United States History from 1877
to the Present Day
An Online United States History Course
The Vietnam War, Affluent Times,
the Sixties and the Seventies (2 1/2 Weeks)
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War is the most costly war in United States History in many ways. It cost 58,000 lives, almost 400,000 wounded and mentally anguished, and billions of dollars. But that is only part of the cost of the war. The war divided the nation as almost no other event has divided this nation since the American Civil War. More than 2,300 are unaccounted for and classified as missing in action. Another (estimated) 250,000 left America to escape the draft. Many never returned. It cost the American people its innocence and youth. It brought about the drug culture as many young people began experimenting with narcotics. It helped to bring about great changes in family life. Many of the homeless living in American cities were veterans of the Vietnam War who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and were not capable of living in shelters or hospitals. Agent Orange, a defoliant to clear the jungle of leaves in Vietnam, caused cancer and heart disease among many other ailments to Vietnam soldiers. Many have died.
Link to Page
Link to Page:
Vietnam Timeline
Link to Page: Letter
Fashion, Fads, and Fun
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Buttons and collectables such as dolls and Figurines were big in the 1960's.
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Tie-dyed T-shirts
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Long stringy hair
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Unisex fashions
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Batman and Robin
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Mini-skirts
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Turtle necks
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Granny dresses
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Banana seat bicycles
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Sack dresses
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Bell-bottomed pants
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Sade Hawkins Dances
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Plastic flowers, in the hair, on hats, in flower beds, on the walls, on the V. W. cars and micro-buses
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Shag carpet and rugs
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Beatles hair and Beatles boots
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Corny jokes and country humor
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Laugh-in TV Show
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The Gas and Oil Crisis
The Beatles and the British Invasion.
In the early 1960's, the popular culture and music turned to all things British and the music of the Beatles (or groups with a similar sound). Fashion, art, television, and movies were all influenced by the British wave and the music of the Beatles.
The Elections of 1960 and 1968
The elections of 1960 and 1968 in United States are very important. In 1960 the front runner, vice-president Richard Nixon, was the leading contender to take over after Dwight David Eisenhower chose to leave office after eight years. He was challenged by the newcomer, Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy. While fairly new to politics, the Kennedy name was famous. His father, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., was a Hollywood producer and and his brother had died heroically in World War II. His mother, Rose Kennedy, was a Fitzgerald, related to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Kennedy Family had a great deal of wealth and mounted a great campaign for John. The money and a series of presidential debates between Kennedy and Nixon made for a narrow loss for Nixon. It made politics in America more expensive, selling the presidency like a box of soap or can of soda.
In 1968, a three-way race for the presidency pitted Richard Nixon, Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr., and George C. Wallace against each other. Humphrey was not the first choice of the Democratic Party. Robert F. Kennedy was the obvious choice in 1968 and most likely would have won, but was shot and killed before the Democratic Nominating Convention was held in August of 1968. Humphrey and Wallace were both Democrats, but when Wallace saw that his chances of winning the nomination were slim, he ran on his own third-party ticket, The American Party. Wallace won votes that would have probably gone to Humphrey and allowed Nixon a narrow margin of victory, about the same margin of victory that John Kennedy won with in 1960.
Link to Page: 1960 Election
Link to Page: Election of 1968
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Nehru jackets
Watergate is the name given to the scandal involving President Richard Nixon and his staff after the discovery of the break-in at the Democratic Nation headquarters, whose offices were in the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, D. C. in 1972. The FBI and other investigations established that the purpose of the theft of documents, such as letterhead paper, and itineraries, was for disruption of Democratic political events during the presidential campaign. It also involved wiretapping phones and spying. Money from a huge campaign “slush” fund for President Nixon’s re-election campaign paid the burglars and paid for travel and other expenses. His “smoking gun” was a series of secretly recorded conversations secretly taped in the oval office of the President. The court ordered all tapes turned over for evidence, but Nixon originally refused. The court then ordered that only nine tapes be submitted, the ones dealing with the possible discussion of the planning for the break-in. However, Nixon made his own transcribed copies of the tapes for the court. The transcribed tapes contained large gaps. Richard Nixon was the first president to resign while in office. He left on August 9th, 1974 and the appointed vice-president Gerald R. Ford assumed the duties of the Presidency. Ford was not elected in 1976. Gerald Ford is the only president who served without the validation of the Electoral College vote.
An Oil Embargo of 1973 hurt the U.S. economy because of the United States’ dependence imported oil. The President Richard M. Nixon administration wanted to end the embargo. OPEC demanded that foreign oil corporations increase prices and give more of the profits to the local gas stations, many operated by Middle Eastern people. The Nixon administration put forth an energy plan to make America less dependent on imported oil and to explore alternative energy resources. Unfortunately, the plan was voluntary. Nixon said dependence on foreign oil supplies made the United States hostage to price increases and shortages. The gas crisis reoccurred in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter became embroiled in the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Carter reduced the speed on the nation’s highways to 55 miles per hour and started the Department of Energy.
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy was the youngest person elected U.S. President and the first Roman Catholic to serve as president. His presidency came represented by the youthful idealism after World War II. Jackie and John Kennedy were a beautiful couple. He was full of energy. He was often seen playing a game of touch football or sailing a boat off the Martha's Vineyard coastline. For many Americans, the public murder of President Kennedy remains one of the most traumatic events in memory. For some living Americans, they can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. His shocking death ended the innocence of the idyllic 1950's and ushered in an era of caution and foreboding. Kennedy represented so much more than a political leader. His Boston accent, his good looks, his dress and that of Jackie, set trends, changed hearts and minds, and made the country feel it could do anything and do it well. His famous words of putting a man on the moon seemed possible and real to the people of the time.
United States-Soviet Space Cooperation during the Cold War
By Roald Sagdeev, University of Maryland, and Susan Eisenhower, The Eisenhower Institute
Russian space scientist Roald Z. Sagdeev spent a large part of his career viewing NASA from the Soviet Union’s side of the Cold War divide. Sagdeev, the former head of the Russian Space Research Institute, now is the director of the University of Maryland’s East-West Space Science Center. He wrote this essay with his wife, Susan Eisenhower (President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughter) that traces the long, hard path to space cooperation until the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991. Continue Reading Link
Lyndon Baines Johnson was from Texas and became the most powerful Congress member in many years. Possibly the most powerful ever. He had begun his political career campaigning for Franklin Roosevelt. He became a W. P. A. administrator under the New Deal. He ran for Congress and won. He represented a very large district that included Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. He secured a number of “pork barrel” awards for the state, mostly military bases and naval ports. He also was able to gain funding for placing NASA facilities and grants to build homes for the astronauts in the Houston area. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in to become president. In 1964, Johnson was elected over Berry Goldwater, the Republican, in the largest landslide of majority votes ever in U. S. history. During his presidency he gained passage of legislation to help the civil rights movement, including The Civil Right Act of 1964, The Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also ended the artificial barrios to voting that had kept poor people and minorities from voting. He also started the programs of the Great Society, which included Head Start, Medicaid, Medicare reform, restructuring of Social Security, the Tax Adjustment Act of 1966, the Public Broadcasting System, a host of educational institution reforms, and granted to aid poor people for staying in school and attending college. He appointed the first African American to the Supreme Court. He often faced strong opposition to his programs from conservative old-line Democrats from the South who wished to hang on to segregated facilities and exclude voters who might vote for them. Johnson did not run for reelection in 1968. The Vietnam War was taking a toll on the nation. Johnson’s support had greatly eroded because of the war in Southeast Asia. Johnson will long be remembered as the brash and confrontational man from Texas who was not above twisting a few arms to get what he thought to be right for the nation. His speech in private was often vulgar. He, however, will be long remember for his improvements to society for the poor, disadvantaged, and downtrodden. Few who lived through the 1960’s will forget, "My fellow Americans, I come to you today with a heavy heart..."
The Cold War
The collapse of Communism was not a quick event. It occurred over many years because of a lack of ability by the Soviet Union to adequately feed its people and still provide huge portions of the government budget to provide nuclear and conventional weapons. Historians often credit Ronald Reagan, very tough on communism for many years, as the architect who crippled its existence. It did not begin with Reagan however, Richard Nixon and his policy of détente was the real instigator for the end of the communist system. He worked closely with Soviet and Chines governments to regulate nuclear weapons and to negotiate peace agreements which were further carried out by Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In his now famous speech at the Berlin Wall, Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Soon after, the wall was torn down and the Soviets began making plans for an economic system based on capitalism and a government with democracy at its forefront.
The Bikini was invented in 1946 after testing on nuclear bombs was conducted in the Bikini Atoll Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The inventor was French designer Louis Reard. The original design was known as the Atoll bikini and was unveiled to great criticism and yet, great acclaim. As the actress Ursula Andress said, “A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring. The bikini made me a success.” Many of the young actresses of the 1950’s and 1960’s appeared in what was dubbed, “Bikini Movies.” James Bond films and Elvis movies relied heavily on bikini clad women to sell their films.
Sputnik and the Space Race
The Soviet Union launched a satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit on October 4, 1957. Sputnik I brought about new political, military, technological, and scientific developments in the United States, as well as educational requirements for high school students graduating after the launch. This marked the start of the space race. After the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. America felt hopelessly behind the communist. The US developed the NASA agency and did in 1969 land men on the moon, besting the Soviets. They continued making a space station and reusable space shuttle.
The U. S. has a great fondness for the post war years of World War II. A fondness and nostalgic appeal bursts forth when they think of sock hops, drive-in Movies, poodle skirts and baggy khaki pants. The years before the 1960’s seem idyllic, almost perfect. It seemed as if America had no problems. America loved their president Ike (Dwight David Eisenhower) and worked hard in factory jobs. Times were changing, however. The Red Scare (the fear of the spread of communism), Juvenile delinquency, rise of drugs and alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, civil rights, the death of John Kennedy, and the looming Vietnam War were about to destroy this tranquility and lead to a time of lost youth, bigotry, and protest.
The Affluent 1950's
OPEC OIL EMBARGO - 1973
The War on Poverty: The Great Society
read more
The War on Poverty is the name the media gave to the legislation of President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined in his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This propose was to respond to the high national poverty rate. It led to the United States passage of the Economic Opportunity Act to administer federal funds targeted against poverty.
It included aid to education and health care. These policies were directly taken from Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Johnson had been a "New Dealer" and avid supporter of FDR. He had been in charge of work programs in his home state of Texas during the Great Depression. It drew heavily from Truman's and the Four Freedoms of 1941.
The legacy of the War on Poverty policy initiative remains in the continued existence of such federal programs as Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), TRIO, Job Corps,.and Head Start.
The Middle East and Israel
The Middle East in the 1970’s erupted in much violence and even war. Terrorism, plane hijackings, and fighting between Syria, Israel, Egypt, Iraq and Iran are just a few of the many events of that time period. The fight over the Gaza Strip, disputed land claimed by the Palestinians, was critical to the unrest in the area. The Six-Day War occurred in June 1967. From June 5th and June 10th,
Yasser Arafat, PLO
the Israeli Army defended the war as a military effort to counter an impending attack nations close to Israel. The Six-Day War was initiated by General Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Defense Minister.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis
Iran Hostage Crisis 1979 (ABC News Report From 11/11/1979)
The Counterculture
A counterculture is any group whose behavior, values, customs, and traditions differ greatly from the rest of society, often expressing different cultural norms and morals.
A counter cultural movement is often greatly characterized as the Hippie movement of the 1960's and 1970's who lived in communal farms and took over abandoned buildings in downtown centers. The Hippies protested the war and what they said were hypocritical lifestyles of adult Americans, the perceived corruption of corporations, and the established religions. When opposition forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes.
The Bohemian movement of the last two centuries is one example. The the Beat Generation of Post-World War II, with such brazen leaders as Herbert Hunckel, and writers such as Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959), and Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957), which are the best known examples of Beat literature that influenced the followers of the "beats," are still read and researched today. Coffee houses and strange poetry and music were also characteristics of the beatnicks. Goths and punks would be more modern examples of countercultures.
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon LINK
Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite was an American journalist, analysist, and celebrity in the 1960s. His treatment of the war in Vietnam, his announcement of John Kennedy’s death, his denunciation of the Watergate Scandal, and his beloved grandfatherly way made him the trusted name in news of any kind. He was the anchor of the CBS Nightly News with Walter Cronkite for two decades. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri but moved to Houston, Texas in 1927. He had been an avid reader of anything in print, but knew little about radio announcing. Because of his Mid-western voice, radio hired him because he lacked a strong accent.
In 1950 he was hired by the
then famous newscaster
Edward R. Morrow for the
Columbia Broadcasting
System (CBS). He knew
nothing of television and
didn’t even own one. He
became popular with a
morning show and his fan
base grew because of his
even temperament and
often staccato voice. He
retired in 1981 after covering some of the most important event ever in U. S. History.
Gerald Ford-Remarks on Pardoning Richard Nixon (September 8, 1974)
Ford and Carter
Carter Ford Debate Technical Difficulties 1976
Gerald Ford has the distinction of being the only U. S. President that never received even one vote to become president. He was appointed by Richard Nixon to fill out the term of Spiro Agnew, his vice president, when Agnew had to resign over tax fraud and bribery charges. When Nixon himself was forced to resign over The Watergate Scandal, Gerald Ford replaced him. When Ford ran for election in 1976, he is defeated by Jimmy Carter, the former Governor of Georgia.
Carter was a brilliant man who had commanded nuclear submarines in the Navy. Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. Even though Carter was a smart man, having a nuclear physics degree, he could not break into the Washington, D. C. political establishment. He had great trouble working with Congress, even his own Democratic Party membership. He was saddled with many problems. Some were the same problems Gerald Ford had experienced. He faced high oil prices, unemployment, inflation, slow economic growth and the Iran Hostage Crisis, in which he could not bring home the Americans captured by Iranian militant college students. Captives were held for 444 days. Daring rescue attempts by the Carter Administration ended in disaster. In spite of the problems, Carter did create two new Cabinet level position in energy and technology. He met with Egyptian and Israelis officials to create the historic Camp David Accords to bring peace to the region, winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980 in one of the largest margins ever in election history.
Nuclear Power
On March 26, 1979, the nuclear reactor station at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania malfunctioned and released steam that had particles of radioactive materials within. This resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor core. This was the most significant event in the nuclear power generation story in U. S. history. It scared people and sparked protests that ultimately shutdown most of the nuclear power research in America. This was coupled with the events at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986. Because the Soviet Union was censoring most of its news at the time, American were not able to gather much information about these events. The world did gather that many people were burned and suffered from the events and that nearby Finland did receive much of the radioactive winds that blew their way.
Popular Fads of the 1950’s
Ant Farms Hula Hoops
Pogo Sticks Lincoln Logs
Tinker Toys Bubble Gum Cigars
Car Hops on Skates Skating Rinks
Coonskin Caps Cowboy everything
Duck Tail Hairdos 3D Movies
Letter Sweaters Leather Jackets
PEZ Dispensers Penny Candy
Poodle Skirts Mr. Potato Head (with real potato)
Boomerangs Wool Suits
Comic Books TV Sitcoms
Drag Racing Soda Fountains
Crime Drama Mickey Mouse Club
Station wagons Stuffing phone booths