Chapter 30: The Crisis of

Authority Alberto Lopez

Demi Caceres

Brandon Alvarado

Alyssa Secreto

The Youth Culture ÒPatterns of Social and cultural protest emerged from younger Americans who were protesting:ÉThe political leftÉThe vision of “liberation”

The New LeftÒ Young Americans who

consisted of the post war baby-boom generation created a new and diverse group called the New Left.

Ò The New Left- a group that consisted of college students who drew from the writings of social critics from the 1950s.

Ò Inspiration for New Left drew from the Civil Rights Movement.

The New Left (cont.)Ò In 1962 students from prestigious universities

gathered in Michigan to form the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to give voice to their demands.

Ò Port Huron Statement expressed the disillusionment with the society they had inherited and their determination to build new politics.

Ò SDS moved into inner city neighborhoods without success to mobilize poor, working class politically.

Free Speech

Movement

In 1969, Turmoil at Berkeley was caused by students who challenged authorities due to them wanting to pass out literature and recruit volunteers for political causes on campus.

People’s Park

Ò In 1969, Berkeley became a scene of conflict due to a battle over the efforts of a few students to build “People’s Park” on a vacant lot.

Ò By the end of People’s Park battle the Berkeley Campus was completely polarized.

The Counter Culture

Ò “Hippies” É A youth culture that were

very liberal on drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Ò Birth Control ,Abortions, and Sexual Revolution

Ò Haight Ashbury É Consisted of “hippies” who

were social dropouts and rejected modern society.

Rock N’ RollÒ Reflected the new iconoclastic values of the

times. Ò Artists who influenced during this time was

É Beatles É Rolling StonesÉ Elvis Presley É Buddy Holly

The Mobilization of Minorities

Seeds of Indian Militancy

Ò The American Indians or Native Americans were the least prosperous, least healthy, and least stable group in the nation.

Ò After the resignation of John Collier, commission of Indian Affairs in 1946, the federal policy toward Indians had been to incorporate them within mainstream American society.

Ò The struggles against termination led to the development of the National Congress of American Indians (NCIA).

The Indian Civil Rights Movement

Ò In 1961, the Declaration of Indian Purpose stressed the Indians’ “right to choose their own way of life.”

Ò A you group of Indians created the American Indian Movement (AIM) which drew support from urban areas.

Ò A political result of Indian activism was the Indian Civil Rights ActÉ Recognized legitimacy of

tribal laws within reservations

Wounded Knee

Sioux Massacre 1890

Occupation of Wounded Knee

Ò On February 1973, members of AIM seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, SD for two months, the site of Sioux massacre in 1890.

Ò AIM demanded more changes in the administration of the reservations and long forgotten treaties.É United States v. WheelerÉ County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation

Latino Activism Ò Latinos or Hispanic Americans

were the fastest growing minority group in the U.S.

Ò Large number of Puerto Ricans migrated to eastern cities – Castro’s regime 1960s.

Ò During WWII, large numbers of Mexican Americans migrated due to labor shortage.

Ò Operation WetbackÉ deport the illegals but failed

due to new arrivals

Cesar Chavez

An activist who created the effective United Farm Workers (UFW) to demand recognition of their union and increase wages and benefits.

Latino Activism (cont.)Ò Latinos: the issue of

bilingualismÒ The issue revolved

around bilingualism in education and how it was a barrier to non English speakers.

Ò Opponents feared the difficulty and dangers bilingualism posed to American culture.

Challenging the “Melting pot”

Ò The challenges of African Americans, Latinos, Indians, Asians, and others allowed for a considerable degree of cultural pluralism.

Ò Recognized and allowed for the integration of of ethnic studies in universities.

Ò “Multiculturalism”

Gay Liberation Ò Most recent liberation which allowed for major gains of

gays and lesbians for political and social acceptance. Ò Allowed for the Gays and Lesbians to express their

preferences openly and unapologetic.Ò G&L’s achieved the same stepping stones as some

minorities. Ò “Don’t ask don’t tell Policy” (1993)

“Stone Wall Riot”On June 27, 1969 police officers raided the Stone

Wall Inn when the police raided and began to arrest patrons for attending the nightclub. Marked the beginning of the movement.

The New Feminism

The Rebirth Ò The publication of Betty Friedan’s Feminine

Mystique in 1963É Claimed that the suburbs provided no

opportunities for women to use their intelligence, talent, and education.

Ò National Organization for Women (NOW) É Responded to women’s complaints by

demanding greater educational opportunities for women.

É Called for “a fully equal partnership of the sexes, as part of the worldwide revolution of human rights.”

Women’s Liberation

Ò By the early 1970s, young feminists expressed harsher critiques of American society than that of Freidan’sÉ Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics (1969)

argued that “every avenue of power within the society is entirely within male hands” so that women could unite to assault male power structure.

É http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9TlSiMSdPk

Expanding Achievements

Ò By the mid-1970s, nearly half of all married women and 90 percent of women with college degree worked.

Ò Women were beginning to compete effectively with men for elected and appointed positions.É First Supreme Court justice

(1981) – Sandra Day O’Connor

É Democratic vice presidential candidate (1984) – Geraldine Ferraro of New York

É Democratic presidential candidate (2008) – Hillary Clinton

Expanding Achievements ...

Ò In 1972, Congress approved the Equal Rights Act (ERA) Amendment to the Constitution.

Ò The ERA failed in 1982 because people feared it would disrupt traditional social patterns.

The Abortion Controversy

Ò By the beginning of the twentieth century, abortion was banned by statute in most of the country until the 1960s.

Ò Women created strong new pressures to legalize abortion:É Roe v. Wade

invalidated all laws prohibiting abortion during the “first trimester”

Environmentalism in a turbulent society

The New Science of Ecology

By the twentieth Century, Scientists began to create a new belief for rationale for environmentalism: ecology

Ecology was the scientific belief that there was interrelatedness within the natural world.

Zoologist Stephen A. Forbes

Aldo Leopold, 1949 The Sand County Almanac

“Land Ethic”

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring-influential book that influenced the DDT in the U.S in 1972

Between 1945 and 1960, ecological science was funded by government agencies, universities, foundations, etc. it gradually became a field of its own.

Environmental AdvocacyImportant environmental organizations predated the rise of modern ecological science. (The Sierrra Club, The Wilderness Society, etc.)

Out of organizations emerged new generation of professional environmental activists able to contribute to the legal and political battles of the movement.

Scientists, lawyers, lobbyists.

Environmental DegradationThe damage caused by the postwar era was impossible to

ignore by 1960s.

Water pollution was seen in major cities, unpleasant sight and odor in rivers and lakes.

Air was becoming unhealthy due to toxic fumes from factories and power plants. Automobiles were poisoning the atmosphere.

Weather forecasts began using the word “smog.”

Environmentalists put public attention to depletion of oil and other fossil fuels, “acid rain,”destruction of vast rain forests.

Many of their claims became controversial, with skeptics arguing that they had not conclusively proven their cases.

Earth Day and BeyondOn April 22, 1970 people gathered all over the US for the first “Earth Day.”

originally proposed by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson.

“Earth Day” appealing to many who avoided the radical left and did not want to involve themselves with threatening rallies.

20 million Americans participated making it the largest single demonstration in nation’s history.

1970 National Environmental Protection Act

The Clean Air Act 1970 and Clean Water Act 1972

Nixon, Kissinger, and The War

VietnamizationPresident Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor, as his national security adviser.

Despite the fact that both William Rogers, secretary of state, and Melvin Laird, secretary of defense, were much more experienced in public life than Kissinger was, he immediately established dominance over both of them.

Nixon and Kissinger set out to find an acceptable solution to the stalemate in Vietnam.

The new Vietnam policy was an effort to limit domestic opposition to the war.

Vietnamization (cont.)The administration devised a new “lottery” system, through which only a limited group would be subject to conscription; the limited group usually consisted of 19 year olds with low lottery numbers.

By 1973, the Selective Service System was on its way to at least temporary extinction.

The new policy of “Vietnamization” of the war:

The training and equipping of the South Vietnamese military to take over burden of combat from American forces.

It helped quiet domestic opposition to the war.

Escalation:

Nixon and Kissinger developed an effective way to tip the military balance in America’s favor by destroying the bases in Cambodia.

The Americans believed that the North Vietnamese were launching their attacks from Cambodia.

In the spring of 1970, possibly with U.S. encouragement and support, conservative military leaders overthrew the neutral government of Cambodia and established a new, pro-American regime under General Lon Nol.

On April 30, Nixon televised his announcement in which he spoke about ordering troops American troops across the border into Cambodia to “clean out” the bases that the enemy had been using for its “increased military aggression.

ContinuedUnfortunately for President Nixon, millions of Americans were upset with his actions that the most widespread and vocal antiwar demonstrations were seen in the first days of May.

The mood of the crisis intensified greatly on May 4, when four college students were killed and nine other injured when members of the National Guard opened fire on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio.

By 1971, nearly two-thirds of those interviewed in public opinion polls were urging American withdrawal from Vietnam.

In March 1972, the North Vietnamese mounted their biggest offensive sine 1968 (the so-called Eastern offensive).

Despite the lack of support from the Americans, American and South Vietnamese forces managed to halt the communist advance.

“Peace with Honor”

In April 1972, the president dropped his longtime insistence on a removal of North Vietnamese troops from the south before any American withdrawal.

On October 26, only days before the presidential election, Kissinger announced that “peace was at hand” in which Americans and North Vietnamese were ready to accept the Kissinger-Tho plan for a cease-fire.

On December 17, American B-52s began the heaviest and most destructive air raids of the entire war on Hanoi, Haiphong and other North Vietnamese targets as a result of the failed negotiations between the two nations.

On December 30, Nixon ended the “Christmas Bombing.”

“Peace with Honor” (cont.)

On January 27, 1973, both the United States and North Vietnamese signed an “agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam.”

The terms of Paris accord were little different from those Kissinger and Tho had accepted in principle a few months before:

There would be an immediate cease-fire.

The North Vietnamese would release several hundred American prisoners of war.

Defeat in IndochinaAmerican forces were hardly out of Indochina before the Paris accords collapsed.

In March 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale offensive against the now greatly weakened forces of the south.

Thieu appealed to Washington for assistance; the president (now Gerald Ford; Nixon had resigned in 1974) appealed to Congress for additional funding; Congress refused.

Late in April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon, shortly after officials of the Thieu regime and the staff of the American embassy had fled the country in humiliating disarray.

A beautiful land had been ravaged, its agrarian economy left in ruins; for many years after, Vietnam remained one of the poorest and most politically oppressive nations in the world.

Nixon, Kissinger, and the World

The Vietnam War provided a dismal backdrop to : the construction of a new international order.

America wanted to adopt a new “multipolar” International Structure in which China, Japan, and Western Europe would become major independent forces.

The U.S. , China, Soviet Union, and Japan would help balance each other , not playing one against the other.

China and the Soviet Union

Nixon and Kissinger wanted to forge a new relationship between the Chinese communists- in part to strengthen them as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union.

The United Nations admitted the Communist China and expelled the Taiwan Regime.

In 1972 the United States began to have low-level diplomatic relations with China.

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)- US and Soviet Union met and talked about the limitation of nuclear weapons.

Nixon, Kissinger, and the World

The Problems with Solarity

The Problems of Multipolarity

Nixon and Kissinger believed that great-power relationships could not alone ensure international stability, for the “Third World” remained the most volatile and dangerous source of international tension.

Nixon Doctrine: 1969-1970The United States would “participate in the defense and development of allies and friends” but would leave the “basic responsibility” for the future of those “friends” to the nations themselves.

In practice, it meant a declining American interest in contributing to Third World development.

The “Six Day War”In 1967, Israel gained control of the city of Jerusalem and was able to gain some new territory along the way.

In October 1973, on the Jewish High Holy Day of Yon Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israel.

It was a strong and effective counteroffensive which lasted for ten days.Meanwhile, the U.S. was applying a great amount of pressure on the Israelites.

The Arab Oil Embargo was an event where Arabs had placed an embargo on oil causing a great amount of suffering on the Israeli supporters.

It provided an ominous warning of the costs of losing access to the region’s resources.

The Problems of Multipolarity

Richard Nixon responded to the Arab Oil Embargo by signing the Emergency Highway Conservation Act. The law offered the states a choice: impose a 55 mph maximum speed limit or forego federal highway fundsIt was impossible for the U.S. to ignore the interest of the Arab nations.The U.S. could no longer depend on cheap, easy access to raw materials as it had in the past.

The Problems of Multipolarity

Politics and Economics Under Nixon

Domestic Initiate Nixon’s domestic policies were a response to

the demands of conservative middle class people who he liked to call “silent majority.”

Nixon began to reduce or dismantle many of the social programs of the great society.

From the Warren CourtTO THE NIXON

COURT

Warren Court Ò In 1950s and 1960s, none had evoked more

anger and bitterness than the Supreme Court due to its rulings on racial matters and its staunch defense of civil liberties.É Engel v. Vitale (1962)É Roth v. United States (1957)É Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)É Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)É Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Warren Court Ò One of the most

important decisions of the Warren Court in the 1960s was Baker v. Carr (1962) which required state legislatures to apportion electoral districts so that all citizens’ votes would have equal weight.

Nixon CourtÒ Nixon was determined to use his judicial

appointments to give the court a more conservative cast.

Ò He appointed Warren Burger, Clement F. Haynsworth (rejected because Nixon believed he was from the South).É Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of

Education (1971)É Furman v. Georgia (1972)É Roe v. Wade (1973)É Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Ò Bakke v. Board of Regents of California (1978) was a celebrated action by the Nixon court because it established restrictive new guidelines for programs in the future

Election of 1972

Ò Nixon entered the presidential race refraining from campaigning and concentrating on publicized international decisions and state visits.

Ò Nixon’s Democratic opponent George Wallace was assassinated at a rally in Maryland.

Ò The Democrats nominated George McGovern in replacement.

Ò On election day, Nixon won reelection by one of the largest margin in history: 60.7% of the popular vote compared with 37.5% for McGovern, and an electoral margin of 520 to 17.

The Troubled Economy

Ò Inflation became the most disturbing economic problem of the 1970s caused by a significant increase in federal deficit spending that began in the 1960s.

Ò Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began to use its oil as economic tool and political weapon.

Ò US manufacturing faced major competition from abroad as they established major footholds in the US markets.

Ò The 1970s marked painful process of deindustrialization in which thousands of factories across the country closed their gates and millions of workers lost their jobs.

The Nixon Response

Ò The Nixon administration responded to the mounting economic problems by focusing on the one thing it thought it could control: Inflation.

Ò In 1971, Nixon imposed a 90 day freeze on all wages and prices at their existing levels.

Ò Nixon launched an economic plan called Phase II, mandatory guidelines for wage and prices increases to be administered by a federal agency.