Unit 9, America and the World
Part 26: Truman and the Cold War (1945-52)
World War II transformed the US into a world power. As Americans came home, they wanted their jobs
back and also wanted to take part in the revitalization of the U.S. However, America’s high tide was shortlived as the Soviet Union competed for world dominance.
A. Postwar America: 15 million Americans were coming home. The problem was a lack of jobs and
housing. Many feared that the Depression would return, but these fears rang untrue as the post
war years offered an increase in per capita income. One of the reasons for this was that during the
war, with nothing to purchase, many Americans placed their money in savings and now they
want to spend. Consumer demand for homes and autos combined with massive government road
building projects led to an unprecedented economic boom in America. By the ‘50s, Americans
had the highest standard of living in human history.
a. GI Bill-Help for Veterans: The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, a.k.a. the GI
Bill, helped with the transition of 15 million Americans returning to a peacetime
economy. What did it offer?
i. Government paid continued education, including college. Over 2 million went
to college; more than 8 million took part in continued education, including
vocational training.
ii. Low interest loans from the government to buy homes and farms and to start
businesses. By focusing on education and promoting new construction, the
federal government stimulated the postwar economic boom.
b. Baby Boom: 50 million babies were born in the US between 1945 and 1960. While
women in the 50s were homemakers, more women joined the workforce. What effect
does the Baby Boom have on society at the end of the 20 th century?
c. Suburban Growth: A huge construction boom took place after the war, which leads to
William Levitt coming up with an idea. Levittown was a project of 17,000 massproduced, affordable homes in Long Island, NY. Low interest rates and government
insured loans made the move from city to suburb affordable. In a single generation,
Americans became suburbanites. For the cities, the effect was disastrous.
d. Rise of the Sunbelt: A warmer climate, lower taxes, and job opportunities in the defense
industry led to a migration to the Sun Belt (Florida to California.) By transferring tax
dollars to new areas of the country, eventually political power is transferred to these
areas as well.
B. Postwar Politics: HST was honest and unpretentious, which appealed to average Americans. He
attempted to continue the New Deal tradition.
a. Economic Program and Civil Rights: HST’s attempts to continue full employment and
approach the topic of civil rights met with opposition.
i. Employment Act of 1946: HST pressed Congress for national health insurance,
an increase in the minimum wage, and a bill calling for governmental
commitment to full employment. The watered down Employment Act of ’46
called for a creation of a Council of Economic Advisors to help advise the
president and Congress on economic affairs. The rest of HST’s programs were
met with gridlock in Congress.
ii. Inflation and Strikes: HST wanted to keep the price controls from the war but
Congress relaxed them. The result was 25% inflation rate within a year. Over
4.5 million workers went on strike in 1946 as the workers wanted wages to
catch up with years of wage control. HST even called in federal troops to work
in the mines when the United Mine Workers went on strike in 1946. UMW
eventually called off its strike.
b.
c.
d.
iii. Civil Rights: HST was the first modern president to challenge the rules of racial
discrimination. He established the Committee on Civil Rights in 1946,
bypassing southern Democrats in the process. He strengthened the civil rights
division of the Justice Department, which aided black leaders in their attempts
to end discrimination in schools. In 1948 he ordered the end of racial
discrimination in the armed services and in all departments of the federal
government. This changes life on military bases, most of which were in the
South.
iv. Fair Employment Practices Commission: HST urged Congress to create this,
which would have prevented employers from discriminating against hiring of
blacks. Congress did not pass it.
Republican Control of the Eightieth Congress: Republicans win majority in both houses
with the 1946 mid term elections. Congress attempted to pass tax cuts for the wealthy,
but HST vetoed them. Republicans did, however, roll back some of the New Deal
legislation.
i. 22nd Amendment (1951): Republicans did not want another FDR; this
amendment creates a term limitation for the presidency.
ii. Taft-Hartley Act (1947): HST vetoed it, but Congress overrode it. The purpose
of this Act was to check the growing power of unions. It is one of the major
signs of division between Democrats and Republicans into the 50s. Its
provisions included:
1. Outlawing the closed shop. (Have to join the union before being
hired.)
2. permitted states to pass “right to work” laws outlawing the Union
Shop (a contract requiring workers to join a union after being hired.)
3. Outlawed secondary boycotts (the practice of several unions giving
support to a striking union by joining a boycott of a company’s
products.)
4. gave the president the power to invoke an 80-day cooling off period
before a strike that may affect national safety.
The Election of 1948: As the election approached, HST was very unpopular.
Republicans were assured of a win when conservative Democrats and liberal Democrats
left the party and formed third parties. Liberal Democrats formed a new Progressive
Party and named Henry Wallace as their candidate. Conservative Democrats from the
South left the party due to HST’s position on civil rights, creating the Dixiecrat Party
(States’ Rights Party) and nominating Strom Thurmond.
i. Republicans nominated New York Governor Thomas Dewey, famed for his lawabiding reputation. His campaign was boring and cautious, so as not to lose any
support. He did not really motivate anyone, either.
ii. Truman’s Campaign: HST went on a nationwide RR tour to drum up support.
He called Congress the “Do Nothing Congress” and “Give ‘em Hell” speeches.
HST won a decisive victory (2 million more votes and 303-189 electoral. Why?
Because undecideds voted with what they knew as opposed to Republican, the
party of the Depression.
The Fair Deal: The Fair Deal was an ambitious reform program launched after the ’48
victory; he called for national health care insurance, federal aid to education, civil rights
legislation, money for public housing, and a new farm program. Conservatives blocked
most of the reforms, with the exception of a rise in minimum wage from 40 cents to 75
cents and an inclusion of more workers under Social Security.
i. Two reasons why Fair Deal legislation was defeated:
1. Truman’s political conflict with Congress.
2. Pressing foreign policy concerns of the Cold War.
C. Origins of the Cold War: The Cold War dominated American foreign policy from the ‘40s to
1991. At the center of this conflict was an intense rivalry between the US and USSR. Most of the
problems were not settled with conflict, but occasionally conflict did happen. Nuclear war even
appeared imminent on several occasions. Why did the Cold War begin? Historians differ. Many
see HST’s policies as a reasonable response to increased Communist influence around the world.
Others disagree, saying HST misunderstood and overreacted to Russia’s historic need to secure its
borders. At the time, critics called HST’s policies “soft” on communism.
a. U.S.-Soviet Relations to 1945: We never really got along with the Soviets, only during
the war did we actually see eye to eye. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 led to the Red
Scare of 1919. We refused to recognize the Soviet Union until 1933. Even then, FDR’s
advisors concluded that Stalin could not be trusted. The Non-Aggression Pact only
reinforced this.
b. Allies in WWII: Our alliance in WWII was out of mutual convenience, not trust. Stalin
complained for two years that we were deliberately delaying an invasion of Europe in
order for the Germans to kill off as many Russians as possible, or to topple the Soviet
government. Think about it, for a government that was only 20 years old, the Soviet
Union survived a true kill shot during WWII. The postwar conflicts erupted even before
the war was over, especially at Yalta. FDR had hoped that personal diplomacy could
check the Russians, but HST thought otherwise.
c. Postwar Cooperation-The U.N.: The General Assembly was created to provide
representation to all member nations, while the 15-member Security Council was given
the primary responsibility within the UN for maintaining international security and
authorizing peacekeeping forces. The five major allies of the war, the US, USSR, GB,
France, and China, were granted permanent seats and veto power in the UN Security
Council. It was optimistic, to say the least.
i. Atomic Energy Commission was also established.
ii. Soviets rejected Bernard Baruch’s plan for regulating nuclear energy and
eliminating nuclear weapons. Many American leaders perceived this as proof
that the USSR did not have peaceful intentions.
iii. Soviets were also invited to join the World Bank (International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development) whose aim it was to help fund the rebuilding
of the war torn world. The Soviets declined the offer as they saw it as an
instrument of capitalism.
iv. The Soviets did join in on the Nuremburg trials.
d. Satellite states in Eastern Europe: Distrust turned to hostilities in 1946 as it became
evident that the Soviets were not about to allow free elections in Eastern Europe. In
short, we had traded one tyrannical occupational bastard for another. There were
elections, but they were manipulated by the Soviets.
i. One by one, from ’46 to ’48, Communist dictators, most loyal to the USSR,
came to power in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia. The Russians continually said they needed buffer states as
protection against future Hitlers. Apparently not getting your asses kicked for
the first part of two world wars did not teach them a lesson in military
preparation and counteroffensives. Poland had been the spark of the whole
war, and now it was communist. Who are the appeasers now? Road House with
Patrick Swayze kicks ass.
e. Occupation Zones in Germany: The division of Germany was supposed to be temporary,
but the Soviets wanted a weak Germany for defense reasons as well as to rape eastern
Germany of all of its scientists, mineral wealth, art, and all other sources of profit.
Besides, the Soviets did not get a piece of the action at the Treaty of Versailles and
received no reparations payments from Germany. This changed all of that.
i. GB, France and the US did not want reparations as they saw Germany as
important to the stability of Europe. As the French, GB, and US combined
their zones, the Soviets tightened their grip on their zone.
ii. Berlin: The Soviets expected the three to leave Berlin, as it was in the Soviet
zone of occupation.
f. Iron Curtain: HST changed the direction of US-Soviet relations in 1946 because he was
told of a Canadian spy ring stealing US atomic secrets and selling them to the Soviets
and he was also wary of the continued Soviet occupation on northern Iran. HST decided
it was time to get tough. “I’m tired of babying the Soviets.”
i. Fulton, Missouri (March 1946): Winston Churchill gave a speech, with HST
present, at Westminster College in Fulton. He declared that an “Iron Curtain”
had descended upon Europe. This metaphor would stick in reference to the
Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe. Churchill called for a partnership of
western powers against this iron curtain, we had to stop the expansion of
communism. Historians debate whether this speech anticipated the cold War,
or helped to cause it. It certainly appeared, from the Soviet point of view, that
the western powers were allying themselves against the Soviets.
D. Containment in Europe: George Kennan, an expert on Soviet affairs, wrote an article detailing
that the best way to curb the Soviet’s plan for world domination was to contain them where they
already stood. SecState George Marshall and undersecretary of state Dean Acheson helped to
establish America’s “Containment Policy,” which would last through the 1980s.
a. Why Containment? We had learned the lessons of appeasement. Walter Lippman, a
journalist who coined the phrase “Cold War,” said we overused our power with
containment. He said, and history probably proves him correct, that we remained true
to countries that were undeserving and corrupt, but also aided in the eventual
destruction of the Soviet Union.
b. The Truman Doctrine: Truman’s first use of containment comes in two places. Greece
was experiencing a communist-led uprising against the government and Turkey was
being pressured by the Russians to hand over the Dardanelles. The Truman Doctrine
established American economic and military aid to “free peoples” around the world who
felt pressured by totalitarian regimes. We sent $400 million to Greece and Turkey, and a
vast majority of Congress favored the Doctrine.
c. The Marshall Plan: Europe was in ruins after the war and we did not want a repeat of
post WWI Europe. A harsh winter of ’46-’47 further sent Europe into the hole.
Communist rumblings were everywhere and the US had to do something to preserve
democracy and capitalism in Europe.
i. In June 1947, George Marshall outlined his plan which called for $17 billion
(Congress approved $12 billion in 1948). The European Recovery Program (or
Marshall Plan) was distributed to western European countries over the next
four years. Eastern European countries declined the offer, as the Soviets were
afraid that this would make them dependent upon the US.
ii. Effects: It worked. Western Europe was back by the mid 1950s and any real
threat of communism was gone. It also helped the US by exporting billions to
Europe. It did, however, create an even deeper abyss between the US and
USSR.
d. The Berlin Airlift: The first major Cold War crisis starts in Berlin. The Soviets wanted
to force the Allies out of West Berlin so they cut off all access to West Berlin. Truman
wasn’t about to leave Berlin, nor did he want to fight for it. He ordered US planes to
run 24-hour supply flights into Berlin. He also sent 60 bombers capable of delivering the
atomic bomb to England. As the world waited for war, Stalin finally decided not to
challenge the airlift and after 11 months (ended in May ’49) the blockade ended. This
stand against Stalin helped Truman win the election of ’48. A long term effect of the
Crisis was the creation of two Germanys, the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
e. NATO and National Security: Truman breaks from the old Washington Farewell
Address tradition by entangling the US in European alliances. NATO was created to
protect Western Europe against the advancing communist movement (or was it the
Cylons?). Ike was NATO’s first overall commander and he also stationed US troops in
Europe to deter the Russians (this is the first time US troops were stationed in Europe
during peacetime.) Thus, the containment policy led to a military buildup and major
commitments overseas. Warsaw Pact: The Soviet version of NATO, but with too many
letters.
i. National Security Act (1947): Helps to modernize the American military
capabilities by:
1. Centralized department of defense (replacing the War Department). It
coordinated the efforts of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
2. The National Security Council was created (NSC) to coordinate the
making of foreign policy in the Cold War.
3. The CIA was created to employ spied to gather information on foreign
governments.
4. Not part of the National Security Act but equally important, the
Selective Service System and a peacetime draft were instituted in 1948.
ii. Atomic Weapons: After the Berlin situation, the arms race heated up. From
1945-1949, the US was the only country in the world to possess a nuclear
weapon. We had also developed some nice long-range bombers to deliver the
nukes. This changed in the fall of ’49 when we realized the Russians had
exploded an atomic bomb of their own. Truman then authorized construction
of the H Bomb, which was to be a thousand times more powerful than the
Hiroshima bomb. We exploded the first H Bomb in 1952.
1. NSC-68: In 1950, the NSC recommended, in a secret report known as
NSC-68, that the following measures were necessary in fighting the
Cold War:
a. Quadruple government spending to 20% of US GNP.
b. We would form alliances with non-communist countries
around the world.
c. The government had to convince the American people that a
costly arms buildup was imperative to national security. Did
we know, and is there any evidence, that we felt we could
spend the Soviets into submission?
iii. Evaluating US Policy: Critics blamed HST for increasing Russian fears and
deepening the Cold War as well as heightening the arms race. However, history
shows that NATO was one of the best military alliances in world history.
NATO did its job in containing Soviet expansion.
E. Cold War in Asia: Containment was not so easy in Asia. European colonialism crumbled in India
and Southeast Asia as former colonies became new nations. These countries did not have fond
memories of the western powers and were not quick to fall under US influence. The irony is that
the one Asian nation that we became the friendliest with was Japan.
a. Japan: Japan was under the sole control of the US. MacArthur took control of the
rebuilding Japan. Former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was tried and executed for war
crimes. The new Japanese constitution was adopted in 1947. Hirohito could stay on as
emperor, but with no power. The constitution denounced war as an instrument of
national policy and provided for only limited military capability. They were basically
protected by the US.
i. US-Japanese Security Treaty: Our occupation of Japan ended with a treaty in
1951 in which Japan agreed to give up its claims to Korea and islands in the
b.
c.
d.
South Pacific. Japan agreed to lease bases to the US as protection against
external enemies.
The Philippines and the Pacific: The Philippines became an independent republic in
1946, in accordance to the agreement in 1934 (Tydings-McDuffie Act). The US retained
important bases throughout the Cold War. The US also controlled several UN “trustee
islands” in the Pacific, meaning the Pacific was beginning to look like an American lake.
China: Chiang Kai-shek came to power in China in the 1920s and headed the
Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party. We had given Chiang massive aid to China during the
war to prevent a massive collapse at the hands of the Japanese. When WWII ended, the
Chinese Civil War started up again between Chiang and the Chinese communists under
Mao Zedong. Widespread corruption and massive inflation led to millions joining the
communist side. The Nationalists were corrupt and unorganized.
i. U.S. Policy: HST sent George Marshall to China but the compromise he
hammered out fell through in a matter of months. By 1947, Chiang’s armies
were in retreat, HST didn’t know what to do (as a full scale invasion was out of
the question.) In 1948, Congress voted to give Chiang’s men $400 million in
aid, but 80% of the aid ended up in communist hands due to corruption and
the collapse of Chiang’s armies.
ii. Two Chinas: By the end of 1949, mainland China was in communist hands.
Chiang and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan (Formosa). Chiang established his
government and claimed to be the legitimate government of China. The US
supported Chiang and refused to recognize Mao’s communist regime (the
{People’s Republic of China) until 1979 (with the process begun by Richard
Nixon.)
1. HST “Lost China”: The Democrats were blamed for this disaster,
especially in 1950, when Stalin and Mao signed the Sino-Soviet Pact,
which seemed to provide more evidence of a worldwide communist
conspiracy.
The Korean War: Korea was divided at the 38th parallel following the fall of Japan.
Soviet armies occupied the northern part, US occupying the South. By 1949 both armies
had withdrawn and the North was under the control of communist leader Kim Il Sung
and the South under leader Syngman Rhee, a conservative nationalist.
i. Invasion: On June 25, 1950 the North Koreans shocked the world and invaded
South Korea. Moscow probably did not even know it was going to happen. HST
called a special session of the UN Security Council and, taking advantage of a
Soviet boycott, authorized a UN force to defend South Korea. US troops
dominated these forces who were commanded by MacArthur. Congress
supported the troops, but did not declare war, accepting Truman’s
characterization as a “police action.”
ii. Counterattack: The North Koreans pushed us back to the very southern tip of
South Korea until MacArthur reversed the situation with a brilliant
amphibious landing at Inchon. UN forces then destroyed large parts of the
North Korean army, advancing northward toward the Chinese border. China
warned Mac not to come any closer, he called it a “bluff” and kept pushing. In
November, 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed the border
and completely overwhelmed the UN forces. This was one of the worst defeats
in US military history. The UN army was driven out of North Korea and back
south of the 38th parallel.
iii. Truman vs. MacArthur: MacArthur managed to regain land to the 38 th parallel,
but called for a larger war, including the use of atomic weapons and an all-out
invasion of China. HST cautioned Mac that making public statements
criticizing official US policy was a no-no. Mac sent letters of Congress asking
them to impeach the president. At this, Truman fired Mac. Mac came home
(he hadn’t been here since before WWII) to a hero’s welcome, including the
famous address to Congress (“Old soldiers never die, they just…fade away…”)
Truman and the Democrats were viewed as appeasers and the public did not
understand containment, just victory.
iv. Armistice: Peace talks began at Panmunjom in July 1951. The war had
devolved into a stalemate along the 38th parallel. An armistice was finally signed
in 1953 under Ike’s presidency. 54,000 Americans died there.
v. Political Consequences: Containment had worked, although many Americans
were frustrated without complete victory. HST used the Korean war as
justification for dramatically expanding the military, funding the new B-52 jet
bomber and stationing more troops overseas.
1. Republicans: Were far from satisfied. They said Truman was “soft on
communism.” They even said that the Democrats were members of
“Dean Acheson’s Cowardly College of Communist Containment.”
F. The Second Red Scare: There was a nationwide conspiracy, including backing from the
government, which helped this Red Scare grow a lot bigger than the one which had followed
WWI. Even Truman thought there were spies in the State Department.
a. Security and Civil Rights: HST set up the Loyalty Review Board, under pressure from
Republican leaders, in 1947. They investigated the backgrounds of over 3 million
employees, with thousands losing their jobs in the 4-year probe.
i. Prosecutions under the Smith Act: In the case of Dennis et al v. United States
(1951) the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Smith Act of
1940, which made it illegal to advocate or teach the overthrow of the
government by force or belong to an organization with this objective. The
Smith Act was used to jail the leaders of the American communist party.
ii. McCarran Internal Security Act (1950): This was passed over Truman’s veto. It
made it unlawful to advocate or support the establishment of a totalitarian
government. It also restricted the employment or travel of those who joined
communist-front organizations, and authorized the creation of detention camps
for subversives.
iii. Un American Activities: The House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC), which was originally established in 1939 to seek out Nazis in America,
was reactivated to find communists. The committee investigated government
officials, the Boy Scouts, Hollywood, etc. Those who were called to testify
before the committee and refused to name names were blacklisted.
1. ACLU: Argued that the First Amendment was being violated, it is
your American right to be a communist. Liberalism vs. necessity.
b. Espionage Cases: There were actual cases of communist espionage in GB, Canada, and
the US which gave rise to the need for this witch hunt. The question was whether or not
the government was going too far.
i. The Alger Hiss Case: Whittaker Chamber was a confessed communist and a star
witness for HUAC in 1948. His testimony, and young Nixon’s detective work
on HUAC, led to the trial of Alger Hiss, a prominent official in the State
Department who had been alongside FDR at Yalta. Chambers said Hiss had
passed the “Pumpkin Papers” to him over a series of years and that Chambers
had then passed them on to the Soviets. Why? Money. The committee never
found Hiss guilty of treason, but they did catch him lying in that he said he had
never known or met Chambers. Chambers revealed evidence that the two had
made a deal on a car together. Hiss was convicted of perjury and sent to prison
for five years. With this case, many Americans grew more concerned that we
had communist infestation at the highest levels. “I WILL NOT STAND FOR
INFESTATION!!!!!!!!!”
c.
d.
ii. The Rosenbergs: Most Americans felt that the Soviets had stolen our atomic
technology as soon as they detonated their first bomb in 1949. Klaus Fucks, a
British scientist who had worked on the project, had admitted to passing secrets
for money. With Fuchs assistance, the investigation traced another spy ring to
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in New York. They were tried for treason in 1951
and executed in ’53. Why? There was no evidence that the Rosenbergs had
passed any information that the Soviets did not already have (thanks to Fuchs).
We had to execute somebody, Fuchs had already made a deal, so we executed
these two. Perhaps a bit of anti-Semitism? Ethel took several times through the
voltage to go…she actually caught on fire at one point.
The Rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy: An opportunistic loser from Wisconsin, he used
the fear of communism to advance his career and crush those who he denounced in
public. He claimed to have a list of 205 communists working in the State Department.
He had no such list, but the public bought into it because Senators do not lie, do they?
People would not question him simply for fearing of being called a communist. Arthur
Miller even wrote a play about it, called “The Crucible,” which details the witch hunts of
the late 1600s but is actually about McCarthyism.
i. McCarthy’s Tactics: He attacked the wealthy and the privileged, which gained
him a lot of fans among the working class. He usually attacked Democrats,
which is why the Republicans let him go. An example of his power is when he
attacked George Marshall, Ike, who was an old, close friend of the former
general, would not come to his defense.
ii. Army-McCarthy Hearings: In 1954, on national television, in a Senate
committee hearings on communist infiltration in the Army, Joseph Welch, a
well-respected lawyer who was representing the Army, said “at long last, have
you no shame…” as McCarthy was attacking a young Army soldier. This, and
the attacks on McCarthyism by Edward R. Murrow on his “See It Now”
hearings began the long procession of ending McCarthy’s run. By 1957,
McCarthy was dead of cirrhosis and the McCarthy era was over.
Truman in retirement: Due to Korea, China, the Red Scare, McCarthy, and a few
scandals in his administration, Truman decided to retire back to Missouri in ’52, which
Truman called “a promotion.” He was very unpopular at the time and Republicans
claimed they had to “clean up the mess in DC”, but in time his presidency, and his
frank character, have become appreciated.
Cold War, Part I Terms:
Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
Baby boom
Suburban growth
Sunbelt
Harry Truman
Employment Act of 1946
Council of Economic Advisors
Inflation; strikes
Committee on Civil Rights
22nd Amendment
Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
Progressive Party
Henry Wallace
States Rights Party
Dixiecrats
Strom Thurmond
Thomas Dewey
Fair Deal
Cold War
Soviet Union
United Nations
World Bank
Communist satellites
Iron Curtain
Winston Churchill
George Kennan
Dean Acheson
Containment Policy
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
Berlin Airlift
East and West Germany
NATO
National Security Act (1947)
Arms race
US-Japanese Security Treaty (1947)
Douglas MacArthur
Chinese civil war
Chiang Kai-shek
Taiwan
Mao Zedong
People’s Republic of China
Joseph Stalin
Kim Il Sung
Syngman Rhee
Korean War
UN Police Action
38th Parallel
Dennis et al v. United States (1940)
Smith Act (1940)
McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Alger Hiss
Whittaker Chambers
Rosenberg Case
Klaus Fuchs
Joseph McCarthy
Part 27: The Eisenhower Years, (1952-1960)
The fifties are often seen as “Happy Days,” the birth of rock and roll, television, Beaver Cleaver, etc. In
some cases that is true, but the decade also saw Korea, McCarthyism, the explosion of Civil Rights with
Rosa Parks in Montgomery, the Cold War and the fear of a nuclear holocaust.
A. Eisenhower Takes Command: “I Like Ike” personified the fifties just as much as FDR personified
the ‘50s.
a. The Election of 1952: Republicans considered the old guard favorite Senator Robert
Taft of Ohio, but once Ike committed it was his nomination. Ike had considered
running as a Democrat in ’48, prompting critics to dub him a “Republicrat.” To balance
the ticket (to add a conservative and to prove the party was tough on communism) they
added Richard Nixon, who gained fame during the Hiss case. The Democrats nominated
Adlai Stevenson, a popular governor from Illinois who had gained a little fame from
facing off against McCarthy.
i. Campaign Highlights: Ike was squeaky clean in that he was not a career
politician and did win World War II. Meanwhile, Nixon was accused of
mismanaging campaign funds (using campaign funds for private reasons). As
Ike considered dropping him from the ticket, Nixon went on national
television and delivered the “Checkers Speech.” He basically said that he had
not mismanaged funds and that the only thing he had kept for personal gain
was a dog that was given to him. The whole nation said “Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.”
If we had only known.
ii. “I will go to Korea”: Pledging to go to Korea to end the war, Ike won the
election with 55% of the popular vote and an electoral tally of 442-89.
b. Domestic Policies: Ike believed in the delegation of authority, appointing corporate
executives to head his cabinet. For example, his secretary of defense was Charles Wilson,
former head of GM. Although it looked from the outside that Ike was always busy
fishing and golfing, Ike was always in charge.
c. Modern Republicanism: Ike was a fiscal conservative who wanted to balance the budget,
even though he did not always balance the budget, he came closer to any other president
to doing it. He did extend many New Deal measures (Social Security was extended to 10
million more people, the minimum wage was raised, and additional public housing was
built.) He consolidated all the various welfare programs by creating the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare and named Oveta Culp Hobby as its first head and first
female Republican cabinet member. Ike reduced farm production by creating a soil
bank program, which conserved the amount of soil in use. Ike opposed the ideas of
federal health care insurance and federal aid to education. Ike called this new approach
“the New Republicanism,” opponents called it “the bland leading the bland.”
d. Interstate Highway System: The Highway Act authorized the construction of 42,000
miles of highway. It became a model for the rest of the world, as Ike defended this
massive work project as being essential for national defense. It also contributed
thousands of jobs, helped to develop the suburbs, and devastated the railroad industry.
e. Prosperity: Ike’s time in office featured low inflation (1.5% each year), the deficit fell
every year, per capita disposable income of Americans more than tripled, the average
family of the 1950s had more than double the income of a comparable family during the
boom years of the 1920s. Americans in the 1950s had the highest standard of living in
the world.
f. The Election of 1956: Ike had a heart attack in 1955 and major surgery in ’56,
Democrats questioned his health but he and Nixon were nominated again. Stevenson
was nominated by the Democrats and was crushed in the election, even worse than in ’
52. However, the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress.
B. Eisenhower and the Cold War: Ike’s terms were dominated by international situations and his
main shaper of foreign policy was SecState John Foster Dulles.
a. John Foster Dulles’ Diplomacy: Dulles said containment was too passive, we needed a
“new look.” He wanted to challenge China and the Soviets. He wanted to “liberate
captive nations” of Europe and to encourage the Nationalists in Taiwan to assert itself
against Red China. He introduced the idea of “brinkmanship” in which we would push
b.
c.
the Soviets to the brink of nuclear war and they would back down due to our dominance
in that field. Ike prevented Dulles from carrying his ideas to the extreme.
i. Massive Retaliation: Dulles wanted to spend more money on nuclear power and
air support and less on conventional forces. He wanted “more bang for the
buck,” which would save money and increase pressure on enemies. We
developed the hydrogen bomb in 1953 which could destroy large cities. Many
believed this was a policy was a mutual extinction. This policy was effective in
deterring massive wars but left the US helpless in stopping small, brushfire wars
breaking out in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Unrest in the Third World: The collapse of colonial empires after WWII was perhaps
the single most important development of the postwar era. Between 1947 and 1962,
dozens of colleges in Asia and Africa gained their independence. India, Pakistan,
Indonesia, etc. These third world countries, many of whom lacked stable political and
economic institutions, looked to the US or USSR for aid, thereby making these new
countries pawns in the Cold War.
i. Covert Action: Covert action was cheaper than sending in the military,
especially in the Dulles years.
1. Iran: In 1953, the CIA helped to overthrow a government in Iran that
was trying to nationalize the holding of foreign oil companies. This
overthrow of an elected government allowed for the return of Reza
Pahlavi as shah. The shah then gave the US great deals on oil and
bought millions of dollars in weapons.
2. Guatemala: In 1954, the CIA overthrew a leftist government that
threatened American business interests. Our opposition to
communism led to our backing of corrupt and ruthless dictators,
especially in Latin America. This tendency led to growing antiAmerican feeling around the world. In Venezuela in 1958, Nixon’s
motorcade was attacked by angry crowds.
Asia: The hotspot for the Cold War during Ike’s reign.
i. Korean Armistice: Ike went to Korea in ’53 led to an armistice between the US
and Korea and China. Stalin had died in March ’53. Most of the US troops
were withdrawn and a permanent dividing line along the 38th parallel lasts to
this day. No peace treaty was ever signed between North and South Korea.
ii. Fall of Indochina: The Japanese took Indochina during the war, but France
made the mistake of trying to retake it after the war. Vietnamese history shows
that no colonial power has ever been able to hold on to Vietnam, including the
Chinese. In this instance, Vietnamese and Cambodians wanted independence.
As the French tried to hold on tighter, Nationalist and communist leader Ho
Chi Minh gained more and more support. A rivalry was quickly developing
between communist and anticommunist powers within and without Vietnam.
1. Truman sent military supplies to the French while the Soviets and
Chinese gave support to Ho. In 1954, a large French army was
surrounded and forced to surrender at Dien Bien Phu. They wanted
Ike to send in troops to help, but he refused and the French eventually
withdrew from Vietnam, according to the Geneva Conference of 1954.
France gave up Indochina which was divided into 4 nations,
Cambodia, Laos, and North and South Vietnam.
2. Division of Vietnam: According to the Geneva Convention, Vietnam
was to be divided at the 17th parallel until a general election could
determine its destiny. Hostile governments took power on either side,
with Ho in the north and Ngo Dinh Diem, an anticommunist, in the
South. Many in the South were either Catholic, on the run from the
communists in the North, or urban Vietnamese. The election was
d.
e.
never held, primarily because everyone feared the Communists would
win.
a. US gave over $1 billion in economic and military aid to South
Vietnam from 1955-1961. Ike justified this aid by describing
the Domino Theory.
3. SEATO: Southeast Asia Treaty Organization set up by Dulles to
prevent the fall to communism of Laos, S. Vietnam, and Cambodia.
Eight nations signed the pact, agreeing to defend each other if
attacked: US, GB, France, Australia, NZ, Philippines, Thailand, and
Pakistan.)
The Middle East: Israel was created in 1948 and immediately set us at odds with the
Arab nations in the region. Egypt and other countries had fought against the creation of
Israel, but the US and GB pushed it through.
i. Suez Crisis: Egyptian general Gamal Nasser asked the US for money to help
build the Aswan Dam project on the Nile. The US refused, based on Egypt’s
threat to Israeli security. Nasser then turned to the Soviets for help, who
provided limited funds. Nasser then looked elsewhere for help, Nasser seized
and nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by the Brits and the French.
This became an international crisis. Loss of the canal threatened the world’s
supply of oil. Britain, France, and Israel launched a surprise attack and retook
the Canal. Ike, who was surprised by the attacks, sponsored a US resolution
condemning the invasion of Egypt. Under pressure, the invading countries
withdrew, and this marks the last time Britain and France would be major
players in world affairs.
ii. Eisenhower Doctrine: As US influence grew in the middle east, Soviet
influence grew in Syria and Egypt. In the Eisenhower Doctrine, Ike pledged
economic and military aid to any Mid-East country threatened by communism.
The doctrine was first applied in Lebanon in 1958 when he sent 14,000
Marines in to prevent a civil war between Christians and Muslims. This
instability might have led to a communist takeover attempt.
iii. OPEC and oil: In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran joined Venezuela
to form OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.) This alliance
of Arab countries, in combination with the growing Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
would haunt the American presidency for the next 50 years.
US-Soviet Relations: Needless to say, our relationship with the Soviet Union was up and
down during the Ike years.
i. Spirit of Geneva: After Stalin died in ’53, Ike presented an “atoms for peace”
plan to the UN. The Soviets also wanted to reduce Cold War tensions. The
Soviets withdrew troops from Austria (after they agreed to be neutral in the
Cold War) and established peaceful relations with Greece and Turkey. By ’55,
the two sides had agreed to meet at Geneva for a summit. Ike met with new
Soviet premier Nikolai Bulganin. Ike wanted “open skies” over each others
country so we could watch each other and prevent surprise nuclear attack. The
Soviets rejected the proposal. However, the press reported that the “Spirit of
Geneva” was the first thaw in the Cold War. Even more encouraging was Nikita
Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization campaign when he became premier in
1956. He claimed he wanted “peaceful coexistence” with the West.
ii. Hungary, 1956: As the Cold War relaxed a bit, Poland and Hungary began to
test the Soviet bonds. A popular uprising in Hungary in 1956 succeeded in
overthrowing the Moscow-backed government. It was replaced by a liberal
group who wanted to pull Hungary out of the Warsaw Pact. Khrushchev sent
in tank and the military and crushed the freedom fighters. The US response
was no response. Ike was afraid of starting another world war. Suddenly Dulles’
talk of liberating the region was just talk, and the US basically gave de facto
recognition of Soviet influence over Eastern Europe. What were Ike’s options?
This ended the first thaw in the Cold War.
iii. Sputnik: Sputnik I and II shocked the US in 1957. Suddenly we had to worry
about nuclear missiles falling out of the skies. Meanwhile, US rockets couldn’t
get off the launch pad. Many Americans blamed education and a lack of
emphasis on science in the schools. Congress responded with the National
Defense and Education Act which authorized giving money to schools for
science and foreign language education.
1. NASA: Was formed in 1958 to combine all of the rocketry agencies,
with the objective being to build missiles and explore space. Billions
were funded in the program.
iv. Second Berlin Crisis: Khrushchev said “We will bury capitalism” in 1958 and
gave the West six months to pull out of West Berlin before turning the city
over to the East Germans. To diffuse the crisis, Ike invited Nikita to Camp
David in 1959 and agreed to put off the crisis until they were to meet again in
1960.
v. U2 Incident: Two weeks before the planned summit meeting in Paris, the
Soviets shot down Francis Gary Powers in his US spy plane deep inside Soviet
territory. Ike told the American people that we had a weather plane go down,
but not over the USSR. When Nikita later revealed that he had the pilot and
the photos, Ike had to admit that he lied to the American people, which
establishes a bit of a trend in the coming years and establishes the idea that
American presidents are not always truthful, which has a bearing on the
growing discontent of the ‘60s. America was also shocked that we were engaged
in spying, which we felt was something the Russians did, but not us! Nikita
called off the Paris summit and uninvited Ike to Moscow in 1960.
f. Communism in Cuba: Fidel Castro deposed Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and quickly
nationalized American owned businesses in Cuba. Ike retaliated by cutting off US trade
with Cuba. Castro then turned to the Soviets and revealed that he was a Marxist and set
of a communist state. Ike then began authorizing the CIA to train anti-communist
Cuban exiles to retake the island, but this genius plan was left on the table for JFK to
decide on.
g. Ike’s Legacy: He kept the peace, checked Communist aggression without losing
American lives, and started the long process of relaxing tensions with the Soviet Union.
In 1958, he initiated the first arms limitation treaty by voluntarily suspending above
ground nuclear testing.
i. The Military Industrial Complex: In Ike’s farewell address, he warned of the
growing relationship between weapons manufacturers and government. The
arms race, it seems, was about more than just beating the Soviets. It was about
making money.
C. The Civil Rights Movement:
a. Origins of the Movement: Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in the majors in
’47, Truman had integrated the armed forces in ’48; these marked the change in the
government’s view of civil rights. The South was still integrated by color and by law. Poll
taxes, literacy tests, etc. were still the norm.
i. Changing demographics: The origins of the movement can be traced to the
migrations of millions of blacks to the North where they could vote in the 40s
and 50s. They had become an important factor in the Democratic party.
ii. Changing attitudes in the Cold War: With the US fighting against the
totalitarianism of the Soviet Union, the US could not disallow rights to people
simply due to color.
b.
Desegregating the Public Schools: The NAACP had been trying to overturn Plessy v.
Ferguson for years, but by the late ‘40s they began to win a series of court cases involving
higher education.
i. Brown v. Board ‘54: Thurgood Marshall led the case for the NAACP in which
a group of students wanted to attend white schools. They argued, in this case,
that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the
14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. Chief Justice
Earl Warren, in his decision, rules that separate facilities are inherently unequal
and segregation in schools should end with “all deliberate speed.”
1. Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education: Some southern
school districts quickly figured a way around the Brown decision, they
simply passed “pupil placement laws” in which school officials could
place students in schools based on their scholastic abilities and/or
social behavior. This court case was an attempt by a family to get rid of
these laws, but in this case the SC refused to declare them
unconstitutional.
ii. Resistance in the South: The South fought back with various tactics, including:
Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, using the state’s National Guard to
prevent 9 students from entering Central High School. Ike intervened, not
because he believed in Civil Rights but because his authority was being
challenged. He nationalized the National Guard to protect the students.
iii. Montgomery Bus Boycott: 1955, Rosa Parks, a secretary in the local NAACP,
refused to give up her seat and was arrested, sparking a massive boycott of the
city’s buses by blacks, who happened to be the prominent users of that service.
Martin Luther King took control of the boycott and the movement (as the
boycott started in his Baptist church), the Supreme Court eventually ruled in
’56 that the segregation laws were unconstitutional, marking a victory for the
movement.
iv. Federal Laws: Ike signed two civil rights laws, one in ’57, the other in ’60,
which were the first such laws to be enacted by the US Congress since
Reconstruction. They would provide a permanent Civil Rights Commission
giving the Justice Department new powers to protect voting rights of blacks.
The South kept up their resistance, calling it “Massive Resistance”.
v. Nonviolent Protests: Blacks took control of the movement since the
government would not make major strides. King, Jr. formed the SCLC
(Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in ’57 which organized ministers
and churches in the South to get behind civil rights. In February of 1960,
students in Greensboro, North Carolina started the sit-in movement at the local
Wooloworth’s lunch counter. The SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee) was formed a few months later to keep the movement organized.
The sit-in was used to integrate restaurants, hotels, buildings, libraries, pools,
etc. The government reluctance to take the lead in the civil rights movement
led to the movement taking control of it; including a more militant, violent
side as the 60s get interesting.
vi. Urban Renewal: Attempts were made in the fifties and sixties to tear down old
inner city structures and replace them with nice new ones, but these would
become known as “the projects” in years to come. Turns out you can paint the
town, but not the people.
D. Pop Culture of the 1950s: The age of conformity, as the 50s are called, was caused by “keeping up
with the Jones’s” and a fear of communism, which propelled Americans to want the security of
safe social behavior.
a. Consumer Culture and Conformity: TV, advertising, and the great middle class move to
the suburbs contributed to the homogeneity of American culture.
i. Television: By 1961 there were 55 million TV sets, or one for every 3.3
Americans. There were three national networks which provided a bland menu
of soaps, comedies and westerns. FCC chairman Newton Minnow called TV the
“vast Wasteland” and worried about kids watching too much of it. Television
obviously had a tremendous impact on Americans, establishing a common
culture and language to viewers. (Popular shows included Leave it to Beaver,
The Honeymooners, the Mickey Mouse Club, I Love Lucy, etc.) What did these
shows depict? Don’t forget the quiz show scandals and 21.
ii. Films: Many of the notable films of the era were about non-conformity, like
The Blackboard Jungle, Rebel Without A Cause, The Day the Earth Stood Still,
Jailhouse Rock, etc.
b.
c.
iii. Advertising: Name brands and common material wants, suburban shopping
centers and plastic credit cards made buying easy and essential. McDonald’s
showed the possibilities of franchising, and Mom and Pop were on their way
out.
iv. Paperbacks and records: Americans read more than ever in the 50s, mainly due
to the new innovation of the paperback. They sold a million copies a day by
1960. Michael Harrington’s The Other America was about poverty’s continuing
existence in America. The Long Play album was inexpensive, as was the 45 rpm
single. For the first time, music was marketed at young people, and Elvis
became every teenager’s idol. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry
Lee Lewis, Alan Freed, Dick Clark, etc. The Payola Scandal, etc.
v. Corporate America: For the first time in history more Americans had white
collar jobs than blue collar jobs. This desire to move up in an organization led
to more conformity, like in the film The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.
William Whyte documented this loss of individuality in The Organization Man
(1956). The AFL and CIO merged in ’55, creating a more powerful union than
ever before. Unions became more conservative, as even blue collar workers
began to enjoy middle class incomes. Disneyland opened in California in 1955,
proving that Americans have enough money to pay for the right to escape.
vi. Religion: Organized religion expanded in the 1950s and 60s, as revealed in Will
Herberg’s book Catholic, Protestant, Jew (1955) in which he said that the new
religious toleration in America and the lack of interest in religious doctrine
became a source of both individual identity and socialization.
Women’s Roles: Homemaking was a full time job for millions of women. Baby and
Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock reaffirmed this role of women. However, welleducated middle class women and even married women hit the workforce in larger
numbers than ever before, although they made lower wages.
Social Critics: Those who disapproved of the social trends included: David Riesman in
his book The Lonely Crowd, in which he criticized the “inner directed” individuals in
society. In The Affluent Society, economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote about the
failure of wealthy Americans to address the need for increased social spending for the
common good. He had tremendous influence on the JFK and LBJ administrations later
on. C. Wright Mills wrote about the dehumanizing corporate world in White Collar and
about threats to freedom in The Power Elite.
i. Novels: The individual’s struggle against conformity was the theme of the most
popular novels of the time, including Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and
Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.
ii. Beatniks: These were a group of rebellious writers and poets who started out in
Greenwich Village advocating drugs, rebellion against social norms, and
individualism. Writers include Jack Kerouac (On the Road) and Allen Ginsberg
(Howl).
d.
e.
Medicine: Jonas Salk introduced the polio vaccine in 1954 and was provided free to the
public starting in 1955. An oral version of the vaccine, introduced by Albert Sabin and
administered in a sugar cube, was released in 1960.
Pesticides: DDT (introduced by Swiss chemist Paul Muller in 1939 and he won a Nobel
Prize in medicine in 1948,) was used widely during WWII and tests showed it had no
effects on humans but killed tropical insects by the millions. Only later did we learn of
the long term toxic effects of DDT. As pests developed immunities to the DDT in the
late ‘40s, scientists made stronger doses and often even sprayed DDT over parks and
neighborhoods. Bird and fish populations were shrinking, inspiring Rachel Carson to
write Silent Spring in 1962. (Inspired by a letter she received from young Olga Huckin,
claiming DDT spraying near her house had killed birds. It wasn’t supposed to do that!)
f.
Terms, the Eisenhower Years:
Ike
Richard Nixon
Modern Republicanism
Oveta Culp Hobby
Soil bank program
Highway Act of 1956
Interstate highway system
John Foster Dulles
Brinkmanship
Massive retaliation
Third World
Iran
Covert action
Indochina
Geneva Conference
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam
Domino theory
SEATO
Suez Canal Crisis
Eisenhower Doctrine
OPEC
“Spirit of Geneva”
Open skies crisis
Nikita Khrushchev
Peaceful coexistence
Hungarian revolt
Warsaw Pact
Sputnik
NASA
U2 Incident
Fidel Castro
Cuba
Military industrial complex
Civil rights
Jackie Robinson
NAACP
Desegregation
Brown v. Board
Earl Warren
Little Rock Crisis
Rosa Parks
Montgomery bus boycott
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil rights act of 57 and 60
Civil Rights Commission
SCLC
Nonviolent protest
Sit-in movement
SNCC
Corporate America
Consumer culture
David Riesman
John Kenneth Gailbraith
Beatniks
Part 28: Promises and Turmoil: The 1960s
The postwar economic prosperity hit its peak in the 60s, but racial strife and the Vietnam War, combined
with student radicalism tore the country apart. In short, America was forced to learn that the life of a
superpower isn’t always easy.
A. John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier:
a. The election of 1960: Ike’s presidency was successful, but he was unable to transfer his
popularity to another Republican candidate. Meanwhile, Congress was Democratic.
i. Richard Nixon: Nixon was unanimously nominated for president, as he had
become well-known for his statesmanship in travels to South America and the
Soviet Union (Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev where they discussed the
merits of capitalism vs. socialism.) He was 47 in 1960 and was known as a tough
campaigner.
ii. John Kennedy: Liberal democrats still wanted Adlai Stevenson while Southern
Dems wanted House Speaker LBJ. However, 43-year old charismatic Bostonian
JFK impressed in the primaries. He had just enough delegates to secure the
nomination at the convention, and to ensure his nomination he added LBJ as
his VP, even though he did not expect LBJ to take it. This addition proved
critical in November.
iii. The Campaign: Television was the deciding factor for the first time. In the first
televised debate in US history, JFK’s youthful good looks blew Nixon away. JFK
said Ike had allowed a “missile gap” when in fact history shows that the US
dominated. The reason it worked was due to Sputnik so, in a way, Kennedy
played off of America’s paranoia to get himself to the White House. JFK was
the first Catholic candidate since Al Smith back in ’28 and in November it hurt
JFK in the rural areas but helped him in the cities. In a speech in West
Virginia, JFK convinced many skeptics when he said he would never be
subservient to the Vatican.
iv. Results: Kennedy won by 100,000 popular votes and by 303-219 in the
electoral. Many, including Nixon, felt that the Kennedy boys had stolen the
election in Illinois and Texas, where political machines allowed dead people to
vote. Nixon, in probably a smart move, did not call for a recount a la Al Gore,
thereby saving his political career.
b.
c.
JFK’s Domestic Policy: He was the youngest man ever to be elected president (43). His
youthful energy and sharp wit, often self-deprecating, brought a new enthusiasm to the
White House. He promised the American people that a “torch has been passed to a new
generation” and talked of a New Frontier. He brought in the “best and the brightest”
for his cabinet, including SecDef Robert McNamara and AttyGen Bobby Kennedy. The
nation would later describe the Kennedy presidency as “Camelot” because of the beauty
and glamour of him and his wife. The press loved his sense of humor, which marked a
stark difference from Ike’s staid appearance.
i. New Frontier Programs: JFK wanted a very liberal agenda, including aid to
education, federal support of health care, urban renewal, and civil rights. The
reason none of these things passed during his 1,000 days in the White House
was because they all stalled in Congress. Why? Because many Congressmen
were jealous of his sudden success. Most of his ideas did become fact under
LBJ’s administration. Economically, JFK faced down big business by getting a
price rollback on big steel, while the economy was boosted by his spending on
military and space exploration. He did commit the US to put a man on the
moon by the end of the decade.
JFK’s Foreign Policy: He established the Peace Corps in 1961, an organization that
recruited young American volunteers to give technical aid to underdeveloped countries
as well as help spread the idea of capitalism and deter the spread of communism.
Alliance for Progress was created in 1961, its goal was to promote land reform and
economic development in Latin America. Congress passed the Trade Expansion Act in
’62, which authorized tariff reductions with the recently formed European Economic
Community (Common Market) of Western European nations.
i. Bay of Pigs: JFK approved Ike’s ridiculous plan and it horribly backfired in
April, ’61. The exiles were trapped on the beach by Castro’s men, who knew
they were coming, and surrendered. Kennedy’s refusal to use American air
cover to save them doomed the mission from the beginning and would prove to
leave lasting negative feelings toward him long after he was gone. Castro used
the failed attempt to get more aid from the Soviets and was a significant step
toward the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, ’62.
ii. Berlin Wall: JFK immediately tried to shake off the embarrassment of the Bay
of Pigs as he invited Khrushchev to Vienna for a meeting in the summer of ’61.
Nikita immediately tried to intimidate the young president by renewing Soviet
demands to pull US troops out of Berlin. Kennedy refused. Starting in August,
the East Germans, with Soviet backing, began building a wall separating Berlin
in order to keep Germans from fleeing from East Berlin. As the wall was being
built, US and Soviet tanks faced off in Berlin. Kennedy called up the reserves
but made no move to stop the wall’s construction. IN ’63, after the wall was
completed, he traveled to West Berlin and delivered his ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’
speech, in which he said “we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people
in…” The wall remained until 1989.
iii. Cuban Missile Crisis (October, 1962): US recon planes discovered underground
missile sites in Cuba (one of the pilots was Roger Chaffee.) Nukes from Cuba
could reach the US in minutes and was unacceptable. After discussing several
options, Kennedy decided to set up a quarantine” of Cuba, not allowing
anything in or out. After days of tension and nearly a nuclear war, Khrushchev
decided to pull the nukes out of Cuba (under the table, we promised to pull
our nukes out of Turkey in six months.) Discuss back channels, an American
nuke test during the crisis, General Curtis LeMay, Dean Acheson, Adlai
Stevenson at the UN, etc. A hot line was established between DC and Moscow,
and in 1963 the US, USSR, and a hundred other nations signed the first
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to end the testing of nukes in the atmosphere.
iv. Flexible Response: A different Cold War challenge was the little brush fire wars
in Southeast Asia and Africa. Kennedy moved away from Dulles’ old massive
retaliation and toward “flexible response.” He increased spending on
conventional arms and mobile military force. This reduced the risk of using
nukes but increased the temptation to send elite Special Forces into combat
around the world.
v. Assassination in Dallas: November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in Texas to drum up
support for the ’64 campaign. As his motorcade turned through Dealey Plaza,
shots rang out. Kennedy was pronounced dead shortly after 1 pm. LBJ was
sworn in on the flight back to DC as Jackie stood by his side in her bloodstained dress. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder and was himself
assassinated at a jail exchange two days later. The Warren Commission was
assigned to figure out if Oswald acted alone and they concluded that he did.
However, in the late seventies a second commission found that there was
enough evidence to deduce that the assassination was likely a result of a
conspiracy. Castro? The CIA? The Mafia? The Military-Industrial Complex?
Either way, this assassination marked the beginning of the loss of credibility in
government. Think about it, if the government could conspire to kill its leader,
then who really is in charge? Was it a coup? Was Kennedy’s election a coup?
Many good questions that will never be answered.
vi. In Retrospect: JFK’s advice to “ask not what your country can do for you…” hit
young Americans very hard, as did his assassination. The young kids he stirred
up with his inauguration would be the same young kids who would protest the
war, burn their draft cards, and bleed to death at Kent State or Vietnam. Love
him or hate him, Kennedy was a tough act to follow.
B. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society: LBJ was a bit less polished than JFK, he was a Texan who had
spent years working his way up through local, state and national politics until becoming the
Speaker of the House. During the FDR years, he was a devoted New Dealer. As president, he
wanted to extend social reforms and having spent 30 years in Congress gave him the power base
that JFK never had in Congress. As soon as he took office, congress passed an expanded version of
JFK’s civil rights bill and JFK’s income tax cut, which caused an increase in jobs, consumer
spending, and paved the way for an economic boom in the 60s.
a. The War On Poverty: Michael Harrington’s 1962 book The Other America helped to
focus on the 40 million living in poverty in America. In 1964, LBJ declared an
unconditional war on poverty. The Democratic Congress complied, creating the Office
of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and giving this anti-poverty agency a billion dollar
budget. The agency sponsored Head Start for preschoolers, the Job Corps for vocational
education, literacy programs, legal services, etc. The Community Action Program
allowed the poor to run their own anti-poverty programs in their communities. This
program was effective but was severely hampered by budget cuts as we escalated the
Vietnam War.
b. The Election of 1964: LBJ and Hubert Humphrey presented a liberal agenda in 1964.
The Republicans nominated a staunch conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater of
Arizona, who wanted to end the welfare state, including TVA and Social Security. The
famed Democratic TV ad, in which the Dems take his quote “extremism in the role of
national security is no vice” and show a little girl in a filed with flowers being destroyed
in a nuclear holocaust is a campaign classic. LBJ won 61% of the popular vote, which was
higher than FDR won in ’36, and the Dems took control of both houses of Congress by
better than two-thirds margin. Now the Democrats had the table set to pass all those
ideas that Truman could not get through Congress in the 40s.
c. Great Society Reforms: Long lasting reforms:
i. Medicare: health insurance for those over 65.
ii. Medicaid: government paid health care for the poor and disabled.
iii. Elementary and Secondary Education Act: provide aid for poor school districts.
iv. New Immigration Law: abolished the discriminatory quotas of the 20s, greatly
increasing opportunities for Asians and Latin Americans to emigrate.
v. National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities: federal funding for worthy
creative and scholarly projects.
vi. Two new cabinet positions: Department of Transportation (DOT) and
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
vii. Increased funding for higher education.
viii. Increased funding for public housing and crime prevention.
ix. Congress passed laws to regulate the auto industry, based on Ralph Nader’s
book, Unsafe at Any Speed (’65). Clean air and water laws were passed based on
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (’62). Lady Bird Johnson contributed to helping
the environment by starting the Beautify America campaign.
x. Evaluating the Great Society: Attacks on the Great Society are pretty easy. Is it
possible to defeat poverty? Is it the government’s responsibility to do it? It
created a huge beauracracy and red tape, all of which was incredibly costly.
However, it did provide assistance to those who had previously been ignored
(the poor, disabled, and the elderly.) Ultimately, the Great Society failed
because of Vietnam.
d. Civil rights Acts of 1964 and 1965: A southern president enacted the most important
civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
i. Civil Rights Act of ’64: It was passed even before the election. It made
segregation in public places illegal, and gave the federal government additional
powers to enforce school desegregation. It also set up the Equal Opportunity
Commission to end racial discrimination in employment.
1. Also in ’64, the 24th amendment was ratified, abolishing poll taxes.
ii. Voting Rights Act of 1965: Due to the brutality in Selma against the voting
rights marchers led by Dr. King, Congress passed this Act. It ended literacy
tests, provided federal registrars in areas where blacks were kept from voting.
The results were startling. Blacks in the Deep South voted for the first time
since Reconstruction.
C. Civil Rights and Conflict: Civil rights movement gains momentum during the Kennedy and
Johnson years, although it was hardly an issue in the election of 1960 so as to not alienate voters.
But the defiance of the governors of Alabama and Mississippi will force a showdown.
a. James Meredith, University of Mississippi 1962: He enrolled in Oxford but was refused,
a federal court order guaranteed his right to attend and Kennedy sent in 400 federal
marshals and 3,000 troops to control mob violence. Meredith made it to class and
graduated.
b. George Wallace tried the same thing in ’63, even saying he would stand in the registrar’s
doorway to block admittance to the University of Alabama. JFK sent in troops and the
student was admitted.
c. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Leadership: Civil rights activists and freedom riders who rode
through the South trying to register blacks to vote faced violence, beatings, bombings,
and murder. Dr. King maintained his non-violence stand. He was jailed in ’63 in
Birmingham for what authorities called “an illegal march.” This was a milestone in the
civil rights movement, however. Most Americans felt he was unjustly jailed, and while in
jail he wrote an essay called Letters from a Birmingham Jail. In it he celebrated nonviolence, praised the boys who started the sit-ins and the American dream, and the
founding fathers of the United States. The biggest effect was that JFK was moved to
support a tougher civil rights bill.
d. March on Washington (August 1963): It was one of the biggest and most successful
demonstrations in US history. 200,000 blacks and whites took part in a peaceful march
on Washington in support of the civil rights bill. The “I Have a Dream” speech was the
highlight, which called for the end of racial prejudice. This was the high water mark for
the civil rights movement. After this, where everyone is fired up and anxious for
immediate change, the movement begins to fragment as some black leaders become
more and more disenchanted with the wait.
e. March to Montgomery, 1965: When a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery
was met at the bridge by Bull Connor and police beatings, LBJ sent in troops to protect
Dr. King and the demonstrators. LBJ then sponsored a tough voting rights bill, based on
the fact that the entire nation, for the first time, saw the beatings broadcast on
television.
f. Black Muslims and Malcolm X: Elijah Muhammad led the Black Muslims, who wanted
a new cultural identity based on Africa and Islam. He preached black nationalism,
separatism, and self-improvement. The movement was already growing when he found a
young prisoner named Malcolm Little. Malcolm joined the movement, dropped his slave
name of Little, and became Malcolm X. Out in ’52, he became the movement’s most
controversial voice. He called King “an Uncle Tom” (subservient to whites) and
advocated self-defense (black violence to counter white violence.) He then went to Mecca
where he saw that whites and blacks prayed to Allah together. He returned with a
different point of view, eventually breaking away from Muhammad and founding the
Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was assassinated by black Muslims in 1965.
Alex Haley wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X just before his death and it was
released after his death. Haley was inspired to find his own heritage, writing Roots.
g. Black Power and Race Riots: Malcolm X pushed many civil rights groups in the
direction of radicalism, including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael
repudiated non-violence and promoted “Black Power” (especially economic power) and
racial separatism. The Black Panthers were formed in ’66 by Huey Newton and Bobby
Seale and called for self-rule for blacks.
i. Riots: The Panthers shouted things like “get Whitey” and “Burn baby, burn!”
This made whites suspect that blacks were the ones behind the race riots that
erupted in American cities and black neighborhoods from ’64 to ’68. In ’65, the
Watts riot resulted in the death of 34 people and the destruction of over 700
buildings. There is little evidence that the Black Panthers were responsible.
This is simply a clear indication that American blacks were getting tired of
waiting. They had lost their patience and would soon lose their most valuable
asset.
1. Kerner Commission: This was a federal investigation into the cause of
the riots, finding that racism and segregation were chiefly responsible
and that the US was becoming two societies, “one black and one white.
Separate and unequal.” By the mid sixties we had moved from the de
jure segregation on the law books in the South and into de facto
segregation as evidenced by the racist attitudes in the North and West.
ii. Murder in Memphis: Dr. King won a Nobel Peace Prize in ’64 for his
nonviolent approach. He then moved on to try peaceful marches in Chicago
and other northern areas, but his approach was becoming more and more
irrelevant as the 60s heated up. King then broke with LBJ over the issue of the
Vietnam War, which hurt LBJ. Finally, April 4 1968, King was shot and killed
as he stood on a hotel balcony in Memphis. Massive riots erupted in 168 US
cities, leaving 46 dead. The violence did not reflect King’s Dream, but it did
reflect the frustration of blacks everywhere.
D. The Warren Court and Individual Rights: Warren was CJ of the SC from 1953-1969 and his
impact is similar to that of John Marshall. Brown v. Board was the biggest civil rights decision of
the century. In the 60s, the Warren court made a series of decisions that affected the criminal
justice system, the political system of the states, and the definition of individual rights. Before
Warren, the SC had concentrated on protecting property rights, Warren’s court protected
individual rights.
a. Criminal Justice Cases:
i. Mapp v. Ohio (1961): ruled that illegally seized evidence cannot be used in
court against the accused.
ii. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963): required the state courts to provide counsel for
indigent defendants.
iii. Escobedo v. Illinois (1964): required the police to inform an arrested person of
his or her right to remain silent.
iv. Miranda v. Arizona (1966): extended the Escobedo ruling to include the right
to a lawyer being present during questioning by the police.
b. Reapportionment: Prior to 1962, it was normal for at least one house of a state
legislature (usually the Senate) to be based upon the drawing of district lines that
strongly favored the rural areas over the cities. In Baker v. Carr, declared such practices
to be unconstitutional, establishing the principle of “one man, one vote.” This meant
the redrawing of district voting lines.
c. Freedom of Expression and Privacy: Other decisions by the Court allowed for a greater
use of the first amendment or protection of radical demonstrations against the federal
government as well as freedom of the press, banning religion from public schools, and
adults’ rights to use contraceptives.
i. Yates v. United States (1957): said that the first amendment protected radical
and revolutionary speech, even by communists, unless it was a clear and present
danger to the safety of the country.
ii. Engel v. Vitale (1962): ruled that the state laws requiring prayers and Bible
readings in the public schools violated the First Amendment’s provision for
separation of church and state.
iii. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965): ruled that, in recognition of a citizen’s right to
privacy, a state could not prohibit the use of contraceptives by adults. (This
privacy case led to later SC decisions allowing for a woman’s right to an
abortion.)
E. Social Revolution and Cultural Movements: By the early to mid ‘60s, various liberal groups began
to identify with the black struggle against oppression. The first group to rebel against established
authority was college and university students.
a. Student Movement and the New Left: In 1962, at a meeting of the newly created
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Port Huron, Michigan, a group of radical
students led by Tom Hayden issued a declaration of purposes called the Port Huron
Statement. It called for all university decisions to be made through a democracy, so
students could have a voice in decisions affecting their lives. Activists and intellectuals
who supported Hayden became known as the New Left.
i. First student protest: Took place in 1964 at Berkeley. They called their cause
the Free Speech Movement and demanded an end to university restrictions on
student political activities. By the mid-60s, there were college protests all
around the country, protesting rules against drinking and dorm visits by the
opposite sex. They too called for a greater voice in governing the university.
These student demonstrations expanded as the Vietnam War turned into a
quagmire. Hundreds of campuses were shut down or disrupted due to the
antiwar protest.
1. The Weathermen: They were a radical fringe of the SDS who
embraced violence and vandalism in their attacks on American
institutions. To most Americans, the Weathermen were too much and
destroyed the work of the New Left.
b. The Counterculture: Many young people were expressing themselves in new styles of
dress, music, drug use, and in the most extreme cases, communal living. The dress code
for the hippies was long hair, beards, beads, and jeans. The folk music of Joan Baez, Bob
Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary gave voice to this generation’s protests. Rock music by
the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix provided the
beat and the lyrics to the counterculture. Some of these hippies tried LSD and other
hallucinogenics and died off early. The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 was
the last big bang for the counterculture. The excesses of the movement and the
uncertainties of the economy led to its demise in the ‘70s. “Tune in, turn on, drop out,”
said Dr. Timothy Leary. Other famous 60s personalities: Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper,
Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and Jann Wenner, CSN&Y, Charlie Manson, Attica
and Nelson Rockefeller/journalist Tom Wicker (1971, but the idea of the riot is so 60s),
Gus Grissom, Wavy Gravy, etc.
i. In retrospect: This generation believed in the ideals of a democratic society.
They wanted to rid the world of unresponsive authority, poverty, racism, and
war. Many became impatient in this idealistic quest and turned to radicalism
and self-destruction. These methods tarnished their own democratic values and
discredited their cause in the eyes of older Americans.
c. The Sexual Revolution: Alfred Kinsey’s famed sexual research of the ‘40s and ‘50s
showed that Americans were taking part in premarital sex, marital infidelity, and
homosexuality. Medicine (antibiotics for venereal diseases) and technology (Goody
Pincus’ birth control pill in 1960) played a great role in tempting people to engage in
casual sex with a number of partners. Sexual themes in magazine ads and movies made
sex seem like just another consumer product. Whether we were freakier than we used to
be is up to question, but there is little doubt that we were having a pretty damn good
time in the ‘60s.
d. The Women’s Movement: Education, employment, the civil rights movement, and the
sexual revolution all contributed to a renewal of the women’s movement in the ‘60s.
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) gave the movement a new direction by
encouraging middle class women to seek fulfillment in professional careers rather than
sitting at home as a housewife. In ’66, Friedan helped to found the National
Organization for Women (NOW) which adopted the activist tactics of the civil rights
organizations. Congress had already enacted two anti-discriminatory laws: the Equal Pay
Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of ’64. These measures prohibited discrimination
in employment and compensation on the basis of gender.
i. Campaign for the ERA: Feminists greatest victory was in 1972 when Congress
passed the ERA. It basically said “equality of rights under the law shall not be
denied or abridged by the US or any state on account of sex.” NOW then went
nationwide to get it ratified but failed. They did not achieve the 38 states
necessary to ratify. Why? Because radical feminists annoyed the shit out of
conservatives.
ii. Achievements: Women did achieve some success in employment and hiring
practices. Women began to move into professions previously dominated by
men: business, law, medicine, and politics. They still experienced the “glass
ceiling,” but it was less of a man’s world than the US at the beginning of the
century.
F. The Vietnam War to 1969: This was the single most divisive issue of the 1960s and perhaps
ranked number 2 behind the Civil War in US history. 2.7 million Americans served, 58,000 died
there. The purpose of the war was to stop South Vietnam from going communist, but in
retrospect we might have picked a better place to pick the battle.
a. Early stages: In the debates of ’60, the two candidates hardly mentioned it. Within the
decade, it would become the biggest issue in the country.
i. Buildup under Kennedy: JFK took up Ike’s “Domino Theory” idea and
continued the military aid to S. Vietnam and significantly increased the
number of US military “advisers”. By ’63, there were 16,000 US troops in S.
Vietnam, but only as support. They were to help with training and supplies and
help create “strategic hamlets”, or fortified villages, for the Vietnamese.
1. Diem’s Unpopular Government: Peasants in the country hated him
and Buddhist monks were setting themselves on fire in protest of his
policies. JFK wondered privately if the South Vietnamese could win
“their war” against communism. Diem was overthrown and
assassinated by S. Vietnamese generals just two weeks before JFK was
killed. JFK knew of the coup.
ii. Tonkin Gulf Incident and Resolution: South Vietnam had seven different
governments in 1964 alone. Goldwater, during the ’64 campaign, attacked LBJ
for giving weak support to South Vietnam’s fight against the Viet Cong. This
policy would change in August of ’64.
1. The Resolution: North Vietnamese gunboats had allegedly fired on US
forces in the Gulf of Tonkin. LBJ convinced Congress that this was
reason enough to get the US military involved. Congress approved the
resolution, which basically said the president, as commander in chief,
had a blank check to take “all necessary measures” to protect US
interests in Vietnam. How much of this was a campaign move to prove
LBJ was tough on communism?
a. First attack: USS Maddox, a destroyer, was attacked by several
North Vietnamese gunboats in “international waters” off the
coast of North Vietnam. We claimed international waters to
be three miles offshore, they claimed as much as 12 miles. We
deliberately tried to draw them out to attack us, as this was an
election year and LBJ needed to prove he was not “soft on
communism.” At 11 a.m., August 2, 1964, the Maddox
picked up a NVA transmission instructing its gunboats to
attack. Suddenly, the Maddox tracked 5 gunboats
approaching. Herrick’s guns sank 1 of the gunboats and
crippled two others. Airplanes from the USS Ticonderoga
soon arrived and strafed the gunboats. One gunboat did
manage to fire a torpedo, but it was a dud.
i. US reaction?: LBJ did not want to do anything with
the election so near. He did not want to look prowar, so he downplayed this incident but used the
hotline to Moscow to tell Khrushchev that he hoped
there would be no more molestation of US ships in
international waters. However, we sent more war
planes to Vietnam and LBJ personally instructed the
Maddox and the C. Turner Joy back into the gulf
and attack anything that attacks them.
b. Second “Attack”: The attack that precipitated this resolution
never actually took place. At 8 p.m. on August 3, 1964, John
Herrick’s sonar man claimed to be tracking several enemy
gunboats and then eventually torpedoes, but it was a dark and
stormy night, and the “torpedoes” were probably false echoes,
shadows, fish, waves, etc. Nine planes were called in to help
the Maddox locate the enemy during this attack, but the
planes could not find any gunboats. The guns of the Maddox
and the C. Turner Joy were both firing into the night hoping
to hit something, but later searches found no oil streaks.
i. US Reaction?: However, the captain of the Maddox,
John Herrick (a WWII and Korea veteran) contacted
b.
his supervisors who eventually told the president that
our ship was under attack in the Gulf. The next day,
Herrick contacted his admiral and told him the
whole thing was probably the result of an
“overeager” sonar man. Regardless, LBJ uses this
“incident” to prove that he is tough on communism
and to show that he can stand up to communists just
like Barry Goldwater claimed to be able to do. WE
bombed several military targets in North Vietnam
and LBJ went on national television and announced
that our ships and been attacked and that these
attacks were unprovoked. In reality, our ships had
been used as pawns to draw the Vietnamese out, but
we had also been helping defend South Vietnamese
naval raids as well. Clearly, we were not innocent in
the affair. LBJ then asked Congress for the authority
to do whatever was necessary to defend our interests
in Vietnam. Congress granted approval in less than
one hour (only two senators, Wayne Morse of
Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska voted against
the Resolution.) A din of patriotism was running
through the country and the Senate was swept up in
it, sort of like the situation with W in Iraq. Later,
Johnson said the Resolution was “like grandma’s
nightshirt…it covered everything.”
2. Critics: The full scale use of force was illegal, critics said, because
Congress never authorized the use of forces, as required by the
Constitution. Congress, however, did not have this concern and did
not withdraw the resolution. (But it did pass the War Powers Act in
1973 to make sure this never happened again. Yeah, that worked real
well.) Until 1968, most Americans supported our involvement in the
war. Here is LBJ’s dilemma: How could he stop the defeat of a weak
and unpopular government in S. Vietnam without making it into an
American war-a war whose cost could doom his Great Society
programs? If he pulled out, he would be seen as weak.
Escalating the War: In ’65, the military and most of LBJ’s foreign policy advisers
recommended expanding operations in Vietnam. After the Vietcong attacked Pleiku in
’65, LBJ authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, a prolonged air attack on North
Vietnam.
i. (The North Vietnamese probably attacked Pleiku at that time because Soviet
Prime Minister Kosygin was in Hanoi visiting and basically telling them that if
they wanted unconditional support from the Soviets, then they would have to
divorce themselves from any Chinese assistance. To get around that, the
Vietnamese authorized the Vietcong to attack an American base which would
bring about the expected US response, a bombing attack in North Vietnam.
The Pleiku attack precipitated an extended American bombing raid on North
Vietnam which forced Kosygin to live up to the Soviet policy of stopping the
aggression of capitalists, thereby Kosygin left Hanoi promising unconditional
support from the Soviet Union while Hanoi still had a relationship with China.
A brilliant political maneuver by Ho Chi Minh.)
ii. In April, we used US troops for the first time against the Vietcong. By the end
of ’65, there were over 184,000 US troops in Vietnam. From there, we
disembarked on a journey of escalation. US generals wanted to win a war of
attrition by using search and destroy tactics, which further alienated the
peasants we were trying to protect. By the end of ’67, there were 485,000 troops
in country (the peak was 540,000 in 1969) and 16,000 Americans had already
died. William Westmoreland declared that we “could see the light at the end of
the tunnel.”
c. Controversy: Military misinformation and LBJ’s reluctance to tell the truth about what
was really going on created what the press dubbed a “credibility gap.” Johnson assumed
that applying just the right amount of military pressure upon the North Vietnamese
would force them to the peace table. McNamara would later write that the US failed to
understand the enemy or the nature of the war. Maybe we should consider teaching
world history, not just world history that looks like European history.
i. Hawks vs. Doves: The “Hawks” were supporters of the war and saw the war as a
Soviet-backed effort to spread communism throughout Southeast Asia.
Opponents of the war, the “Doves,” saw the war as a Vietnamese civil war
fought by Nationalists and Communists who wanted to get rid of the
nationalists and unite their country.
ii. American Opinions: Many Americans believed that the millions we were
spending on the war would be better off spent at home. The greatest opposition
to the war came from college campuses where graduates faced the draft and a
free trip to Vietnam. In 1967, Eugene McCarthy became the face of the antiwar movement when he challenged LBJ for the democratic nomination in ’68.
iii. Tet Offensive: The North Vietnamese and Vietcong launched a huge offensive
on their lunar new year in 1968. They attacked almost every provincial capital
and US military base in S. Vietnam. The US swiftly counterattacked and won
back all lost territory and inflicted much heavier damage on the Vietcong, but
the psychological damage was done. Tet demoralized the American psyche and
proved fatal to LBJ. Why? Because the “light at the end of the tunnel” was just
a big ass truck driven by Ho Chi Minh. In the New Hampshire primary in
February ’68, Eugene McCarthy took 42% of the vote.
iv. “I will not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party…” The Joint
Chiefs requested 200,000 more troops after Tet, but by this time Johnson’s
advisers recommended no further escalation. On March 31, LBJ went on
television and told the public that he would limit the bombing of North
Vietnam and negotiate a peace. He then shocked the nation in announcing he
would not seek re-election. Peace talks started in Paris in May, 1968. They
deadlocked over minor issues, but the fighting and dying continued. However,
the escalation had stopped and we began to turn the other way.
G. Coming apart at Home: 1968: 1968 was one of the worst years in US history. Starting with Tet,
then the LBJ announcement, the assassination of Dr. King, RFK, the Democratic National
Convention, and riots throughout the country. By the end of the year, people were wondering if
the US was coming apart at the seams over the war, the race issue, and the generation gap
between the baby boomers and their parents.
a. RFK Assassination: RFK became a senator from New York after he left the office of
attorney general in ’64. After McCarthy’s success in New Hampshire in ’68, Bobby
decided to get into the race. Without McCarthy’s success, he may not have done it. He
had been saying for months that he was not going to run. When he announced, Nixon
shat himself. It was Bobby who pleaded with blacks on the night of Dr. King’s
assassination not to riot…a plea that fell on deaf ears. Bobby was more successful than
McCarthy at mobilizing the traditional Democratic blue-collar and minority vote. On
June 5 he won the California primary and was perhaps on his way to the White House.
After his victory speech he was shot by a young Arab nationalist (Sirhan Sirhan) who
opposed Kennedy’s support of Israel. The dip shit actually said, “It took Bobby Kennedy
a lifetime to become famous…it took me one night.”
b.
The Election of 1968: After RFK’s death, the race came down to three candidates: Two
conservatives (George Wallace and Richard Nixon) and a liberal, Vice President Hubert
Humphrey.
i. Democratic Convention at Chicago: Humphrey had enough delegates to win
the nomination. He had been a strong supporter of LBJ’s foreign and domestic
policies and he controlled the convention. However, anti-war demonstrators
were determined to control the streets. Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago, called
out the police and as the demonstrators made their way from the city park
toward the convention, they were attacked on national television. The “police
riot” that ensued left Humphrey and the Democrats looking like they had lost
all control. The Democratic Party was divided and the American public was
growing fed up with disorder and protest.
ii. White backlash and George Wallace: Growing white hostility to busing and
federal desegregation, antiwar protests, and race riots led to the growing success
of George Wallace. He called the Washington establishment “pointy head
liberals” and ran as a self-nominated candidate of the American Independent
Party. He basically tapped into the growing American hatred of the government
telling them what they were going to do. Wallace’s goal was to get enough
electoral votes to force the election into the House.
iii. The Return of Richard Nixon: After Nixon lost the election for California’s
governor in ’62, most political thinkers thought his career was over. In 1968, as
the nation was falling apart, he returned with a more positive attitude and
more confidence. He was soon the front-runner in the Republican primaries.
Party regulars loved him and he soon won the nomination. He selected
Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate whose rhetoric was
similar to George Wallace. Nixon was a “hawk” and promised “peace with
honor” and “law and order” for the American people.
iv. Results: Wallace and Nixon started strong, but Humphrey began to catch up in
Northern urban centers. The popular vote was very close, but the electoral vote
went to Nixon 301-191, which meant Wallace’s hopes for a three-candidate runff was out.
1. Significance: Nixon and Wallace combined for 57% of the popular
vote. Americans had spoken and wanted to more tumult from the
sixties. The counterculture, drugs, protests, violence, and upheaval
were out and conservatism was in. Future elections would prove that
New Deal liberalism was falling out of favor. Forever.
H. Oh, and by the way, we landed on the moon in the summer of 1969.
Term List, the 1960s:
John Kennedy
Jackie Kennedy
New Frontier
Peace Corps
Alliance for Progress
Trade Expansion Act
Bay of Pigs
Berlin Wall
Cuban Missile Crisis
Flexible response
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Warren Commission
Lyndon Johnson
Great Society
War on Poverty
Michael Harrington, The Other America
Barry Goldwater
Medicare; Medicaid
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Lady Bird Johnson
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
24th Amendment
Voting Rights Act of ‘65
James Meredith
Martin Luther King, Jr.
March on Washington
“I Have a Dream”
Black Muslims
Malcolm X
SNCC
CORE
Stokely Carmichael
Black Panthers
Watts Riots
Kerner Commission
Warren Court
Brown v. Board
Gideon v. Wainwright
Escobedo v. Illinois
Miranda v. Arizona
Reapportionment
Baker v. Carr
“One man, one vote”
Yates v. U.S.
Separation of church and state
Engel v. Vitale
Students for a Democratic Society
New Left
Counterculture
Sexual revolution
Women’s movement
Betty Friedan, The Feminist Mystique
NOW
Equal Pay Act
ERA
Vietnam War
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Tet Offensive
Hawks and doves
Eugene McCarthy
Robert Kennedy
George Wallace
Hubert Humphrey
Part 29: Limits of a Superpower, 1969-1980
The lunar landing in the summer of 1969 was one of the few US highlights in the late 60s. Offsetting this
news was Watergate, the fall of S. Vietnam and a stagnant economy. Foreign economic competition, oil
shortages, rising unemployment, and high inflation taught us that being a superpower is a tough job.
A. Nixon’s Foreign Policy: Nixon promised to being Americans together after the crazy 60s, but
Nixon’s old insecurities, suspicions, and his secretive nature led him to form what Arthur
Schlesinger called “an imperial presidency.” He was always more interested in foreign policy than
domestic, and he and NSA Henry Kissinger devised a foreign policy that reduced tensions in the
Cold War.
a. Vietnam: Over 500,000 men were in Vietnam when Nixon took office and his principal
goal was to find a way to bring them home but all the while avoid the appearance of
conceding defeat. His name for this was “peace with honor.”
i. Vietnamization: The gradual process of replacing American fighting men with
South Vietnamese fighting men. As we pulled out, they were to fight their own
war. We gave them the money, weapons, and training they would need. US
troops numbered 540,000 in ’69 to less than 30,000 in ’72. He also announced
the Nixon doctrine, which said that in the future Asian allies would receive US
support, just not US troops.
ii. Opposition to Nixon’s war policies: His policy at first reduced the number of
antiwar protests. However, in April 1970, Nixon decided to invade Cambodia,
where many Vietcong were hiding. The nation’s college campuses went into
violent protest, with the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State. At Kent
State, 4 students were killed and one was left crippled for life while 2 black
students were killed at Jackson St. Kent St. was started by students burning the
campus ROTC building and it escalated from there. In a Newsweek poll, 58%
of the country said they supported the shooters, while 11% supported the
students.
1. My Lai: It happened in 1968 but we did not find out about it until
1970. The Army had massacred women and children in the small
village of My Lai.
2. The Pentagon Papers: Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg
“leaked” news of a secret government history documenting the
mistakes and deceptions of government policy-makers in dealing with
Vietnam. This continued the downward spiral of the popularity of the
war.
iii. Peace Talks, bombing attacks, and armistice: Nixon had Kissinger conduct
secret meetings with North Vietnam’s foreign minister, Le Duc Tho. Kissinger
announced in the fall of ’72 that “peace is at hand.” Hold on, wait a minute.
The North Vietnamese refused to compromise so Nixon ordered massive
bombings of North Vietnam, which turned out to be the heaviest air attacks of
the war. After several weeks of attacks, North Vietnam agreed to an armistice in
which the US would withdraw the last of its troops and get back over 500
POW’s. The Paris Peace Accords also promised a cease-fire and free elections.
The one thing the armistice did not do was end the war between the North and
South and left tens of thousands of enemy troops in S. Vietnam.
iv. The armistice allowed the US to extricate itself from the war, but the $118
billion spent on the war began the inflationary cycle that racked the US
economy for years.
b. Détente with the Soviets and China: China and the Soviet Union had become rivals and
unfriendly by 1972. Kissinger’s diplomacy was credited for bringing about détente, a
deliberate reduction of Cold War tensions. Nixon’s grade as US president should never
overlook these important foreign policy decisions.
i. “Only Nixon could go to China”: Nixon shocked the world in February 1972
when he traveled to Beijing to meet with Mao. These visits led to US
recognition of Red China and a permanent seat on the Security Council, as well
as trade between the US and mainland China (Most Favored Nation Status,
thanks Goerge.)
ii. Arms Control with the USSR: Nixon used his relationship with China to put
pressure on the Soviets to agree to a treaty limiting antiballistic missiles
(ABM’s), a new technology that would have expanded the arms race. This was
the first round of the SALT talks, in which US diplomats secured Soviet
approval of the number of ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. It did
not end the arms race, but it did move the world toward détente.
B. Nixon’s Domestic Policy: Congress was still majority Democrat and would be throughout the 70s,
which meant that Nixon had to do a lot of manipulating and compromising to get what he
wanted. Nixon did lay the foundation that would lead to the conservative movement in the 80s
and 90s.
a. The New Federalism: Nixon wanted to stop the growth of the Great Society, so he
proposed the Family Assistance Plan, which would reform the welfare system. The
Democrats defeated it. Nixon did manage to shift some of the responsibility for social
programs from the federal to the state and local levels. With the New Federalism (or
Revenue Sharing), Congress approved giving local governments $30 million block grants
over 5 years to address local needs as they saw fit (instead of being earmarked by
Congress.) Republicans hoped this would reduce the size and spending of the federal
government and turn things over to the states, where it had lived before the New Deal.
i. Nixon did attempt to bypass Congress by impounding (not spending) funds
appropriated for social programs. Basically, he was trying to go around
Congress and everyone called him out.
b. Nixon’s Economic Policies: We had the strange combination of economic slowdown and
high inflation. The press referred to it as stagflation. Nixon first tried to cut federal
spending which contributed to recession and unemployment, so he adopted Keynesian
deficit spending in order to not alienate the middle class and blue collar voters. In
August of 71, he froze wages and prices for 90 days. He took the dollar off the gold
standard, which helped to devalue it to foreign currencies. He also applied a 10% tax on
imports which helped improve the US trade balance.
i. By the election of ’72, the recession was over. Congress also authorized an
increase in social security benefits, based on the annual rise in the cost of living.
c. Southern Strategy: Nixon had only won 43% of the popular vote in ’68. Nixon
announced that there was a “silent majority” of Americans who were sick of the protests,
the desegregation, the black militants, and the excesses of the counterculture. Many of
these “majority” were southern Democrats and former liberals who were dismayed by
the further liberalization of the Democratic Party. To win the South, Nixon asked the
federal courts to delay integration in the South. He also nominated two southern
conservatives (Clement Haynsworth and G. Harold Carswell) to the SC. The Senate
rejected both of them and the courts rejected his requests for delayed integration. But
his strategy played well in the South. Meanwhile, VP Spiro Agnew began making verbal
assaults on the war protestors and the liberal press.
d. The Burger Court: 4 liberal justices from the Warren Court stepped down during
Nixon’s presidency, allowing Nixon to appoint new, Conservative justices. IN ’69 he
appointed Warren Burger of Minnesota. He then appointed Harry Blackmun, after two
other more conservative picks were shot down by Congress, (Blackmun wrote the proabortion ruling in Row v. Wade), William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell were later
confirmed as well. In the end, the Court that he put together ended up denying his
claim of executive privilege in the case of United States v. Nixon, 19745.
e. The Election of 1972: Nixon’s southern strategy proved successful as he won majorities
in every southern state (what happened to the old “solid South?”) His re-election was
reassured due to his foreign policy success in China and the Soviet Union; the removal
of George Wallace from the race by an assassin’s bullet, a bullet that paralyzed him for
life; and the Democratic nomination of a liberal antiwar, antiestablishment candidate,
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. (According to Woodward and Bernstein,
he was the candidate the Nixon people had wanted. Remember, Nixon’s Watergate
activity was based on the fact that he thought Ted Kennedy might try and pull a
“Bobby” late in the campaign.)
i. The Election: McGovern dropped his VP candidate, Senator Thomas Eagleton
of Missouri, after it was discovered that the Senator had undergone
electroshock therapy for depression years before. Nixon won every state but
Massachusetts and took 60.8% of the popular vote. The Democrats kept control
of Congress, but the results showed a major realignment of the Sunbelt and
suburban voters, who were forming a conservative Republican majority. This is
why Watergate was all that more surprising.
C. Watergate: This was much worse than just “Tricky Dick” and his 26 henchmen who served jail
time. It was the massive failure of the American political system at a time when we needed
leadership, coming off the debacle of Vietnam.
a. White House Abuses: In June ’72, a group of men hired by CREEP were caught
breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate office complex on
the Potomac. They were attempting to bug the National Chairman, Larry O’Brien, but
this was just one of several of the “dirty tricks” Nixon’s “plumbers” were attempting.
Nixon’s insecurities are what did him in. He was so convinced that Ted Kennedy was
going to enter the race, that he let the Kennedy mystique kill his political career.
i. Nixon was angry that someone in his administration had leaked the secret
bombings into Cambodia (which means he had no intention of telling the
public) and he decided that the best way to find the leak was to use federal
agencies to bug Americans. The “plumbers” were assigned to plug these leaks,
so to speak.
ii. They were also to discredit opponents, which they did well. They had
burglarized the office of Daniel “Pentagon Papers” Ellsberg in order to find
discrediting information about him. They had also broken into his
psychiatrist’s office to find his medical and psychiatric history. Nixon had also
created an “enemies list” of prominent Americans who had opposed Nixon, the
war, or both. The government, including the IRS, investigated these people for
basically practicing their first amendment rights.
iii. Watergate was a reflection of Nixon’s belief that he could use any means
necessary to promote the national security, but it usually meant protecting
Nixon from critics. (John Adams, line one please.)
b. Watergate Investigation: There was no proof that Nixon had personally ordered or had
known in advance of specific plumbers’ activity. However, after months of investigation
(and thanks to Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post) it became clear that
Nixon was heavily involved in a cover-up of the facts. The Watergate burglars were
treated harshly, sentence wise, by federal judge John Sirica, leading to information
coming out that the White House had promised pardons to all burglars who kept quiet.
Democrat Sam Ervin of North Carolina led a Senate committee’s investigation, which
brought all of the abuses to public light as they were nationally televised.
i. John Dean’s testimony: This was one of the highlights of the Watergate
hearings, as Nixon’s former White House lawyer linked the president to the
cover-up. Nixon’s top aides, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman and John Ehrlichman,
c.
d.
resigned to protect him, were later indicted, and served jail time for obstructing
justice.
ii. The Tapes: During the hearings one of Nixon’s aides mistakenly divulged that
Nixon had installed a taping system in the White House. The committee
immediately subpoenaed the tapes, with Nixon claiming executive privilege. He
said giving up the tapes would be a threat to national security.
1. Spiro Agnew: While this was going on in ’73, Agnew was forced to
resign as VP for having taken bribes while governor of Maryland.
Other 1973 Developments: Watergate absorbed a lot of Nixon’s energy, but there were
other happenings.
i. War Powers Act: Nixon was further discredited when the public found out
about 3,500 bombing missions into neutral Cambodia. Congress used the
public uproar to limit the powers of the president, passing the War Powers Act
in November 1973 over Nixon’s veto.
1. War Powers Act: Required any future president to report to Congress
within 48 hours after taking military action. Congress would also have
to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days. (So give
them a bunch of false information about weapons of mass destruction
and they’ll buy it.)
ii. October war and oil embargo: On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a
surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur. They were trying to regain lands lost
during the Six Day War of ’67. Nixon ordered nuclear forces on alert and
airlifted over $2 billion in arms to Israel to stem their retreat. The tide quickly
turned and Israel won the war.
1. Results of US action: OPEC placed an embargo on oil on all countries
who aided Israel, causing a worldwide oil shortage and long lines at
American f=gas stations. The impact on the US economy was even
worse, as featured runaway inflation, the loss of manufacturing jobs,
and a lower standard of living for blue collar workers. Consumers
began buying Japanese gas conscious cars instead of American guzzlers,
which cost the auto industry over 250,000 jobs. Congress enacted the
55 mile per hour limit and approved an oil pipeline from Alaska to tap
American oil reserves. Nothing the government did seemed to work
and the economy struggled for the rest of the decade.
Nixon Resigns: In ’74, Nixon made celebrated trips to Cairo and Moscow, cooling off
the heated relations there. But he could not shake the Watergate investigation. In
October, ’73, he had fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor whose job was to
investigate him. This was known as the “Saturday Night Massacre” in which he fired
attorney general Elliot Richardson and assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus
because they would not fire Cox. Finally, Robert Bork (Solicitor General) fired him. All
of this stemmed from Nixon’s refusal to turn the tapes over to Cox. This was clearly
obstruction of justice.
i. Nixon defended his actions in a famous press conference on November 17,
1973, in which he said, "...in all of my years of public life, I have never
obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I should say that in my years of public
life that [sic] I've welcomed this kind of examination, because people have got to
know whether or not their President's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook!"
ii. Impeachment Hearings: Began in the House in April of ’74. They wanted
transcripts of the tapes, Nixon allowed an old senile Senator to listen to them
and transcribe them. The Supreme Court in July finally forced him to turn
over the tapes to Congress. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee voted
three articles of impeachment; the charges were obstruction of justice, abuse of
power, and contempt of Congress.
iii. The tapes: revealed some shocking information to friends and foes. They
revealed Nixon’s involvement in the cover-up just days after the break-in. He
was a dead man walking, so on August 9, 1974, he resigned and his appointed
VP Gerald Ford took over, becoming the first unelected Prez and VP in US
history.
iv. Significance: To some, it proved that our political system of checks and balances
worked. To others, it marked the dangers of the rising power of the president
which had begun way back with FDR. In the end, Watergate precipitated a
major cynicism Americans would feel about the government for years to come.
D. Gerald Ford in the White House: He had been a Congressman from Michigan (Ford Motor
Company, anyone?) and served on the Warren Commission and was Republican minority leader
in the House. The media instantly questioned his credibility to be president, especially when he
pardoned Dick.
a. Pardoning of Nixon: Ford granted Nixon a full and unconditional pardon, basically
saying that we had to move out of the past and into the future. Many Americans wanted
a trial and were very angry, calling it a “corrupt bargain.” Others were angry that Nixon
stayed high and dry and many of his aides (26, to be exact) served time. We also wanted
the truth, which never really came out fully. Nixon denied a lot of his activity until the
day he died.
b. Investigating the CIA: The Democratic Congress lost Nixon, so they went after abuses in
other high places, especially the CIA, who they accused of engineering assassinations,
including the Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Ford appointed former
Texas businessman George Bush to reform the CIA.
c. Failure of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia: Ford was unable to get extra funds to aid the
South Vietnamese in ’74 as they were being overrun by the NVA.
i. Fall of Saigon: April ’75, the US supported government in Saigon fell to the
North. Vietnam then became one country, under the rule of the government in
Hanoi. The US evacuated over 150,000 Vietnamese who had supported us or
the SVA and would face execution had we left them behind. The fall of South
Vietnam marked a low point in American prestige at home and around the
world.
d. Genocide in Cambodia: In 1975, the US supported government in Cambodia fell to the
communist Khmer Rouge. The Rouge conducted genocide on over 1 million of its own
people. When the Mayaguez, a US merchant ship, was captured by the Cambodians,
Ford ordered an attack on a Cambodian naval base to free the 39 hostages. 38 marines
were killed in the Mayaguez Incident. Why didn’t we practice containment in
Cambodia? See Nixon Doctrine.
e. Future of Southeast Asia: Although the fall of Cambodia looked like the Domino theory
was playing out, in reality no other Southeast Asian nation went communist. Some say
that America’s defense of South Vietnam bought time for the “little tigers” of Southeast
Asia (Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia) to develop and better resist communism.
f. The Economy and Domestic Policy: He was more conservative than Nixon, but did try
to defeat inflation by having Americans wear WIN buttons (Whip Inflation Now.)
Amazingly, they didn’t work. Unemployment rose to 9% and inflation rose as well. Ford
finally agreed to a democratic stimulus package, but he also vetoed 39 other Democratic
bills.
i. The Bicentennial Celebration: Our pride in our history helped us to put
Watergate behind us, but the future was uncertain. Had we hit our high-water
mark? Have we?
g. The Election of 1976: With the shadow of Watergate looming, Ford barely beat out
Ronal Reagan for the nomination for the Republicans. However, his battles with Reagan
hurt his candidacy.
i. Jimmy Carter emerges: Several Democrats vied for the nomination, but it was
little-known DC outsider and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter who wins it.
Open primaries helped him to defeat other, more experienced candidates. He
held a big lead in August, watched that lead shrink into November, and won a
very close election (287-241). Carter carried the South and the AfricanAmerican vote. The Democrats also claimed victories in the House and Senate.
E. Jimmy Carter’s Presidency: He tried his best to get rid of the “imperial presidency” image that
Nixon had built. He walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on inauguration day (whereas Nixon had
ridden in a bulletproof limousine that has verbally attacked by hippies. DC insiders hated him
because he depended too often on his Georgia friends for advice. His intelligence and compassion
probably hurt his ability to see the bigger picture. He was clearly made to be an ambassador, not a
president. (Damn you, Richard Nixon!)
a. Foreign Policy: He preached human rights to anyone who would listen, including world
leaders.
i. Human Rights Diplomacy: African American Andrew Young was appointed
US ambassador to the UN. He denounced the oppression in South Africa and
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Carter cut off US aid to Argentina and Chile due to
violations of human rights.
ii. Panama Canal: Carter negotiated a new treaty with Panama in which all
control of the canal would be turned over to Panama by 2000. Voters
remembered “Carter’s give away” in the ’80 election.
iii. Camp David Accords: (1978) Carter’s single greatest achievement was bringing
Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel together at Camp David
in ’78. They negotiated the Accords in September, providing a framework for a
peace settlement between the two countries. Egypt would later become the first
Arab nation to recognize Israel. In return, Israel withdrew its troops from the
Sinai territory taken from Egypt during the Six Day War in ’67. The PLO
opposed the treaty, as did most of the Arab world, but it was a first step. (A
great first step for Sadat, who was eventually assassinated while observing a
parade of his own Egyptian army.)
iv. Iran and the Hostage Crisis: The Middle East was the scene of Carter’s greatest
victory (see above, pinhead) but also the scene of his biggest debacle. Since the
50s America had been in bed with the Shah of Iran. His brutal regime had
murdered Iranian civilians, and his westernization of Iran had alienated many
Iranian citizens. He had also supplied the “Great Satan” with oil over the years,
which prompted anti-shah rallies among Iranian students by the late 70s.
1. In 1979, Islamic fundamentalists, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini
overthrew the shah and forced him to leave Iran. Iranian oil
production then ground to a halt, causing the second worldwide oil
shortage and an increase in gas prices. In November of ’79 a group of
radical Iranian students seized the US embassy and took 50 members
of the American staff hostage. Why? Because we had offered asylum to
the shah, who the Iranians wanted to put on trial and execute. The
shah was dying of cancer and would eventually die in 1980. The US,
and Carter, looked impotent.
2. The Hostage crisis dragged on through the rest of Carter’s presidency,
it was his Watergate (minus the scandal, corruption, and taped
conversations.) In April 1980, Carter authorized a rescue mission, but
the helicopters collided in the desert, killing Marines and making the
US look weak. The bodies were televised on Iranian air along with flag
burning and the usual planned anti-Americanism. For many
Americans, this was why Carter made a bad president. He didn’t have
the heart to be aggressive. Eventually, the hostages were freed on the
day of Reagan’s inauguration as part of an agreement between the
Reagan administration and former CIA Director and VP Goerge Bush
and the Iranian fundamentalists. This information came out later in
the Iran-Contra Hearings.
v. Cold War: In 1979, Carter ended the official recognition of Taiwan as China
and allowed China to be China. We exchanged ambassadors with China and
immediately had trouble when two of our ambassadors got busted trying to
steal trinkets from street corner vendors. Not to worry, the U.S. honor code
took care of it.
1. Carter and Détente: Carter also attempted to keep détente with the
Soviets going, completing the SALT II treaty in ’79 (which provided
for limiting the size of each superpower’s nuclear delivery system. The
Senate never ratified the treaty because the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan in ’79.
2. Afghanistan: Dec. ’79, the Soviets invade Afghanistan. Why? History
has shown that the US funneled a lot of money to the anti-Soviet
Taliban regime, in order to get the Soviets to invade and have their
own Vietnam. Some say we wanted the Soviets to invade, others say
the invasion was completely unprovoked. The feeling in Carter’s
government, and later Reagan’s as well, was “what’s more immediate
to the US, the collapse of the Soviet Union or some radical Muslims in
Afghanistan?”
a. Carter publicly stated that the Soviets might be making a
move toward the middle Eastern oil, so he placed a grain
embargo on the Soviet Union (which had dreadful effects on
American farmers) and he boycotted the summer Olympics in
Moscow in 1980, which was great news to those athletes who
had trained their entire lives for a shot at the Olympics. But
not to worry, the Soviets and the entire eastern bloc boycotted
the ’84 summer games in Los Angeles, which led to me and
my waterslide buddies getting lots of free Big Macs. (You have
to ask.)
b. Results: Instead of seeking arms reduction, our philosophy
changes to arms buildup, which sounded horrifying at the
time, but leads eventually to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
3. Domestic Policy: Dealing with inflation: The biggest issue at home was
inflation. Carter first tried to check inflation with measures aimed at
conserving oil energy and reviving the US coal industry. (Coal cars?) It
did not work, and by 1980 inflation was a record 13%.
a. Troubled economy: Inflation slowed economic growth
because businesses could not afford the high interest rates
that came with high prices. Fed Chairman Paul Volcker tried
to kill inflation by raising the interest rate to 20% in 1980.
This killed the auto industry and construction industry,
which lay off thousands of workers. Inflation pushed middleclass taxpayers into higher tax brackets, which led to a
“taxpayer’s revolt”. The federal deficit grew to $60 billion in
1980. For the first time since WWII, our standard of living
was on the decline.
4. Loss of Popularity: In 1979, Carter gave the famous “national malaise”
speech, in which he told the American public that our problems were
based upon a “moral and spiritual crisis.” Most Americans, however,
blamed his weak leadership and indecisiveness. His approval rating
approaching 1980’s election was a whopping 23%.
F. American Society in Transition: By 1980, over half of all Americans lived in the South and West,
the two fastest growing areas of the country. Also, the population was aging; the fastest growing
age group was seniors over 65. By 1990, minority groups made up 25% of the population and the
Census Bureau predicted that by 2050 50% of America’s population may be Hispanic, AfricanAmerican, or Asian. Cultural pluralism replaced the melting pot ideal, as ethnic groups strove
not only to fit in and overcome discrimination, but to hang on to their customs as well.
a. Growth of Immigration: Prior to the 60s, most immigrants to the US came from
Canada and Europe. By the 80s, 47% came from Latin America, 37% from Asia, and less
than 13% from Canada and Europe. Why? Refugees from Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia,
etc. The Immigration Act of 1965 made even bigger changes, which ended the Quota
Acts of the 20s and opened our doors to almost everyone.
i. Illegal Immigrants: In the mid-70s the government estimated that as many as 12
million foreigners were living here illegally. This led to the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986, which penalized employers for hiring illegal
immigrants from Latin American and Asian countries but also granted amnesty
to illegal immigrants arriving by 1982. It is estimated that at least one million
illegal immigrants enter the U.S. every year.
b. Demands for Minority Rights: They want discrimination relief and recognition of their
contributions to society.
i. Mexican Americans: They were encouraged to come to the US during the 40s
and 50s to work low-paying agricultural jobs (after being deported during the
Depression years.) They were heavily exploited until the work Cesar Chavez and
the United Farm Workers Organization in the 1970s came along. This
organization gained collective bargaining rights for farm workers in 1975.
Chicanos also won a federal mandate requiring certain schools to teach Spanish
as well as English. Henry Cisneros is a great example of successful Chicanos, he
was elected mayor of San Antonio in the 80s and was selected by Bill Clinton to
be the HUD Secretary in 1992.
ii. Natives in Revolt: In the Ike years, natives were encouraged to leave the
reservations and join us in urban America. Natives resisted this loss of identity.
As a result, natives formed the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968.
This was soon followed by militant action. AIM took over the abandoned
Alcatraz prison in 1969 (good idea, taking over a prison. That’ll get their
attention! A-Ha!) AIM members also occupied Wounded Knee, SD in 1973
protesting the treatment of natives in the same area where we saw the infamous
Massacre of natives in 1890.
1. Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975: Gave reservation and tribal
lands greater control over internal programs, education, and law
enforcement. Natives also used federal courts to successfully regain
property or compensation for treaty violations.
2. Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of ’78:
Attacked poverty and unemployment by improving education.
3. Casinos! Natives were allowed to build casinos on reservations due to
self-determination legislation in the late 80s and 90s.
4. Dances With Wolves: A fine film where you get to see Kevin Costner’s
bare ass. He won an Academy Award. Well, it is a nice ass.
iii. Asian Americans: Fastest growing minority in the 80s. Largest was Chinese,
followed by other countries that can ironically be found in Asia. Many of them
are very dedicated to education.
iv. Gay liberation movement: A police raid on a gay bar in Stonewall, New York in
1969 sparked a gay riot and the birth of the gay rights’ movement. By the mid
70s homosexuality was no longer classified as mental illness (there is still no
ruling on Rosie O’Donnell) and even the Civil Service dropped its ban on
employing homosexuals. And don’t forget Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy.
v. The Environment Movement: “Postmodern” Americans believed that
technological advances would no longer improve their quality of life. Massive
oil spills, like the Exxon Valdez in 1989, reinforced these fears. Then you have
three Mile Island, Pa (1979), Love Canal in New York (1978) and Chernobyl
(1986).
vi. Protective Legislation: 1970 saw the formation of the EPA, as well as the Clean
Air Act, followed in 1972 with the passage of the Clean Water Act. The
Superfund was created in 1980 to help clean up places like Love Canal in
Niagara Falls.
vii. Fragmentation: Protest movements and the growing diversity in America
seemed to fracture our society throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. A decline in
the standard of living and a slowing economy did not help. On top of that,
America was becoming more conservative at the end of the 70s, a trend that
would continue into the new millennium.
Terms: the 1970s
Richard Nixon
Henry Kissinger
Vietnamization
Nixon Doctrine
Kent State
Jackson State
My Lai
Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg
Paris Accords of ‘73
Détente
China visit
Soviet Union, SALT
New Federalism
Stagflation
Southern strategy
Warren Burger
George McGovern
Watergate
Articles of Impeachment
Woodward and Bernstein
John Dean
All the President’s Men
U.S. v. Nixon
War Powers Act (1973)
Middle East War (1973)
Six Day War (1967)
OPEC, oil embargo
Gerald Ford
Cambodia
Khmer Rouge
Bicentennial
Jimmy Carter
Human rights
Panama Canal Treaty (1978)
Camp David Accords (1978)
Anwar Sadat; Menachem Begin
Iran Hostage Crisis
The Shah (Reza Pahlavi)
Afghanistan invasion
Moscow 1980 boycott
Cultural pluralism
Immigration Act (1965)
Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)
Mexican Americans (Chicanos)
Cezar Chavez
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Indian Self-Determination Act (1975)
Asian Americans
Gay liberation movement
Environment movement
Three Mile Island
Love Canal
Chernobyl
EPA
Clean Air Act
Clean Water act
Environmental Superfund
Disco
Disco Sucks
Part 30: The Conservative Resurgence: 1980-Present
The AP Exam does not focus on this section, in fact, only a few multiple choice questions will come from
here and the College Board says that no DBQ or essay question will “deal exclusively with this period.”
However, one should understand the past two decades in order to understand the perspective of the
postwar years. Important developments in this period include the breakup of the Soviet Union and the
fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War. Old ethnic and religious conflicts
have emerged to threaten peace. Domestically, the conservative Reagan Revolution (including stronger
military, lower taxes, fewer social programs, and a new respect for traditional cultural values) helped the
Republicans gain control of government.
A. The Rise of Conservatism: The 70s witnessed a move to the right, away from the liberal sixties. In
the 80s, a combination of economic and political conservatives (the William F. Buckley types),
religious fundamentalists (Pat Robertson, etc.), and political action committees (NRA, etc.)
became a potent force for change. They opposed big government, New Deal liberalism, gun
control, feminism, gay rights, welfare, affirmative action, sexual permissiveness, abortion, and
drug use. All these things undermined family values, the work ethic, and national security.
a. Leading Issues: By the 80s various groups were pushing for lower taxes, improved
morals, and reducing affirmative action.
i. Taxpayers Revolt: In ’78, California voters led the revolt on high taxes by
passing Prop 13, which sharply cut property taxes. Conservative economist
Arthur Laffer taught that lowering taxes would promote economic growth. Jack
Kemp and William Roth, both Republican Senators, proposed cutting federal
taxes by 30%, which became the basis for the Reagan tax cuts.
ii. Moral Revival: Televangelism was huge in the 80s, until Swaggert and Bakker
got busted with hookers. Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert, and
Jim Bakker had viewers up around 100 million weekly. The Moral Majority, led
by Jerry Falwell, financed campaigns to unseat liberals. They attacked “secular
humanism” as a godless creed taking over public education and wanted prayer
in schools and creationism. The Roe v. Wade case in ’73 sparked the right to
life movement, and the argument of when human life actually begins was born.
(Wow, now that’s a pun.)
iii. “Reverse Discrimination”: In ’65 LBJ began the idea of affirmative action to
make up for years of unequal opportunities. In the ‘70s, many whites blamed
their economic condition on reverse discrimination, based on the governments’
affirmative action and quota policies. The SC ruled in their favor in the case of
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) by deciding that college
admissions could not be based on race alone.
b. Ronald Reagan and the Election of 1980: He had been a movie star, president of the
Screen actors’ Guild and a prominent California liberal. Then he went to the right and
became a spokesman for Barry Goldwater in the ’64 campaign. He was governor of
California in the sixties and early ‘70s. He almost won the party’s nomination in ’76. He
was handsome and well-liked and became the favorite spokesman for the conservative
movement.
i. Campaign for president, 1980: Teddy Kennedy challenged Carter in the
primaries, leaving Carter battered in the polls and the Democrats less than
excited about their nominee. Reagan attacked big government and loss of U.S.
prestige abroad. Reagan created the “misery index” which was the rate of
inflation added with the unemployment rate (28 in the summer of 1980) and
always asked the same question, “Are you better off now than you were four
years ago?” Reagan won 51% of the popular vote and over 90% of the electoral
vote. Carter took 41% of the popular vote, while Independent John Anderson
received 8%.
ii. Significance: Reagan took over 50% of the blue collar vote, breaking up the
New Deal coalition. The Republicans took control of the Senate for the first
time since 1954 and gained 33 seats in the House, which when combined with
conservative southern Democrats gave them a majority on most issues. The
election of 1980 marks the end of 50 years of Democratic dominance of
Congress.
B. The Reagan Revolution: The Iranians released the hostages on the day Reagan was inaugurated,
giving his administration the best start since FDR. Two months later, Reagan was shot by a
jackass. Publicly, Reagan’s people said he was fine, but privately he was almost killed and
required several weeks of rehab to get back to health. On his operating table, Reagan looked up at
the doctors who were about to operate on him and said, “Please tell me you’re Republicans.” The
guy had a great sense of humor and emerged even more popular. He pledged to lower taxes,
reduce government spending on welfare, build up the armed forces, and create a more
conservative federal court. He did them all, but at some cost.
a. Supply Side Economics (Reaganomics): Tax cuts would reduce government spending
and increase investment by the private sector, which would lead to increased production,
jobs, and prosperity. This twist on the old “trickle down” theory was in deep contrast
with Keynesian economics long favored by Democrats. Basically, under Reagan, we got
large tax cuts for the rich who were supposed to pass those savings on to the poor, but it
seemed like they would just invest those savings and make more money for themselves.
What was that snappy little line that Brit said about history repeating itself?
i. Federal Tax reduction: Congress quickly passed most of Reagan’s tax cuts,
including a 25% tax cut over the next 3 years. He cut corporate income tax,
inheritance taxes, and capital gains taxes. The top income tax rate was 28%
under Reagan. People could also invest up to $2,000 a year in IRA accounts
without being taxed on it. It was the age of greed.
ii. Spending cuts: With the help of conservative southern Democrats (“Boll
Weevils”), the Republicans cut over $40 billion in domestic programs,
including food stamps, student loans, and mass transportation. But anything
we saved was offset by outrageous spending on the military (because, in the end,
it’s better to kill people than to feed and educate them.)
b. Labor Unions: Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981 and decertified their
union for violation of contract. Many businesses followed this lead and simply hired
replacement workers when regulars went on strike, knowing the government would
back them. Union membership declined in the 80s due to the above action and a loss in
manufacturing jobs overseas.
c. Recession and Recovery: In 1982, we had our worst recession since the ‘30s. Banks were
failing and unemployment was at 11%. Inflation, on the other hand, was reduced to 4%,
due in part to a fall in oil prices. As Reaganomics took hold, a long period of recovery
began in 1983. This recovery widened the gap between the rich and poor. “Yuppies”
were born, and they enjoyed high wages and a deregulated stock market. Meanwhile, the
standard of living declined for the middle class throughout the 80s and early 90s. By the
mid ‘90s, the middle class had regained some of its losses.
d. Social Issues: Reagan appointed the first woman to the SC, Sandra Day O’Connor, a
conservative. Later, he appointed Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy who were led
by a new Chief Justice, William Rehnquist. The court trimmed back Roe v. Wade by
imposing certain restrictions on abortions and forcing minors to notify their parents.
e. Election of ’84: Reagan’s sales pitch was restored prosperity and pride, along with a great
“It’s morning in America” campaign. He was nominated by acclamation at the
convention. Jesse Jackson became the first black American to make a strong run at the
presidency, uniting all minority groups under the banner of the Rainbow Coalition.
However, the Democrats nominated Walter “Fritz” Mondale, Carter’s VP and
Minnesota’s golden child. Congresswoman Geraldine “My son has a very serious drug
problem” Ferraro was the VP, the first such woman in US history. Reagan won every
state not named Minnesota and 2/3 of white males voted for Reagan. The only groups
that still supported the Democrats were blacks and poor white people. Nice.
f. Budget and Trade Deficits: Imagine this: By the mid ‘80s, Reagan’s tax cuts combined
with massive military spending had lead to a federal budget deficit of over
$200,000,000,000 a year, (that’s $200 billion, to you and me.) During the Reagan era,
the national debt tripled from $900 billion to almost $2.7 trillion (2,700,000,000,000!)
The tax cuts that were supposed to stimulate investment only increased consumption,
especially of foreign made luxury items and other crap that rich people buy. As a result,
the US trade deficit reached $150 billion a year (that’s more coming in than going out.)
The cumulative trade imbalance of $1 trillion in the 80s led to foreign ownership of US
real estate and industry. We became a debtor nation in 1985 for the first time since
WWI.
i. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act (1985): Provided for across the
board spending cuts in an attempt to keep the budget under control. Various
interference kept it from achieving its full purpose, but Congress was able to
reduce the deficit by $66 billion from ’86 to ’88.
g. Impact of Reaganomics: The rich got richer, the poor saw their government aid reduced,
we rang up a huge budget deficit, any chance of universal health coverage was way to
expensive considering our budgetary problems, and somewhere Charles Darwin smiled
and slept all through the night.
C. Foreign Policy during the Reagan Years: Reagan wanted to bring back American prestige and
intensify the competition in the Cold War. He called the Soviets the “evil empire” and was
prepared to use military force to back up his rhetoric.
a.
Renewing the Cold War: Big spending on defense and lots of money sent to support
anticommunists in Latin America were the hallmarks of Reagan’s first term.
i. Military buildup: The B-1 bomber, the MX missile, expanding the Navy, SDI
all combined to increase our defense budget from $171 billion in ’81 to $300
billion in ’85.
ii. Central America: Reagan supported “friendly right wing dictators over
communist juntas, such as the Marxist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. We sent
money to the “contras”, anti-leftist rebels in Nicaragua who fought the
Sandinistas.
1. The Boland Amendment: Passed by Democrats in ’85, it prohibited
further aid to the Contras. Republican advisers countered with “Has
anyone seen the Ayatollah’s phone number?”
2. El Salvador: Reagan spent $5 billion to defend El Salvador against
leftist guerillas. These right wing “death squads that we supported
executed over 40,000 civilians, including American missionaries, but
at least they weren’t commies!
iii. Grenada: A coup took place in ’83 resulting in the establishment of a proCuban regime. Reagan ordered an invasion of the island in ’83 by a small group
of marines and prevented the establishment of a communist military base in the
Americas. A friendlier government in Grenada was soon established.
iv. Iran-Contra Affair: We would sell US anti-aircraft and antitank weapons to
Iran’s government in an agreement made for its freeing of the hostages in Iran
in ’81. In ’86, some genius had the idea that we could take the profits from
these sales and fund the contras in Nicaragua. Did Reagan know about it?
Probably not. Reagan was generally president until 1 pm, at which time he
napped and hung out with his wife, made appearances, speeches, etc. while his
staff ran the country. The staff messed up with this one. They violated the
Boland Amendment. They made the president look like an old idiot who had
no idea what was going on in his own presidency. His popularity temporarily
dropped, but he would remain one of the most popular presidents of the 20 th
century.
v. Lebanon, Israel, and the PLO: Reagan’s administration took some shots in the
Middle East starting in ’82, when the US gave Israel permission to invade
Lebanon to PLO terrorists from attacking Israel. The US then assisted the PLO
in evacuating the area to a safe haven and we provided peacekeeping forces on
Lebanese soil as the Lebanese fell into a brutal civil war. In April ’83, an Arab
suicide bomber attacked the US embassy in Beirut, killing 63. A few months
later, another Arab terrorist attacked the Marines barracks in Lebanon, killing
241 servicemen. Reagan pulled the Marines out in ’84, with nothing to show
for his effort but coffins filled with US Marines. But hey, at least he didn’t have
sex with an intern.
vi. Improved US-Soviet Relations: The Cold War heated up in the early 80s, but
then along came Mikhail Gorbachev and his cool red spot. With a budget
imbalance that made the US budget pale in comparison, Gorby introduced two
major reforms:
1. Glasnost: Openness, Gorby wanted to end political repression and
move toward more political freedom for Soviet citizens. He did not
want to bring in democracy…that would be Yeltsin.
2. Perestroika: It was the restructuring of the Soviet economy by
introducing some limited free market practices. Again, Gorby did not
want to bring in a US like capitalism, just a loosening of the strings to
take some of the economic pressure off of the Soviet government. To
achieve these things, Gorby had to end the costly arms race.
3.
INF Agreement: Gorby and Reagan finally got together in ’87 and
agreed to remove and destroy all intermediate-range missiles. In ’88,
Gorby began the pullout of Afghanistan. He also put pressure on Iran
and Iraq to end their war. By the end of Reagan’s second term, the US
and the Soviets were living la vida loca.
4. Assessing Reagan: Who beat the Soviets? Reagan and his buildup?
George Kennan, Dean Acheson and containment? Gorbachev himself?
Reagan did respond to the opportunity when it presented itself. Either
way, the “Teflon President”, Ronald Reagan, led a charmed political
life and walked away from the presidency famous for his sense of
humor, his class, his patriotism, and his love of his wife, Nancy, and
jelly beans.
D. President Goerge H.W. Bush and the end of the Cold War: The Cold War threatened to kill us
all since 1945, but it had also stabilized our foreign policy as well. What would we do after the
Cold War? Bush had been an ambassador to the UN and director of the CIA and would now be
the first president to define the US role in this new era.
a. Election of ’88: The Democrats took control of the Senate in ’86 and hoped Iran-Contra
would hurt the Republican presidential nominee in ’88. But then the Democrats
nominated a Massachusetts liberal Governor named Michael Dukakis who had eyebrows
like caterpillars and a wife who drank rubbing alcohol when the bars closed. Bush won
the Republican nomination and for some reason named Dan Quayle as his VP
candidate. Although it seemed like the two parties were playing a new game show called
I Can Be More Incompetent Than You, it was actually a presidential campaign. Dukakis
was attacked for his criminal furlough programs (in which one of the inmates who was
out on a work-release for the weekend raped a young girl…nice investigation staff, Duke)
while the Democrats attacked Bush for not being Reagan and Quayle for his lack of a
brain. Bush pretty much won the election by promising “Read my lips, no new taxes” at
the Republican convention. Only problem? He then raised taxes. Turns out all of that
military spending we did in the ‘80s had to be paid for.
b. The Democrats did win more seats in Congress which just goes to show that we like
Republican presidents who promise no taxes but Democratic Congressmen whose
responsibility it is to actually make us pay them. We are a nation of idiots.
c. The Collapse of Soviet Communism and the Soviet Union:
i. Tienanmen Square: As pro-democracy forces gained momentum around the
world, Chinese students began demonstrating by the thousands in Beijing. As
the world watched on television, the Chinese used the cover of night to crush
the protest with tanks, killing hundreds and ending any chance of an opening
of the traditional ways in China. But not to worry, they make some nice
trinkets over there in that land of the little people and soon we would grant
them “Most Favored Nation Status.” Ok…that’s the last time.
ii. Eastern Europe: Gorby announced in ’89 that he would no longer support the
various communist governments of eastern Europe. Starting in Poland in ’89
with the election of Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity Party, the communists
fell from power in country after country (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
and Romania.) East German protestors forced their government out of power
and tore down the Berlin Wall in ’89. The two Germanys were reunited in
October 1990, with East Germany noticing that West Germany had put on a
little weight in the past 45 years.
iii. Breakup of the Soviet Union: In 1990 the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania declared their independence. Communist hard-liners attempted
a coup against Gorby but failed, and the remaining Soviet republics dissolved
the Soviet Union in December 1991, leaving Gorby as a leader with no country.
Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, joined with nine former
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
Soviet republics and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Yeltsin disbanded the communist party in Russia and began work on a
democracy and a free-market economy. This sounds nice, but you have to
realize that the average Russian can’t organize a bowel movement without a
tyrant telling him how to do it.
End of the Cold War: Bush and Gorby had signed the START I agreement in
’91, reducing the number of warheads to under 10,000 for each side. In late
’92, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to a START II treaty, reducing the number of
nuclear weapons to 3,000 each. We also gave economic assistance to the
struggling Russian economy.
1. Soviet civil wars: They broke out throughout the former Soviet Union,
which means Bush did not get to give the great “We have defeated
Communism” speech because they were a bit unstable. Yugoslavia
began to disintegrate in ’91, and Bosnia and Herzegovina erupted in
civil war in ’92. At home, we began to question our defense spending.
Invasion of Panama: For the first time since the end of WWII, we used our
military for a reason other than the containment of communism. In December
1989, Bush ordered the invasion of Panama to remove its autocratic leader,
General Manuel Noriega. Bush alleged the invasion was essential to stop the
drug pipeline that was coming through Panama. In fact, Bush and the CIA had
given a lot of latitude to Noriega in previous years simply because he was not a
communist and this chicken was coming home to roost. He now sits in a
military prison and has a cute boyfriend named Steve.
Persian Gulf War: Bush’s plans for a “New world order” were challenged in
1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Bush built a coalition of United
Nations to put pressure on Hussein (another former Bush CIA crony). But
Hussein would not pull out, as this would lose him prestige in the eyes of his
Arab brethren when they gathered for poker night at the palace every
Thursday. Eventually, the US went in and showed them who was boss, bringing
back US prestige and making Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell
overnight stars. Bush’s approval rating was 90% at the end of the war, but we
failed to drive Hussein from power and created enemies in Saudi Arabia when
we maintained a military presence there after the war was over.
Domestic Problems: So how did Bush not get re-elected? Read my lips…He
Messed Up.
1. Clarence Thomas: As Thurgood Marshall left the SC, Bush apparently
needed to nominate another black man. I was not aware of this, but
apparently the same goes for Asians, women, Latinos, gays, and
midgets. (“Verne Troyer, line one, please…”) Thomas was a
conservative, but as he was going through confirmation there were
accusations from one of his former aides, a woman named Anita Hill,
that he had sexually harassed her in the office. He was eventually
confirmed, but you have never really lived until you’ve heard a 91-yearold Strom Thurmond say “Pubic Hair.”
2. Taxes and the economy: The government stepped in when Savings and
Loans began to go bankrupt, but the public freaked when we were told
we had to pay the $250 billion tab (that’s more than we spent in
Vietnam.) We also added $1 trillion to the deficit during the Bush
years. In 1990, Bush approved the Democratic Congress’ budget,
which included a tax increase. (“Bill Clinton, line one, please…”) Also,
a recession began in 1990 that ended the Reagan prosperity, increased
unemployment, and decreased average family income.
3.
Political inertia: Bush had begun his presidency by calling for a
“kinder, gentler nation” and something about a “thousand points of
light.” He did sign into law the Americans With Disabilities Act (1990)
which prohibited discrimination against citizens with physical and
mental disabilities in hiring, transportation, and public
accommodation. Domestically, Bush did next to nothing, as he was
overwhelmed (as most any president would be) by the historical
changes going on around the world.
E. The Clinton Years: 1993-2001, Prosperity and Partisanship
a. Anti-Incumbent Mood: We were growing tired of professional lawmakers, but in the
case of U.S. Term Limits Inc. v. Thorton (1995) the CS decided that states could not
limit the tenure of federal lawmakers without a constitutional amendment. The 27 th
Amendment was ratified in 1992 (it had first been proposed by James Madison in 1789),
saying members of Congress cannot vote raises for themselves. Future raises go into
effect in the next session. The above two are obvious reflections of Americans growing a
bit cynical about politics.
b. The Election of 1992: Bush was nominated but seemed out of touch with average
Americans, the Democrats had several candidates to choose from but Arkansas
Governor Bill Clinton emerged. He was the first baby boomer president and was an
intelligent and articulate public speaker. He called himself a moderate “New Democrat”
who focused on everyman’s economics. His advisers labeled it a little simpler, saying “It’s
the economy, stupid!”
i. H. Ross Perot: Anti-Washington, anti-deficit, Perot financed his own campaign
and took votes away from Bush. He took 20% of the popular vote, the best
third party showing since TR in 1912.
ii. Results: Clinton took 370 electoral (43% popular vote) while Bush took 168
(37% popular.) Clinton won the South and recaptured the blue collar vote. The
Democrats won control of both houses, among them the first African American
woman elected to the Senate, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois.
c. Clinton’s First Term: Controversies in the cabinet, debate over gays in the military,
scandals in the White House travel office, and Whitewater kept the president on edge.
i. Setbacks: His economic stimulus package, campaign finance reform,
environmental bills, and health care reform bills were all killed in the Senate by
Republican filibuster; his use of Hilary to ramrod his health coverage backfired.
By ’94, all of Clinton’s health care reform proposals had been defeated.
ii. Early Accomplishments: Family Medical Leave Act, Motor Voter law (allows
people to register to vote as they receive their driver’s license), the Brady
handgun bill, the Clinton anti-crime bill, assault weapons band, a deficit
reduction budget, NAFTA, etc. Even after accomplishing these things, he was
still known by opponents as “Slick Willie.”
iii. Republicans Take over Congress: Republicans retake control of both houses for
first time since 1954, with Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House.
1. Newt: Proposed a “Contract with America”, attacking all government
programs supported by Clinton. Clinton countered by calling for a
“leaner, not meaner” budget. Blah blah blah. Eventually, after a
couple government shutdowns due to lack of funds, calm was restored.
2. Oklahoma City, 1995: 169 Americans were killed by two American
terrorists. At that point, it was the worst act of terror in American
history.
3. Balanced Budget: Thanks to a fast growing economy and 10 million
new jobs, the moderate Clinton balanced the budget in 1996, basically
taking the traditional Republican position on economics.
iv. Election of 1996: It was Bob Dole. Come on!
d.
v. Clinton’s Second Term: Prosperity and Poison: The US was enjoying the
longest peacetime economic expansion in its history. The internet and
computers led to increased national productivity. This growth was over by
2001, and both investors and workers faced another recession.
vi. Investigations and Impeachment: Clinton and his administration had basically
been under investigation since the day he was elected, and Clinton called this a
“right wing conspiracy” to discredit his presidency. They were never charged
with illegalities in the Whitewater affair, the firings of White House staff
(“Travelgate”), or the political use of FBI files (“Filegate.”) Enough of someone
getting into trouble and adding “gate” to the end. For example, “Chinagate?”
“Honor Codegate?” Stupidgate! He did get busted for the whole lying to a
grand jury over sexual meanderings with an intern, Monica “Hey that’s a nice
dress…oh, wait…what’s that spot?” Lewinsky.
vii. Impeachment: Two counts from the House, perjury and obstruction of justice.
This was an obvious attempt by the Republicans to force the resignation of
Clinton with the election of 2000 quickly approaching. Neither charge upheld
in the Senate in 1999, but Clinton was the first president to face impeachment
charges since 1868.
Foreign Policy in the Clinton Administration: There were 190 nations in the world and
with the Cold War over; there emerged some serious ethnic, religious, and cultural
conflicts. His first SecState was Warren Christopher, critics said he had no clear vision.
Clinton’s second term SecState was Madeline Albright, who looked a lot like a Cabbage
Patch lady but was the first female SecState. She was more assertive than Christopher,
but many began to wonder what our international role was as far as peacekeeping was
concerned.
i. Peacekeeping: Somalia in ’93 was a disaster (see Black Hawk Down) and Haiti
in ’94 was more successful in that we restored Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power
(primarily because there were 20,000 Haitians flooding into Florida. We also
helped calm relations between Northern Ireland and GB in 1998. Man,
without a Cold War these wars are sure boring.
ii. Europe: Yeltsin left office in 2000 and was replaced by Vladimir Putin, who
had to deal with a failed space station and a nuclear submarine that sank,
killing all on board. Then there was Chechnya, the 1999 admission of the
Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, into NATO in ’99, and Russia’s
support of Serbia in its war against Bosnia. (What is it with Russia and Serbia
anyway? I don’t know, but could you pass the Black Hand, Franz…) Serbian
leader Slobodan Milosevic practiced “ethnic cleansing” against Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Eventually, the US and the UN went in and
stopped the fighting, while Milosevic was deposed and jailed for genocide. They
used to get death for that one, but these damn liberals…! This fighting in the
Balkans was the worst fighting in Europe since WWII and reminded people of
how WWI had begun.
iii. Asia: North Korea stepped up its nuke program, India and Pakistan tested their
nuke systems. We established economic relations with Vietnam in ’95 and we
became friendlier with China as well.
iv. Middle East: We bombed Saddam every once in a while (especially when the heat
was on Clinton) and helped out in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (which
Clinton vainly attempted to leave as his legacy…hey, stupid, it’s the Middle East.
Peace is not going to happen!) Renewed attacks on Israel by Palestinians led to a
break down in peace talks in 2000, with a growing anti-American spirit spreading
around the Arab world.
v. Globalization: The world seemed to shrink in the 90s, the word globalization
refers to the development of global and regional economic organizations. Yes, I
F.
find it boring and hard to grasp too. The World Trade Organization (WTO)
oversaw trade agreements, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank made loans to and supervised the financial dealings of poor nations, the
European Union (EU) became a unified market of 15 nations, 12 of which
adopted the euro as its common currency. The Group of Seven (G-7) was the
world’s largest industrial powers (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK,
and the US) which controlled two thirds of the world’s wealth, but China and
India are quickly gaining.
The Lone Superpower in the New Century: We were the lone superpower, but we were vulnerable
to a new kind of attack.
a. Disputed election of 2000: Gore/Lieberman vs. W/Cranky Old Guy. Gore was a
champion of the “working families” while W was the “compassionate conservative.” Ralph
Nader and the Green Party pulled a “Perot” and sent the election into turmoil.
i. Gore received more than 500,000 votes than Bush, but according to an old
election rule, Bush got to do the math. The election hinged on Florida, where old
people, particularly men, forgot to take their Viagra pills prior to heading to the
polls, resulting in their inability to successfully penetrate the holes in the ballots.
(I’ve been waiting for a good Viagra reference.) In the initial result, Bush led by
537 votes in Florida. Democrats called for a hand recount. In the case of Bush v.
Gore, the SC split 5-4, ruling that W was president and Gore had bad hair. Oh,
by the way, the makeup of the SC was 5 conservatives and 4 liberals. Basically, the
Court said there was not enough time to correctly hold a recount, so W won and
for the first time in four years Michael Moore did not need Viagra. Gore accepted
the ruling, although what else could he have done? Pull a Nancy Kerrigan and
shriek “Why…Why!!” W won 271-266 in the closest election since 1876.
ii. The Rise of Southern Republicans: We continued with our conservative trend,
as even the House and Senate were becoming Republican. Gingrich, Trent
Lott, Tom DeLay and Dick Armey took over leadership in Congress.
iii. Dick Armey: Come on, that’s funny.
iv. W Highlights: Tax cuts, federal aid to faith-based service organizations, school
choice, privatization of Social Security, vacation time, opposition to Roe v.
Wade, drilling in Alaska, etc.
1. Tax Cut: We received $300-$600 rebates in 2002. It also cut taxes on
the wealthy.
2. Education Reform: The No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002.
It was aimed to close the gap between well-to-do and poor students in
public schools through the nationwide testing of all students, student
transfer rights to better public schools, improved reading programs,
and training of quality teachers. The SC decided that government
funding of student vouchers for religious schools did not violate the
First Amendment. That’s weird, considering it’s a violation of the First
Amendment’s “establishment of religion clause.”
3. Recession in 2001: Stock Market crashed as many of those dot.com
businesses fell apart. There was 6% unemployment in ‘2002, the
highest in 8 years. The Fed (Alan Greenspan) responded by cutting
interest rates to 1.25%, the lowest in 50 years. The old Clinton surplus
was gone, thanks in large part to Bush’s tax cuts and 9/11.
4. Corporate Corruption: Let’s not forget Enron and WorldCom and
their “cooking of the books” (falsifying earnings and profits.) The SEC
was strengthened, and jail time given to those convicted of white collar
crime. Laws were also passed to stop the flood of special interest money
into political campaigns, and another law banned unlimited
5.
donations, known as “soft money” and restricted “issue advertising”
before elections. I’m Jeff Stohr, and I approve these notes.
The War on Terrorism: W surrounded himself with capable people.
He had no other choice. These notes are getting very biased.
a. Roots of Terrorism: We became friendly with Israel. The
growing pattern of Palestinian terror bombings and Israeli
responses created more anti-American sentiment. As far back
as World War I and the westernization of the Ottoman
Empire, there was resistance to western beliefs in the Middle
East. When US troops were stationed in the Persian Gulf,
that hatred was restored. Long story short, with little
education and lots of brainwashing, these pinhead
fundamentalists actually believe that if they die for Allah they
get to party with 27 virgins on the other side. 27 virgins? I
agree with Dennis Miller that, at some point, you’re going to
want a pro.
b. WTC ’93 bombing: Al Qaeda was responsible, and in ’98 they
did it again by bombing our embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, but seemingly nobody in America really noticed.
Clinton lobbed a few missiles at al Qaeda camps, but they
were not deterred. The USS Cole was attacked by small
suicide ships in 2000 and again we barely flinched. Osama bin
Jackass was identified as the mastermind, but Clinton was
occupied with an intern that made Barbara Bush seem
attractive. Bin Jackass ran off to Afghanistan and befriended
the Taliban, who we had supported during the Russian
invasion.
c. 9/11: 3000 were killed, bush wanted him “Dead or Alive”, and
as international search for bin Jackass turned up nothing.
d. Afghanistan War: Taliban refused to turn over bin Jackass, so
the US, anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces, and American
Special Forces waged war against the Taliban, but still turned
up nothing. A pro-American leader, Hamid Karzai headed the
Afghan government in Kabul, but the country remains about as
stable as Carrot Top on caffeine pills. We did manage to kill
Pat Tillman, though. Perhaps he resembled bin Jackass.
e. Homeland Security and the Patriot Act: We failed to connect
the dots before 9/11, this is the response.
f. Elections of 2002: The war on terrorism was the major issue,
Bush stumped around the country for Republicans, and the
Republicans took back control of the Senate and
strengthened their lead in the House. They controlled the
White House, Congress, and were 5-4 in the SC.
g. War In Iraq: W dubbed North Korea, Iraq, and Iran the “axis
of evil,” probably not understanding that these three countries
were not at all friendly with each other. There was no link
between 9/11 and Saddam, but we knew Saddam had used
deadly gas against the Kurds back in the 90s and the
assumption was he had more where that came from. We were
either wrong or he’s better at hiding things than my Aunt
Theresa…boy could she hide those Easter eggs. The war was
launched on March 19, 2003 with a blitzkrieg like air attack
dubbed “Shock and Awe.” “Operation Iraqi Freedom”
overran the Iraqis and found Saddam in a hole. Insurgents
fought against US occupation, and the situation still plays
out.
Terms: 1980-Present
Conservatism
Religious fundamentalists
Political action committees (PACS)
Taxpayers revolt
Moral Majority; Jerry Falwell
Abortion rights
Roe v. Wade
“reverse discrimination”
Regents of University of California v. Bakke
Ronald Reagan
Supply-side economics
Deregulation
Domestic spending cuts
PATCA-Fired!
Reaganomics
Sandra Day O’Connor
William Rehnquist
Jesse Jackson: Rainbow coalition
Walter Mondale
Geraldine Ferraro
Budget and trade deficits
Military buildup; SDI
Nicaragua, Sandinistas, Contras
Iran-Contra Affair
Middle East; PLO
Gorby, glasnost, perestroika
INF Agreement
Bush-Quayle
Dukakis-Bentsen
Tienanmen Square
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Berlin Wall falls
Boris Yeltsin
Panama Invasion; Manuel Noriega
Persian Gulf War; Saddam Hussein (1991)
Americans With Disabilities Act (1990)
27th Amendment
Bill Clinton
Al Gore
Ross Perot
NAFTA (1993)
Newt Gingrich
Oklahoma City Bombing
Contract with America
New world order
Yugoslavia
Bosnia, Kosovo
Dole-Kemp
Impeachment
Madeline Albright
“ethnic cleansing”
Nuclear proliferation
Terrorism
W
Ralph Nader
Michael Moore
No Child Left Behind
Al Qaeda
Osama bin Laden
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Afghanistan War
Iraq Invasion
Saddam Hussein in a hole
Aunt Theresa’s Easter Eggs and Weapons of Mass Destruction