Chapter 25 The Conservatism Revolutions 1980 -1992

The Conservatism Revolutions

     

      In the 1980’s the Republican Party scored major electoral victories. Under the leadership of Ronald Reagan and then George Bush, the republicans rolled back the liberal agenda. The republicans main thrust was an attempt to revive the moral values of the nations, which conservatives felt had eroded in an increasingly permissive society. George Bush foreign policy successes, including the end of the cold war.

    When Ronald Reagan began his career as a movie actor in Hollywood, he became actively involved in the political affairs of the actors’ union. Originally, Reagan considered himself a Democrat.  However, he found himself less comfortable with the Democratic Party after World War II, and joined the Republican Party in the 1950s. Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966.  During his eight years as governor, Reagan eliminated California’s budget deficit by modestly increasing taxes, cutting funding to social programs, and reforming state spending.

   Although most people supported the desegregation of public schools, many parents questioned why their students had to be bused to distant schools. Many Democrats who objected to affirmative action moved their support to the Republican Party.  These Reagan Democrats would help Republicans win many victories in the 1980s.

      By 1980, conservative groups had formed a powerful political coalition called the New Right.  The New Right wanted to improve the economy and reduce the size of government by cutting spending on social programs. One group on the New Right included evangelists such as Jerry Falwell of Virginia.  Using a new format called televangelism, Farwell and others appealed to television viewers to contribute money to their campaign.  One of Reagan’s main goals was to spur business growth. Reagan believed that supply-side economics, a strategy that focused on the supply of goods, would achieve this goal. Supply-side economics advocated giving more money to businesses and investors.  These businesses in turn would hire more people and produce more goods.

       Under Reagan, public service jobs were eliminated, unemployment and welfare benefits were reduced, and Medicare rates were raised. Reagan initiated a plan called the New Federalism in which the federal government would no longer tell states exactly how federal aid had to be used. In 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as “Star Wars.”  SDI proposed the creation of a massive satellite shield in space to intercept and destroy incoming Soviet missiles.

      The number of African American elected officials rose dramatically during the 1980s, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday became a national holiday.  However, Reagan appointed federal judges who were less sympathetic to civil rights goals, and resistance to affirmative action programs rose. The campaign for homosexual rights presented another controversial issue.  The spread of AIDS, or acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, caused alarm. Some savings and loan banks (often called S & Ls) took advantage of new laws to make risky investments with depositors’ savings. When hundreds of S & Ls failed, taxpayers had to make up the billions of dollars lost.

     In Nicaragua, the United States secretly supported guerrillas known as Contras against the ruling Marxist Sandinistas.  This policy violated American laws on international intervention. Congress discovered this violation and, in 1984, cut off aid to the Contras.  In what became known as the Iran-Contra affair, some government officials secretly continued supporting the Contras using profits from arms sales to Iran. The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty provided for the destruction of thousands of American and Soviet missiles in Europe. Payments for entitlements, or programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which guarantee payments to a particular group of recipients, grew faster than policymakers had expected.

   Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush began the 1988 campaign far behind his opponent, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Bush continued arms-control talks with Gorbachev.  The first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed in 1991, called for dramatic reductions in the two nations’ supplies of long-range nuclear weapons. President Bush believed that protection of Kuwait’s oil reserves was an issue of national security.  Bush, working with the United Nations and leaders of more than 25 other countries, mobilized forces for the Persian Gulf War.

   Bush’s nomination of conservative African American judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court angered many liberals and moderates.  Charges of past sexual harassment plagued Thomas’s confirmation hearings. A deficit reduction plan that included new taxes broke Bush’s campaign promise and angered many Americans. A recession which began in the early 1990s resulted in widespread downsizing, or the laying off of workers to cut costs to companies.  Cuts in defense spending and rising oil prices also contributed to America’s economic problems.

     Since the expansion of the federal government in the 1930s, conservatives had argued for a smaller government. Ronald Reagan came into office determined to cut taxes, shrink the size of the federal government, and increase defense spending. After a decisive reelection victory in 1984, Reagan continued his conservative policies on economic and social issues.  George Bush foreign policy successes, including the end of the cold war, had their roots in Reagan’s initiatives.

Chapter 23 The Nixon Years 1968 - 1974

The Nixon Years

      

     The Nixon presidency was during the years 1968 to 1974. American politics shifted dramatically in 1968, and that divided United States.  Republican Richard Nixon capitalized on disruption to gain the presidency. Nixon was interested in foreign affairs , and he took bold steps in changing relations with China and the Soviet union. With the Watergate scandal Americans forced Nixon to resign the presidency.

    Although he had a reserved and remote personality, many Americans respected Nixon for his experience and service. Nixon was willing to say or do anything to defeat his enemies, who included political opponents, the government bureaucracy, the press corps, and leaders of the antiwar movement. Believing that the executive branch needed to be strong, Nixon gathered a close circle of trusted advisors around him. Nixon had several close advisers. After campaigning tirelessly for Nixon, advertising executive H. R. Haldeman became Nixon’s chief of staff. Lawyer John Ehrlichman served as Nixon’s personal lawyer and rose to the post of chief domestic advisor. Asked to be Attorney General after working with Nixon’s campaign in New York, Mitchell often spoke with Nixon several times a day. Although he had no previous ties to Nixon, Harvard government professor Henry Kissinger first became Nixon’s national security advisor and later his Secretary of State.

    When the United States supported its ally Israel in a war against Egypt and Syria in 1973, the Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo, or ban, on shipping oil to the United States.  The resulting shortage resulted in high oil prices, which in turn drove inflation even higher. During Nixon’s first few years in office, unemployment and inflation rose, and federal spending proved difficult to control.  In response, Nixon turned to the practice of deficit spending, or spending more money in a year than the government receives in revenues.  He also imposed two price freezes lasting several months each. Under Nixon’s New Federalism, states were asked to assume greater responsibility for the well-being of their citizens, taking some of this responsibility away from the federal government.

    Kissinger admired the European political philosophy of realpolitik, or practical politics.  Under this policy, nations make decisions based on maintaining their strength rather than on moral principles. Nixon and Kissinger’s greatest accomplishment was in bringing about détente, or a relaxation in tensions, between the United States and these Communist nations. Nixon viewed arms control as a vital part of his foreign policy.  Although he had taken office planning to build more nuclear weapons, Nixon came to believe that achieving balance between the superpowers was a better strategy than an increasing nuclear arms race. In 1972, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, known as SALT.  In this treaty, both nations agreed to freeze the number of certain types of missiles at 1972 levels.

In March 1972, a group within the Committee to Reelect the President made plans to wiretap the phones at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.  This group was led by E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The group’s first attempt failed.  During their second attempt on June 17, 1972, five men were arrested.  The money they carried was traced directly to Nixon’s reelection campaign, linking the break-in to the campaign. The break-in and the coverup which resulted became known as the Watergate scandal.

    At the trial of the Watergate burglars in early 1973, all the defendants either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. Judge John J. Sirica, presiding over the trial, was not convinced that the full story had been told.  He sentenced the burglars to long prison terms, suggesting that their terms could be reduced if they cooperated with upcoming Senate hearings on Watergate. During the Senate hearings, Alexander Butterfield, a former presidential assistant, revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the President’s office. The taping system had been set up to provide a historical record of Nixon’s presidency.  Now it could be used to show whether or not Nixon had been involved in the Watergate coverup. In an effort to demonstrate his honesty, in May 1973 Nixon agreed to the appointment of Daniel Ellberg for the Watergate affair.  A special prosecutor works for the Justice Department and conducts an investigation into claims of wrongdoing by government officials.

    A crisis- filled years of assassinations, antiwar protest, and violence polarized the country in 1968. Richard Nixon was determined to maintain his power at all costs. Nixon’s main interest was in foreign affairs, where he made significant changes. Richard Nixon was willing to use presidential power to do whatever was necessary to remain in the White House.   

Chapter 22 The Vietnam War and the American Society 1960- 1975

The Vietnam War

     

         The Vietnam War was one of the most tragic events of the cold war. United States went through several presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon. They spent billions of dollars and sent half million soldiers to Vietnam. Time passed and the war consumed more and more resources, so many Americans questioned if the United States should continue involved in the War. At the end of the war the antiwar movement finally convinced politicians to pull out Americans troops out of Vietnam.

        According to President Eisenhower’s domino theory, if one Southeast Asian nation fell to communism, others would soon follow. Ho Chi Minh, a pro-Communist leader in Vietnam, led a group called the Vietminh against French control of his nation before, during, and after World War II.  After the Vietminh successfully defeated the French in 1954, a peace agreement called the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into Communist North Vietnam and anti-Communist South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam, while Ngo Dinh Diem led South Vietnam. The United States began providing economic aid to the French in Vietnam in 1950. In 1960, President Eisenhower sent hundreds of military advisors to help South Vietnam’s struggle against the North.

       During the early 1960s, Ngo Dinh Diem’s policies lost him the support of his people. Realizing that the struggle against communism could not be won under Diem’s rule, President Kennedy told South Vietnamese military leaders that the United States would not object to Diem’s overthrow. In 1963, military leaders seized control of South Vietnam and assassinated Diem. Shortly after Diem’s assassination, President Kennedy was assassinated, and Vice President Johnson assumed the presidency. As a result, Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, made gains in both territory and loyalty.  The Viet Cong’s political wing was known as the National Liberation Front. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed by Congress in 1964, regarded peace and security in Southeast Asia as vital to American national interest, and it gave the President additional powers to assist any Southeast Asian country “requesting assistance in defense of its freedoms.”

       After the election of 1964, President Johnson began a gradual escalation, or expansion of the war. The number of American soldiers stationed in Vietnam rose from about 25,000 at the beginning of 1965 to nearly 536,000 by the end of 1968. On January 30, 1960, the Viet Cong and North Vietnam launched a major offensive. This series of attacks was called the Tet Offensive since it occurred during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. During and after the Tet Offensive, both sides were guilty of brutal atrocities. Communists slaughtered anyone they labeled an enemy; Americans massacred hundreds of civilians at My Lai, a small village in South Vietnam.

   Organized in 1960, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) had a major impact on the New Left, a political movement that advocated radical changes to deal with problems such as poverty and racism. Begun at the University of Michigan in March 1965, teach-ins, or special sessions at which issues concerning the war could be discussed, soon became a popular means of expressing antiwar sentiment.

      To increase the available fighting force, the United States invoked the Selective Service Act of 1951, drafting young men between the ages of 18 and 26 into the armed forces. Most of those who refused to be drafted in the early 1960s were conscientious objectors, people who opposed fighting on moral or religious grounds.

      Toward the end of his term as President, Johnson had called for peace negotiations to end the Vietnam War. However, the resulting Paris peace talks, which began in May 1968, failed to produce an agreement. President Nixon campaigned on the claim that he had a secret plan to end the war. In June 1969, he began the policy of Vietnamization, replacing American troops in Vietnam with South Vietnamese soldiers. In a 1969 speech, Nixon appealed to those who, he felt, quietly supported his policies. He referred to this group of Americans as “the silent majority.” The violence at Kent State, and a similar incident at Jackson State in Mississippi, horrified Americans.

      At the end when United States started the war many Americans didn’t like the idea they were losing a lot of resources because of the War. The presidents wanted to stop this but they could not do much. The anti war movement finally convinced politics in Washington that it was time to pull out of Vietnam. Americans troops withdrew very slowly, and the fighting was far from over. 

Chapter 19 Kennedy and Johnson Years

            

Kennedy and Johnson Years 

      The Election of 1960 the Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy had served in the House and Senate for 14 years when he ran for President in 1960. Kennedy proved to be an engaging television personality during the 1960 presidential debates. Lyndon Johnson did more to help America at home but he led the nation into conflicts with other countries.

     In a Narrow Kennedy Victory, Kennedy won the 1960 election by an extremely close margin. Kennedy was separated from his opponent, Republican Richard Nixon, by fewer than 119,000 popular votes out of nearly 69 million casts because of the close election; Kennedy entered office without a mandate, or public endorsement of his proposals.

       In a speech early in his presidency, Kennedy said that the nation was poised at the edge of a “New Frontier.”  This phrase came to refer to Kennedy’s proposals to improve the economy, assist the poor, and speed up the space program. Kennedy’s efforts to improve the economy included ordering a federal investigation into steel price fixing and proposing a large tax cut. His tax cut proposal, however, became stuck in Congress. Many of Kennedy’s proposals aimed to combat poverty and inequality.  Although some were rejected by Congress, others were passed.

        The Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 inspired the United States to work toward placing a manned spacecraft in orbit. In April 1961, Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space.  Americans worried that their technology was falling behind that of the Soviet Union. Funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was increased. The prime suspect in Kennedy’s murder, Lee Harvey Oswald, was murdered by a man named Jack Ruby two days later, while being transferred from one jail to another. To investigate Kennedy’s murder, President Johnson appointed The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission, after its chairman, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. 

      Lyndon B. Johnson became President unexpectedly following Kennedy’s assassination. However, his political career had been leading up to this position for many years. While serving in the House and Senate, Johnson had established a reputation for both his political talent and his ambition. In 1954, he became Senate Majority Leader.

Johnson used his talent in working with Congress to initiate many reforms on domestic issues. Johnson’s programs on poverty aid, education, healthcare, economic development, and conservation became collectively known as the Great Society. In the 1964 election, Johnson won a landslide victory over Republican opponent Barry Goldwater.

     Like Kennedy, Johnson believed that a budget deficit could be used to improve the economy.  A tax cut caused the deficit to shrink, since renewed prosperity generated new tax revenues. The War on Poverty — Johnson initiated new programs such as Head Start, a preschool program for low-income families, and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), which sent volunteers to help people in poor communities. Johnson helped Congress pass two new programs, Medicare and Medicaid.  Medicare provides low-cost medical insurance to most Americans over age 65, while Medicaid provides similar services to poor Americans of any age. The Immigration Act of 1965 replaced immigration quotas with overall limits from various parts of the world.  Immigration rose during the 1960s and 1970s. The Warren Court was also interested in safeguarding the rights of persons accused of committing crimes. The Miranda rule, a result of the 1966 case Miranda v. Arizona, required police to inform accused persons of their rights. The Great Society came to an end when Johnson failed to contain the Southeast Asia conflict.

     The division of Berlin was planned as a temporary measure.  However, the Soviet Union demanded that the division of the city be made permanent, hoping this would reduce the flow of East Germans escaping through Berlin to West Germany. In response to Soviet demands, Kennedy increased funding to the military and expanded the size of the armed forces. To avoid a confrontation, the Soviets built a wall to separate the Communist and non-Communist sections of Berlin in August 1961. The Berlin Wall came to be a somber symbol of Cold War tensions.

    The American response to this construction, and the resulting Soviet response, became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war. After much consultation with his advisors, President Kennedy decided to authorize a naval “quarantine” around Cuba. He demanded that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev cease construction of the missile bases. Kennedy and Khrushchev established a “hot line” with which they could communicate quickly in case of further crises.   In addition, the United States and the Soviet Union, together with Great Britain, signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963.  This treaty banned nuclear testing above the ground.

In 1961, Kennedy established the Peace Corps to further his goal of a world in which people worked together peacefully to solve problems. Peace Corps volunteers were Americans who agreed to work side by side with local citizens in poorer nations, teaching skills and improving living conditions.

     Kennedy first years in office did not bear the legislative fruit he promised in his inspiring campaign speeches. He made different projects that helped society. Then Johnson picked up the domestic agenda after Kennedy. Finally Johnson took office; he saw foreign affairs as something of a nuisance, but continued Kennedy’s policies.

                                             

Table of Content

Table of Content

Encounters and Colonies to 1754........................ Chapter 1
The Revolutionary Era.................... Chapter 2
The Constitution of the States........................................... Chapter 3

Reflections of Chapter 4. From Jefferson through Jackson 1789-1840.......................Chapter 4

Origins of the Civil War.............................................Chapter 5

Changing Frontiers ...................................................Chapter 7

Cultural and Social Transformation ...........................Chapter 8

Reflection................................................................... Chapter 10

Reflection Chapter 10

This chapter it was really interesting because changes in the country through centuries brought a variety of new reform ideas. The plans of reform fed into a stream of ideas that came to be called progressivism. Though progressives did not all share the same ideas and belief, they often used similar methods.  Targets for the proposed reforms included politics, society and the economy. Through time the progressive era produced several different kinds of reform. These reforms took place at the urban, state, and federal levels.  It was amazing how the progressivism had an impact on the national politics so in 1192 several of the loosely allied interest that made up progresses joined forces in a new political party. Taft’s presidency was marked by progressive lesgitation and a rebel movement within his own party. The final turning point in history was when the quest for woman suffrage took more than seventy years and required great effort. The campaign experienced internal division before finally achieving victory.

Cultural and Social Transformation Chapter 8

When the industrial growth started urban areas in the late 1800 became a host of other changes. More children began to attend school and colleges. A recreation industry, which borrowed heavily from African Americans culture, emerged to meet the needs of the new urban workers. People were starting making as a goal in life going to school and preparing them to have a good job. A part of society remained in the same discriminatory attitudes.

       People starts going to public schools. By the time of the Civil War, half of the nations white children received formal education. Only 2% of all 17 year olds graduated from high school. Few went to college, In the postwar era, young people knew they needed more skills to survive. The Government was pressured by parents to lengthen school years, and to limit child labor.1 out of 10 African American went to school. Almost all of the Immigrants in the 1890s went to America due to its public education. Public schools promoted the American way of life to immigrants, they were Americanized. Some children were sent to religious schools to prevent Americanization. Immigrants also made contributions to American culture. Compared to white schools, African American schools recieved less money from the Government. Besides the African Americans, Mexican Americans had also an unequal education to the white children.

       Between 1880 and 1900, more than 250 American colleges and Universities opened. After the Civil War middle-class women were given better educational opportunities. This motivated Philanthropists and educators to establish private women’s colleges with high academic standards. The first one was New York’s Vassar College. Pressure was implemented in only men Colleges to admit women in the 1880s and 1890s. 

        The history of the United States from 1865 until 1918 covers Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era, and includes the rise of industrialization and the resulting surge of immigration in the United States. This article focuses on political, economic and diplomatic history; for more on social history see Gilded Age.This period of rapid economic growth and soaring prosperity in North and West (but not the South) saw the U.S. become the world's dominant economic, industrial and agricultural power. The average annual income (after inflation) of nonfarm workers grew by 75% from 1865 to 1900, and then grew another 33% by 1918.

          With a decisive victory in 1865 over Southern secessionists in the Civil War, the United States became a united and powerful nation with a strong national government. Reconstruction brought the end of slavery and citizenship for the former slaves, but their political power was later rolled back and they became second-class citizens under a "Jim Crow" system of segregation. Politically the nation in the Third Party System and Fourth Party System was mostly dominated by Republicans. After 1900 and the McKinley assassination, the Progressive Era brought political and social reforms, such as new roles for education and a higher status for women, and modernized many areas of government and society. The progressives worked through new middle class organizations to fight against the corruption. They demanded and obtained in 1920 votes for women and the prohibition of alcohol.

     Roosevelt, a progressive Republican, called for a "Square Deal", and initiated a policy of increased Federal supervision in the enforcement of antitrust laws. Later, extension of government supervision over the railroads prompted the passage of major regulatory bills. One of the bills made published rates the lawful standard, and shippers equally liable with railroads for rebates. Following Roosevelt landslide victory in the 1904 election he called for still more drastic railroad regulation, and in June 1906, Congress passed the Hepburn Act. This gave the Interstate Commerce Commission real authority in regulating rates, extended the jurisdiction of the commission, and forced the railroads to surrender their interlocking interests in steamship lines and coal companies. 

       In an unprecedented wave of European immigration, 27.5 million new arrivals between 1865 and 1918 provided the labor base for the expansion of industry and agriculture and provided the population base for most of fast-growing urban America. By the late nineteenth century, the United States had become a leading global industrial power, building on new technologies (such as the telegraph and steel), an expanding railroad network, and abundant natural resources such as coal, timber, oil and farmland, to usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. With all the technology a new reforms people were heard with their rights. Although many people continue to have problems such as: discrimination.