A Culture Protest:

• In the late 1960s, the western world was filled with many movements relating to sexual mores, education, women's rights, and strong anti-war movements. These forces changed western society.

  Sexual Mores:

  • The 1920s had witnessed experimentation with drugs, the appearance of pornography, and new sexual freedom. These indications of a new attitude appeared mostly in major cities and touched only small numbers of people.

  • After World War II, changes in manners and morals were far more extensive and far more noticeable, giving rise to what critics called the permissive society.

  • Sweden took the lead in the propagation of the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s. Sex education in the schools and the decriminalization of homosexuality were but two aspects of Sweden’s liberal legislation.

  • The rest of Europe and the United States soon followed Sweden’s example.

  Youth Protest and Student Revolts:

  • In this century the introduction of drugs among college students was evident.

  • New attitudes toward sex and the use of drugs were only two manifestations of a growing youth movement in the 1960s that questioned authority and fostered rebellion against the older generation.

  Feminist Movement:

  • By the late 1960s, women began to assert their rights and speak as feminists or women liberals. They wanted more than the traditional house role as a mother.

A Divided Western World:

• Between 1945 and 1965, economic recovery had brought renewed growth to Europe, but there were still disparities in prosperity.

• The soviet union had the Brezhnev years where they benefited from a more relaxed atmosphere, but not a lot changed during these years.

• Eastern European Communist leaders now adopted reform programs to make socialism more acceptable to their subject populations.

• In Poland, there was a lot of work unrest. The unrest caused the Berlin wall to be built separating east and west Germany.

• After two decades of incredible economic growth, Europe experienced severe economic recessions in 1973–1974 and 1979– 1983. Both inflation and unemployment rose dramatically. A substantial increase in the price of oil in 1973 was a major cause for the first downturn.

• A worldwide recession had led to a decline in demand for European goods, and in Europe itself, the reconstruction of many European cities after their devastation in World War II had largely been completed.

• After 1970, Western European states continued to pursue the goal of integrating their economies.

• Beginning with six states in 1957, the European Economic Community expanded in 1973 when Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined what its members now renamed the European Community. Greece joined in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986.

• The economic integration of the members of the EC led to cooperative efforts in international and political affairs as well.

• The foreign ministers of the twelve members consulted frequently and provided a common front in negotiations on important issues.

United States:

• In 1913 Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 and he ended American involvement in Vietnam by 1973 by gradually withdrawing American troops. Politically, he pursued a ‘‘southern strategy,’’ carefully calculating that ‘‘law and order’’ issues and a slowdown in racial desegregation would appeal to southern whites.

• The South, which had once been a Democratic stronghold, began to form a new allegiance to the Republican Party.

• The Republican strategy also gained support among white Democrats in northern cities, where court-mandated busing to achieve racial integration had led to a backlash among whites.

Second Vietnam War:

• The Cuban Missile crisis had lessened the tensions of the cold war, but in another year the US was fighting the Vietnam War.

• After Vietnamese forces had defeated their French colonial masters in 1954, Vietnam had been divided. A regime in the north under Ho Chi Minh received Soviet aid, while American sponsors worked to establish a pro-Western regime in South Vietnam.

• The new military government seemed even less able to govern the country, and by early 1965, the Vietcong, were on the verge of seizing control of the entire country.

• President Lyndon Johnson decided to launch bombing raids on the north and to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam to prevent a total defeat of the anti-Communist government in Saigon and keep the Communist regime of the north from uniting the entire country under its control.

• U.S. forces failed to prevail over the persistence of the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong, despite their massive superiority in equipment and firepower.

• These guerrilla forces were extremely effective against American troops. Natives of Vietnam were able to live off the land, disappear among the people, and attack when least expected.

  Detente:

  • Detente is the easing of hostility or strained relations between countries. It made the US and Soviet Union have peace for the most part and made sure none of them could win.

Society and Culture in the Western World:

• In the late 1900s, there were many new cultural, political, and economic developments in people's lives.

• The computer was an invention that accelerated the rate of change and soon became a fact of life. Physics changed a lot and a lot of theories that were once believed were proved wrong and new ones were developed.

• This new scientific knowledge gave human beings the ability to manipulate the environment for their benefit. They maintained that some technological advances had far-reaching side effects damaging to the environment.