Disorder And Discontent

Disorder And Discontent
Chapter 13 Disorder And Discontent

The Decline of Liberalism
After eight years of Democratic control, many Americans were frustrated with the liberal, welfare- state approach. Many critics argued that America was doing too much to resolve the issues of the Vietnam War. The Republican Party promised to scale down the commitment in Vietnam and wanted to trim down the federal government while keeping some of the social programs that were already in place. In addition, Richard Nixon promised to pay more attention to the needs of the white, middle-class citizens, who no longer liked the social disorder and resented the government’s favoritism of the poor and dispossessed.

Richard Nixon and His Team All white Republicans Arthur Burns, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Affairs Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Harvard professor of government (and a Democrat) Henry Kissinger, another Harvard professor of government, directed the National Security Council and later became Secretary of State Another tier of White Officials, none with public policy experience but were all very loyal to Nixon, insulated the president from the outside world and carried out his commands. Spiro Agnew, Vice President Advertising executive H. R. Haldeman, became Chief of Staff John Ehrlichman, worked with Haldeman Haldeman and Ehrlichman became known as the “Berlin Wall” as they were constantly protecting the president’s privacy John Mitchell, “El Supremo” or “Big Enchilada”, a tough, successful lawyer was very good friend and lead the 1968 Nixon campaign. Served as Attorney General and Nixon’s daily advisor.

The Republican Agenda at Home Reverse the flow and power and resources by scaling back the programs of the welfare state Put the responsibilities in the hands of state and local government, where Nixon believed they belonged To combat the recession Nixon inherited, he began to reduce government spending and pressed the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates Nevertheless, inflation continued to rise Nixon shifted course by imposing wage and price controls to stop inflation, and used monetary and fiscal controls to stimulate the economy Other issues contributed to the economic troubles Eager to court the farm vote, the administration made a large wheat sale to Russia in 1972, which left insufficient amounts for the US, causing grain prices to escalate Between 1971 and 1974, farm prices rose by 66% as agricultural inflation accompanied industrial inflation

Another huge issue was the Arab oil embargo Turbulence in the Middle East intruded on the economic stability of the Western World With American economic expansion resting on cheap gasoline, the ongoing issues after the Six-Day war prevented that stability In the aftermath of the Six-Day War, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations (OPEC) slowly raised oil prices in the early 1970’s. Then in 1973, another Arab-Israel War (the Yom Kippur War) came as Jews celebrated the holiest holiday (the Day of Atonement) and took the Arabs by surprise The war pitted Israel against Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan At the end of the conflict, Egypt and Syria had modest gains, but Israel was largely in control Meanwhile, in the midst of the war, Saudi Arabia, an economic leader of the Arab nations, imposed an oil embargo against all Israeli allies…the US Oil shortages skyrocketed gasoline prices The US was hit hardest as their consumption of huge amounts of oil

Manufacturers, farmers, and homeowners all felt the economic crunch. A loaf of bread increased from 28 cents to 89 cents Automobile prices rose by nearly 72% between 1972 and 1978 American automobiles were challenged by Japanese models that were more fuel efficient (Hondas and Toyotas) In 1974, inflation reached 11% As a result, consumers cut back on their purchases Unemployment climbed to 9% for a very short period in 1975, the highest levels since the 1930’s During the economic struggle, Nixon tried to reorganize the rapidly expanding and expensive welfare programs Nixon had to work with the conservative tide in the Sun Belt who wanted cutbacks in the excessive programs and the Democratic blue- collar workers that depended on these vital programs Nixon endorsed the Family Assistance Plan that gave stipend of $1600 to families of four at the end of the year and $800 in food stamps. Nixon was attempting to eliminate “welfare cheaters” who took advantage of the system and to encourage recipients to work Liberals hated the program as it was too limited Conservatives thought it was too much and not the cutback they sought

Nixon also upset liberals with his commitment to restore “law and order” Rising crime rates, increased drug use, and more permissive attitudes toward sex created a growing backlash among working-class and middle-class Americans. Nixon decided to use government power to silence dissent He charges the Vice President to play the part of hatchet man First step was to reorganize the Supreme Court to a much more Conservative belief, so that the campaign against crime could begin Nixon had an opportunity not many presidents get to enjoy. He appointed 4 justices to the Supreme Court during his stay as President Once his court was complete, Nixon began his assault on media, narrowed defendant’s rights, and slowed the liberalizing the pornography laws However, the court did not side with Nixon on the issue of abortion 1973, Row vs Wade The court legalized abortion Women had the right to control their own bodies

Continuing Confrontations in Civil Rights- Nixon was less sympathetic to the cause of civil rights than his predecessors From the start, the Nixon administration sought to scale back the federal commitment to civil rights Reduced appropriations for fair-housing enforcement Tried to block an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but Congress blocked the attempt Southern efforts to suspend federal school desegregation guidelines got support from the Justice Department But the Supreme court ruled unanimously to rebuff the effort Nixon publicly disagreed Busing students from one area into another in order to end segregation also was an issue. Nixon wanted the practice to end

Almost 40%, or 18 million students, of American school children rode buses to school Nixon wanted to suspend this practice Southerners agreed and so too did the northerners South Boston High School, predominantly white, boycotted reassigned students as an effort to segregate the campus Enrollment went from 1,500 students to 100 on the first day White, working-class, South Bostonians felt they were being asked to carry the burden of middle-class liberal views Many parents enrolled their children in private schools or fled the city Integration into postsecondary schools came easier Some whites protested that the civil rights gains of some was at their expense and amounted to “reverse discrimination.” Allan Bakke, a white, applied to the medical school at UC Davis Twice rejected, he sued on the grounds that a racial quota reserving 16 of 100 places for minority-group applicants was a form of reverse discrimination that violated the civil Rights Act of 1964 In 1978, the Supreme court ordered Bakke’s admission to the medical school while allowing “consideration” of race in admissions policies, though not “quotas.”

The Ongoing Effort in Vietnam
The war continued into the 1970’s. Nixon embarked on an effort to bring American troops home as a way of defusing opposition to the struggle. Unfortunately, his decision to try to avoid losing the war led to even further chaos at home.

Vietnamization- Bringing the Soldiers Home Nixon gave top priority to extricating the US from Vietnam while still seeking a way to win the war. Announced the Nixon Doctrine, which asserted that the US would aid friends and allies but would not undertake the full burden of troop defense. The policy of Vietnamization entailed removing American forces and replacing them with Vietnamese troops Between 1968 and 1972 American troop strength dropped from 543,000 to 39,000 Yet, as the transition occurred, the South Vietnamese steadily lost ground to the Viet Cong. At the same time, Nixon used the bombing campaign to portray himself as a madman with his hand on the nuclear trigger. Attempting to instill the fear of annihilation in order to bring the enemy to the peace table War protests multiplied between 1969 and 1970 In November of 1969, stories surfaced about a horrifying massacre of civilians in My Lai, a small village in South Vietnam Helicoptered in to clear the Viet Cong, American troops lost control and mowed down hundreds of civilians in cold blood This increased the pressure for the US to get out of the war

My Lai Massacre

Widening the War wanting to defuse the opposition to war and determined not to lose, Nixon announced a new strategy In mid-1970, Nixon announced that American and Vietnamese troops were invading Cambodia to clear out Communist enclaves that provide the necessary supply lines for the North Vietnamese Two days after the announcement students at Kent State University (Ohio) protested by setting fire to the ROTC building and watched it burn to the ground Governor James Rhodes ordered the National Guard to the university. Tension grew, and finally the situation exploded as the Guardsmen fired without provocation on the students. When the shooting stopped, four students were dead and nine others injured Two of the dead were demonstrators who were more than 250 feet away when shot The other two were innocent bystanders, almost 400 feet away from the troops Students, and other Americans, were outraged at the attack Many were equally disturbed about a similar attack at Jackson State University (Mississippi) where a few students taunted police and National Guardsmen. Two black students were killed and more wounded White America paid less attention to that incident

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Kent State Jackson State

The End of the War and Détente- Although a cease-fire was finally achieved in 1973, the conflict lingered until When North Vietnam consolidated their control over the entire country, Gerald Ford, Nixon’s successor as president, called for another $1 billion in aid, but Congress refused The long conflict had enormous consequences Disillusionment in the war had undermined assumptions about America’s role in world affairs 58,000 Americans died, and far more wounded or maimed Black and Latinos suffered more than whites, since they were disproportionately represented In 1965, 24% of all soldiers killed in Vietnam were African American, a figure higher than their percentage of the population as a whole The nation spent over $150 billion on the unsuccessful war

If the Republicans’ Vietnam policy was a questionable success, accomplishments were impressive in other areas Nixon dealt imaginatively and successfully with the major Communist powers, reversing the direction of American policy since WWII Nixon established relations with the People’s Republican of China. He went to China in February of 1972 Met with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to talk about international problems, exchanged toasts, and saw the Great Wall and other major sights American television camera followed his every move, which introduced the American public to a nation they barely knew. Though diplomatic relations were not yet restored, détente (an ending of unfriendly or hostile relations between countries) between the two countries had begun

Nixon also visited Russia, where he was likewise warmly welcomed. At a cordial summit meeting, the president and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which included a five-year agreement setting ceilings on intercontinental and other ballistic missiles, and an antiballistic missile treaty restricting the number of systems each nation could develop and deploy At the same time, the two nations agreed to cooperate in space and to ease long-standing restrictions on trade. Businesses applauded the new approach, and most Americans approved of détente. Nixon also recognized the need to promote peace in the Middle East. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger engaged in shuttle diplomacy in an effort that helped arrange a cease-fire in the Yom Kippur War In the aftermath of the struggle, Nixon and Kissinger worked to establish better relationships with the Arab nations, even if they intruded on American support of Israel. Both recognized the need for oil When Gerald Ford assumed the office, he followed the policies begun under Nixon He continued the strategic arms limitation talks that provided hope for eventual nuclear disarmament and culminated in the even more comprehensive SALT II agreement, signed but never ratified before the Jimmy Carter presidency

Constitutional Conflict and Its Consequences
As he dealt with chaos at home and abroad, Nixon worried about maintaining his political base. In his quest, he went too far and embroiled himself in a devastating political scandal that undermined his administration The Watergate Affair Faced with a Democratic Congress, the Nixon administration found much of its legislation blocked, consistently. Nixon was determined to end the stalemate by winning a second term and sweeping Republican Majorities in both houses of Congress in 1972

Nixon’s reelection campaign was far more prepared than four years earlier. His aides were prepared to do anything for the victory. The Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) aimed at collecting as money as it could before a new campaign-finance law went into effect That money could pay for any purpose, including payments for the performance of “dirty tricks” designed to disrupt the opposition’s campaign Other funds financed an intelligence branch within CREEP Early in 1972, G. Gordon Liddy, a member of CREEP, and his lieutenants proposed an elaborate scheme to wiretap the phones of various Democrats and to disrupt their nominating convention John Mitchell, the attorney general, twice refused to go along arguing the plan was too risky and expensive Finally, he approved a modified version of the illegal plan to tap phones of the Democratic National Committee at its headquarters in the Watergate Apartments complex in Washington, D.C. The wiretapping attempt took place on the evening of June 16, 1972 and ended with the arrest of those involved Nixon’s aides played down the matter and used federal resources to head off an investigation.

When the FBI traced the money carried by the burglars to CREEP, the president authorized the CIA to call off the investigation on the grounds that national security was at risk Though not involved in the planning of the break-in, the president was now party to the cover-up In the succeeding months, he authorized payments of hush money to the burglars and members of the administration, including the attorney general Mitchell, perjured themselves in court to shield the top officials who were involved Nixon trounced Democrat George McGovern in the Election of 1972 In a clear indication of the collapse of the Democratic coalition, 70% of southern voters cast their ballots for Nixon The president, however, failed to gain the congressional majorities he sought The Watergate burglars pled guilty and were sentenced to jail, but the case refused to die The investigation by two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, uncovered many of those involved The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities undertook its own investigation, and one of the convicted burglars testified that the White House had been involved in the episode Newspaper stories generated further leads Nixon released Haldeman and Ehrlichman to save his own neck “there can be no whitewash at the White House”

In May of 1973, the Senate committee began televised public hearings John Dean, seeking to save himself, testified that Nixon knew about the cover-up, and other staffers revealed a host of illegal activities undertaken at the White House Money paid to burglars for silence State Department documents forged to smear previous administration Wiretaps used to prevent top level leaks And that the president had installed a secret taping system in his office to record all conversations. These tapes could verify or disprove that the president was involved in the cover-up When special prosecutor asked for tapes, Nixon fired him Americans now believed the president had been involved Time Magazine called for Nixon resignation and for congress to consider Impeachment On August 5th Nixon turned over the tapes Four days later, Nixon became the first president ever to resign A 1974 survey showed that trust in the presidency had declined by 50% in a two-year period First, Johnson lied to the American people about involvement in Vietnam Second, the Watergate Affair contributed to the disillusionment of politics in Washington and to the steady decrease in political participation Barely half of those registered to vote bothered to go to the polls in the presidential elections of 1976, 1980, and 1984

Gerald Ford: Caretaker President- takes over after Nixon resignation. Ford had become Vice President when Agnew resigned for taking bribe money Ford was a middle-American Republican who believed in traditional values There was significant doubt that Ford was qualified to be chief executive Even Ford acknowledged his own limitations “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.” Ford opposed federal aid to education, the poverty program, and mass transit He voted for civil rights measures only when weaker programs he favored had been defeated Like Nixon, he was determined to stop liberal advances promoted by Democrats in the 1960’s. To regain public trust in the presidency, Ford vowed to emphasize conciliation and compromise in cooperation with both the congress and the American people. When ford pardoned Nixon barely a month after his resignation, he lost much of his base support When recession hit in 1972, Ford was often at odds with the Democratic congress Fuel and oil price increases Inflation rose to 11% Unemployment hit 6.6% And the GNP declined

The Carter Interlude In the Election of 1976, Ford lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter, who portrayed himself as an outsider to the political world that dominated Washington Carter received 50% to 48% of the popular vote He won the electoral college 297 votes to 240 for Ford members of the working-class, African-Americans, and Catholics all voted for Carter He won most of the South Carter attracted most of the black vote and less than half of all white voters as racial voting differences continued Carter was a peanut farmer who shared the values of the region, which stood in opposition to his predecessors Graduated from the Naval Academy A modest man that was uncomfortable with the pomp and incessant political activities in Washington Initially, voters saw Carter as a reform Democrat committed to his party’s goals, but he was hardly the old-line liberal some had expected

Though he called himself a populist, his political philosophy and priorities were never clear Critics charged that he had no political agenda or legislative strategy Charged that he responded to problems in a haphazard way and failed to provide firm direction He ignored traditional political channels Seemed to become mired in detail and lose sight of larger issues In economic affairs, Carter gave liberals some hope at first as he accepted deficit spending But when record deficits brought inflation, nearly 10%, Carter slowed down the economy by reducing spending and cutting the deficit slightly. These budget cuts fell largely on social programs and distanced himself from reform- minded Democrats who had been his biggest supporters Yet those budget cuts were not enough, as the budget in 1980 still showed high spending levels, the financial community reacted strongly as bond prices fell and interested rates rose dramatically Carter disappointed liberals even more by failing to construct an effective energy policy OPEC’s increase of oil prices led many Americans to resent their dependency on foreign oil and to clamor for energy self-sufficiency Carter responded in 1977 with a comprehensive energy program, but critics ridiculed the plan Carter watched most of his proposals bog down in Congress for 26 months Eventually the program committed the nation to move from oil to coal, possibly even sun and wind, and establish a new synthetic-fuel corporation. Nuclear power, another alternative, seemed less attractive as costs rose and incidents occurred

Carter also upset liberals with his deregulation programs Carter argued that certain restrictions established over the past century stifled competition and increased consumer costs He supported decontrol of oil and natural gas prices to spur production He also deregulated the railroad, trucking, and airline industries One of the high points in Carter’s administration came in the involvement of the ever-turbulent Middle East In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian leader Anwar al-Sadat was disappointed in the ultimate failure of the struggle and flew to Israel in a gesture of peace Carter intervened and invited Sadat and Israel leader Menachem Begin to come to the US to work out an accord in September of 1978 that led to formal peace treaty the next March. Egypt recognized Israel and the Israeli right to exist for the first time, and Israel gave up part of the occupied Sinai Peninsula. The US promised substantial military aide to both parties, which led to a closer relationship with Egypt that has continued ever since. However, as the US superseded the Soviet Union as an ally to Egypt, the Russians countered by arming the radical Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and helped encourage leader Yasir Arafat in the ongoing guerilla war. Carter puzzled people overseas by his passionate commitment to human rights Became the hallmark of his administration, especially when he ordered the US to boycott the Olympics in Moscow in 1980 In protest of Russia invading Afghanistan In the end, liberals were disappointed as the 1970’s came to a close. Their hopes for a stronger commitment to a welfare state had been dashed Conservatives had the upper hand Liberalism was in trouble And the turbulence that marked the beginning of the decade had not disappeared

The Continuing Quest for Social Reform
The struggle for social reform was one more contributing factor to the turbulence of the 1970’s. The black struggle for equality in the 1950’s and 1960’s helped spark a women’s movement that soon developed a life of its own. This struggle, like others, employed the confrontational approach and the insistent vocabulary of the civil rights movement to create pressure for change. In time, other groups appropriated the same strategies and kept reform efforts alive. While these movements had preexisting roots and usually began in the 1960’s, they came of age in the 1970’s, and in these years achieved their greatest gains

Attacking the Feminine Mystique During the 1950’s and 1960’s increasing numbers of women entered the labor force Equally important, many more young women were attending college By 1970, women earned 41% of all BA degrees awarded, in comparison to only 25% in 1950 These educated women held high hopes for themselves, even if they still earned substantially less than men and were often treated a second-class citizens The first major victory came in the debate over Title VII of the Civil Rights Bill During the legislative debates, conservatives opposed to black civil rights seized on an amendment to include discrimination on the basis of gender However, the amendment passed, and then the full measure was approved, giving women a legal tool for attacking discrimination Women’s organizations played an important role in bringing about change in the 1970’s

National Organization for Women (NOW) established in by Betty Friedan and 27 other professional women. Focused on fair pay and equal opportunity, and more importantly, a new egalitarian (Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people) form of marriage. By 1967, some 1,000 women had joined the organization, and four years later, its membership reached 15,000 To radical feminists who had come through the civil rights movement, NOW’s agenda failed to confront adequately the problem of gender discrimination The radicals gained recognition at the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey One hundred women nominated a sheep as their candidate They set of a “freedom trash can” and filled it with “instruments of torture.” Bras, high heels, copies of Playboy and Cosmopolitan In the pageant hall they chanted “Freedom for Women” and unfurled banners reading “Women’s Liberation” In 1971, singer-songwriter Helen Reddy expressed the energy of the movement in a song called “I Am Women”

In 1970, a survey of first-year college students showed that men interested in such fields as business, medicine, engineering, and law outnumbered women 8 to 1; by 1975, the ration had dropped to 3 to 1 Women gained access to the military academies and entered senior officer ranks, although restricted from combat 45% of mothers with preschool children held jobs outside the home in 1980, four times higher than it had been 30 years before Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 barred gender bias in federally assisted educational activities and programs, made easier the admission of women to college, and required schools to fund intercollegiate sports for women as well as men By 1980, 30% of the participants in intercollegiate sports were women, compared to 15% before Title IX became law

Publications highlighted the spread of women’s movement issues In 1972 Gloria Steinem and several other women founded a new magazine “Ms.” Had 200,000 subscribers in less than one year “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” a handbook published by a women’s health collective, encouraged women to understand and control their bodies Sold 850,000 copies between 1971 and 1976 These publications dealt with such issues as abortion, employment, and discrimination Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by Congress in 1972, stated simply, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Black women frequently viewed the women’s movement with ambivalence (Uncertainty or indecisiveness as to which course to follow). Some became feminists, but others felt that the struggle for racial equality took precedence, and they were reluctant to divert energy and attention from it Not all women were feminists. Many felt the place for a woman was at home next to her husband

Marabel Morgan, “The Total Woman,” counseled women to follow the “4A approach”: accept, admire, adapt, and appreciate. Some 500,000 copies were sold in 1975 In politics, Phyllis Schlafly headed a national campaign to block ratification of the ERA. The amendment, she predicted, would lead to the establishment of coed bathrooms, the elimination of alimony, and the legalization of homosexual marriage Schlafly and her allies had their way. Within a few years after passage of the ERA, 35 states had agreed to the measure, but then the momentum disappeared. Even with an extension in the deadline granted in 1979, the amendment could not win support of the necessary 38 states. By mid-1982, the ERA was dead.

Latino Mobilization- in 1970, some 9 million residents of the US declared they were of Spanish origin; in 1980, that figured was 14.6 million However, while some gains were experienced by Latinos, median household income remained less than ¾ that of Anglos Inferior education and political weakness reinforced social and cultural separation Latino included the Puerto Ricans in the Northeast, Cubans in Florida, and the Chicanos, Mexican Americans, in the West and Southwest

Chicanos took the lead in the protest struggle Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers, showed the way by organizing migrant farmworkers of the West, among the most exploited and ignored laboring people in the country. By 1965, his organization had recruited 1,700 people and attracted volunteer help Latina women played an important part in the recruiting. Dolores Huerta, a third-generation Mexican American became the Vice President of the UFW The UFW first took on the grape growing farmers in California. the “Delano Grape Strikes” Better pay Better work conditions Recognition of union

Mexican Americans also pushed for reform in education Mexican American studies programs Accessing the students past Protesting conditions in secondary schools Overcrowded Rundown 50% dropout rate because of expulsion, transfer, or failure because students had never been taught to read School walkouts took place in Colorado, Texas, and California Led to successful demands for Latino teachers, counselors, and courses as well as better facilities Other Mexican American leaders formed even more organizations that continue the battle for Latino rights Reies Lopez Tijerina, “El Tigre” The Federal Alliance of Land Grants Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, the Crusade for Justice Despite occasional gains in the 1970’s, Latinos from all groups faced continuing problems. Discrimination persisted in housing, education, and employment. Activists had laid the groundwork for a campaign for equal rights, but the struggle had just begun

Native American Protest-like Latinos, Native Americans continued to suffer second-class citizen status in the 1960’s and 1970’s. But, partly inspired by the confrontational tactics of other groups, they became more aggressive in their efforts to claim rights and improve their living and working conditions. Their soaring numbers, 550,000 in 1960 and 1,480,000 in 1980, gave them greater visibility and political clout American Indians learned from the protests they saw around them in the rising nationalism of the developing world, and even more important, in the civil rights revolution

They came to understand the place of interest-group politics in a diverse society They recognized a pattern of killing people of color that connected Indian-white relations to the excesses in the Philippines at the turn of the century and to the atrocities in Korea and Vietnam. Indians in the late 1960’s and 1970’s successfully promoted their own values and designs. Native American fashions became more common, museums and galleries displayed Indian art, and Indian jewelry found a new market Movies like “Little Big Man” provided sympathetic portrayals of Indian history Indian studies programs were developed in colleges and universities Organizations such as the American Indian Historical Society protested traditional treatment of Indians and demanded more honest portrayals Simultaneously. Indians became more confrontational in the legal system

Led by a new generation of leaders, American Indians tried to protect what was left of their tribal lands For generations, federal and state governments steadily encroached on Native American territory, that had to stop Seneca Nation’s Allegany reservation in New York When state authorities tried to condemn a section of Seneca land to build a superhighway through the Allegany reservation, the Indians went to court In 1981, the state finally agreed to an exchange State land elsewhere in addition to a cash settlement in return for an easement through the reservation That decision encouraged tribal efforts in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona to resist similar incursions on reservation lands

Other violations were exposed through the legal system In 1967, US Court of Claims ruled that the government in 1823 had forced Seminole in Florida to cede their land for an unreasonably low price The court directed the government to pay additional funds 144 years later. American Indians also vigorously and successfully protested new assaults on their long-abused water and fishing rights Urban Indian activists became highly visible In 1968, George Mitchell and Dennis Banks, Chippewa living in Minnesota, founded the activist American Indian Movement (AIM) AIM got the Office of Economic Opportunity funds channeled to Indian-controlled organizations It also established patrols to protect drunken Indians from harassment by the police Soon chapters formed in other cities

An incident in November of 1969 dramatized Native American militancy A landing party of 78 Indians seized Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay in an effort to protest symbolically the inability of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to “deal practically” with questions of Indian welfare. The Indians converted the island into a cultural and educational center In 1971, federal officials removed the Indians from Alcatraz Similar protests followed in 1973, when AIM took over the village at Wounded Knee The occupation was meant to dramatize conditions and to draw attention to the 371 treaties AIM leaders claimed the government had broken Federal officials responded by encircling the area and, when AIM tried to bring in supplies, killed one Indian and wounded another Native American Indians devoted increasing attention to provide education and developing legal skills Many founded their own colleges and universities From a few hundred in the early 1960’s to tens of thousands by 1980 Indian protests brought results

The outcry against termination in the 1950’s led Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the 1960’s to steer a middle course. Instead, they tried to bolster reservation economies and raise standards of living by persuading private industries to locate on reservations and by promoting the leasing of reservation lands to energy and development corporations. Many tribes confronted the hated policy head-on, and often gained the cancellation of such leases and the restoration of reservation status Legislation became of great assistance for Indian nations around the US. In 1975, congress passed an Indian Self-Determination Act. An Education Assistance Act that same year involved subcontracting federal services to tribal groups. Both laws reflected the government’s decision to respond to Indian pressure and created a framework for federal policy

Gay and Lesbian Rights- closely tied to the revolution in sexual norms that affected sexual relations, marriage, and family life was a fast- growing and increasingly militant gay liberation movement. Because American society as a whole was unsympathetic, many homosexuals kept their preferences to themselves. The climate of the 1970’s encouraged gays to “come out of the closet.” A nightlong riot in 1969, in response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a homosexual bar in Greenwich Village in New York, helped spark a new consciousness and a movement for gay rights Throughout the 1970’s, homosexuals endured the most blatant forms of discrimination In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association ruled that homosexuality should no longer be classified as a mental illness, and that decision was overwhelmingly supported in a vote by the membership the next year. In 1975, the US Civil Service Commission lifted its ban on employment of homosexuals In this new climate of acceptance men revealed their long kept secret. Women also became more open about their sexual preference as a lesbian movement developed Unfortunately, many Americans and some churches remained unsympathetic to anyone who challenged traditional sexual norms

Greenwich Village

Environmental and Consumer Agitation After World War II, many Americans began to recognize that clean air, unpolluted waters, and unspoiled wilderness were indispensable to a decent existence. They worried about threats to their natural surroundings By 1970, 53% of the population considered air and water pollution to be one of the major national problems In 1969, Americans learned that thermal pollution from nuclear plants was killing fish in eastern and western rivers A massive oil spill off the coast of Southern California turned white beaches black and wiped out much of the marine life in the immediate area In 1978, the public became alarmed about the lethal effects of toxic chemical dumped in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York. A few years later, attention focused on the deadly substance dioxin In 1979, at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Human error compounded a mechanical problem, and part of the nuclear core began to disintegrate. Thousands of area residents fled in a panic Since 1978, no new nuclear plants have been authorized, while other countries around the world continue to produce them. Remember Russia and Japan

Western environmentalists were particularly worried about excessive use of water. Massive irrigation systems had boosted the nation’s use of water from 40 billion gallons per day in 1900 to 393 billion gallons by though the population had only tripled. Americans used three times as much water per capita as the world’s average California was particularly vulnerable. Because the state was naturally dry, its prosperity rested on massive irrigation projects, and in the late 1970’s, it had 1,251 major reservoirs Virtually every large river had at least one dam Almost as much water pumped from the ground, with little natural replenishment and even less regulation Pointing to the destruction of the nation’s rivers and streams, and the severe lowering of the water table in many areas, environmentalists argued that something needed to be done (look where we are today) Environmental activism was seen in the as the Nixon administration as Congress passed the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, and the Resource Recovery Act and mandated a new Environmental Protection Agency Ralph Nader spearheaded the movement in the auto industry that generated the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966 and the creation of a National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council

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