Transcript R. The Nixon Years

The Nixon Years
Vietnam – 1969 Operation Breakfast
• Secret Bombing of Cambodia-target supply
routes through Cambodia, lasts for 14months.
• Cambodia supposed to be neutral. Some
bombing in Laos as well.
• Nixon announces “Vietnamization”-pull out U.S.
troops, continue to support Vietnamese soldiers.
“let them fight own war.”
• Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79.
• Public finds out about Mi Lai-Lt. Calley,
commanding officer, already charged w/murder
by Army.
• Massive anti-war demonstration in D.C.
Aug. 15-17, 1969 Woodstock
• epitome of 60’s hippie
culture.
Dec. 6, 1969 Altamont
• Rolling Stones U.S. tour
• Hell’s Angels as security
• paid them in beer
• 4 died: Angel’s beat one to death, 2 others
trampled, 1 drowned.
• seen as antithesis of Woodstock
• “death of the 60s,” 2 concerts 110 days
apart.
Invasion of Cambodia, 1970
• withdraw in June
• achieved none of the goals.
• 1970: beginning of 5 years of civil war in
Cambodia.
• Congress Withdraws the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution
• Vietnam at home:
• 26th amendment: 18 year olds get the vote
• Draft-ends college deferments.
Kent State
• May 4, 1970 -students protest Cambodian
invasion
• National Guard called in, protestors start
throwing rocks, bottles at guard, who opened
fire
• four killed,
more wounded.
No one punished.
Jackson State
• May 14-15, 1970
• students protesting war, racism, and Kent
state shooting
• National guard and police opened fire
• 2 dead, 12 injured.
• 406 rounds struck one dorm
Nixon’s Foreign Policy
• Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
• 1971-Intervention in Laos, South loses,
televised.
• 1972-U.S. opens diplomatic relations with
China. Nixon visits Feb-March.
• 1972-Easter Offensive
• U.S. launches a massive bombing campaign
• Vietcong offensive stalls by June.
Nixon’s Foreign Policy
• May 1972-Nixon travels to Moscow, signs SALT I
with Leonid Brezhnev
• Froze ICBM deployment, limit of 200 ABM, 2
ABM systems, over a five years period. Didn’t
address MIRV’s-Multiple Independent Re-entry
Vehicles.
• Détente: thawing of foreign relations
• USSR bought $750 mil worth of grain over the
next three yrs
• exchange of athletes, artists, dancers, etc… (will
lead to some defections, especially in the 80s)
Vietnam Peace Negotiations
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Oct 1972-“Peace is at Hand”
Re-election in November 1972
South Vietnamese President Thieu rejects deal
Christmas bombings of Hanoi: eleven days-2000 civilians
dead, hospital, large parts of the city, leveled
Massive public reaction
U.S. gives Thieu an ultimatum
Peace settlement-Jan. 23, 1973-“Peace with honor” LBJ
died the day before
1973-War Powers Act: 60day limit on presidential
commitment of troops to foreign campaigns, unless
Congress voted approval
Fighting resumes b/t united Viet Minh/Viet Cong forces and
S. Vietnamese army (Pres. Thieu resumes war)
Communist forces take Mekong Delta
Vietnam
• According to the United States Army, it
killed 1 million Vietnamese directly in
combat. That does not count the effects of
bombing.
• According to the Finnish Inquiry
Commission, the United States' war also
killed 600,000 in Cambodia.
• Took $150 billion, 58,000 U.S. lives
• Returning Vets neglected or worse. Post
traumatic Stress disorder
Disintegrating Counterculture
• 1969-Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark
die in a Chicago police raid. The Weathermen form.
• 1970-Weather Underground go into hiding
• June: New York City police headquarters bombed.
• July: 13 Weathermen indicted by a federal grand jury
on charges of conspiring to engage in acts of
terrorism. A New York bank is bombed in retaliation.
• Key members surrender to police in ’77 &’80, official
end in ’81
• COINTELPRO evidence surfaces starting March 8,
1971
Economic Effect of Vietnam
• Inflation, stagflation
• U.S. Oil dependence: fueling automobiles and homes in a
country increasingly dominated by suburbs, became an
economic and political tool for Third World nations to begin
fighting for their concerns.
• OPEC-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
begins using its leverage.
• Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, (Syria and Egypt
w/Soviet backing, against Israel, w/ U.S. backing.) Arab
members of OPEC announced they would no longer ship
petroleum to nations supporting Israel (United States and
Western Europe) (1967-6 days war b/t Israel and EgyptIsrael victorious, PLO forms in response)
• At the same time, other OPEC nations agreed to raise their
prices 400 percent.
The 1973 World Oil Shock
• Oil Embargo: Oct
1973-March 1974
• Gas rationing, lines
• Public and private
facilities closed down
to save on heating
oil, factories cut
production and laid
off workers
Nixon’s Domestic Policy
• New Federalism, Federal Liberalism
• continue liberal ideology, welfare, govt
responsibility, but put $ and decision-making into
state and local hands.
• Family Assistance Plan-first tinkering w/ welfare.
• Democratic Congress
• Environmental Legislation
• OSHA-Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
• EPA-Environmental Protection Agency
• Clean Air Act
• Clean Water Act
• Pesticide Control Act
Watergate
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Nixon’s Personality
CREEP
Woodward & Bernstein
Deep Throat (Mark Felt)
The Tapes
Aug, 8, 1974-Nixon Resigns
Shatters the Public’s trust in Govt
Gerald Ford becomes President
• A “nice guy but played too much football w/o a
helmet”-LBJ
• Never elected as VP or Pres. (Agnew resigns in
1973)
• Pardons Nixon-good for country, bad for Ford’s
popularity
• Betty Ford-outspoken, issues of alcoholism,
says she supports abortion rights.
• Two different women try to kill him on two
different occasions
• Clumsy-tripped &/or fell down numerous times,
kept hitting head on Air force One, fell out of a
boat while fishing, attacked by a rabbit.
During Ford’s term, Saigon falls to
Viet Minh, country reunited under
Northern leadership.
Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
Hanoi capital (N).
Last Americans evacuated from
Saigon embassy via helicopters.
• Begin waves of “boat people,”
many were pro-U.S. or deemed
enemies of the state in one way or
another.
• April 1974-Cambodia falls to Khmer Rouge, Pol
Pot
• Capital, Phnom Penh emptied, conservative est.
1.4 million out of 7-8 mil died.
• 1978/79-Vietnam invades Cambodia, seeking to
overthrow Khmer Rouge regime.
• U.S. supports Khmer Rouge.
• 1985-Vietnamese forces defeat Khmer Rouge
rebels in battles spilling over into Thailand.
• 1989-last Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia.
UN aid.
• 1993-UN sponsored election-coalition govt
U.S. Economic Slide
• Eco. problems continue, meanwhile Japan
is booming
• shift from industry to service and
technology jobs
• urban business flight, resulting in ghettos,
high urban unemployment
• prices go up, pay doesn’t, layoffs, factory
closings,