Readings From an open (non-­‐copyright) online text on the Boundless Website https://www.boundless.com/u-­‐s-­‐history/ Module 11: Social Change Civil Rights under the Truman Administration OVERVIEW During his administration, Truman made several important contributions to the Civil Rights Movment. First, he created the President's Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946. The committee was instructed to investigate the status of civil rights in the country and propose measures to strengthen and protect them. After the committee submitted a report of its findings to President Truman, it disbanded in December 1947. COMMITTEE GOALS The committee's terms of reference were to examine the condition of civil rights in the United States, to produce a written report of their findings, and to submit recommendations on improving civil rights in the United States. In October 1947, To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights was produced. The 178-­‐page report proposed improving existing civil rights laws. More specifically, it aimed to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission, a Joint Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, to develop federal protection from lynching, to create a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC), to abolish poll taxes, among other measures. EXECUTIVE ORDERS On July 26, 1948, President Truman advanced the recommendations of the report by signing executive orders 9980 and 9981. Executive Order 9980 ordered the desegregation of the federal work force with Executive Order 9981, the desegregation of the armed services. He also sent a special message to Congress on February 2, 1948 to implement the recommendations of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. In February 1948, the president submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices. This provoked a storm of criticism from Southern Democrats in the run up to the national nominating convention. Southern Democrats would run their own “Dixiecrat” candidate, Strom Thurmond, in protest. Truman refused to compromise, saying: "My forebears were Confederates ... but my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten." In retirement however, Truman was less progressive on the issue. He described the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches as silly, stating that the marches would not "accomplish a darned thing." Finally, he issued an Executive Order in 1951 to establish the Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGCC). This committee ensured that defense contractors to the armed forces could not discriminate against a person because of their race. IMPACT ON CIVIL RIGHTS Truman's efforts, including the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, were important for the burgeoning issue of racism in post-­‐war America. Protection from lynching and desegregation in the work force was a triumph of conscience for Truman, as he recalled in his farewell address: “There has been a tremendous awakening of the American conscience on the great issues of civil rights-­‐-­‐equal economic opportunities, equal rights of citizenship, and equal educational opportunities for all our people, whatever their race or religion or status of birth.” These "small actions" culminated into the signing of the two executive orders mentioned above by Truman in 1948, an election year. In light of the growing possibility of war, addressing the state of black morale the armed forces was particularly important. The far-­‐reaching effects that the committee had hoped for had little impact on the civil rights of Black Americans in the late 1940s. However, these steps, along with the integration of major league baseball with the first black player in Jackie Robinson (which took place without government action), the groundwork was laid for greater change in the 1950s and 1960s. The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement The African-­‐American civil rights movement (1955-­‐1968) refers to the social movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This mobility witnessed the emergence of the Black Power movement (roughly from 1966 to 1975) which enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-­‐sufficiency. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-­‐1956) in Alabama; "sit-­‐ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-­‐ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama as well as a wide range of other nonviolent activities. Across the country young people were inspired to action, and African Americans re-­‐
entered politics in the South. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were: • The passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; • The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which restored and protected voting rights; • The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, which dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; • The Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909. It fought to end race discrimination through litigation, education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that rejected separate white and colored school systems and, by implication, overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson. Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation. They were faced with "massive resistance" in the South by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression. In defiance, African-­‐Americans adopted a combined strategy of direct action with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise to the African-­‐American Civil Rights Movement of 1955-­‐1968. The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation in the court system that typified the civil rights movement in the first half of the twentieth century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized "direct action"—
primarily boycotts, sit-­‐ins, freedom rides, marches, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance, and civil disobedience. This mass action approach typified the movement from 1960 to 1968. Montgomery and Protests The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal episode in the U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African-­‐American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. Rosa Parks Twelve years before her history-­‐making arrest, Parks was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver James F. Blake, who ordered her to board at the back door and then drove off without her. Parks vowed never again to ride a bus driven by Blake. As a member of the NAACP, Parks was an investigator assigned to cases of sexual assault. In 1945, she was sent to Abbeville, Alabama to investigate the gang rape of Recy Taylor. The protest that arose around the Taylor case was the first instance of a nationwide civil rights protest, and it laid the groundwork for the Montgomery bus boycott. On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the frontmost row for black people on the bus. When a Caucasian man boarded the bus, the bus driver told everyone in her row to move back. At that moment, Parks realized that she was again on a bus driven by Blake. While all of the other black people in her row complied, Parks refused, and was arrested for failing to obey the driver's seat assignments, as city ordinances did not explicitly mandate segregation but did give the bus driver authority to assign seats. Found guilty on December 5, Parks was fined $10 plus a court cost of $4, but she appealed. E.D. Nixon Between Parks' arrest and trial, Nixon organized a meeting of local ministers at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s church. Though Nixon could not attend the meeting because of his work schedule, he arranged that no election of a leader for the proposed boycott would take place until his return. When he returned he caucused with Ralph Abernathy and Rev. E.N. French to name the association to lead the boycott (they selected the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to the city, and select King (Nixon's choice) to lead the boycott. Boycott On the night of Rosa Parks' arrest, Jo Ann Robinson, head of the Women's Political Council, printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery's black community which read as follows: "Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped... We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-­‐ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday." On Saturday, December 3, it was evident that the black community would support the boycott, and very few blacks rode the buses that day. That night a mass meeting was held to determine if the protest would continue, and attendees enthusiastically agreed. The boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress. Martin Luther King later wrote "[a] miracle had taken place." Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized a system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves, driving people to various destinations. When the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in the carpools, the boycott leaders arranged policies with Lloyd's of London. King and 155 other protesters were arrested for "hindering" a bus under a 1921 ordinance. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine or serve 386 days in jail. He ended up spending two weeks in jail. The move backfired by bringing national attention to the protest. Victory Pressure increased across the country and on June 4, 1956 the federal district court ruled that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. However, an appeal kept the segregation intact, and the boycott continued. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling, leading to a city ordinance that allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted. The boycott officially ended December 20, 1956, after 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses; it stimulated the national civil rights movement and launched King into the national spotlight as a leader. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-­‐American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his practice of nonviolent civil disobedience in his efforts to advance civil rights. King has become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism. A Baptist minister, King found himself called to civil rights activism early on in his life. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and in 1957, helped found and served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his exalted "I Have a Dream" speech, and established himself as one of the greatest orators in American history. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In the following years leading up to his death, he expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War—alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam". King also planned a national occupation of Washington, D.C., called "the Poor People's Campaign." Ideas, Influences, and Political Stances Civil rights leader, theologian, and educator Howard Thurman was an early influence on King. A classmate of King's father at Morehouse College, Thurman mentored the young King and his friends. Thurman's missionary work led him abroad, where he met and conferred with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1959, King, inspired by Gandhi's success with non-­‐violent activism, visited Gandhi's birthplace in India. This trip affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-­‐violent resistance and reinforcing his commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-­‐violence. Rustin went on to serve as King's main adviser and mentor throughout King's early activism, and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin's open homosexuality, support of democratic socialism, and former ties to the Communist Party USA caused many white and African-­‐American leaders to demand that King distance himself from Rustin. Activism In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-­‐violent protests in the pursuit of civil rights reform. King led the SCLC until his death. Additionally, King organized and led marches in support of blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into United States law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In April 1963, the SCLC initiated a campaign against racial segregation and economic injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. King was arrested and jailed early in the campaign—his 13th arrest out of 29. From his cell, he composed the now-­‐famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which responded to calls for King to discontinue his nonviolent protests and instead rely on the court system to bring about social change. King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-­‐called "Big Six" civil rights organizations that were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963. Originally, the march was conceived as a very public opportunity to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the southern United States and present organizers' concerns and grievances directly to the seat of power in the nation's capital. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.'s history. King's "I Have a Dream" speech electrified the crowd. It is regarded, along with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Infamy Speech, as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. Assassination and Legacy On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee in support of the black sanitary public works employees, which had been on strike for 17 days in an effort to attain higher wages and ensure fairer treatment. While standing on the second floor balcony of a motel, King was shot by escaped convict James Earl Ray. One hour later, King was pronounced dead at St Joseph’s hospital. King's legacy continues to be that of a human rights icon. His name is often invoked when people debate his likely position on various modern political issues. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In 2011, the Martin Luther King National Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. Sit-­‐ins and Freedom Rides Sit-­‐Ins During the sit-­‐in movement of the 1960s, students and other civil rights activists would "sit-­‐in" at whites-­‐only locations. In the first sit-­‐ins, students would sit at white-­‐only lunch counters, and refuse to leave until they had been served. The sit in movement used the strategy of nonviolence . As students across the south began these sit-­‐ins, local authority figures sometimes used brute force to physically escort the demonstrators from the lunch facilities. Freedom Rides Freedom Rides were journeys by civil rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, (1960) that ended segregation for passengers engaged in interstate travel. Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. During Freedom Rides, activists traveled through the Deep South to integrate seating patterns and desegregate bus terminals, including restrooms and water fountains, which proved to be a dangerous mission. Mob Violence in Anniston and Birmingham As these first freedom riders entered Alabama, they encountered extreme resistance. The Birmingham, Alabama Police Commissioner Bull Connor and Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter), organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Ku Klux Klan chapters. Impact of the Freedom Rides In September 1961, the ICC issued the necessary orders, and the new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961, six years after the ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. After the new ICC rule took effect, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs came down in the terminals; racially segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms were consolidated; and the lunch counters began serving all customers, regardless of race. Federal Intervention John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights The turbulent end of state-­‐sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing domestic issues of the 1960s for the JFK administration. John F. Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights. In a 1961 speech, Kennedy expressed the administration's commitment: “ We will not stand by or be aloof—we will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 [Supreme Court school desegregation] decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is now the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It is the law." Robert Kennedy and Civil Rights It has become commonplace to assert the phrase "The Kennedy Administration" or even "President Kennedy" when discussing the legislative and executive support of the civil rights movement. However, between 1960 and 1963, many of the initiatives that occurred during President Kennedy's tenure were a result of the passion and determination of an emboldened Robert Kennedy, who through his rapid education in the realities of Southern racism, underwent a thorough conversion of purpose as Attorney General. Asked in May 1962, "What do you see as the big problem ahead for you, is it Crime or Internal Security?" Robert Kennedy replied, "Civil Rights." The president came to share his brother's sense of urgency on the matters at hand to such an extent that it was at the Attorney General's insistence that he made his famous address to the nation. Robert Kennedy played a large role in the Freedom Riders protests. After the Anniston bus bombings, Kennedy acted to protect the Riders in continuing their journey. Kennedy sent John Seigenthaler, his administrative assistant, to Alabama to secure the riders' safety there. He also forced the Greyhound bus company to provide the Freedom Riders with a bus driver to ensure they could continue their journey. While Kennedy offered protection to the Freedom Riders, he also attempted to convince them to end the Rides. Kennedy's attempts to end the Freedom Rides early were in many ways tied to an upcoming summit with Khrushchev and De Gaulle, as he believed the continued international publicity of race riots would tarnish the president heading into international negotiations. This reluctance to protect and advance the Freedom Rides alienated many of the Civil Rights leaders at the time who perceived him as intolerant and narrow minded. Despite this, Robert Kennedy intervened on behalf of the civil rights activists on numerous occasions. Robert Kennedy saw voting as the key to racial justice, and collaborated with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to create the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped bring an end to Jim Crow laws. Federal Intervention in the Integration of Universities In September 1962, a student named James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi, but was prevented from entering. He attempted to enter campus on September 20, on September 25, and again on September 26. He was blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, who said, "[N0] school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your Governor." Attorney General Robert Kennedy responded by sending 400 federal marshals, hoping that legal means, along with the escort of U.S. Marshals, would be enough to force the governor to allow Meredith admission. On September 30, 1962, Meredith entered the campus under their escort. Students and other whites began rioting that evening, throwing rocks and then firing on the U.S. Marshals guarding Meredith at Lyceum Hall. Two people, including a French journalist, were killed; 28 marshals suffered gunshot wounds; and 160 others were injured. Thus, after the situation on campus turned violent, President John F. Kennedy sent 3,000 troops to quell the riot. The University of Mississippi riots of 1962 left two dead and dozens injured, but James Meredith did finally enroll in his first class. On November 20, 1962, Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally supported housing or "related facilities." Similarly, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy intervened when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to the University of Alabama to stop two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending. President John F. Kennedy sent a force to make Governor Wallace step aside. That evening, Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio, launching his initiative for civil rights legislation—to provide equal access to public schools and other facilities, and greater protection of voting rights. His proposals became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Throughout this time, both Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy remained adamant concerning the rights of black students to enjoy the benefits of all levels of the educational system. JFK's Interventions in the Birmingham Campaigns, 1963-­‐1964 In 1963, activists made plans to desegregate downtown Birmingham merchants. The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including sit-­‐
ins, kneel-­‐ins at local churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a drive to register voters. The city, however, obtained an injunction barring all such protests. Convinced that the order was unconstitutional, the campaign defied it and prepared for mass arrests of its supporters. King elected to be among those arrested on April 12, 1963. Widespread public outrage led the Kennedy administration to directly and more forcefully intervene in negotiations between the white business community and the activists. On May 10, the parties announced an agreement to desegregate the lunch counters and other public accommodations downtown, to create a committee to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices, to arrange for the release of jailed protesters and to establish regular means of communication between black and white leaders.
Black Power Movement OVERVIEW Black Power is a term used to refer to various associated ideologies associated with African Americans in the United States, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values. "Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression to the establishment of social institutions and a self-­‐sufficient economy. Black power stood in contrast to King and the mainstream leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, which emphasized integration. Groups such as the Nation of Islam (of which Malcolm X was initially a member of, but later left) and the Black Panthers were two of the more radical non-­‐
integrationist groups. BACKGROUND Stokely Carmichael, who became the leader of SNCC in 1966, was one of the earliest and most articulate spokespersons for what became known as the "Black Power" movement. In 1966, Carmichael began urging African American communities to confront the Ku Klux Klan armed and ready for battle. He felt it was the only way to ever rid the communities of the terror caused by the Klan. This move towards Black Power and self-­‐defense as a means of obtaining African-­‐
American civil rights marked a change from previous nonviolent actions. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not comfortable with the "Black Power" slogan, which sounded too much like black nationalism to him. SNCC activists, in the meantime, began embracing the "right to self-­‐defense" in response to attacks from white authorities, and booed King for continuing to advocate non-­‐violence. When King was murdered in 1968, Stokely Carmichael stated that whites murdered the one person who would prevent rampant rioting, and that blacks would burn every major city to the ground. Racial riots broke out in the black community in cities from Boston to San Francisco following King's death. As a result, the white population fled from many areas in these cities and city crews were often hesitant to enter affected areas, leaving Blacks in a dilapidated and nearly irreparable city. The Black Power movement was given a stage on live, international television on October 1968. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, while being awarded the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the 1968 Summer Olympics, donned human rights badges and each raised a black-­‐gloved Black Power salute during their podium ceremony. Smith and Carlos were immediately ejected from the games by the United States Olympic Committee. The International Olympic Committee would later issue a permanent lifetime ban for the two. THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY Black Power was made most public by the Black Panther Party, which was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in 1966. This group followed the ideology of Malcolm X, a former member of the Nation of Islam, using a "by-­‐any-­‐means necessary" approach to stopping inequality. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and U.S. politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The group's "provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity.” The organization's official newspaper, The Black Panther, was first circulated in 1967. Also that year, the Black Panther Party marched on the California State Capitol in Sacramento in protest of a selective ban on weapons. By 1968, the party had expanded into many cities throughout the United States. Peak membership was near 10,000 by 1969, and their newspaper had a circulation of 250,000. Gaining national prominence, the Black Panther Party became an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s. They instituted a variety of community social programs designed to alleviate poverty, improve health among inner city black communities, and soften the Party's public image. The Black Panther Party's most widely known programs were its armed citizens' patrols to evaluate behavior of police officers and its Free Breakfast for Children program. However, the group's political goals were often overshadowed by their confrontational, militant, and violent tactics against police. IMPACT OF THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT ON AFRICAN-­‐AMERICAN IDENTITY Due to the negative and militant reputation of groups like that of the Black Panther Party, many people felt that this movement of "insurrection" would soon serve to cause discord and disharmony through the entire U.S. Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, the psychological and cultural messages of the Black Power movement, though less tangible, have had perhaps a longer lasting impact on American society. The movement uplifted the black community as a whole by cultivating feelings of racial solidarity, often in opposition to the world of white Americans; a world that had oppressed Blacks for generations. Through the movement, Blacks came to understand themselves and their culture by exploring and debating the question “who are we?”, in order to establish a unified and viable identity . The respect and attention accorded to African Americans’ history and culture in both formal and informal settings today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s. Additional Movements The 1960s was a decade of rapid social change and upheaval. In addition to the struggle for equality for African-­‐Americans many other groups also pushed for change. The Feminist Movement, Latino/Hispanic Rights, and Environmental Movement are discussed in the information in the course content. Other key movements of this time period included the assertion of rights and identity in the American Indian community and a sexual revolution relating to changing attitudes and behaviors. The Sexual Revolution The 1960s in the US are often perceived as a period of profound societal change, in which many young, educated, and politically minded individuals sought to influence the status quo. The quest for autonomy during this time was also characterized by changes towards sexual attitudes, generally referred to under the blanket metaphor of "sexual revolution." Like much of the radicalism of the 1960s, the sexual revolution was often seen to have been centered around the university campus, amongst students. Changes in Social Norms The modern consensus is that the sexual revolution in 1960s America was typified by a dramatic shift in traditional values related to sex, and sexuality. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of heterosexual marriage. For example, studies have shown that, between 1965 and 1975, the number of women who experienced sexual intercourse before marriage showed a marked increase. The increased availability of birth control (and the quasi-­‐legalization of abortion in some places) helped reduce the chance that premarital sex would result in unwanted children. By the mid-­‐1970s, the majority of newly married American couples had experienced sex before marriage. Free Love Similarly, during this time, a culture of "free love" emerged. Beginning in San Francisco in the mid-­‐1960s, this culture of "free love" was propagated by thousands of "hippies," who preached the power of love and the beauty of sex. By the 1970s, it was acceptable for colleges to allow co-­‐educational housing where male and female students mingled freely. Hippies embraced the old slogan of free love from the radical social reformers of other eras. Birth Control and Population Control Advocacy After World War II, the birth control movement had accomplished the goal of making birth control legal, and advocacy for reproductive rights transitioned into a new era that focused on abortion, public funding, and insurance coverage. “The Pill” was one of the cornerstones of the sexual revolution. Birth control advocacy took on a global aspect as organizations around the world began to collaborate. In 1946, the International Planned Parenthood Federation was founded, which soon became the world's largest non-­‐governmental, international family-­‐planning organization. Fear of global overpopulation became a major issue in the 1960s, generating concerns about pollution, food shortages, and quality of life, leading to well-­‐funded birth control campaigns around the world. Birth control and the Pill were also part of US government’s policies against poverty. In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson instituted his social reform policy, The Great Society, which aimed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Thus, as a form of population control, the Pill was endorsed and distributed by doctors. The Sexual Revolution and “The Pill” In the early 1950s, philanthropist Katharine McCormick provided funding for biologist Gregory Pincus to develop the birth control pill, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960 . "The Pill," as it came to be known, was extraordinarily popular, and despite worries over possible side effects, by 1962, an estimated 1,187,000 women were using it. This new contraceptive technology was a key player in forming women's modern economic role, in that it prolonged the age at which women first married. This allowed women to invest in education and become more career-­‐oriented. Soon after the Pill was legalized, there was a sharp increase in college attendance and graduation rates for women. From an economic point of view, the Pill reduced the cost of staying in school. The ability to control fertility without sacrificing sexual relationships allowed women to make long-­‐term educational and career plans. Women's rights movements also heralded the Pill as a method of granting women sexual liberation, and saw the popularity of the drug as just one signifier of the increasing desire for equality (sexual or otherwise) amongst American women. The Pill and the sexual revolution was therefore an important part of the drive for sexual equality in the 1960s. Opposition to the Pill The Pill became an extremely controversial subject as Americans struggled with their thoughts on sexual morality, controlling population growth, and women's control of their reproductive rights. Even by 1965, birth control was illegal in some US states, including Connecticut and New York. Because the Pill was so effective, and soon so widespread, it heightened the debate about the moral and health consequences of premarital sex and promiscuity. Never before had sexual activity been so divorced from reproduction. For a couple using the Pill, intercourse became purely an expression of love, or a means of physical pleasure, or both—but it was no longer a means of reproduction. While this was true of previous contraceptives, their relatively high failure rates and their less widespread use failed to emphasize this distinction as clearly as did the Pill. The spread of oral contraceptive use thus led many religious figures and institutions to debate the proper role of sexuality and its relationship to procreation. The Roman Catholic Church in particular reiterated the established Catholic teaching that artificial contraception distorts the nature and purpose of sex. The Pill and the sexual freedom it provided to women are frequently blamed for what many believe are regressions in quality of life. Since the sexual revolution, out-­‐
of-­‐wedlock births, sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, and the divorce rate have all risen considerably. Homosexuality and the Beginning of the Gay Rights Movement Even in a time of unprecedented societal change and burgeoning liberal views and policies, homosexuality was still widely publicly reviled, and more often than not was seen as a malaise or mental illness, instead of a legitimate sexual orientation. Indeed, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the overriding opinion of the medical establishment was that homosexuality was a developmental maladjustment. The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn, and attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. The Stonewall riots are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-­‐sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities. Since then, they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the U.S. and the world. By the summer of 1970, groups in at least eight American cities were sufficiently organized to schedule simultaneous events commemorating the Stonewall riots for the last Sunday in June. The events varied from a highly political march of three to five thousand in New York and thousands more at parades in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. Native American Rights The movement for Native American centered around the tension between rights granted via tribal sovereignty and rights that individual Indians retain as U.S. citizens. Many of the demands of the movement related to the U.S. government’s obligation to honor its treaties with the sovereign Native American nations. Native American Civil Rights After years of unequal schooling, for reasons from racist schools to insufficiently funded schools, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was formed in 1969 to fight for equal education for American Indians. American Indian Activists strove for media protection and to own their own media. Until 1935, American Indian people could be fined and sent to prison for practicing their traditional religious beliefs. In more recent times, there has been controversy around the use of American Indian symbols such as for school or team mascots. Concerns are that the use of the symbols distort American Indian history and culture and often stereotype in offensive ways, such as when “savages” is used. One of the primary advocacy organizations for Native American Rights, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was also formed during the 1960s. Alcatraz Occupation: Catalyst for the Formation of AIM The group Indians of All Tribes (IAT) occupied Alcatraz for nineteen months, from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, and was forcibly ended by the U.S. government. According to the IAT, the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Sioux should have returned all retired, abandoned or out-­‐of-­‐use federal land to the Native people from whom it was acquired. Since Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of activists felt the island qualified for reclamation. In 1970, the Occupation of Alcatraz was noted as “the symbol of a newly awakened desire among Indians for unity and authority in a white world.” American Indian Movement (AIM) The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by urban Native Americans. The AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty. The organization was formed to address various issues concerning the Native American urban community in Minneapolis, including poverty, housing, treaty issues, and police harassment. From its beginnings in Minnesota, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States. At a time when peaceful sit-­‐ins were a common protest tactic, the American Indian Movement (AIM) takeovers in their early days were noticeably violent. Some appeared to be spontaneous outcomes of protest gatherings, but others included armed seizure of public facilities. Gaining Native American Civil Rights On March 6, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11399, establishing the National Council on Indian Opportunity (NCIO). With the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) in 1968, also called the Indian Bill of Rights, Native Americans were guaranteed many civil rights. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act put an end to individual states claims on whether or not Indians were allowed to vote through a federal law. Before the Voting Rights Act, many states had found ways to prevent Native Americans from voting, such as residency or literacy requirements. The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture A counterculture developed in the United States in late 1960s. This movement lasted from approximately 1964 to 1972, and it coincided with America's involvement in Vietnam. A counterculture is the rejection of conventional social norms – in this case the norms of the 1950s. The counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, specifically racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War. As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of the American Dream. White, middle class youth, who made up the bulk of the counterculture, had sufficient leisure time to turn their attention to social issues, thanks to widespread economic prosperity. Unconventional appearance, music, drugs, communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture, most of whose members were white, middle-­‐class young Americans. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States. The counterculture reached its peak in the 1967 "Summer of Love," when thousands of young people flocked to the Haight-­‐
Ashbury district of San Francisco. The counterculture lifestyle integrated many of the ideals and indulgences of the time: peace, love, harmony, music, and mysticism. Meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs were embraced as routes to expanding one's consciousness. Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop-­‐art, and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era include The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Pink Floyd. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, mainly large outdoor rock festivals. The climactic live statement of this occurred from August 15–18, 1969, with the Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel, New York. During this festival, 32 of rock and psychedelic rock's most popular acts performing live outdoors over the course of a weekend to an audience of half a million people. Countercultural sentiments were expressed in song lyrics and popular sayings of the period, such as "do your own thing," "turn on, tune in, drop out," "whatever turns you on," "eight miles high," "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll," and "light my fire." Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of Aquarius," and knowing people's signs. The counterculture movement divided the country. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness. To others, the counterculture movement reflected a self-­‐
indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on America's traditional moral order. In an effort to quash the movement, authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD, restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media. In the end, the counterculture collapsed on its own around 1973. Two main reasons are cited for the collapse. First, the most popular of the movement's political goals—civil rights, civil liberties, gender equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War—were accomplished (to at least a significant degree), and its most popular social attributes, particularly a "live and let live" mentality in personal lifestyles (the "sexual revolution")—were co-­‐opted by mainstream society. Second, a decline of idealism and hedonism occured as many notable counterculture figures died and the rest settled into mainstream society and started their own families. The "magic economy" of the 1960s gave way to the stagflation of the 1970s, the latter costing many middle-­‐class Americans the luxury of being able to live outside conventional social institutions. The counterculture, however, continues to influence social movements, art, music, and society in general, and the post-­‐1973 mainstream society has been in many ways a hybrid of the 1960s establishment and counterculture—seen as the best (or the worst) of both worlds. The Nixon Administration OVERVIEW Richard Milhous Nixon was elected president in the election of 1968, narrowly beating the incumbent Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. Nixon appealed to the “silent majority” of Americans who sought more stability and law and order in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. Nixon became the second Republican President elected since 1932. Nixon was inaugurated on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his former political rival, Chief Justice Earl Warren. In his inaugural address, which received almost uniformly positive reviews, Nixon remarked that "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker"—a phrase that would later be placed on his gravestone. He pledged an end to partisan acrimony and new era of unity: “In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.” In 1972, Nixon was reelected, defeating Democratic senator George McGovern in a landslide. Emphasizing a stable good economy and his successes in foreign affairs, Nixon won 60.7% of the popular vote, only slightly lower than Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. However, Nixon resigned in 1974, before the end of his term, amidst the Watergate scandal. Nixon was implicated in the burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17. The scandal eventually led to Nixon's resignation on August 9. Nixon was the only president in American history to resign. NIXON'S FOREIGN POLICY Nixon achieved some successes in the realm of foreign policy. Assisted by his Henry Kissinger (initially Nixon's National Security Advisor and later Nixon's Secretary of State), Nixon initiated diplomatic relations with China, and made a well-­‐received and productive visit to China in February 1972. The visit ushered in a new era of Sino-­‐American relations. Fearing the possibility of a Sino-­‐American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to pressure for détente with the United States. Nixon had pledged to end America's military involvement in Vietnam, which had been greatly escalated by President Johnson. Nixon's strategy included a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia, coupled with "Vietnamization" of the war, replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops. Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1975, allowing for the withdrawal of remaining American troops. North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975. The Nixon administration also improved diplomatic relations with the USSR. In successful summits, Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence." The USSR and USA agreed to arms reduction treaties and USSR limited its support of North Vietnam. NIXON'S DOMESTIC POLICY In domestic policy, Nixon advocated a "New Federalism", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, though Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted few of them. During this era, Nixon contended with budget deficits and high inflation. Nixon made controlling inflation a priority, experimenting with price controls with mixed success. Nixon also sparred with democratic senators over national health insurance. On civil rights, Nixon worked to find a politically popular solution to the school integration issue, though he could not avert widespread anti-­‐
bussing riots around the country. Nixon also implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the nation's first affirmative action legislation in 1970. The Economy Under Nixon Nixon was far more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policies, but believed that voters tended to focus on their own financial conditions. At the time Nixon took office in 1969, inflation was at 4.7 percent—its highest rate since the Korean War. The Great Society had been enacted under Johnson, and its expensive policies were, together with the costs of the Vietnam War, causing large budget deficits. Unemployment was low, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon thus perceived a threat to his reelection chances in the state of the economy. The primary goal of Nixon's economic policy was the reduction of inflation rates. The most obvious means of reducing inflation was the cessation of the Vietnam war. This policy could not be implemented overnight, however. The U.S. economy continued to struggle throughout 1970, contributing to a lackluster Republican performance in the midterm congressional elections. Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress throughout Nixon's presidency. According to political economist Nigel Bowles in his 2011 study of Nixon's economic policies, the new president did little to alter Johnson's policies through the first year of his presidency. Nixon's broader philosophy on domestic policy was informed by the ideas of "New Federalism." New Federalism proposes the decentralization of political power, transferring certain powers from the United States federal government back to the states. The primary objective of New Federalism, as opposed to the eighteenth-­‐
century political philosophy of Federalism, is the restoration to the states some of the autonomy and power which they lost to the federal government during the New Deal, including the power to administer social programs. Pursuing New Federalist policies, Nixon's budget included grants to the states and the sharing of federal revenue with states. These proposals were mostly rejected by congress. However, Nixon gained popularity by advocating these policies. In 1970, Congress had granted the President the power to impose wage cuts and price freezes. The Democratic majorities, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls through his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use this authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David. He subsequently announced temporary wage and price controls. He also suspended the gold standard, allowing the dollar to float against other currencies and ending the convertibility of the dollar into gold. These policies precipitated the Nixon Shock and essentially ended the Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange, in place since the end of World War II. Nixon's policies dampened inflation through 1972, although their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into the Ford administration. The policies were more successful, however, as political maneuvers. Nigel Bowles points out that, "by identifying himself with [an anti-­‐inflation] policy, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents ... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was...believable since the [policy] they favored was the one...the president had appropriated for himself." After the 1972 elections, which Nixon won handily, inflation began to rise again. Nixon thus re-­‐imposed price controls in June 1973. The price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople. Many saw the price board bureaucracy, associated with Republican policy, as more dangerous than powerful labor unions, which were associated with the Democratic party. The price controls produced food shortages, as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at a loss. Despite the failure to control inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed. The Energy Crisis Embargo Instated In October 1973, the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus Egypt and Syria), proclaimed an oil embargo "in response to the U.S. decision to re-­‐supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur War; it lasted until March 1974. OAPEC declared it would limit or stop oil shipments to the United States and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict. With the US actions seen as initiating the oil embargo, the long-­‐term possibility of embargo-­‐related high oil prices, disrupted supply, and recession created a strong rift within NATO; both European countries and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from the US Middle East policy. Arab oil producers had also linked the end of the embargo with successful US efforts to create peace in the Middle East, which complicated the situation. To address these developments, the Nixon Administration began parallel negotiations with both Arab oil producers to end the embargo, and with Egypt, Syria, and Israel to arrange an Israeli pull back from the Sinai and the Golan Heights after the fighting stopped. By January 18, 1974, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was sufficient to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974. By May, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights. Independently, the OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-­‐setting mechanism for oil to stabilize their real incomes by raising world oil prices. This action followed several years of steep income declines after the recent failure of negotiations with the major Western oil companies earlier in the month. Effects The effects of the embargo were immediate. OPEC forced the oil companies to increase payments drastically. The price of oil quadrupled by 1974 to nearly US$12 per barrel (75 US$/m3). This increase in the price of oil had a dramatic effect on oil-­‐exporting nations, since the countries of the Middle East that had long been dominated by the industrial powers were seen to have acquired control of a vital commodity. The traditional flow of capital reversed as the oil-­‐exporting nations accumulated vast wealth. Some of the income was dispensed in the form of aid to other underdeveloped nations whose economies had been caught between higher prices of oil and lower prices for their own export commodities and raw materials amid shrinking Western demand for their goods. Much was absorbed in massive arms purchases that exacerbated political tensions, particularly in the Middle East. The Arab embargo had a negative impact on the U.S economy, causing immediate demands to address the threats to U.S energy security. On an international level, the price increases of petroleum disrupted market systems in changing competitive positions. At the macro level, economic problems consisted of both inflationary and deflationary impacts of domestic economies. The Arab embargo left many U.S companies searching for new ways to develop expensive oil, even in the elements of rugged terrain such as in hostile arctic environments. The problem that many of these companies faced was that finding oil and developing new oil fields usually required a time lag of 5 to 10 years between the planning process and significant oil production. OPEC-­‐member states in the developing world withheld the prospect of nationalization of the companies' holdings in their countries. Most notably, the Saudis acquired operating control of Aramco, fully nationalizing it in 1980 under the leadership of Ahmed Zaki Yamani. As other OPEC nations followed suit, the cartel's income soared. Saudi Arabia, awash with profits, undertook a series of ambitious five-­‐year development plans, of which the most ambitious, begun in 1980, called for the expenditure of $250 billion. Other cartel members also undertook major economic development programs. Meanwhile, the shock produced chaos in the West. In the United States, the retail price of a gallon of gasoline (petrol) rose from a national average of 38.5 cents in May 1973 to 55.1 cents in June 1974. State governments requested citizens not put up Christmas lights, with Oregon banning Christmas as well as commercial lighting altogether. Politicians called for a national gas rationing program. Nixon requested gasoline stations to voluntarily not sell gasoline on Saturday nights or Sundays; 90% of owners complied, which resulted in lines on weekdays. A few months later, the crisis eased. The embargo was lifted in March 1974 after negotiations at the Washington Oil Summit, but the effects of the energy crisis lingered on throughout the 1970s. The price of energy continued increasing in the following year, amid the weakening competitive position of the dollar in world markets. The Watergate Scandal OVERVIEW The Watergate scandal encompasses a series of clandestine, and often illegal, activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included "dirty tricks" such as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides also ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the FBI, CIA, and the IRS. Despite attempts at secrecy, the activities were exposed after five men were caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. The Washington Post picked up on the story and, with tips from an FBI informant, gradually exposed the link between the burglery and the Nixon administration. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, calling news articles biased and misleading. As a series of revelations made it clear that Nixon aides had committed crimes in attempts to sabotage the Democrats and others, senior aides such as White House Counsel John Dean and Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman faced prosecution. FACTS ABOUT THE CASE In January 1972, G. Gordon Liddy, general counsel to the Committee for the Re-­‐
Election of the President (CRP), presented a campaign intelligence plan to CRP's Acting Chairman Jeb Stuart Magruder, Attorney General John Mitchell, and Presidential Counsel John Dean, that involved extensive illegal activities against the Democratic Party. Liddy was put in charge of the operation. He was assisted by former CIA Agent E. Howard Hunt and CRP Security Coordinator James McCord. John Mitchell resigned as Attorney General to become chairman of CRP. After two attempts to break into the Watergate Complex failed, on May 17, Liddy's team placed wiretaps on the telephones of DNC Chairman Lawrence O'Brien and Executive Director of Democratic States' Chairman R. Spencer Oliver, Jr. When Magruder and Mitchell read transcripts from the wiretaps, they deemed the information inadequate and ordered another break-­‐in. WATERGATE ARRESTS Shortly after 1 am on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latch on several doors in the complex (allowing the doors to close but remain unlocked). He removed the tape, and thought nothing of it. He returned an hour later, and having discovered that someone had re-­‐taped the locks, Wills called the police. Five men were discovered and arrested inside the DNC's office. The five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis, who were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them, as well as Hunt and Liddy, for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The five burglars who broke into the office were tried by Judge John Sirica and convicted on January 30, 1973. BREAKING OF THE WATERGATE STORY Hearing of the incident at the Watergate complex, the Washington Post started publishing a series of articles probing the link between the burglary and the Nixon administration. Reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward relied on an informant, famously known as "Deep Throat" (later revealed to be deputy director of the FBI, William Mark Felt), to link the burglars to the Nixon administration. Still, at this point, only about half of Americans had even heard of the robbery. On September 29, 1972 it was revealed that John Mitchell, while serving as Attorney General, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance intelligence-­‐gathering against the Democrats. On October 10, the FBI reported the Watergate break-­‐in was only part of a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage on behalf of the Nixon re-­‐election committee. Despite these revelations, Nixon's campaign was never seriously jeopardized, and on November 7, the President was re-­‐elected in one of the biggest landslides in American political history. The connection between the break-­‐in and the re-­‐election committee was highlighted by media coverage — in particular, investigative coverage by The Washington Post, TIME, and The New York Times. The coverage dramatically increased publicity and consequent political repercussions. Relying heavily upon anonymous sources, Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting knowledge of the break-­‐in, and attempts to cover it up, led deep into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and the White House. NIXON'S RESIGNATION In July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded his conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office. Though Nixon lost much popular support, even from his own party, he rejected accusations of wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office. In light of his loss of political support and the near certainty of impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. Nixon is the only President in American history to ever resign the office. The Ford Administration Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the thirty-­‐eighth President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and prior to this the fortieth Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, marking a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam essentially ended. Domestically, Ford presided over arguably the weakest economy since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. One of his more controversial acts was to grant a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. During Ford's incumbency, foreign policy was characterized, in procedural terms, by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. In 1976, Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Amnesty and Pardons When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency, making him the only person to assume the presidency without having been previously voted into either the presidential or vice presidential office. On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while president. When he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford also introduced a conditional amnesty program–
Presidential Proclamation 4313–for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries, such as Canada. This proved to be controversial, as it provided a means for those who were against the Vietnam War to erase any remaining criminal charges and for those who were given punitive discharges to have them converted to clemency discharges. Domestic Policy The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. One of the first acts the new president took to deal with the economy was to create the Economic Policy Board by Executive Order on September 30, 1974. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now.” As part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons.” The federal budget ran a deficit every year Ford was President. Despite his reservations about how the program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children," according to the official White House press release for the bill signing. Foreign Policy Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 visit to the communist country. In 1975, the Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union, creating the framework of the Helsinki Watch, an independent non-­‐governmental organization created to monitor compliance that later evolved into Human Rights Watch. In the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, two ongoing international disputes developed into crises. The Cyprus dispute turned into a crisis with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, causing extreme strain within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. In the continuing Arab-­‐Israeli conflict, although the initial cease fire had been implemented to end active conflict in the Yom Kippur War, Kissinger's continuing shuttle diplomacy was showing little progress. On March 24, Ford received congressional leaders of both parties and informed them of the reassessment of the administration policies in the Middle East. "Reassessment," in practical terms, meant to cancel or suspend further aid to Israel. For six months between March and September 1975, the United States refused to conclude any new arms agreements with Israel. One of Ford's greatest challenges was dealing with the continued Vietnam War. American offensive operations against North Vietnam had ended with the Paris Peace Accords, signed on January 27, 1973. The accords declared a cease-­‐fire across both North and South Vietnam and required the release of American prisoners of war. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the North and South. The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a 60-­‐day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces. The Election of 1976 The contest for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1976 was between two serious candidates: Gerald Ford, the leader of the GOP's moderate wing and the incumbent President, from Michigan, and Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing and the former two-­‐term governor of California. The presidential primary campaign between the two men was hard-­‐fought and relatively even. By the start of the Republican Convention in August 1976, the race for the nomination was still too close to call. Ford defeated Reagan by a narrow margin on the first ballot at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, and chose Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate in place of incumbent Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. The 1976 Republican Convention was the last political convention to open with the presidential nomination still being undecided until the actual balloting at the convention. One of the advantages Ford held over Carter, as the general election campaign began, was that, as President, he was privileged to preside over events dealing with the United States Bicentennial. This position often resulted in favorable publicity for Ford. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display on the Fourth of July was presided over by the President and televised nationally. On July 7, 1976, the President and First Lady served as hosts at a White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, which was televised on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network. These events were part of Ford's "Rose Garden" strategy to win the election. Instead of appearing as a typical politician, Ford presented himself as a "tested leader" who was busily fulfilling the role of national leader and Chief Executive. Not until October did Ford leave the White House to actively campaign across the nation. Jimmy Carter ran as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington political scandals, which many voters found attractive in the wake of the Watergate scandal, leading to President Richard Nixon's resignation. Ford, although personally unconnected with Watergate, was seen by many as too close to the discredited Nixon administration, especially after Ford granted Nixon a presidential pardon for any crimes he might have committed during his term of office. Ford's pardon of Nixon caused his popularity, as measured by public-­‐opinion polls, to plummet. Ford's refusal to publicly explain his reasons for pardoning Nixon, although he would do so in his memoirs several years later, also hurt his image. His son, Jack Ford, gave an interview in 1976 in which he stated that his father felt that he "(doesn't) have to prove anything" regarding the pardon of Nixon, and thus did not feel compelled to talk about it. After the Democratic National Convention, Carter held a huge 33-­‐point lead over Ford in the polls. However, as the campaign continued, the race greatly tightened. During the campaign Playboy magazine published a controversial interview with Carter; in the interview, Carter admitted to having "lusted in my heart" for women other than his wife, which cut into his support among women and evangelical Christians. Also, on September 23, Ford performed well in what was the first televised presidential debate since 1960. Polls taken after the debate showed that most viewers felt that Ford was the winner. Carter was also hurt by Ford's charges that he lacked the necessary experience to be an effective national leader, and that Carter was vague on many issues. Carter pledged to end desegregation busing. Results The states that ultimately secured Carter's victory were Wisconsin (1.68% margin) and Ohio (.27% margin). Had Ford won these states and all other states he carried, he would have won the presidency. The 27 states Ford won were and remain the most states ever carried by a losing candidate. Carter was the first Democrat since John F. Kennedy in 1960 to carry the states of the Deep South, and the first since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to carry an unquestionable majority of southern states. Carter performed very strongly in his home state of Georgia, carrying 66.7% of the vote and every county in the state. His 50.1% of the vote was the only time since 1964 that a Democrat managed to obtain a majority of the popular vote in a presidential election, until Barack Obama won about 53% of the vote 32 years later. Carter is one of five Democrats to gain a majority of the popular vote since the American Civil War, with the others being Samuel Tilden, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Barack Obama. Had Ford won the election, the provisions of the 22nd amendment would have disqualified him from running in 1980, because he had served more than two years of Nixon's remaining term.