The Good Times End:
1967-1974
Senior Seminar
Vietnam
Ho
Chi Minh fights the Japanese & French
Dienbienphu, 1954
Eisenhower
ignores Geneva agreement, 1954
Kennedy:
advisors & overthrow of Diem, 1963
Johnson:
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1965
Escalation: 1968, 500,000 troops in Vietnam
Johnson’s “credibility gap”
Communist
Tet offensive, January 1968
Bombing halt; search for peace negotiations
Civil Rights movement
explodes
“Black
pride”
Black
radicalism
CORE
SNCC: Stokely Carmichael preaches “Black Power”
Black Muslims, Black Panthers
Violence
overtakes civil rights
Urban riots, 1965-1969
Watts, Chicago, Newark, Detroit
Assassinations
Malcolm X, 1965, Martin Luther King, 1968
Campus radicalism
Berkeley
Free Speech Movement, 1964
Unrest
spreads across the nation
Resistance to university rules
End of dress codes
End of in loco parentis
Resistance to university-military ties
ROTC
Military
research in university labs
Nuclear
weapons research
The anti-war movement
Draft
resistance, civil disobedience, marches
Sit-ins
March on the Pentagon, 1967
March on Washington, 1969: 500,000 march
Violence
Weathermen faction splits from the SDS
1968
1966–1968,
Red Guards and Great Cultural Revolution put China in turmoil; reign of terror
by radicalized young idealizing Mao—Stalin-style personality cult
“Prague
Spring” begins in Czechoslovakia
January
23: North Korean patrol boats capture the USS Pueblo, hold the crew for
11 months
January
31: North Vietnamese launch Tet Offensive, capture U.S. embassy
February
27: Walter Cronkite visits Vietnam and his report announces the war is
unwinnable
March
12: Peace candidate Eugene McCarthy nearly defeats LBJ in New Hampshire primary
March
17: Robert F. Kennedy announces he’s running for President
March
31: LBJ announces he’s halting bombing of North Vietnam and that he will not
run for reelection
1968
April
4: MLK assassinated; RFK gives impassioned speech; riots break out across the
nation with 46 dead
April
23: Students occupy the administration building of Columbia University
May
3: US and North Vietnam agree to hold peace talks
May
6: Violent student demonstrations in Paris nearly turn into a revolution that
topples the government
June
4: RFK wins the California primary, clinching the nomination, and is
assassinated at the victory party
August
8: The Republican National Convention nominates Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew
August
20: Soviet tanks invade Czechoslovakia and end the “Prague Spring”
August
28: Democratic National Convention in Chicago: Hubert Humphrey nominated;
police riot attack protesters
October
2: Police attack student protests in Mexico City, killing hundreds
1968
George
Wallace runs as third-party candidate, with Gen. Curtis Lemay, who defends use
of nuclear weapons
Oct.
18: Olympics in Mexico City: Medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos give black
power salute during anthem
November
4: Bloody battle between police and students in West Berlin
Nixon
interferes with peace talks, leading to their failure
November
5: Nixon wins the election, squeaking by Hubert Humphrey
December
21: Launch of Apollo 8, which circles the moon and returns
Liberation Spreads
Gay
battle against discrimination
The Stonewall incident, 1969
Feminism
and Women’s Liberation
Title
IX of Educational Amendments Act, 1972
Equal funding for women’s sports and activities
Equal
Rights Amendment sent to states, 1972
Hispanic
battle against discrimination
Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers
American
Indian Movement (AIM)
New battle for Wounded Knee, 1973
The Counterculture
No
materialism, racism, war, violence, pollution, conformism
Vision
of peaceful, cooperative, equal, communal, environmentally benign society based
on love & harmony
Emphasis
on now, experience, experimentation
Social
transformation through individual fulfillment
Revival
of folk music, arts, crafts
Commune
movement
Breaking convention
Lifestyles
& personal development
Counterculture goes mainstream: Woodstock, 1969
Hippie styles become popular
Drugs, sexual experimentation, rock music
Religious openness and experimentation
Transcendental Meditation
Censorship ends
Courts
limit censorship of books
Allen Ginsburg’s Howl obscenity trial, 1957
Bans on D.H. Lawrence’s Lady
Chatterly’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic
of Cancer overturned, 1959
Explosion of creativity
Pornography and men’s magazines more easily
available
Fight
to show real life and social issues in media
TV
Sesame Street
All in the Family
Movie ratings: G, PG, R, X
President Richard Nixon
Quaker
from Whittier, California; Duke Law School
Wartime
service and political rise
1968
comeback: law and order, and the “silent majority”
Southern strategy blocked by Wallace; razor-thin
victory
Domestic
policies
“New federalism”: revenue sharing
Failed proposals for medical care, negative income tax
Economic troubles, 1970-74
Lack of corporate investment in 1960s leaves manufacturers
uncompetitive globally
Inflation; trade deficit; net importer of oil
Unilaterally ends Bretton Woods Agreement; price controls
Apollo 11: July 20, 1969
Foreign policy
Henry
Kissinger
Recognizing
China, 1972
Détente
with the Soviet Union: SALT
Involvement
in Pinochet’s coup against Allende in Chile, 1973
Richard Nixon
Vietnam
War
“Vietnamization”
1969: My Lai massacre reported
Nov. 1969: Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam:
huge demonstrations
Widening the war: Cambodia 1970; more bombing
1970: Kent State and Jackson State shootings
1971: Daniel Ellsberg & the Pentagon Papers
April 1971: 500,000 march on Washington
Nobel Peace Prize, 1973
The human cost of the
Vietnam War