shifted responsibility
for social problems to state &
local governments
–Nixon reshaped the Supreme
Court along conservative lines
when 4 justices retired
Nixon’s Domestic Policy
■Nixon oversaw the creation of:
–Environmental Protection Agency
–Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA)
–A failed plan to replace welfare
benefits with a minimum income
–Quotas for minority construction
firms for gov’t projects
–Ended the gold standard in 1971
The Election of 1972
■In 1972, Nixon ran for re-election
–Democrat George
McGovern was
labeled an “outsider”
who supported “acid,
abortion, & amnesty”
–Nixon won in the 4th largest
margin of victory in history
■But…the Watergate scandal
ended the Nixon presidency
Watergate:
A Crisis of Democracy
The Watergate Scandal
■In 1972, a break-in at Democratic
candidate George McGovern’s
headquarters revealed a wellfunded plan of espionage &
sabotage by the Committee to
Re-Elect the President (CREEP)
■The Watergate cover-up led to
Nixon’s resignation & a changed
American perception of the gov’t
& the role of the media
Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein of the
Washington Post broke the Watergate story
Their investigation revealed…
Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers
The Watergate Scandal
■The Watergate scandal began to
unravel in 1973:
–The discovery that Nixon
recorded conversations proved
most damning
ObstructionCourt
of justice
–The Supreme
ordered
Nixon
to turn Contempt
over all tapes
to a
Abuse
of power
of Congress
Senate investigative committee
–The House brought 3 articles of
impeachment against president
Conclusions:
Politics After Watergate
■The Watergate scandal eroded
public trust in their own gov’t
■The growing tension between
president & Congress prevented
strong, effective leadership from
meeting foreign & domestic
problems in the 1970s
■The discontent of the 1960s &
1970s revealed an America at
war with itself
Carter’s Cold War
A Declining Superpower
■America’s international dominance
declined sharply in 1970s due to:
–Americans’ increasing desires
to avoid “another Vietnam”
–The War Powers Act forced the
president to consult with
Congress before sending troops
–The escalating military costs &
deficit spending made sustaining
the Cold War impossible
Foreign Policy & Human Rights
■In Nov 1977, Egyptian leader
Sadat made an appeal with Israel
to settle the October War of 1973
■Carter invited Egyptian leader
Sadat & Israeli leader Begin to
the U.S. to negotiate terms
■The Camp David accords in 1979
led to a peace treaty between
Egypt & Israel, but alienated other
Arab nations
Celebrating the Camp David Accords:
Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, & Anwar Sadat
The Cold War Resumes
■During the Carter years, the
Cold War rivalry between the
U.S. & USSR grew due to:
–A new arms race as the U.S.
adopted new MX missiles &
Trident submarines
–SALT II failed to make lasting
arms reduction
–Increased U.S.-Sino relations
put the USSR on the defensive
The Cold War Resumes
■Détente ended when the USSR
invaded Afghanistan in 1979
■The U.S. interpreted the attack as
a move to take the Middle East &
responded with:
–Economic embargo of the USSR
Carter hoped
to limit
nuclearOlympics
arms
–Boycott
of the
Moscow
& advance human rights, but found
–Aid
to the
resistance
himself
in aAfghani
heightened
Cold War
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, 1979
The Iranian Hostage Crisis
■The Camp David victory was offset
by the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis:
–Exiled Islamic fundamentalist
Ayatollah Khomeini led a coup
against U.S.-backed the shah
–When Carter allowed the shah
to enter the U.S. for medical aid,
irate mobs in Tehran took 52
hostages from the U.S. embassy
Conclusions:
A Failed Presidency
A Failed Presidency
■Carter’s failures with inflation,
Iran, & Afghanistan overshadowed
his foreign policy victories with the
Panama
Canal
& therating
Middle
Carter’s 1980
approval
was East
23%
■The failures of Johnson, Nixon,
Ford, & Carter led to a desire
among Americans for a strong
leader who could face both
domestic & foreign challenges
The Cold War of
Reagan
Reagan & Foreign Policy
■Reagan was committed to restoring
America’s supremacy in the world
–Blamed Carter for allowing U.S.
prestige to drop to an all-time low
–Increased military spending
–Confronted challenges in the
Middle East & in Latin America
–Ended the Cold War with the
Soviet Union
Reagan attempted to resist
Trouble
Spots in
America
Communism
in Latin
Latin America
U.S.
invaded Grenada
in 1983
In Marines
1979, Nicaraguan
Sandinista
rebelstoled
keepa acoup
radical
regime
from turningregime
over
against
a U.S.-backed
an airfield to Cuba or the USSR
In 1983, Congress denied Reagan’s
request to aid Nicaraguan efforts to
overthrow the Sandinista gov’t (Contras)
The Iran-Contra Affair
■In
1987,
the
Iran-Contra
Affair
The “Teflon President”
rocked the Reagan administration:
–To free 6 U.S. hostages in Iran,
the NSC & CIA covertly sold
missiles to Khomeini’s gov’t
The–Profits
“Teflon president”
from missile sales were
used to aid Nicaragua Contras
■Reagan avoided implication
through “plausible deniability”
Challenging the "Evil Empire"
■Reagan viewed the USSR as the
"focus of evil in the modern world”
& as a threat to U.S. security
■Maintained a hard-line approach
–Sent 572
nukes
within
SDI was
dubbed
the range of
“StartoWars”
program
Moscow
match
USSR ICBMs
aimed at NATO nations
–Began the Strategic Defense
Initiative, an anti-missile laser
system in space to defend U.S.
Gorbachev cut the Soviet defense budget,
Ending
the
Cold
War
Introducing
moderate
capitalism
into the &
withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan,
Soviet
economy
such important
as legalization
of small
promoted
themost
democratization
offoreign
former
■Reagan’s
private
business
cooperatives,
relaxed
laws
satellite
nations
in
Eastern
Europe
policy triumph
was working
with of
prohibiting
land ownership,
& approval
new
USSR
leaderwithin
Mikhail
foreign
investment
the USSR
Gorbachev to end the Cold War:
–In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev
began perestroika & glasnost &
eased Cold War tensions
“Political openness” led to freedom of press,
–Thetravel,
Reagan-Gorbachev
assembly,
& religion; the 1st working
legislature;
the 1stfrom
competitive
elections;
&
summits
1986 to
1988 led
liberation
of
hundreds
of
political
prisoners
to a reduction of nuclear arms
In 1987, Reagan & Gorbachev signed the
INF Treaty eliminating ICBMs in Europe
In 1989,
Gorbachev’s
promotion
Countries
of theof
former
USSRWar
by 2000
The
End
the
Cold
of democratization in Eastern
Europe inspired the overthrow of
40 years of communist rule
In 1990, following the example
of Eastern Europe, many
Soviet republics within the
USSR demanded
independence, leading to…
Conclusions
■Reagan was the 1st president to
serve 2 full terms since Eisenhower
–Reagan’s supporters claim he
restored the economy, military,
patriotism, family values, &
America’s place as a world power
–Reagan’s detractors claim he
removed social safety-nets,
skirted Congress in foreign policy,
& tripled the national debt