War Abroad, War at Home 1965-1974

1. 29 War Abroad, War at Home 1965-1974

2. War Abroad, War at Home1965-1974 • The Vietnam War • A Generation in Conflict • Wars on Poverty • 1968: Year of Turmoil • The Politics of Identity • The Nixon Presidency • Conclusion

3. Chapter Focus Questions • Why did President Johnson escalate the war in Vietnam? • How did campus protests shape national political debate? • What were the goals of Johnson’s Great Society? • What divided the Democratic Party in 1968?

4. Chapter Focus Questions (cont'd) • How did Richard Nixon win the presidential election in 1968? • What is meant by the “politics of identity”?

5. North America and Chicago

6. Uptown, Chicago, Illinois (cont'd) • In 1964, a small group of college students tried to help residents in a poor Chicago neighborhood. • The activists were members of Students for a Democratic Society.

7. Uptown, Chicago, Illinois (cont'd) • Founded by white college students, SDS initially sought reform and grew by 1968 to have 350 chapters and between 60,000 and 100,000 members. • Efforts to mobilize the urban poor were unsuccessful, but SDS members helped break down isolation and strengthened community ties.

8. Uptown, Chicago, Illinois (cont'd) • By 1967, SDS energies were being directed into protests against the widening war in Vietnam.

9. The Vietnam War

10. The massive bombing and ground combat created huge numbers of civilian casualties in Vietnam. The majority killed were women and children.

11. Vietnam: America’s Longest War • The Vietnam War had its roots in the Truman Doctrine and containment. Divided after France was defeated in 1954, Vietnam became, in JFK’s words, “the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia, the keystone in the arch, the finger in the dike,” against the spread of communism, and, in LBJ’s words, a fight for American principles.

12. Vietnam: America’s Longest War (cont’d) • The U.S paid a huge price for its determination to turn back communism in Indochina. More than 58,000 Americans died in a war that only deepened divisions at home.

13. Johnson’s War • Although pledging not to send American soldiers into combat, LBJ manipulated Congress into passing The Tonkin Gulf Resolution that was tantamount to a declaration of war. When bombing failed to halt North Vietnamese advances, Johnson sent large numbers of troops into Vietnam to prevent a Communist victory.

14. Deeper into the Quagmire • Search-and-destroy missions combined with chemical warfare wreaked havoc on the people and the land. • LBJ was committed to a war of attrition to wear out and destroy Vietnam. • By the end of 1965, 165,000 troops were in Vietnam with more to come.

15. Deeper into the Quagmire (cont'd) • Fearful of losing momentum for his domestic policies, LBJ deceived Congress and the public about the war’s progress.

16. The Credibility Gap • Johnson’s popularity waned rapidly as the war went on and it became a TV war fought on the nightly news each evening. • News media increasingly questioned the official descriptions of the war. • As casualties mounted, more Americans questioned LBJ’s handling of the war.

17. The Credibility Gap (cont'd) • In Congress, Democratic senators led by J. William Fulbright opposed Johnson’s handling of the conflict. • Despite a small tax hike, the costs of war fueled inflation.

18. A Generation in Conflict

19. A young hippie girl making a flower out of tissue

20. A Generation in Conflict • As the war in Vietnam escalated, Americans from all walks of life protested U.S. involvement. But between 1965 and 1971, a peace movement took shape that had a distinctly generational character.

21. A Generation in Conflict (cont’d) • This so-called sixties generation, the largest generation in American history, brought together SDS activism with music, dress and hairstyles as “flower children” rejected their elders’ authority and formed an increasingly insistent anti-war movement.

22. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” • People of all ages protested against the war, but young people stood out. • Early campus protests at Berkeley centered on students’ rights to free speech. • In 1967, San Francisco attracted thousands of young people for the “Summer of Love.”

23. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (cont'd) • Events like the Woodstock festival gave witness to the ideals of the counterculture.

24. From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization • College students organized protests that questioned the war effort and universities’ roles in war-related research. • Student strikes merged opposition to the war and other community issues. • Public opinion polarized. • Massive anti and pro-war rallies occurred.

25. From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization (cont'd) • Nonviolent and violent protests erupted at draft boards. • May 8, 1970, New York construction workers disrupt antiwar rally with violence.

26. Construction workers surged into Wall Street in Lower Manhattan

27. Teenage Soldiers • The cultural attitudes of protesters were even found among their equally young GI counterparts. • Working-class Latinos and African-American young men made up a disproportionate share of the soldiers.

28. Teenage Soldiers (cont'd) • Many soldiers grew increasingly bitter over government lies about their alleged victories and the inability of society to accept them once they returned home.

29. Wars on Poverty

30. FIGURE 29.3 Percent of Population Below Poverty Level, by Race, 1959–69

31. Wars on Poverty • The 1960s civil rights movement spurred a new concern with poverty at home. Building on Kennedy’s legacy, Johnson pledged to expand antipoverty programs, pushing the most ambitious reform program since the New Deal through Congress.

32. Wars on Poverty (cont’d) • Ironically, violence at home as well as abroad ultimately undercut his aspiration to wage “an unconditional war on poverty.”

33. FIGURE 29.1 Comparative Figures on Life Expectancy at Birth by Race and Sex, 1950–70

34. FIGURE 29.2 Comparative Figures on Infant Mortality by Race, 1940–70

35. The Great Society • In 1964 Congress created the Office of Economic Opportunity to lead the war on poverty. • The Job Corps failed, but VISTA and agencies focusing on education were more successful.

36. The Great Society (cont'd) • Community Action Programs threatened to become a new political force that challenged those in power. The Legal Service Program and Head Start made differences in the lives of the poor.

37. The Great Society • The Great Society was opposed to income redistribution. • Most social spending went to the non-poor through Medicare. • A 1970 study concluded the war on poverty had barely scratched the surface.

38. Crisis in the Cities • Post war urban policies focused on suburbs and transportation for the middle and upper classes. • Cities became segregated centers of poverty and pollution with large minority populations.

39. Crisis in the Cities (cont'd) • Continued migration of African Americans, whites from Appalachia, and Puerto Ricans only increased urban problems as cities reached the boiling point.

40. Urban Uprisings • Urban black frustrations resulted in over 100 riots in northern cities between 1964 and 1968. • In Watts, Newark and Detroit, rioters battled police and National Guard troops, leaving dozens dead and thousands injured, with more arrested.

41. Urban Uprisings (cont'd) • A presidential commission blamed the rioting on white racism, poverty, and police brutality, and recommended massive social reforms.

42. MAP 29.1 Urban Uprisings, 1965–1968

43. 1968: Year of Turmoil

44. 1968: Year of Turmoil • 1968 proved much more turbulent than previous years. • Many questioned why things had become so violent. • Unrest spread abroad, with riots in Europe, and Latin America and the Cultural Revolution in China.

45. MAP 29.2 The Southeast Asian War

46. The Tet Offensive • On January 30, 1968 the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, shattering the credibility of American officials who had been predicting a quick victory. • Despite the military victory, media reports triggered antiwar protests in America as well as in Paris, Rome, Berlin and London.

47. The Tet Offensive (cont'd) • LBJ declared a bombing halt and announced he would not seek reelection.

48. King, the War and the Assassination • By 1968, Martin Luther King had broken with LBJ on Vietnam and had announced a massive Poor People’s Campaign. • King came to Memphis to support a strike by black sanitation workers. • On April 4, King was shot and killed while standing on his motel balcony. • Rioting broke out in over 100 cities.

49. The Democrats in Disarray • Polarization split the Democratic Party. Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy both sought the anti-war vote. • Kennedy appeared unbeatable, but was assassinated after winning the California primary. • Hubert Humphrey won the nomination from a bitterly divided party without entering a single primary.

50. “The Whole World is Watching!” • The Democratic convention was the scene of a major confrontation between protesters and police. • Determined to prevent disruptive anti-war protests, Mayor Daley unleashed a police riot captured on national TV.