Youth Revolt

Civil rights activism inspired a heightened interest in social causes during the sixties, especially among the young. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) embodied the New Left ideology, and their ideas and tactics spread to many other campuses. By 1970, a distinctive counterculture had emerged among disaffected youth and attracted young people (“hippies”) alienated by mainstream American values and institutions.

The Inspirational Effects of the Civil Rights Movement

The energy, ideals, tactics, and courage of the civil rights movement inspired many other social reform movements during the sixties and seventies, including the women’s movement, the Red Power movement among Native Americans, and the United Farm Workers (UFW). The Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969 marked a militant new era for gay rights.

Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” drew conservative southern white Democrats into the Republican party. As president, he sought to slow the momentum of the civil rights movement, including affirmative action programs giving special treatment to minorities, and vetoed the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1968, but Congress overrode his veto. Nixon did grudgingly support new federal environmental policies such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In 1968, Nixon campaigned for the presidency pledging to secure “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but years would pass before the war ended. Nixon implemented what was called the Vietnamization of the war, which involved increasing economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese, reducing U.S. ground forces, and escalating the bombing of North Vietnam (and Cambodia) while attempting to negotiate a cease-fire agreement. The publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the intense bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972 aroused more protests, but a month after the bombings began, North and South Vietnam agreed to a cease-fire called the Paris Peace Accords.

Nixon’s greatest accomplishments were in foreign policy. He opened diplomatic relations with Communist China and pursued détente with the Soviet Union. He and Henry Kissinger also helped ease tensions in the Middle East.

During the 1972 presidential campaign, burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic party’s national campaign headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon tried to block congressional investigations, which eventually led to calls for his impeachment for obstruction of justice. Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, whose presidency was undermined by economic struggles, international incidents, and his controversial decision to pardon Nixon.

Civil rights activism inspired a heightened interest in social causes during the sixties, especially among the young. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) embodied the New Left ideology, and their ideas and tactics spread to many other campuses. By 1970, a distinctive counterculture had emerged among disaffected youth and attracted young people (“hippies”) alienated by mainstream American values and institutions.

The energy, ideals, tactics, and courage of the civil rights movement inspired many other social reform movements during the sixties and seventies, including the women’s movement, the Red Power movement among Native Americans, and the United Farm Workers (UFW). The Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969 marked a militant new era for gay rights.

Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” drew conservative southern white Democrats into the Republican party. As president, he sought to slow the momentum of the civil rights movement, including affirmative action programs giving special treatment to minorities, and vetoed the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1968, but Congress overrode his veto. Nixon did grudgingly support new federal environmental policies such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In 1968, Nixon campaigned for the presidency pledging to secure “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but years would pass before the war ended. Nixon implemented what was called the Vietnamization of the war, which involved increasing economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese, reducing U.S. ground forces, and escalating the bombing of North Vietnam (and Cambodia) while attempting to negotiate a cease-fire agreement. The publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the intense bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972 aroused more protests, but a month after the bombings began, North and South Vietnam agreed to a cease-fire called the Paris Peace Accords.

Nixon’s greatest accomplishments were in foreign policy. He opened diplomatic relations with Communist China and pursued détente with the Soviet Union. He and Henry Kissinger also helped ease tensions in the Middle East.

During the 1972 presidential campaign, burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic party’s national campaign headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon tried to block congressional investigations, which eventually led to calls for his impeachment for obstruction of justice. Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, whose presidency was undermined by economic struggles, international incidents, and his controversial decision to pardon Nixon.

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