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The Sixties and Seventies
Hyperlinked materials are considered part of each lecture and
should be reviewed.
The sixties began with the election of the charismatic John F.
Kennedy
(famous inauguration speech)
click on left side Great Speeches and then use search function)
and renewed optimism among the American public. Kennedy's New
Frontier initiatives bogged down in congressional stalemate. Cold
War confrontations over Berlin and Cuba (Cuban
Missile Crisis)
created threats of nuclear war
listen to this audio clip from JFK.
Countering Third World communism through flexible response led the
administration into dangerous involvement in
Vietnam
(also a PBS overview
Vietnam)
and elsewhere. Returning to my Dickens' quote, in many ways, the
sixties seem to be the best of times and the worst of times. The
postwar prosperity was at its peak, at the same time: racial strife,
a military conflict in Vietnam and student protests made our country
shutter.
Returning to my small personal snapshot of
history, as a young college student, my life was changed forever by
the historical and personal events of this time period. In 1967, I
was accepted at Canisius College but did not have enough money to
attend. My grandfather, who had retired at age 75 from the Our Lady
of Victory Homes of Charity, suggested I apply for a job at the
"Homes". He introduced me to the Executive Director, Mr. William
Lang, who was kind enough to provide a year around part-time job
which enabled me to become the first person in my family to attend
college. The circle of history was becoming complete--the orphanage
which had provided for my grandfather's survival in the nineteenth
and early twentieth century and income in his old age, was now
providing for my future! However, I cannot resist telling you the
rest of the story. Mr. Lang's son also work at the "Homes". One
evening I stopped at Mr. Lang's house to visit Paul. He was not at
home, but his sister, Mary, answered the door--casting fate to the
wind, I asked this cute German-Irish girl if she would like to go
out to dinner. She accepted, we talked all evening about civil
rights, Vietnam, and the future. In 1971, we became husband and
wife--I had married the daughter of the Executive Director of the
organization that had saved my grandfather during the Gilded Age.
Unfortunately, the remainder of this lecture does not paint such an
optimistic picture of the sixties and seventies.
Assassinations claimed the lives of John F.
Kennedy
listen to the
actual broadcast--click on Play Icon for connection)
also Please watch this video
clips from the History Channel
Assassination of JFK,
Assassination of Robert Kennedy
and
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
( view
I Have A Dream) as the country
struggled to restore its equilibrium. Lyndon Johnson succeeded
Kennedy and overwhelmingly defeated Goldwater.
Johnson
utilized his huge congressional majorities to push through a
substantial number of pieces of "Great Society" legislation (to end
poverty and illiteracy) including: Medicare, Medicaid, Aid for poor
school districts and increased funding for higher education, and
public housing. The movement for integration and voting rights won
victories with the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. But the demands for greater change resulted in
the rise of the
Black Panthers
and Malcom X
(View this video clip from the History Channel
Malcom X
and the Black Muslim Movement. Continued frustration and
discrimination resulted in race riots as Northern inner city
neighborhoods erupted in violence and flames. Other groups including
Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Gays, and Women used
various techniques to promote their demands for equal rights
throughout the sixties and seventies.
The Supreme Court continued to take an
active role in protecting the rights of the individual and in many
ways expanded its potential to "make laws" rather than the
interpretation of the law as defined by judicial review. Key cases
included:
*Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) required that
state courts provide counsel for indigent defendants.
*Escabedo v. Illinois (1964) required
police to inform an arrested person of his or her right to remain
silent.
* Miranda
v. Arizona
Read this intriguing story!! (1966) extended the ruling in Escobedo
to include the right to a lawyer being present during police
questioning and the actual "reading of Miranda Rights" upon arrest.
Hope you have not experience this lately.
*Roe v. Wade (1973)
CNN 25 Years Later
established the right of women to have an abortion under certain
restrictions.
Many baby boomers, attending colleges in
record numbers, embraced the essence of democracy, freedom and equal
rights. A counter culture developed rebelling against unresponsive
authority, unfair laws, poverty, discrimination and war--while
dreaming of utopia. You have seen portrayals on television: Pictures
of
Woodstock , A video clip from the History Channel
Woodstock, communes, free sex, recreational drugs, flower
children (the early environmental movement), hippies, music of
protest and escape. For many it was a good time and an excuse to
escape reality. Others attended protests for civil rights and
against the war in Vietnam which occurred in cities and on college
campuses throughout the United States. In 1970, four students at
Kent State University
-- also a video clip from the
History Channel
Kent State
and two students at
Jackson State in Mississippi were killed by authorities during
demonstrations. Many adult Americans were appalled and troubled by
the protests and the nightly television news coverage of the
brutality of the war (the first war fought in our livingrooms).
However, this fragmentation regarding our commitment in Vietnam was
unfair to the young men fighting and dying in Vietnam (visit
the Vietnam Memorial Wall
click on the Virtual Wall and
view this video clip from the History Channel
Vietnam
Memorial). Our society and government was becoming
ideologically polarized on a variety of issues. A brief moment of
pride was celebrated in 1969 as NASA landed a man on the moon-History
Channel Video of Neil Armstrong. This pride was tempered in 1970 by the
Apollo 13 disaster
(video clip)
Johnson escalated military involvement in
Vietnam. Video Clips from the History Channel
Gulf of Tonkin ,
My Lai Incident, As the number of troops and
casualties grew without significant military success, protests
against the war gained strength. Political opposition forced Johnson
not to seek reelection and the deep Democratic divisions over the
war enabled Nixon to win the White House. Nixon's "Vietnamization"
policy reduced American ground troop participation in the war, but
his invasion of Cambodia sparked massive protest. Nixon's journeys
to Communist Moscow and Beijing (Peking) established a new
relationship with this powers. View this video clip of
America Leaves Vietnam.
The 1972 election victory and cease fire in
Vietnam were negated when Nixon became involved in the
Watergate
scandal (a second site worth visiting
Watergate Info)
plus a video clip from the History Channel
Watergate
and congressional protest over the secret bombing of Cambodia, which
led to the
War Powers Act.
The Middle East War of 1973 and the Arab oil embargo created energy
and economic difficulties that lasted throughout the seventies.
Americans gradually realized their costly and dangerous dependence
on Middle Eastern oil and began initial steps toward conservation
and alternative energy sources. Ha!! You can tell that the United
States really paid attention to this lesson!! Gerald Ford, appointed
Vice President to replace Spiro T. Agnew who had resigned amid
scandalous accusations, became the first person elevated to the
Presidency solely by an act of Congress--when the Watergate scandal
forced Nixon to resign rather than face impeachment
Please watch this audio clip from
the History Channel
Nixon's Resignation.
A related
audio clip of Gerald Ford's Pardon of Richard Nixon.
In 1975, the Communist Vietnamese finally overran the South
Vietnamese government.
Campaigning against Washington and
Watergate, Jimmy Carter won the presidency, but proved unable to
master Congress or the economy once he took office. The
Camp David
agreement (video clip from the History Channel
Camp David)
brought peace between Egypt and Israel, but the Iranian revolution
led to new energy problems. The invasion of Afghanistan and the
holding of American hostages in Iran added to Carter's woes.
I just realized how bad it was to grow up
in the sixties--and I seemed to miss all the fun stuff!!! Take a few
moments to review many of the
issues, fashions, fads, films, television shows and other cultural
factoids of the 1960's!
How about a peak at the 1970's?
For each module I recommend that you visit A Biography of
America
http://learner.org/resources/series123.html# ,
an exceptional
video instructional series for high school and college students
produced by WGBH Boston in cooperation with the Library of Congress
and the National Archives and Records Administration. These thirty
minute lectures incorporate first person narratives, photographs,
film footage and documents related to various historical time
periods. Combined with my introductory comments, the required
textbooks and our discussions, I believe you will acquire a more
in-depth and enjoyable encounter with history. Please note the
requirements and possible download limitations—which is why this is
not a requirement. Please follow the directions below and give it a
try!!!!
You can view Annenberg/CPB programs of your
choice online with a broadband connection whenever you see this
icon.  There is no
charge for this service.
Simply select a
program and go
to the individual program description listing and click on the icon.
Free sign up required for first-time users. To hear the sound
and view video, you should have Windows Media Player, DSL, a
cable modem, or a LAN connection to a T1 line or greater, and have
Javascript enabled. For more information, please visit our
broadband FAQ.
For this topic—visit
http://learner.org/resources/series123.html#
and access
the presentation: The Sixties.
Our textbook offers a very comprehensive Online Student Learning
Center. Click on the link below, Select the appropriate chapter and
you will have access to: Chapter Objectives, Chapter in Perspective,
Chapter Overview, numerous Interactive Activities, Primary Source
documents and my favorite--Internet Exercises/Recommended Sites
Related to the Specific Topics--CHOOSE A CHAPTER
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072870982/student_view0/index.html
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