American History: A Survey
Chapter 32: The Crisis of Authority
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Four deaths resulted after a clash between antiwar
student groups and National Guardsmen at which U.S.
college?
(A) University of California, Berkeley
(B) Kent State University
(C) Ohio State University
(D) Columbia University
(E) Rutgers University
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Conservative and Liberal Viewpoints
Liberals
Conservatives
 Believe the role of
government should be
 Believe the role of
government should be
to alleviate social ills
and to protect civil
liberties and individual
and human rights.
to provide people the
freedom necessary to
pursue their own
goals.
Ideology: A Political Spectrum
Ideology: a consistent set of beliefs
 Radical: favors rapid, fundamental change in existing




social, economic, or political order; willing to resort to
violence or revolution to accomplish such change
Liberal: supports active govt in promoting individual
welfare and supporting civil rights, accepts peaceful
changes within the existing political system
Moderate: may include some of both liberal and
conservative, tolerant of others’ political opinions
Conservative: promotes a limited govt role in helping
individuals, supports tradition, cautious of change
Reactionary: advocates a return to a previous state of
affairs, often a social order or govt that existed earlier,
willing to go to extremes to achieve their goals
What is a Think Tank?
Think tanks are funded primarily by large
businesses and major foundations. They devise
and promote policies that shape the lives of
everyday Americans: Social Security
privatization, tax and investment laws,
regulation of everything from oil to the internet.
They supply experts to testify on Capitol Hill,
write articles for the op-ed pages of
newspapers, and appear as TV commentators.
They advise presidential aspirants and lead
orientation seminars to train incoming members
of Congress.
- sourcewatch.org
Think Tanks
Liberal Think Tanks
Conservative Think Tanks
 Center for American
 Heritage Foundation
Progress
 Center for Economic and
Policy Research
 Cato Institute
Websites
 Liberal Websites: Daily Kos, Huffington Post
 Conservative Websites: Drudge Report, National
Review Online
 Non-partisan Websites: FactCheck.org, Project
Vote Smart, Spot-On
Liberalism
 The Old Left: (1890s-1930s) Gilded Age labor unions, socialists,
Progressive Era activists fighting against industrial capitalism.
 The New Left: (1950s-1960s) young people seeking revolutionary
change such as the civil rights movement, the Women’s Liberation
movement, and the anti-Vietnam war movement
 The New Left had deep roots in the radical tradition that began with
the American Revolution.
 Before the Civil War, abolitionists sought to extend the Revolution’s
promise of equality and refused to accept the legitimacy of slavery.
They began the long campaign for women’s suffrage.
Beliefs of the New Left
 The right not to be segregated by skin color
 The right to walk down the street without fear of
violence
 The right to protest without being labeled a subversive
 The right to equal access to education, housing, and jobs
without regard to race or gender
 The right to be left alone, to privacy and control over
your own body
The New Left
 To understand how revolutionary the New Left was, consider how much
has changed since then. Today there are no COLORED and WHITE signs
outside restaurants and bathrooms. It is illegal to deny someone a job
because of his or her color or gender or religion. Protests are an accepted
part of political life. Rejection of these changes has fueled a powerful
New Right movement.
 However naïve protest strategies appear to us now, they were very
practical. Confronted with activists willing to endure violence and
unafraid of jail, authorities from the Deep South to university
administrations to the White House lost political legitimacy. Violent
repression, once taken for granted in some places, became odious when
exposed to national and world public opinion. Protesters asserting their
civil and human rights and standing on the U.S. Constitution claimed the
moral high ground.
The Conservative Resurgence

The central story of American politics since World War II is the emergence of
the conservative movement, as a reaction to Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of
the 1930s. After World War II, American conservatism stood for limited
government in domestic, economic, and social affairs and aggressive
government in foreign affairs. Conservatives favor the use of the free market
instead of government to distribute economic resources and sustain economic
growth.
 Historians dispute the date of the seismic change in the nation’s political
culture. Some point to the election of 1964, when Republican Barry
Goldwater lost the presidential election but provided a rallying point for
the men and women who would become leaders of the Right in the next
decade. Others point to the rise of grassroots organizers such as the John
Birch Society or the popular backlash against the counterculture, urban
riots, and antiwar movement of the 1960s. Another point of view
emphasizes the emergence of the Christian Right during the 1990s. Each
perspective is valid.
Societal Issues of the 1960s and 1970s:
Cultural Changes
Cultural Changes of the 1960s-1970s
 Music lyrics openly sexual and drug-oriented, use of drug use becomes more
widespread, sexual revolution (use of birth control pill), Roe v. Wade legalizes
abortion, the women’s movement anger many conservatives who believe
the women’s place is in the home
The Conservative Movement
 In the early 1970s, the number of conservative organizations multiplied,
branching out to include think tanks, media groups, and single-issue lobbies.
 By the mid-1970s, the conservative movement expanded from economic
conservatism and militant anticommunism to social conservatism.
 The conservative movement, enforcing “traditional family values,” became
synonymous with the Republican party.
The Conservative Movement
1945-2000

1945-1968: With the exception of some business organizations, conservatives
had yet to mobilize prior to 1950. All of that began to change in the mid-1950s,
when a recent graduate of Yale University, William F. Buckley began denouncing
“government paternalism inimical to the dignity of the individual.” Republicans
took both houses of Congress and began to dismantle the New Deal’s social
legislation, a major achievement being the Taft-Hartley act of 1947. Known in
labor circles as the “slave labor law,” it relaxed protections for unionists
enshrined in the Wagner Act of 1935 and sanctioned anti-union laws in the
states.
 1968-1980: The years between 1968-1980 saw the advent of conservative
domination of American politics. This transformation was fueled partly by white
backlash against the civil rights movement and the backlash of traditional
women aroused at first against the women’s movement and then by the Roe v
Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
 1980-2000: Reagan reshaped the judiciary into a more conservative mold. He
made three appointments to the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin
Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy.
The Counterculture
The counterculture
promoted values that ran
counter to mainstream
culture.
By rejecting conventional
customs, “hippies” and the
counterculture in general
drew on the example of the
Beat Generation of the
1950s.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Woodstock, 1969
The Woodstock Festival, in
up-state New York, drew
together various branches
of the counterculture.
Although 12,000,000
people claim to have been
at Woodstock, about
500,000 people were at the
concert.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
How did the modern civil rights
movement impact the women’s rights
movement, the Chicano civil rights
movement, and the “Red Power”
movement?
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The relationship between people and the land:
stewardship or ownership?
“During the ninety-five years between the legal
founding of America on July 4, 1776, and the
abandoning of treaty making with the Indians by the
U.S. Congress Appropriations Act of March 3, 1871, the
United States ratified 371 treaties with American Indian
nations. In all cases the treaties were international
instruments executed between sovereign nations.
Throughout the following century and to the present
day all 371 treaties have been violated, broken, ignored,
or otherwise abrogated by the United States.”
- Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against the
American Indian Movement (1982)
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Native American History
Cultural genocide of Indian
people has not let up in
North and South America
since the first Indian was
killed by the first white
settler some 500 years
ago.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Renewed Attention to the Wrongs Inflicted
on the Tribes in Past Generations
Custer Died For Your Sins
Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
American Indian Movement (AIM)
AIM is an indigenous, landbased, spiritual movement, a call
to Indian people to return to
traditional values, and, at the
same time, to stand firm against
Anglo influence and dominance.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The American Indian Movement (AIM)
The goals of the American
Indian Movement (AIM):
1. The restoration of lands
illegally taken
2. Autonomy
3. Control of natural
resources
4. To bring attention to
Indian points of view of
American history.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
“Red Power”
 Trail of Broken Treaties: Taking advantage of a federal law
which allowed for abandoned military bases to revert to
previous owners, AIM decided to “retake the country from west
to east.”
 Occupation of Alcatraz Island: In 1969, claiming their right to
the island under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, Alcatraz was
taken over in protest over the failure of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs to improve conditions on reservations.
 Wounded Knee: In 1973, protestors, led by AIM members,
symbolically occupied the village of Wounded Knee, site of the
dreadful massacres of Sioux men, women, and children by the
Seventh Cavalry in 1890. They defied a long siege by federal
and state forces.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier was described by the
FBI as an “extremely dangerous
criminal” although he had never
been convicted of any crime.
An FBI document later released by
the Freedom of Information Act
revealed the FBI’s intention to “have
local police put AIM leaders under
close scrutiny, and arrest them on
every possible charge, until they
could no longer make bail.”
- The Circle, Boston Indian Council, March, 1979
Was the Indian Civil Rights Movement Successful?
Yes
No
 Helped tribes win new legal
 Fell far short of winning full
rights and protections that
gave them a stronger
position than they had
enjoyed at any previous
time (20th century)
 Helped many Indians gain a
renewed awareness of and
pride in their identity
 Challenged patterns of
discrimination
justice and equality
 Never resolved its own
internal conflicts
 To some the goal was
integration, to others the
goal was to remain distinct
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez founded the United
Farm Workers (UFW) to organize
Mexican farm workers. One
successful strategy used by Cesar
Chavez was a nationwide consumer
boycott.
Dolores C. Huerta is an American
labor leader and civil rights activist
who, with César Chávez, co-founded
the UFW.
Hector P. Garcia was a MexicanAmerican physician, surgeon, World
War II veteran, civil rights advocate,
and founder of the American G.I.
Forum.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
In 1963, Betty Friedan published a
critique of the 1950s ideal of
womanhood, lashing out at the culture
that made it difficult for woman to
choose alternative roles.
Betty Friedan was the author of The
Feminine Mystique and the first
president of the National Organization
for Women (NOW).
The Modern Women’s Rights Movement
 NOW was founded in 1966 in order to challenge sex
discrimination in the workplace.
 The women’s movement of the 1960s grew out of
frustration with various forms of job discrimination.
 During the 1960s, feminism tended to be a movement of
middle-class women. The term feminism describes the
theory of the equality of men and women.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Feminist Victories and Defeats
 Title IX: (1972) prohibited sex discrimination in any federally
assisted educational program or activity. Perhaps this act’s
biggest impact was to create opportunities for girls’ and
women’s athletics at schools and colleges.
 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): (1972) declared
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Twenty-eight of the necessary thirty-eight states quickly ratified
the amendment, first proposed by suffragists in 1923. The
Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress in 1972 and then
failed in the ratification process.
 Roe v. Wade: (1973) struck down laws prohibiting abortion,
arguing that a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy was
protected by the constitutional right to privacy.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Phyllis Schlafly
The feminist movement soon
faced a formidable backlash.
Conservative activists such as
Phyllis Schlafly did not support
the Equal Rights Amendment.
She argued that the ERA would
remove traditional protections
that women enjoyed by forcing
the law to see them as men’s
equals. Schlafly believed that
the amendment would threaten
the basic family structure of
American society.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Gloria Steinem
In 1972, Gloria Steinem and
several other women founded Ms.
Magazine, providing women with
different viewpoints than
publications such as Good
Housekeeping.
Slowly, the women’s movement
brought a shift in attitudes and in
the law.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Modern Women’s Rights Movement
 As a result of their experiences in the civil rights
movement, many women learned the importance of
taking advantage of legal tools.
 Achievements of the Women’s Liberation Movement
include education and employment (cannot discriminate
on the basis of sex in admission policies)
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Affirmative Action
 Affirmative Action: procedures designed to take into account
the disadvantaged position of minorities after centuries of
discrimination.
 Affirmative Action programs increased minority representation
in colleges, the professions, and many businesses. The act had
some unintended consequences. Some critics challenged
these programs as a form of reverse discrimination.
 In Regents of California v. Bakke, the U.S. Supreme Court
upheld affirmative action, but not the use of racial quotas.
Many affirmative action programs have been phased out over
time as America has become a more pluralistic society.
Analyze the extent to which TWO of the following
transformed American society in the 1960s and 1970s:
the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the
women’s movement.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Thesis Statement Formula
in relation to this prompt
X = The __________ movement transformed American
society by…(list two or three examples)
However A,B,C = However, the __________ movement
A, B, and C,
Therefore, y = Therefore, the __________ movement
had more of an impact on American society during the
1960s and 1970s than did the __________ movement.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Possible Details: Civil Rights
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Martin Luther King, Jr. and nonviolent resistance
Malcolm X, Black Muslims, Nation of Islam
Greensboro sit-ins, 1960
Freedom Riders, 1961
Birmingham protests, 1963
MLK’s March on Washington, “I Have A Dream”
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Cesar Chavez, Hispanic rights, AIM, Native American
rights, Wounded Knee of 1973
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Possible Details: Antiwar Movement
 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 Student demonstrations – sit-ins, peace-ins, teach-ins
 “Hawks” vs. “Doves”
 Tet Offensive: consequences
 TV and the Vietnam War
 Human and economic costs of the war
 Conscientious objectors, Muhammad Ali stripped of title
 Vietnam Veterans against the war
 Vietnamization, invasion of Cambodia
 War Powers Act
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Possible Details: Women’s Movement
 Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
 NOW, 1966
 Advocacy of social reforms (child care, maternity rights,

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
abortion rights, birth control, equal pay)
Women’s Liberation Movement
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Radical feminism
Title IX
Roe v. Wade
Phyllis Schlafly
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The major North Vietnamese and Viet Cong offensive
launched on the Vietnamese New Year in 1968 is
referred to as
(A) the My Lai Massacre
(B) Operation Rolling Thunder
(C) the Tet Offensive
(D) the Ho Chi Minh Trail
(E) the Khmer Rouge
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Which of the following was not part of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act?
(A) Banning of different voter registration practices based on race
(B) Banning of discrimination in public accommodations
(C) Allowing for federal funds to be withheld from programs that
practice discrimination
(D) Creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(E) Outlawing of poll taxes
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
1968 Democratic National Convention
The demonstrations in the
streets of Chicago
tarnished Democratic
candidate Hubert
Humphrey’s presidential
campaign. His opponent,
Richard Nixon, won the
presidency with calls for
an “honorable peace” in
Vietnam and “law and
order” at home.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Richard Nixon and the
Vietnam War
 Once elected in 1968, the first burning need was to quiet
the public uproar over Vietnam. President Nixon’s
announced policy, called Vietnamization, was to
withdraw the 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam over
an extended period. The South Vietnamese – with
American money, weapons, training, and advice – could
then gradually take over the burden of fighting their own
war.
 The so-called Nixon Doctrine thus evolved. It proclaimed
that the United States would honor its existing defense
commitments but that in the future, other countries
would have to fight their own wars without the support
of large bodies of American ground troops.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Richard Nixon
Foreign Affairs
 Nixon, the uncompromising anticommunist, announced
to a startled nation in July 1971 that he had accepted an
invitation to visit Communist China the following year. He
made the historic journey in February of 1972, and the
two nations agreed to “normalize” their relationship.
 Nixon then visited the Soviet Union in May of 1972 to play
his “China card” in a game of high-stakes diplomacy.
 Nixon’s visits ushered in an era of détente, or relaxed
tension, with the two communist powers and produced
several significant agreements, including an anti-ballistic
missile (ABM) treaty, and a series of arms-reduction
negotiations known as SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks), aimed at freezing the numbers of long-range
nuclear missiles for five years.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Limiting Nuclear Arms
SALT I banned comprehensive
anti-missile defense systems.
As a result of this treaty, the
world was spared an arms
race in defensive technology.
SALT I also capped offensive
missiles, proving that the
superpowers could reach
agreements relating to arms
control.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Richard Nixon
Domestic Policies
 Surprisingly, Nixon presided over significant expansion of
the welfare programs that conservative Republicans
routinely denounced. He approved increased
appropriations for entitlements like Food Stamps,
Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC). He signed legislation guaranteeing automatic
Social Security cost-of-living increases to protect the
elderly against the ravages of inflation when prices rose
more than 3 percent in any year.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan
 His Philadelphia Plan required construction –trade unions
to establish “goals and timetables” for the hiring of black
apprentices. Soon extended to all federal contracts, the
Philadelphia Plan in effect required thousands of
employers to meet hiring quotas or to establish “setasides” for minority subcontractors.
 Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan drastically altered the meaning
of “affirmative action.” Lyndon Johnson had intended
affirmative action to protect individuals against
discrimination. Nixon now transformed and escalated
affirmative action into a program that conferred privileges
on certain groups. The Supreme Court went along with
Nixon’s approach.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Nixon and the Environment
 Among Nixon’s legacies was the creation in 1970 of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This agency
enforced national pollution control standards.
 On April 22, 1970, millions of environmentalists around
the world celebrated the first Earth Day to raise
awareness and to encourage their leaders to act. In the
wake of what became a yearly event, Congress passed the
Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of
1973.
 Endangered Species Act: established protection for plants
and animals in danger of extinction.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Nixon’s Southern Strategy
 Elected as a minority president, with only 43% of the vote
in 1968, Nixon devised a clever but cynical plan – called
the southern strategy – to achieve a solid majority in
1972. Appointing conservative Supreme Court justices,
soft-pedaling civil rights, and opposing school busing to
achieve racial balance were all parts of the strategy.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
1972 Election
George McGovern, the
Democratic candidate, ran
an anti-war campaign
against Nixon, but he was
handicapped by his outsider
status, limited support from
his own party, and the
perception of many voters
that he was a left-wing
extremist.
Emphasizing a good
economy and his successes
in foreign affairs, Nixon won
the election in a landslide.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Nixon and the end of the
Vietnam War
 Nixon launched a furious two-week bombing of North
Vietnam to force the North Vietnamese back to the
conference table.
 Nixon hailed the Paris Accords as “peace with honor,” but
the boast rang hollow. The shaky “peace” was in reality
little more than a thinly disguised American retreat.
 Passed over Nixon’s veto, the War Powers Act (1973)
required the president to report to Congress within fortyeight hours after committing troops to a foreign conflict
or “substantially” enlarging American combat units in a
foreign country.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis
 In October of 1973, the OPEC nations announced an
embargo on oil shipments to the United States and
several European allies supporting Israel.
 Lines at gas stations grew longer as tempers grew shorter.
The shortage triggered a major economic recession. The
“energy crisis” suddenly energized a number of longdeferred projects. Congress approved a costly Alaska
pipeline and a national speed limit of fifty-five miles per
hour to conserve fuel.
 OPEC approximately quadrupled its price for crude oil
after lifting the embargo in 1974. Huge new oil bills
wildly disrupted the U.S. balance of international trade
and added further fuel to the already raging fires of
inflation.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Oil Crisis
OPEC’s 1973 embargo on
shipping oil to the U.S.
resulted in higher inflation
and a recession at home.
Nixon tried to halt inflation
by imposing a short-term
freeze on wages, prices, and
rents.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger served
President Nixon as national
security advisor, Secretary of
State, and a skilled diplomat.
Nixon ordered Kissinger to
install wiretaps on the
phones of his staff.
Nixon aides responded to the
siege mentality in the White
House by making an enemies
list.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Watergate Scandal
The Committee to Reelect
the President (CREEP)
wanted to wiretap the
Democratic National
Committee, and burglars
were caught attempting to
do so.
The trial and sentencing of
the Watergate burglars led
to testimony to a Senate
committee about White
House involvement.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Woodward and Bernstein
Why were the burglars
bugging the Watergate,
and who were they
working for?
Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein would spend a
year and a half pursuing
these questions.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Cover-Up
Nixon tried to cover up an
investigation of the
Watergate break-in on the
grounds that it involved
national security.
What did the President
know and when did he
know it?
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Watergate Tapes
In the Senate hearings, it was
revealed that Nixon had
secretly recorded all of his
own White House
conversations.
Nixon refused to give up the
tapes, claiming “executive
privilege.” But the Supreme
Court ruled that Nixon must
turn over the tapes,
reaffirming the principle that
no one is above the law.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Nixon Resigns
One outcome of the
Watergate scandal was
the resignation – to avoid
impeachment - of Richard
Nixon.
Nixon became the first
President to resign.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Impact of Watergate
 Lowered public confidence in the government
 Showed that growth of Presidential power created new
opportunities for abuse
 Showed that our government is based on laws, not individuals,
and that the system of checks and balances works
 Proved that the two-party system works; the party out of
power serves as a watchdog over the other
 Reaffirmed the role of the press in uncovering government
misconduct and informing the public
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The combination of inflation and economic recession
faced in the United States in 1973 was caused in part by
(A) The opening of diplomatic relations with China and the
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Soviet Union
OPEC’s increasing the price of oil
The North Vietnamese capture of Saigon
The signing of the Camp David Accords
The signing of the SALT I agreement
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
What action did Gerald Ford take to attempt to heal the
nation following the Watergate scandal?
(A) He asked citizens to wear WIN buttons.
(B) He provided military support to the South Vietnamese
government.
(C) He ordered a full investigation of the Nixon
administration.
(D) He signed the Helsinki Accords.
(E) He pardoned Richard Nixon.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON