The Great Society Programs

During the 1960's there has been many acts created in the U.S. in support of the ideal "Great Society" most Americans desired to become a reality. At this time in history, there are also many protests going on and it affects the U.S. overall to change its profile in it's social, political, and economical network. Some acts created in 1964 were Economic Opportunity Act, Tax Reduction Act, and the Wilderness Preservation Act. Each of the acts mentioned have great significance to the "Great Society", where now people see a major decrease in poverty, increase in consumption, increase in capital investments as well as decrease in unemployment. There is also fair share in owning property in the U.S., where some are reserved for environmental or governmental reasons and others for the people. Only after one year these acts were made, many more were created as well in 1965. One very important investment type of act that was created in 1965 was the Social Security Act, in which in the modern day America we Americans still see this as a significant necessity to American lives. In 1966, another very important act was made which not only saved many American lives back in the 1960's, but even today. It was called the National Traffic and Motor Safety Act and it basically was to reinforce new safety standards, like wearing a seat belt, the necessity of having a driver's license to drive, and also enforcing new traffic regulations. The last act created in 1967 that related to the "Great Society" phenomenon was the Air Quality Act. This act affected the future of the U.S. were it supported the idea of pollution reduction from motor vehicles and industrial sources.

Watergate

The watergate scandal was one that showed the lying and corrupt behaviors of the Nixon administration.  During Nixon’s presidency, a man got ahold of something called the pentagon papers, which revealed past deception under the Johnson administration.  It had nothing to do with Nixon’s presidency, but he felt that it would be a threat to the democracy, so he decided he needed to get rid of it somehow.  He decided that the best way to make the scandal go away was to make the man that released the papers look unstable.  To do this, he hired a team to break into his psychiatrist's office and steal his files, which would be released.  These men got caught, and Nixon went under some very elaborate schemes to try to hide his deception.  He even hid evidence from the police.  All of this eventually came out, which led to Nixon’s resignation, but it made people more suspicious of their government for the future.

4/6/16

We began class going over how impeachment works and what the terms for impeachment are.

Discussing Nixon and his impeachment, we watched a documentary and filled out the worksheet, having us write down what he did and how it would've got him impeached.

Nixon really wanted to not be the first President to lose a war.
"Peace with Honor"
Largest Peace Demonstration, Nixon said, "I cannot allow foreign policy to be made by the people in the streets of Washington."

Popular Speech, "To you, the great silent majority..."
He seemed to wanted a quick change and end when he came to office.

Many protests started in colleges, and Nixon remarked that the people in the colleges are lucky, and shouldn't be protesting because they aren't in the war.

The term "traitor" applied to both sides from both sides, as the people who were anti-war said that Traitors were those who support Nixon, and visa versa.

He spent many months into his years attempting to rally his supporters, and denouncing his opposition.

Installation of recording devices in the White House would lead to troubles with Watergate later.

Pentagon Paper wasn't about Nixon, but about the Johnson administration. But Nixon was still afraid because people would begin to think that HE's lying.
Later more papers revealing the arms talks with the USSR infuriated Nixon.

4/5/2016

We went over the "Make Love, Not War" worksheet.
Questions asked were:

1) The people aren't always on the side of the protesters.

 2) The Economy benefited, because they wanted to make ships, ships require people to build, and people got paid to  build it. The more money they pumped into the War effort, they more money got put in the hands of the people.

After that we reviewed the topics we went over earlier, with a power-point.
Vietnam- Eisenhower Period
Dien Bien Phu:
This shows that Imperialism is dying -> Costs a lot of money -> French leaving, but Ho Chi Minh could take over and he's communist. (Opposite of what we're trying do Containment)

Geneva Peace Conference: 
North Vietnam (Communist)
South Vietnam (Not-Communist)
Ho Chi Minh in the U.S. eyes is a bad person. In the eyes of Vietnam is basically their George Washington (to liberate Vietnam from outside influence i.e. Freedom Fighter)
The United States didn't want elections because we knew Minh would win.
Tried to establish a NATO-type system in South East Asia- SEATO.

Vietnam- Kennedy Period
"We have to be flexible" --Don't follow Eisenhower--
Not winning the "Third World" countries/ "non-aligned Nations". Get more on OUR side.
Amount of military advisers increased from a few hundred to about 16 thousand
Diem was killed during the Coup of Diem's government. The U.S. didn't expect that, but it opened the opportunity to put a leader that people would like, which worked, but "it's not about who's running the show, but the show itself"(Mr. Stewart)

Vietnam- Johnson Period
Following policies as same as other presidents. Not really making anything new.
-Fear of being "soft on communism"
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Attacked one, Navy fires.
Attacked twice? Not sure. (Mixed signals, either he lied or didn't wait to announce on it.)
"Rolling Thunder" drag bomb strikes, trying to get all the Vietcong. We get some, but never all.
Escalation: trying to send a message by retaliating.
"Search and Destroy
"There's just a small problem in Vietnam" -But isn't true.

Vietnam- Nixon Period
"Peace with Honor" We're not gonna look like we just bailed.
Vietnamization" This is Vietnam's War. You guys can fight your own war.
Minig of Haiphong Harbor: Force the Vietnamese to negotiate. 
"Bomb them back to the Peace Table"
Paris Accords: Recognized South and North Vietnam, but the North Viet troops were allowed to stay where they were.

Vietnam's Legacy
Paris Accords allowed the U.S. to leave.
South Vietnam left in disarray and was defeated in April of 1975.
War destabilized the whole nearby regions, everything was in chaos.
War between Vietnam and Cambodia; Viet to Cam -> "You're WAY too communist"
Doesn't calm down until the 1980s
Costed about 2 Trillion in modern times.

Make Love Not War

People were able to express themselves however they felt and with whoever they wanted to. You can’t have freedom unless you have personal freedom. America was the leader of the free world. It was young people’s job to horrify older people. The generation where they didn’t really care about life. The older generation were World War 2 Veterans. Nixon campaigned that he was tougher and smarter and people who don’t know what they are doing were in charge of the country at the current time, Nixon also thought that his type of government was stable and they wouldn't let the Russians or the Chinese push them around.

Richard Nixon in Vietnam

Nixon served as president from 1969 to 1974, during the time of the Vietnam war.  Nixon’s strategy in the war was as the “peacemaker.”  He tried to find a way to keep North and South Vietnam at peace, while still keeping both countries stable and happy.  He also did not want to back out of South Vietnam, because they were not communist and were our ally.  It would have also looked bad to the United States if he pulled out of the war so early, because it would have been perceived as a loss to the United States.  He also had to enlarge the war into Cambodia in order to be able to get out of Vietnam.  This angered people because he promised that he would take troops out and lessen the war effort.

McCarthyism

McCarthyism was a practice which consisted in making accusation of treason without proper explanation and valid evidence. The  organization was in charge of accusing people of  possibly being communists. Mccarthyism was even used to humiliate some people and described them as reckless and horrible people. During this era, thousands of americans were accused of being communists or part of a communist sphere. McCarthyist became subject to aggressive investigations and questioned the subject and sometimes forced them to say things that weren’t necessarily true. McCarthyist primary targets were ones who came the middle class and government workers such as teachers, or entertainers. Many were accused without fully understanding the complete evidence and why they had been called up and later accused. The way the members of the group found the evidence was not legal but they did it anyways.