3. The New Left
In the 1960s, many radical American college and
university students formed the New Left, which embraced
the cause of African Americans and other minorities, but
its own ranks consisted largely of white people.
The New Left drew from the writing of some social critics,
including sociologist (C. Wright Mills, criticizing modern
bureaucracies), communists, and the writing of Karl Marx
and Marxist theorists.
In 1962, a group of famous university students formed
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and declared the
Port Huron Statement which expressed their
disillusionment and their determination to build a new
politics.
3
4. The New Left cont.
In 1964, the Free Speech Movement
created turmoil at UC Berkeley to challenge
campus police, occupy administrative
offices, and produce a strike.
Its issue was the right of students to pass
out literature and recruit volunteers for
political causes on campus. This led to the
widespread of riots, demonstrations, and
building seizures by the students.
In 1969, a battle over the efforts of students to build a “People’s
Park” on a vacant lot the university planned to build a parking
garage took place in UC Berkeley.
In the end, the students won a referendum to leave the park alone.
5. The New Left cont.
The “Weathermen” was a violent offshoot of SDS. It was
responsible for few cases of arson and bombing.
Many people supported SDS and other groups in the issue of war.
October 1967, student activists march on the Pentagon, the “spring
mobilization” of April 1968 and the Vietnam “moratorium” of 1969
thrust the issue of the war into American politics.
Other opposition to the war was showed through the refusing and
the escaping of the people from military drafts.
6. Counterculture
The counterculture was a new youth culture who openly
scornful of the values and convention of middle class
society.
The “Hippies” flaunted long hair, shabby or flamboyant
clothing, and a rebellious disdain for traditional speech and
decorum.
Central to the counterculture was drug and more
permissive view of sexual behavior.
Rock music was popular in the new
youth society, and caused the
popularity of the Beatles. They used
music to express the themes of the
social and political unrest of the late
1960s.
6
7. •
Seedsand 1970s, half of the Indians lived on the
In the late 1960s
of Indian Militancy
reservations, where joblessness was high, and had limited
education.
• After the resignation of John Collier as Commissioner of
Indian Affairs in 1946, federal policy turned toward
assimilation of Indians into American society.
• Two laws passed in 1953 established a policy called
termination, which made Indians subject to the same
jurisdiction as whites.
• It led to a mobilization of a new generation of Indian militants,
who created, in 1944, the National Congress of American
Indians (NCAI).
• In 1958, Eisenhower barred the terminations.
8. The Indian Civil Rights Movement
• American Indian Movement (AIM)-- In 1961, members of tribes
gathered in Chicago, where they stressed the right to choose their
own way of life. In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM)
was created.
• In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which
recognized the legitimacy of tribal laws, but the Indians were not
satisfied.
• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 characterized the US government
policy of Indian removal, which called for the relocation of Native
American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west
of the river.
• In 1969, 1970, the Nixon administration appointed a Mohawk-
Sioux to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He promised to
increase tribal self-determination, and an increase in federal aid.
In November 1972, protesters occupied the Bureau of Indian
Affairs in Washington, D.C.
9. The Indian Civil Rights Movement
cont.
• In United States v. Wheeler (1978), the Supreme Court
ruled the tribes were legally independent and could not
be terminated by Congress. In 1985, County of Oneida
v. Oneida Indian Nation, the Court supported Indian
claims to the land in upstate New York.
• The movement fell apart because it did not unite all
Indians, but it did help the tribes to win a series of new
legal rights and protections.
10.
Hispanic Americans
Latinos (Hispanic Americans) are the fastest growing
minority group in the US. (the descendants of early
Spanish settlers + immigrants during WWII)
After the war, large numbers of immigrants continued to
move to the US illegally. In 1953, Operation Wetback
attempted to deport illegals, but it failed.
Mexican Americans and others were slower to develop
political influence because of their foreign language,
family-centered culture and discrimination. One of the
efforts to organize Mexican Americans occurred in CA,
where Cesar Chavez created a union of farm workers. In
1965, his United Farm Workers (UFW) launched a strike
to demand recognition of their union and increased
wages and benefits.
11. Hispanic Americans cont.
Another controversy was the issue of bilingualism.
Supporters argued that non-English-speaking Americans
were entitled to schooling in their own language.
In 1974, the Supreme Court confirmed the right of non-
English-speaking students to schooling in their native
language.
“Melting pot" -- came in 1960s, when more and more
new immigrant groups wanted to maintain their culture
and heritage and refused the idea of assimilation, which
became successful and led to the creation of the
multiculturalism in the U.S.
12. Gay Liberation
Gay Liberation-- in the 1960s, homosexuals won
political and economic rights and social acceptance.
“Stonewall Riot”- On June 27, 1969, police raided the
Stonewall Inn, a gay nightclub in New York City’s
Greenwich Village. Gay onlookers taunted the police
and attacked them. Rioting continued in Greenwich
Village through the night ---the beginning of the
movement.
Impact- The movement helped gays and lesbians to
express their preferences openly and to demand from
society a recognition that gay relationships were as
worthy as heterosexual ones.
13. Gay Liberation cont.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton lifted the ban on gays
serving in the military, but “Don’t ask, don’t tell” met
with criticism from the Congress. In 2010, President
Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
v George W. Bush proposed a constitutional
amendment to ban same-sex marriage
15. Women’s Liberation
The 1963 publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
played an important role in women’s liberation. Friedan stated that
women didn’t have outlets for their intelligence, talent, and education.
The Feminine Mystique was a book by Betty Friedan who traveled
around the country and interviewed the women who had graduated
with her from Smith College in 1947.
The Feminine Mystique reflects the fact that during the 1960s,
feminism tended to be a movement of middle -class women.
John Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status
of Women which brought national attention to sexual discrimination
and helped to create important work of feminist activists.
With this, in 1963, the Kennedy administration helped passage of the
Equal Pay Act, which barred the pervasive practice of paying women
less then men for equal work. And Title VII of Civil Rights Act, that
extended to women many legal protections against discrimination.
16. Women’s Liberation cont.
In 1966, Friedan and other feminists created the National
Organization for Women (NOW) which became the largest
and most influential feminist organization.
It demanded greater educational opportunities for women
and denounce the domestic ideal and the traditional
concept of marriage.·
Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics (1969) signaled the new
direction of women’s movement by arguing that the answer
to women’s problem was to band together to assault the
male power structure.
17. Expanding Achievements
By the early 1970s, Women got rapid progress in the
economic and political mainstream. More educational
institution began to accept women, so did women’s
college.
Women were also becoming an important force in
business and the professions.
many women refused to adopt their husbands’ names;
women began to compete effectively with men for both
elected and appointive positions.
17
18. Expanding Achievements cont.
In professional athletics, women were beginning to
compete with men both for attention and for an equal
share of prize money.
In 1972, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA). The ERA was in trouble because of the rising
objections from people who feared that it would disrupt
the social patterns..
19. The Abortion Controversy
Abortion was allowed in much of the United States,
but banned in most of the country in the early 20th
century. Women’s movement created strong new
pressure on behalf of legalizing abortion.
Result: In 1973, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe
v. Wade, based on a relatively new theory of a
constitutional “right to private”, invalidated all laws
prohibiting abortion during the first three months of
pregnancy.
21. The New Science of Ecology
Ecology is the science of the interrelatedness of the
natural world. All elements of the earth’s environment
are intimately and delicately linked, and damage any
one of those elements will risk damage all the others.
Between 1945 and 1960, the number of ecologists in
the United States grew rapidly, and that number
double against between 1960 and 1970.
22. The New Science of Ecology cont.
In 1949, the writer and naturalist Aldo Leopold published a
classic of environmental literature, The Sand County
Almanac, in which he argued that human have a
responsibility to understand and maintain the balance of
the nature, and it had the greatest contribution to popular
knowledge of ecology.
In 1962, the book called Silent Spring wrote by Rachel
Carson had a large important in the emerging ideas of
ecology. She found the damaging effect of DDT on the
animals and inhibiting the ability of others to reproduce.
23. Environmental Advocacy, Degradation
and Earth Day
Among the most important environmental organizations of the
late 20th and early 21st centuries were the Wilderness Society, the
Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, the Nature
Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation, and the National
Parks and Conservation Association
There was a new generation of professional environmental
activists able to contribute to the legal and political battles of the
movement, like scientists, lawyers, and lobbyists.
Water and air pollution (like “smog” level) was becoming
widespread around the world. Environmentalists also brought to
public attention some longer-term dangers of unchecked
industries development.
Los Angeles, today, is one of the polluted cities in the nation,
along with other cities in California, such as Bakerfield. 23
24. Environmental Advocacy, Degradation
and Earth Day cont.
The First “Earth Day” was on April 22, 1970, which was
originally proposed by Wisconsin senator Gaylord
Nelson as a series of teach-ins on college campuses
In 1970, Congress passed and President Nixon signed
the National Environmental Protection Act, which create
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce
antipollution standards on business and consumers.
The Clean Air Act, passed in 1970, and the Clean Water
Act, passed in 1972, added tools to the government’s
power against environmental degradation.
26. Vietnamization
Henry Kissinger was President Nixon’s national security
adviser.
Part of the new Vietnam policy was an effort to limit
domestic opposition to the war. The administration devised
a new “lottery” system, which only a limited group would be
subject to conscription in the draft.
More important in stifling dissent was the new policy of
“Vietnamization” of the war – the training of the South
Vietnamese military. In 1969, Pres.Nixon announced a slow
reduction of 60,000 American ground troops from Vietnam
which continued steadily.
Vietnamization helped quiet domestic opposition to the war.
But it didn’t break the stalemate in the negotiations with the
North Vietnamese in Paris.
27. Escalation
Nixon ordered the air force to bomb Cambodian
territory to destroy the enemy sanctuaries.
The invasion restored the antiwar movement in the US.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in
Washington, D.C. to denounce Pres. Nixon’s policies in
the first days of May.
On May 4, four college students were killed by the
National Guard when trying to protest at Kent State
University.
∀ In June 1971, the New York Times began publishing
excerpts from a secret study of the war prepared by the
Defense Department known as the Pentagon Papers,
which provided evidence of the government’s
dishonesty in reporting military progress.
28. Escalation cont.
By 1971, many urged American withdrawal from
Vietnam. Nixon refused.The FBI and CIA intensified
their surveillance and infiltration of antiwar and radical
groups.
In March 1972, American and South Vietnamese
forces managed to halt the communist advance. Nixon
ordered planes to bomb targets near Hanoi and
Haiphong to stop the flow of supplies from China and
the Soviet Union.
29. “Peace with Honor”
In April 1972, Kissinger met privately in Paris with the
North Vietnamese foreign secretary, Le Duc Tho, to work
out terms for cease-fire. On Oct. 26, he announced that a
“Peace with Honor” agreement was at hand. But on Dec.
16, talks broke off.
December 17, American B-52 bombers began again the
air raids on Hanoi, Haiphong and other North Vietnamese
targets. Civilian casualties were high.
On Dec. 30 Nixon terminated the “Christmas bombing.”
The U.S. and North Vietnamese signed an agreement on
ending the war on Jan. 27, 1973.
30. Defeat in Indochina
In March 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a full-
scale offensive against the weakened forces of the south.
Pres.Thieu of South Vietnam appealed to Washington for
assistance; the Congress refused.
In April 1975, communist forces marched into Saigon.
Pres.Thieu regime fled the country. The communist took
over the capital, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City. In
Cambodia, the Lon Nol regime fell to the communists of
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
U.S. spent almost $150 billion in this war. 55,000 young
Americans died. 300,000 more were injured. The nation
suffered a heavy blow to its confidence and self-esteem.
32. China
America had recognized Taiwan as the legitimate
government of mainland China. In July 1971, Pres.Nixon
sent Kissinger secretly to Beijing. That fall, the UN
admitted the communist government of China and
expelled the representatives of the Taiwan regime.
In February 1972, Nixon went to China. He was the first
American president to visit China. The US and China
began diplomatic relations.
33. Soviet Union
v In 1969, American and Soviet diplomats talked on
limiting nuclear weapons.
Nixon’s visit to Soviet Union led to a series of
agreements that reduced tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union. The most important
agreements were:
In 1972, they produced the first Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which limited the number of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine
launched missiles each superpower could have in its
arsenal.
“Detente,” the foreign policy of decreasing
tensions with the Soviet Union, began in the first term
of Nixon administration.
There was also a series of agreements
that expanded trade between the two
superpowers.
34. The Problems of Multipolarity
∀ The Nixon Doctrine (1969), was characterized by
a decline of American interest in contributing to
Third World development.
The Nixon-Kissinger policy toward the Third
World was to maintain a stable status quo without
involving the US in local disputes.
In 1970, the CIA helped support the established
government in Chile against a communist
challenge. When Salvador Allende, the Marxist,
came to power, the US began helping the
opposition forces to help destabilize the new
government. In 1973, the government was
overthrown by the army. The US developed
friendly relationship with General Augusto
Pinochet, a new leader of Chile.
35. The Problems of Multipolarity
cont.
In the Middle East, the 1967 “Six-Day War” increased the
number of Palestinian refugees. Jordan’s ruler, King Hussein,
was alarmed by the influx of Palestinians and by the activities
of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which would
threaten the relationship with US.
In Oct. 1973, on the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur, Egyptian
and Syrian forces attacked Israel. The Israelis launched a
counteroffensive against the forces in Sinai. The US
intervened, pressuring Israel to accept a cease-fire.
A painful embargo by the Arab governments on the sale of oil
to supporters of Israel in 1973 provided warning of the costs
of losing access to the region’s resources. It showed the
growing dependence of the US and its allies on Arab oil.
In 1973, the nations of the Third World could no longer be
expected to be passive client states. The US could no longer
depend on easy access to cheap raw materials.
37. Domestic Initiatives
Nixon’s domestic policies were a response to the
demands of his people – the “silent majority”,
conservative, middle class, who wanted to reduce
federal “interference” in local.
He began to reduce many of the social programs of the
Great Society (Lyndon B. Johnson, two main goals: the
elimination of poverty and racial injustice )and the New
Frontier, (John F. Kennedy, looked for new opportunity in
space, medicine, technology and social relations )
In 1973, he abolished the Office of Economic
Opportunity, which is the center of the antipoverty
program of the Johnson administration.
38. Domestic Initiatives cont.
Nixon proposed to replaced the existing welfare system,
with the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), which created a
guaranteed annual income for all Americans
Although Nixon proposed this plan, he presented it as
something that would reduce the role of government and
transfer to welfare recipients themselves daily
responsibility for their own lives.
It passed the House in 1970, but not the Senate.
39. From the Warren Court to the
Nixon Court
In Engel v. Vitale(1962), the Court ruled that prayers in
public schools violated the constitutional separation of
church and state.
The Court greatly strengthened the civil rights of
criminal defendants. For example, In Miranda v.
Arizona, the Court confirmed the obligation of
authorities to inform a criminal suspect of his or her
rights.
The Warren Court became the target of Americans
who felt the balance of power had shifted too far
toward the poor and dispossessed at the expense of
the middle class, and toward criminal at the expense
of law-abiding citizens.
40. From the Warren Court to the Nixon
Court cont.
In 1962, Baker v. Carr, the Court required state legislatures to
distribute proportionally electoral districts so that all citizens'
votes would have equal weight. It strengthened the voting
power of African Americans, Hispanics, and others
concentrated in cities.
Nixon replaced the Court with Warren Burger. The new Court
become more committed.
In Swann v. Charlotte-Meckelenburg Board of Education,
Court ruled in favor of the use of forced busing to achieve
racial balance in schools.
Roe v. Wade, it struck down laws forbidding abortions.
Bake v. Broad of Regents of California, ruled unconstitutional
the admission process of the Medical School at the University
of California at Davis, which set aside 16 of the 100 seats for
African American students.
41. The Election of 1972
In the election of 1972,
Nixon’s reelection
committee collected
money to support the
campaign. He himself
used the powers of the
president concentrating
on highly publicized
international decisions
and state visits.
George Wallace ran in
the Democratic
primaries. But Nixon
feared that Wallace
would launch a third-
party campaign again.
42. The Election of 1972 cont.
The Democrats nominated George McGovern, who
profited greatly from party reforms that reduced the
power of party leaders and gave increased influence to
women, blacks and young people.
Nixon won reelection. 60.7% vs 37.5%. 520 to 17.
43. The Troubled Economy
For past three decades, the American economy had
produced as much as the third of the world's industrial
goods and has dominated international trade, because
of the absence of significant foreign competition and
easy access to raw materials.
Inflation was the most disturbing economic problem of
the 1970s. That was caused by a significant increase
in federal deficit spending which tried to fund the war
in Vietnam without raising taxes. It was also caused by
the harder access to cheap raw materials.
Domestic petroleum reserves were no longer sufficient
to meet demand, the nation was heavily dependent on
imports from the Middle East and Africa.
44. The Troubled Economy cont.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) in
the 1970s began to use its oil both as an economic tool
and as a political weapon by cutting the ship of
Petroleum to nations supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur
War.
Another problem of American economy: the decline of
nation's manufacturing sector because the U.S
manufacturing faced major competition from abroad and
also at home.
Deindustrialization: The result was a growing pool of
unemployed and underemployed workers; the virtual
disappearance of industrial jobs; the impoverishment of
communities dependent on oracular industries.
45. The Nixon Response
Nixon responded to this economic problems by
focusing on the control of the currency to reduce the
inflation.
But his response didn’t solve the problem. The U.S.
encountered a new dilemma: “stagflation,” a
combination of rising prices and general economic
stagnation.
In the summer of 1971, Nixon imposed a 90 days
freeze on all wages and prices. In November, he
launched Phase II of his economic plan: mandatory
guidelines for wage and price increases, to be
administered by a federal agency.
46. The Nixon Response cont.
In 1971, the administration reversed itself: interest rates
were allowed to drop and government spending was
increased. This helped revive the economy in the short
term.
The nation’s international trade continued to decline in
the 1970s
