Curriculum Guide
History
Guide and
Notes
Concept: The Fractured
‘70s
Overview of this concept:
Liberalism
failed to successfully address the pressing 1960s concerns regarding student
and urban unrest, the war in Vietnam, foreign affairs, and the elimination of
poverty. Moreover, the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 for many was the start
of the fractured 1970s.
In pop
music, rock had replaced rock ’n ’roll, lost its innocence as the music became
more psychedelic, louder and/or wilder as drugs became an essential part of
many leading artists and their artistic expressions. Not surprisingly, four
leading rock artists of “The 27 Club,” which is a reference to the similarity
of their drug related untimely deaths and their age who passed away between
1969-1971: Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones (July 1969), Jimi Hendrix
(September 1970), Janis Joplin (October 1970), and Jim Morrison of The Doors
(July 1971).
The end
of the peaceful Civil Rights movement also seemed to coincide with Nixon’s
election after Martin Luther King was assassinated in the same year, 1968. The
radical Malcom X began to appeal to many more African-Americans. Thus, the more
radical Black Power movement grew while related and expanded liberation
movements emerged by women, Hispanics, gays, natives and others developed in
strength.
The “New
Left” of the 1960s grew into a potent and growing protest movement against the
War in Vietnam especially after Nixon ordered an excursion into neighboring
Laos and Cambodia. Likewise, the Black Power movement grew increasingly violent
and radical following the assassination of Martin Luther King. These two
radical movements, the New Left and Black Power, would unite and form a leftist
faction within the Democratic Party and led to the nomination of the first
Leftist candidate in American history in 1972: George McGovern. The hope of the
Left was to defeat a despised President Richard Nixon but the effort led to a
humiliating defeat. Liberalism failed to successfully address the pressing
concerns of the 1960s, and the Left failed in 1972; but subsequently, the
alternative of Nixon’s “silent majority” Republican administration would also
tragically end in failure with Watergate in 1974.
Student Sources/Handouts that will be used for
discussion/evaluation for this concept (in order of introduction):
·
History of a Free
Nation, Volume 2, Chapter 34, Chapter 35 Section 1 (Read before
beginning unit)
·
Basic History of
the U.S., Vol. 5
(Read before beginning unit)
·
Source #1 (“Long Telegram,”
George F. Kennan, 1946)
·
Source
#23 (“Ohio,” Neil Young, as performed by Mott The Hoople)
Overarching Questions/Themes Students will be
evaluating at the end of this unit:
·
Why was this known as the Age of Fracture: The
1970s?
·
One of the first visible signs that the
post-World War II prosperity was over were gas lines that appeared during the
gasoline shortage of 1973–74. Long lines and fuel restrictions were common across
the country, suggesting that even the United States had to live within limits.
·
Evaluate Richard Nixon as president, focusing
on his policies in the United States and abroad.
·
Describe the events of Watergate and its
ramifications for the country.
·
Describe the economic conditions of the 1970s,
including stagflation and the end of the post-World War II economic boom, and
describe how Presidents Ford and Carter attempted to confront the problem.
·
Describe the perpetuation of 1960s-style
activism and how it transformed into a politics of identity in the 1970s.
·
Evaluate the reaction to the 1960s social
movements and describe the rise of the New Right.
Additional Resources:
·
History of a Free
Nation
·
Basic History of
the U.S.
Objectives:
·
SWBAT (students will be able to) the desire to protect self-government and how the Eisenhower administration set
the precedent of aiding countries threatened by communism and how the Russian
presence in Cuba threatened the U.S.
Sources/Handouts that will be used for discussion/evaluation
for this lesson:
History of a Free Nation, Volume 2, Chapters 30-31 (Read before beginning unit)
Source #1 (Malcolm X excerpts)
· Source #2 (“The Port Huron Statement,” Students for a Democratic Society [SDS])
· Source #3 ("You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows," The Weathermen
· Source #4 Transcript of Nixon's Statement on School Busing, March 17, 1972, The New York Times Archives
Source #5 Vietnamization Speech, or sometimes known as the “Silent Majority” speech, November 3, 1969
Source #6 President Nixon’s Speech on Cambodia, April 30, 1970
Source #7 New York Times v. United States ["Pentagon Papers" Case]
Source #8 Memorialized by the president as The Week that Changed the World, the trip culminated in the announcement of the joint US-China Communiqué in Shanghai on 28 February 1972.
Source #9 On July 21, 1969 (Universal Coordinated Time), President Nixon spoke from the Oval Office (shortly before midnight on July 20, Eastern Daylight Time) to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin at the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.
Source #10 1972 Democratic Party Platform July 10, 1972
Source #11 On 17 November 1973, the “I am not a crook,” speech.
Source #12 The “Smoking Gun Tape” on August 5, 1974
Source #13 Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening.
Review—Key Question (s)
·
How
did the role of government in American democracy change during the Depression
and the New Deal? What changes persist to the present?
·
How
did fear of communism become a serious threat to American democracy during the
Truman administration? What ended the threat during the Eisenhower
administration?
·
Describe
the progress made by African Americans during the New Deal and World War II.
·
Explain
the purposes of the NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
·
How
did World War II and the Cold War permanently change United States foreign
policy?
·
Describe
United States efforts to contain the spread of communism worldwide from
1948-1960. What were the results of these efforts?
Suggested Key Discussion Points/Questions:
·
During the 1960s, virtually
the only radical leftist groups that preached that political violence was
necessary or was imminent were groups such as Black Muslims and individuals
such as Malcolm X. Read Source #1.
By the 1960 presidential campaign, civil rights had emerged as a crucial issue. Just a few weeks before the election, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested while leading a protest in Atlanta, Georgia. John Kennedy phoned his wife, Coretta Scott King to express his concern, while a call from Robert Kennedy to the judge helped secure her husband's safe release. The Kennedys' personal intervention led to a public endorsement by Martin Luther King Sr., the influential father of the civil rights leader.
Across the nation, more than 70 percent of African Americans voted for Kennedy, and these votes provided the winning edge in several key states. When President Kennedy took office in January 1961, African Americans had high expectations for the new administration.
But Kennedy's narrow election victory and small working margin in Congress left him cautious. He was reluctant to lose southern support for legislation on many fronts by pushing too hard on civil rights legislation. Instead, he appointed unprecedented numbers of African Americans to high-level positions in the administration and strengthened the Civil Rights Commission. He spoke out in favor of school desegregation, praised a number of cities for integrating their schools, and put Vice President Lyndon Johnson in charge of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Attorney General Robert Kennedy turned his attention to voting rights, initiating five times the number of suits brought during the previous administration.
The Freedom Rides
President Kennedy may have been reluctant to push ahead with civil rights legislation, but millions of African Americans would not wait. Eventually, the administration was compelled to act by the March on Washington.
Is the Qur’an [the proper academic spelling according to current usage] peaceful? (“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.” “Message to the Grass Roots,” speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, Ch. 1, 1965).
Does Malcolm X anticipate a clash? (He anticipates a clash between the oppressed and the oppressors. “I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.” Malcolm X).
Will there be bloodshed? (“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.” February 19, 1965 [2 days before he was murdered by Nation of Islam followers], Malcolm X).
·
Inspired by Malcolm X
and others, Black Power groups became increasingly radical and violent during
the 1970s.
Later many Panthers visited Algeria to discuss Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism.
In the same year former Black Panthers formed the Black Liberation Army (BLA) to continue a violent revolution rather than the party's reform movements.
On October 22, 1970, the Black Liberation Army is believed to have planted a bomb in St. Brendan's Church in San Francisco while it was full of mourners attending the funeral of San Francisco police officer Harold Hamilton, who had been killed in the line of duty while responding to a bank robbery. The bomb was detonated, but no one in the church suffered serious injuries.
In 1971, several Panther officials fled the U.S. due to concerns about police surveillance. This was the only active year of the Black Revolutionary Assault Team, a group that bombed the New York South African consular office in protest of apartheid.
On September 20 it placed bombs at the UN Mission of the Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) and the Republic of Malawi.
·
In February 1971,
ideological splits within the Black Panther Party between leaders Newton and Eldridge
Cleaver led to two factions within the party; the conflict turned violent and
four people were killed in a series of assassinations.
·
During the jail
sentence of White Panther co-founder (a far-left anti-racist white American
political collective founded in 1968) John Sinclair a "Free John"
concert took place, including John Lennon and Stevie Wonder. Sinclair was
released two days later.
Late in the year Huey Newton visited China for meetings on Maoist theory and anti-imperialism.
Black Power icon George Jackson attempted to escape from prison in August, killing seven hostages only to be killed himself. Jackson's death triggered the Attica Prison uprising which was later ended in a bloody siege.
On November 3, Officer James R. Greene of the Atlanta Police Department was shot and killed in his patrol van at a gas station by BLA members.
·
1972 was the year
Newton shut down many Black Panther chapters and held a party meeting in Oakland,
California.
In the same year, MOVE was founded and engaged in demonstrations for environmentalism and black power.
MOVE is a black liberation group founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Africa (born Vincent Leaphart) in 1972 and Donald Glassey, a social worker from the University of Pennsylvania. The name is not an acronym. The group lived in a communal setting in West Philadelphia, combining anarchy and a primitive lifestyle. The group combined revolutionary ideology, similar to that of the Black Panthers, with work for animal rights.
The group is particularly known for two major conflicts with the Philadelphia Police Department. In 1978, a standoff resulted in the death of one police officer, injuries to several other people, and life sentences for nine members who were convicted of killing the officer.
In 1985, another confrontation ended when a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the MOVE compound, a row house in the middle of the 6200 block of Osage Avenue. The resulting fire killed eleven MOVE members, including five children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood. The survivors later filed a civil suit against the city and the police department, and were awarded $1.5 million in a 1996 settlement.
o Five armed BLA members hijacked Delta Air Lines Flight 841, eventually collecting a ransom of $1 million and diverting the plane, after passengers were released, to Algeria. The authorities there seized the ransom but allowed the group to flee. Four were eventually caught by French authorities in Paris, where they were convicted of various crimes, but one – George Wright – remained a fugitive until September 26, 2011, when he was captured in Portugal. After being accused of murdering a prostitute in 1974, Huey Newton fled to Cuba.
De-escalation in the late 1970s began when a group formed the George Jackson Brigade. From March 1975 to December 1977, the Brigade robbed at least seven banks and detonated about 20 pipe bombs – mainly targeting government buildings, electric power facilities, Safeway stores, and companies accused of racism. In 1977, Newton returned from exile in Cuba. The Party fell apart, leaving only a few members.
o In another high-profile incident of the BLA, Assata Shakur, Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were said to have opened fire on state troopers in New Jersey after being pulled over for a broken taillight. Zayd Shakur and state trooper Werner Foerster were both killed during the exchange. Following her capture, Assata Shakur was tried in six different criminal trials. According to Shakur, she was beaten and tortured during her incarceration in a number of different federal and state prisons. The charges ranged from kidnapping to assault and battery to bank robbery. Assata Shakur was found guilty of the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, but escaped prison in 1979 and eventually fled to Cuba and received political asylum. Acoli was convicted of killing Foerster and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1978 a group of BLA and Weather Underground (a radical left-wing group), was founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. The group became known colloquially as the Weathermen. Their political goal, stated in print after 1974, was to create a revolutionary party to overthrow U.S. imperialism.
·
In opposition to the
Presidency of Richard Nixon, growth of the anti-war movement, and most
importantly, an alliance between the New Left student groups and the Black
Power organizations was emerging around 1970.
The Chicago Seven (originally Chicago Eight, also Conspiracy Eight/Conspiracy Seven) were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois, on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number of defendants from eight to seven. After a federal trial resulting in both acquittals and convictions, followed by appeals, and reversals, some of the seven defendants were finally convicted, although all of the convictions were ultimately overturned.
Hayden later re-joined the Democratic Party and ran for political office numerous times, winning seats in both the California Assembly and California Senate. He was married to 1960s star actress Jane Fonda.
A few years later, SDS shifted towards the Stokely Carmichael Black Power oriented group, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
The manifesto retained its importance as an essential source of SDS direction and one of the earliest embodiments of the feelings of the new movement of young people which began in the 1960s.
What was the goal of the organization in regards to the Democratic Party? (It was to move the Democratic Party leftward. "An imperative task for these publicly disinherited groups, then, is to demand a Democratic Party responsible to their interests. They must support Southern voter registration and Negro political candidates and demand that Democratic Party liberals do the same. . . .A massive research and publicity campaign should be initiated, showing to every housewife, doctor, professor, and worker the damage done to their interests every day a racist occupies a place in the Democratic Party. Where possible, the peace movement should challenge the "peace credentials" of the otherwise-liberals by threatening or actually running candidates against them." Cf. Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society, 1962". Michigan State University.)
What was the background of SDS members? (“We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.” They were mostly white college students who were from affluent homes as children of parents who were of the World War II generation.)
What were their American values? (“When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world: the only one with the atom bomb, the least scarred by modern war, an initiator of the United Nations that we thought would distribute Western influence throughout the world. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people -- these American values we found good, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency.”)
What troubled them? (First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism. Second, the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb.”)
§ Who is not exercising leadership and what political ideology do they oppose? (“Unlike youth in other countries we are used to moral leadership being exercised and moral dimensions being clarified by our elders. But today, for us, not even the liberal and socialist preachments of the past seem adequate to the forms of the present.”)
§ What are men like? (“We regard men as infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love. . . . Men have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity.”)
o Is the SDS version of participatory democracy individual or collective? (“In a participatory democracy, the political life would be based in several root principles: that decision-making of basic social consequence be carried on by public groupings; that politics be seen positively, as the art of collectively creating an acceptable pattern of social relations; that politics has the function of bringing people out of isolation and into community, thus being a necessary, though not sufficient, means of finding meaning in personal life; that the political order should serve to clarify problems in a way instrumental to their solution; it should provide outlets for the expression of personal grievance and aspiration; opposing views should be organized so as to illuminate choices and facilities the attainment of goals; channels should be commonly available to related men to knowledge and to power so that private problems -- from bad recreation facilities to personal alienation -- are formulated as general issues.”)
o Are economics individual or collective? (“that the economy itself is of such social importance that its major resources and means of production should be open to democratic participation and subject to democratic social regulation.“)
o Who controls Congress? (The Democratic Party faction of racist Dixiecrats. “A crucial feature of the political apparatus in America is that greater differences are harbored within each major party than the differences existing between them. Instead of two parties presenting distinctive and significant differences of approach, what dominates the system if a natural interlocking of Democrats from Southern states with the more conservative elements of the Republican party. This arrangement of forces is blessed by the seniority system of Congress which guarantees congressional committee domination by conservatives -- ten of 17 committees in the Senate and 13 of 21 in House of Representatives are chaired currently by Dixiecrats.”)
o Where does SDS agree with Eisenhower? (“The Military-Industrial Complex. The most spectacular and important creation of the authoritarian and oligopolistic structure of economic decision-making in America is the institution called "the military-industrial complex" by former President Eisenhower, the powerful congruence of interest and structure among military and business elites which affects so much of our development and destiny. Not only is ours the first generation to live with the possibility of world-wide cataclysm -- it is the first to experience the actual social preparation for cataclysm, the general militarization of American society. In 1948 Congress established Universal Military Training, the first peacetime conscription. The military became a permanent institution. Four years earlier, General Motor's Charles E. Wilson had heralded the creation of what he called the "permanent war economy," the continuous use of military spending as a solution to economic problems unsolved before the post-war boom, most notably the problem of the seventeen million jobless after eight years of the New Deal. This has left a "hidden crisis" in the allocation of resources by the American economy.”)
o Where does SDS agree with LBJ? (“Imagine, on the other hand, $808 million suggested as an anti-recession measure, but being poured into programs of social welfare. . . . The politicians, of course, take the line of least resistance and thickest support: warfare, instead of welfare, is easiest to stand up for: after all, the Free World is at stake [and our constituency's investments, too.”]).
o Is the Soviet Union (Russia) a threat? (”Our paranoia about the Soviet Union has made us incapable of achieving agreements absolutely necessary for disarmament and the preservation of peace. We are hardly able to see the possibility that the Soviet Union, though not "peace loving", may be seriously interested in disarmament.”)
o What is the racial problem in the U.S.? (“Our America is still white.”)
o Have liberals advanced racial equality? (“The advancement of the Negro and other "nonwhites" in America has not been altogether by means of the crusades of liberalism, but rather through unavoidable changes in social structure. The economic pressures of World War II opened new jobs, new mobility, new insights to Southern Negroes, who then began great migrations from the South to the bigger urban areas of the North where their absolute wage was greater, though unchanged in relation to the white man of the same stratum. More important than the World War II openings was the colonial revolution. The world-wide upsurge of dark peoples against white colonial domination stirred the separation and created an urgency among American Negroes, while simultaneously it threatened the power structure of the United States enough to produce concessions to the Negro. Produced by outer pressure from the newly-moving peoples rather than by the internal conscience of the Federal government, the gains were keyed to improving the American "image" more than to reconstructing the society that prospered on top of its minorities. Thus the historic Supreme Court decision of 1954, theoretically desegregating Southern schools, was more a proclamation than a harbinger of social change -- and is reflected as such in the fraction of Southern school districts which have desegregated, with Federal officials doing little to spur the process.” The statement will also describe these people as “racist scoundrels.”)
o Did the liberal presidency of Democrat JFK advance the aspirations of African-Americans (i.e., Negroes)? (“It seems evident that the President is attempting to win the Negro permanently to the Democratic Party without basically disturbing the reactionary one-party oligarchy in the South. Moreover, the administration is decidedly "cool" [a phrase of Robert Kennedy's] toward mass nonviolent movements in the South, though by the support of racist Dixiecrats the Administration makes impossible gradual action through conventional channels.”)
o Is America a racist nation? (“The awe inspired by the pervasiveness of racism in American life is only matched by the marvel of its historical span in American traditions. The national heritage of racial discrimination via slavery has been a part of America since Christopher Columbus' advent on the new continent. As such, racism not only antedates the Republic and the thirteen Colonies, but even the use of the English language in this hemisphere. And it is well that we keep this as a background when trying to understand why racism stands as such a steadfast pillar in the culture and custom of the country. Racial-xenophobia is reflected in the admission of various racial stocks to the country. From the nineteenth century Oriental Exclusion Acts to the most recent up-dating of the Walter-McCarren Immigration Acts the nation has shown a continuous contemptuous regard for ‘nonwhites.’ More recently, the tragedies of Hiroshima and Korematsu, and our cooperation with Western Europe in the United Nations add treatment to the thoroughness of racist overtones in national life.”)
o What should be done? (“We should not depend significantly on private enterprise to do the job. Many important projects will not be profitable enough to entice the investment of private capital.”) How should we distribute resources? (“The allocation of resources must be based on social needs. . . . The most likely, and least desirable, return would be in the form of private enterprise. The undesirability lies in the fact of inherent capitalist instability, noticeable even with bolstering effects of government intervention. . . . Government participation in the economy is essential. . . . All these tendencies suggest that not only solutions to our present social needs but our future expansion rests upon our willingness to enlarge the ‘public sector’ greatly. Unless we choose war as an economic solvent, future public spending will be of a non-military nature -- a major intervention into civilian production by the government.”)
o What sweeping changes should occur? (“A program against poverty must be just as sweeping as the nature of poverty itself. It must not be just palliative, but directed to the abolition of the structural circumstances of poverty. At a bare minimum it should include a housing act far larger than the one supported by the Kennedy Administration, but one that is geared more to low-and middle-income needs than to the windfall aspirations of small and large private entrepreneurs, one that is more sympathetic to the quality of communal life than to the efficiency of city-split highways. Second, medical care must become recognized as a lifetime human right just as vital as food, shelter and clothing -- the Federal government should guarantee health insurance as a basic social service turning medical treatment into a social habit, not just an occasion of crisis, fighting sickness among the aged, not just by making medical care financially feasible but by reducing sickness among children and younger people. Third, existing institutions should be expanded so the Welfare State cares for everyone's welfare according to need. Social security payments should be extended to everyone and should be proportionately greater for the poorest. A minimum wage of at least $1.50 should be extended to all workers (including the 16 million currently not covered at all). Equal educational opportunity is an important part of the battle against poverty. A full-scale public initiative for civil rights should be undertaken despite the clamor among conservatives (and liberals) about gradualism, property rights, and law and order.”)
·
The radical SDS
statement is indicative of how the New Left ideas contained within it will be mainstream
Democratic Party positions after the death of liberalism. The New Left will
align with Black Power at first in the 1972 presidential election. Affluent
white college kids and poor urban black forces united. Their American values
although seemingly comfortable were troubled by racial bigotry and the Cold War
threat of bombing. Liberal and socialist ideas seemed deficient to them. Their
type of collectivism had profound political, personal, economic and foreign
policy implications and was part of which came to fruition as Left-wing policy
in the 1970s.
·
Read Source #3. The Weathermen
organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS: a
national student activist organization) that was one of the main representatives
of the New Left. The SDS was founded in 1960 and the organization developed and
expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s, with over 300 chapters recorded nationwide
by 1969, before beginning to fracture at its last convention in 1969. Replacing
SDS were more radical and violent groups such as the Black Panthers and
emerging New Left student organizations such as the Weathermen.
o The group took its name from Bob Dylan’s lyric, "You don't need a
weatherman to know which way the wind blows," from the song
"Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965). "You Don't Need a Weatherman to
Know Which Way the Wind Blows" was the title of a position paper that they
distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding
document called for a "white fighting force" to be allied with the
"Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements to achieve
"the destruction of U.S. imperialism and achieve a classless world: world
communism.
o
The Weathermen
considered themselves as part of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM).
o
What is the nature of
the revolution? Who will it be made by, and for, and what are its goals and
strategy? (“The overriding consideration
in answering these questions is that the main struggle going on in the world
today is between U.S. imperialism and the national liberation struggles against
it. . . . It is the oppressed peoples of the world who have created the wealth
of this empire and it is to them that it belongs; the goal of the revolutionary
struggle must be the control and use of this wealth in the interests of the
oppressed peoples of the world. . . . The goal is the destruction of U.S.
imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism.”)
o
The
student New Left, composed mostly of whites, and Black Power groups, consisting
of African-American radicals, are aligning themselves but can whites understand
blacks? (“all blacks experience
oppression in a form that no whites do, no whites are in a position to fully
understand and test from their own practice the real situation black people
face and the necessary response to it. This is why it is necessary for black
people to organize separately and determine their actions separately at each
stage of the struggle.”)
o
Since
whites can’t understand blacks what is the third path? (“The only third path is to build a white movement which will support
the blacks in moving as fast as they have to and are able to, and still itself
keep up with that black movement enough so that white revolutionaries share the
cost and the blacks don't have to do the whole thing alone. Any white who does
not follow this third path is objectively following one of the other two [paths]
(or both) and is objectively racist.”)
o Is this an
individual American or an international collectivist struggle? (“We have pointed to the vanguard nature of
the black struggle in this country as part of the international struggle
against American imperialism, and the impossibility of anything but an international
strategy for winning. Any attempt to put forth a strategy which, despite
internationalist rhetoric, is incorrect. The Vietnamese (and the Uruguayans and
the Rhodesians) and the blacks and Third World peoples in this country will
continue to set the terms for class struggle in America.”)
o
Who are the pigs? (Pigs
are the police. “The state cannot
provide the services it has been forced to assume responsibility for, and needs
to increase the taxes and to pay its growing debts while it cuts services and
uses the pigs to repress protest.”)
o
Since
schools cost money, have selective admissions, and will flunk students, what
should be done? (“The demand for open
admissions by asserting the alternative to the present [school] system exposes
its fundamental nature -- that it is racist, class-based, and closed --
pointing to the only possible solution to the present situation: "Shut it
down!" The impossibility of real open admissions -- all black and brown
people admitted, no flunk-out, full scholarship -- under present conditions is
the best reason (that the schools show no possibility for real reform) to shut
the schools down.”)
o
What
is the movement oriented toward? (“We
must build a movement oriented toward power. Revolution is a power struggle,
and we must develop that understanding among people from the beginning. Pooling
our resources area-wide and city-wide really does increase our power in
particular fights, as well as push a mutual-aid-in-struggle consciousness.)
o
What
social institution is the focus of attack? (“A
major focus in our neighborhood and city-wide work is the pigs, because they
tie together the various struggles around the state as the enemy, and thus
point to the need for a movement oriented toward the power to defeat it.”)
o
What
need are the Weathermen filling? (“The Need for a
Revolutionary Party The RYM must also lead to the effective organization
needed to survive and to create another battlefield of the revolution. A
revolution is a war; when the movement in this country can defend itself
militarily against total repression it will be a part of the revolutionary war.)
o
What
will guide the revolutionary war? (“Because
war is political, political tasks -- the international communist revolution --
must guide it.”)
o Bombing its way
into the headlines of the early 1970s, the Weather Underground was one of the
most dramatic symbols of the anger felt by young Americans opposed to the US
presence in Vietnam. Mauled in street battles with the Chicago police during
the Days of Rage demonstrations, Weathermen concluded that traditional
political protest was insufficient to end the war. They turned instead to
underground guerrilla combat.
o The group planted
bombs in banks, military installations and, twice on successive days, in the US
Capitol. The group formed clandestine revolutionary cells, leaders disavowed
monogamous relationships, and used LSD to strengthen bonds between members. The
cells made operational failures such as when three members died when a bomb
they were building exploded in Greenwich Village—as well as its victories
including a successful jailbreak of Timothy Leary. The group’s eventual demise
resulted as much from the contradictions of its politics as from the
increasingly repressive FBI attention.
o Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and writer
known for advocating the exploration of the therapeutic potential of
psychedelic drugs under controlled conditions.
o As a clinical
psychologist at Harvard University, Leary conducted experiments under the
Harvard Psilocybin Project in 1960–62 (LSD and psilocybin were still legal in
the United States at the time). The scientific legitimacy and ethics of his
research were questioned by other Harvard faculty because he took psychedelics
together with research subjects and pressured students in his class to take
psychedelics in the research studies. Leary and his colleague, Richard Alpert
(who later became known as Ram Dass), were fired from Harvard University in May
1963. National knowledge as to the effects of psychedelics did not occur until
after the Harvard scandal.
o After his removal from Harvard,
he continued to publicly promote the use of psychedelic drugs and became a
well-known figure of the counterculture of the 1960s popularizing a catchphrase
that promoted his philosophy, such as: "turn on, tune in, drop out.”
o During the 1960s and
1970s, he was arrested often enough to see the inside of 36 prisons worldwide.
President Richard Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in
America".
o Weather Underground members formed the May 19th Communist
Organization, or M19CO. It also included members of the Black Panthers and the
Republic of New Africa. In 1979 three M19CO members walked into the visitor's
center at the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women near Clinton, New Jersey.
They took two guards hostage and freed Shakur. Several months later M19CO
arranged for the escape of William Morales, a member of Puerto Rican separatist
group Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena from Bellevue
Hospital in New York City, where he was recovering after a bomb he was building
exploded in his hands.
·
Despite the Black Power protestations and New
Left forces Nixon made progress on Civil Rights; he enforced the first
large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Nixon sought a middle
way between the segregationist Democrat Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose
support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Soon after his
inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which
worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to integrate
local schools. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were
attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation
surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to
schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed
busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use.
o
Many parents, black and white, were upset
that their children were bused far from their homes. Nixon proposed an end to
forced busing and an emphasis on better schools for all students. Read Source #4.
o
What is Nixon’s well-known position? (“My own position is well known: I am opposed to busing for
the purpose of achieving racial balance in our schools. I have spoken out
against busing scores of times over many years. And I believe most
Americans—white and black—share that view. But what we need now is not just
speaking out against more busing, we need action to stop it.”)
o
What is Nixon’s right way proposal? (“Above all, we need to stop it in the right way, in a way
that will provide better education for every child in America in a desegregated
school system.”)
o
What did the lower Federal courts do? (“Those courts have gone too far; in some cases, beyond the
requirements laid down by the Supreme Court in ordering massive busing to
achieve racial balance. The decisions have left in their wake confusion and
contradiction in the law; anger, fear and turmoil in local communities, and
worst of all, agonized concern among hundreds of thousands of parents for the
education and safety of their children who have been forced by court order to
be bused miles away from their neighborhood schools.”)
o
What did two measures
did Nixon propose to Congress? Who would be helped? (“First, I shall propose legislation that would call an immediate halt
to all new busing orders by Federal courts —a moratorium on new busing. And,
next, I shall propose a companion measure—the Equal Educational Opportunities
Act of 1972. This act would require that every state or locality grant equal
educational opportunities to every person regardless of race, color or national
origin. For the first time in our history, the cherished American ideal of
equality of educational opportunity would be affirmed in the law of the land by
the elected representatives of the people in Congress. The act would further
establish an educational bill of rights for Mexican‐Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians and others who start their education
under language handicaps to make certain that they, too, will have equal
opportunity.”)
o
Does Nixon propose a
middle way? (Yes. He avoids the extremes.
“I realize the program I have recommended will not satisfy the extremists on
the one side who oppose busing for the wrong reasons and realize that my
program will not satisfy the extreme social planners on the other side who
insist on more busing eyen at the cost of better education. But while what I
have said tonight will not appeal to either extreme, I believe have expressed
the views of the majority of Americans because I believe that the majority of
Americans of all races want more busing stopped and better education started.”)
o
In addition to desegregating public schools,
Nixon implemented the Philadelphia Plan in 1970—the first significant federal
affirmative action program.
Ø The plan required
government contractors in Philadelphia to hire minority workers, under the
authority of the Executive in Executive Order 11246. Declared illegal in 1968,
a revised version was successfully defended by the Nixon Administration and its
allies in Congress against those who saw it as an illegal quota program. The
plan required federal contractors to meet certain goals for the hiring of
minority employees by specific dates in order to combat institutionalized
discrimination on the part of specific skilled building trades unions. The plan
was quickly extended to other cities.
Ø
In 1971, the Contractors Association of Eastern
Pennsylvania challenged the plan and Executive Order 11246, arguing that it was
beyond the President's constitutional authority, that it was inconsistent with
Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that it was inconsistent
with the National Labor Relations Act. The United States Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit rejected these challenges and the Supreme Court of the United
States declined to hear the case, Contractors Association of Eastern
Pennsylvania v. Secretary of Labor, in October.
o
Nixon also endorsed the Equal Rights
Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the
states for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968,
though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause
after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration
positions than Lyndon Johnson had.
o
Nixon was in fact
a strong supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed
constitutional amendment that would guarantee equality for women. He reaffirmed
his support with a letter to the Senate Minority Leader.
o
Nixon supported
the ERA from the time he entered Congress in 1946, and he supported other
women’s rights issues while president. He issued his administration’s report on
women’s equity on December 15, 1969. He also supported expanded government
support for family planning, and signed the Family Planning Services Act into
law on December 26, 1970.
·
When Nixon took
office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam, and the
war was broadly unpopular in the United States, with violent protests against
the war ongoing. The Johnson administration had agreed to suspend bombing in
exchange for negotiations without preconditions, but this agreement never fully
took force. Nixon had concluded that the Vietnam War could not be won and he
was determined to end the war quickly. Conversely, others may argue that Nixon
sincerely believed he could intimidate North Vietnam through the "Madman
theory. The madman theory is an
idea where Nixon and his administration tried to make the leaders of hostile
Communist Bloc nations think Nixon was irrational and volatile. According to
the theory, those leaders would then avoid provoking the United States, fearing
an unpredictable American response. Nixon sought some arrangement which would
permit American forces to withdraw from Vietnam, while leaving South Vietnam
secure against attack.
o Nixon approved a secret bombing campaign of North
Vietnamese and allied Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia in March 1969
(code-named Operation Menu), a policy begun under Johnson. These operations
resulted in heavy bombing of Cambodia; by one measurement more bombs were
dropped over Cambodia under Johnson and Nixon than the Allies dropped during
World War II. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the
North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to North Vietnamese leaders, and
peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks, however, did not result in an
agreement. In May 1969 he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops
from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam also did so and for South Vietnam to hold
internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation.
o In July 1969, Nixon visited Sought Vietnam, where he
met with his U.S. military commanders and President Nguyen Van Thieu.
o Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout,
he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops,
known as “Vietnamization.”
o What is the great question? (“The great question is: How can we win
America's peace?”)
o What is the question facing America? (“But the question facing us today is: Now
that we are in the war, what is the best way to end it?”)
o What are Nixon’s choices and what is likely to happen?
(“In January I could only conclude that
the precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster
not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of
peace. For the South Vietnamese, our precipitate withdrawal would inevitably
allow the Communists to repeat the massacres which followed their takeover in
the North 15 years before.”)
o For the United States what would happen? (“For the United States, this first defeat
in our Nation's history would result in a collapse of confidence in American
leadership, not only in Asia but throughout the world.”)
o Instead of an immediate withdrawal what did Nixon
chose? (“I chose instead to change
American policy on both the negotiating front and battlefront. In order to end
a war fought on many fronts, I initiated a pursuit for peace on many fronts. In
a television speech on May 14, in a speech before the United Nations, and on a
number of other occasions I set forth our peace proposals in great detail. We
have offered the complete withdrawal of all outside forces within 1 year. We
have proposed a cease-fire under international supervision. We have offered free
elections under international supervision with the Communists participating in
the organization and conduct of the elections as an organized political force.
And the Saigon Government has pledged to accept the result of the elections.”)
o What was the communist (Hanoi) response? (“Hanoi has refused even to discuss our
proposals. They demand our unconditional acceptance of their terms, which are
that we withdraw all American forces immediately and unconditionally and that
we overthrow the Government of South Vietnam as we leave.”)
o What did Nixon do privately and secretly? (Nixon contacted Soviet representatives and
most dramatically, wrote a personal letter to Ho Chi Minh President, Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.)
o How did Ho Chi Minh respond? (“3 days before his death: “it simply reiterated the public position
North Vietnam had taken at Paris and flatly rejected my initiative.”)
o Who is at fault? (“It
has become clear that the obstacle in negotiating an end to the war is not the
President of the United States. It is not the South Vietnamese Government. The
obstacle is the other side's absolute refusal to show the least willingness to
join us in seeking a just peace. And it will not do so while it is convinced
that all it has to do is to wait for our next concession, and our next
concession after that one, until it gets everything it wants.”)
o What is Nixon’s plan or Doctrine? (“At the time we launched our search for peace I recognized we might
not succeed in bringing an end to the war through negotiation. I, therefore,
put into effect another plan to bring peace - a plan which will bring the war
to an end regardless of what happens on the negotiating front. Let me briefly
explain what has been described as the Nixon Doctrine - a policy which not only
will help end the war in Vietnam, but which is an essential element of our
program to prevent future Vietnams.”)
o What are his three principles? (“Well, in accordance with this wise counsel, I laid down in Guam three
principles as guidelines for future American policy toward Asia:
Ø
First, the United States will keep all of its treaty
commitments.
Ø
Second, we shall provide a shield if a nuclear power
threatens the freedom of a nation allied with us or of a nation whose survival
we consider vital to our security.
Ø
Third, in cases involving other types of aggression,
we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance
with our treaty commitments. But we shall look to the nation directly
threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for
its defense.
o
How does Nixon
summarize the difference between President Johnson and his administration? (“In the previous administration, we
Americanized the war in Vietnam. In this administration, we are Vietnamizing
the search for peace.”)
o
What does
Nixon say to young people? (“And now I
would like to address a word, if I may, to the young people of this Nation who
are particularly concerned, and I understand why they are concerned, about this
war. I respect your idealism. I share your concern for peace. I want peace as
much as you do. There are powerful personal reasons I want to end this war.
This week I will have to sign 83 letters to mothers, fathers, wives, and loved
ones of men who have given their lives for America in Vietnam. It is very
little satisfaction to me that this is only one-third as many letters as I
signed the first week in office.”)
o
What nation
promises hope, peace, and freedom? (“Two
hundred years ago this Nation was weak and poor. But even then, America was the
hope of millions in the world. Today we have become the strongest and richest
nation in the world. And the wheel of destiny has turned so that any hope the
world has for the survival of peace and freedom will be determined by whether
the American people have the moral stamina and the courage to meet the
challenge of free world leadership. Let historians not record that when America
was the most powerful nation in the world we passed on the other side of the
road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to
be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism.”)
o
Nixon invented a
memorable phrase and asked a group of people who were not committed to violence
or demonstrations. What did he call them? (“And
so tonight - to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans -
l ask for your support.”)
o
What sustained
Nixon? (“I pledge to you tonight that I
shall meet this responsibility with all of the strength and wisdom I can
command in accordance with your hopes, mindful of your concerns, sustained by
your prayers.”)
·
Nixon soon
instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but authorized incursions into Laos,
in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, used to supply North Vietnamese forces,
which passed through Laos and Cambodia.
·
Read Source #5. Nixon
announced the ground invasion of Cambodia to the American public on April 30,
1970. His responses to protesters included an impromptu, early morning meeting
with them at the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. resident Nixon’s Speech on Cambodia, April
30, 1970
o American and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia. That very day,
President Nixon justified the “incursion” to a nation divided over the war and
anti-war dissent.
o
Why did Nixon order troops into Cambodia? (“Ten days ago, in my report to the Nation on Viet-Nam,
I announced a decision to withdraw an additional 150,000 Americans from
Viet-Nam over the next year. I said then that I was making that decision
despite our concern over increased enemy activity in Laos, in Cambodia, and in
South Viet-Nam. At that time, I warned that if I concluded that increased enemy
activity in any of these areas endangered the lives of Americans remaining in
Viet-Nam, I would not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal
with that situation.”)
o
What
was in Cambodia? (“For the past 5
years…North Viet-Nam has occupied military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian
frontier with South Viet-Nam. Some of these extend to 20 miles into Cambodia.
The sanctuaries…are on both sides of the border. They are used for hit-and-run
attacks on American and South Vietnamese forces in South Viet-Nam. These
communist-occupied territories contain major base camps, training sites,
logistics facilities, weapons and ammunition factories, airstrips, and prisoner
of war compounds.”)
o
Was
it an invasion? (“This is not an invasion
of Cambodia. The areas in which these attacks will be launched are completely
occupied and controlled by North Vietnamese forces. Our purpose is not to
occupy the areas. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries and
once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw.”)
o
What
is the larger context that Nixon addresses? (“My
fellow Americans, we live in an age of anarchy, both abroad and at home. We see
mindless attacks on all the great institutions which have been created by free
civilizations in the last 500 years. Even here in the United States, great
universities are being systematically destroyed. Small nations all over the
world find themselves under attack from within and from without. If, when the
chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America,
acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy
will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world. It is
not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight. The
question all Americans must ask and answer tonight is this: Does the richest
and strongest nation in the history of the world have the character to meet a
direct challenge by a group which rejects every effort to win a just peace,
ignores our warning, tramples on solemn agreements, violates the neutrality of
an unarmed people, and uses our prisoners as hostages? If we fail to meet this
challenge, all other nations will be on notice that despite its overwhelming
power the United States, when a real crisis comes, will be found wanting.”)
o What is Nixon’s
promise? (“During my campaign for the
Presidency, I pledged to bring Americans home from Viet-Nam. They are coming
home. I promised to end this war. I shall keep that promise. I promised to win
a just peace. I shall keep that promise. We shall avoid a wider war. But we are
also determined to put an end to this war.”)
o Documents
uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese
attempt to overrun Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the
Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot’s then second in command. Nixon's
campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to
claims that Nixon had a "credibility gap” on the issue.
o
When
Nixon publicly announced the Cambodian incursion on April 30, it set off a wave
of antiwar demonstrations. A protest at Kent State University resulted in the
killing of four students by Army National Guard troops. Another student rally
at Jackson State College in Mississippi resulted in the death of two students
and 12 wounded when police opened fire on a women’s dormitory. The incursion
angered many in Congress, who felt that Nixon was illegally widening the war;
this resulted in a series of congressional resolutions and legislative
initiatives that would severely limit the executive power of the president.
·
In 1971, excerpts
from the "Pentagon Papers", which had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg,
were published by The New York Times and
The Washington Post. When news of the
leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of
United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior
administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Henry Kissinger
that the papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried
to prevent publication. The Supreme Court eventually ruled for the newspapers.
o
In early 1967, Secretary
of Defense Robert S. McNamara was struggling with a mounting sense of
frustration over the Vietnam War. Questioning the decision-making process that
had led to such deep US involvement, McNamara initiated a comprehensive
analysis of post-1945 policy in the region. So began the creation of what would
come to be called the "Pentagon Papers."
o
By June, the Vietnam
Study Task Force was officially at work under the direction of Leslie H. Gelb,
the director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security
Affairs at the Department of Defense.
o
A year and a half later,
Gelb’s team of 36 military personnel, historians, and defense analysts from the
RAND Corporation and Washington Institute for Defense Analysis had produced
roughly 7,000 pages comprising 47 volumes. United States-Vietnam Relations,
1945–1967 was a comprehensive documentary and analytical record from the end of
World War II through the aftermath of the Tet Offensive of early 1968. Most
important, however, the highly classified study revealed that administrations
from Harry S. Truman's through Lyndon B. Johnson's had willingly deceived the
American people about the nation's involvement in Vietnam.
o
“[The Pentagon Papers
represented] a body of authoritative information, of inside government
deliberations, that demonstrated beyond questioning the criticisms that antiwar
activists had been making for years not only were not wrong but, in fact, were
not materially different from things that had been argued inside the US
government.” Historian John Prados
o
As with most classified
documents, McNamara’s detailed study might have gathered dust for decades.
Instead much of it appeared in the New York Times, and its publication became a
turning point in the presidency of Richard Nixon—an ironic twist considering
the Pentagon Papers covered a period when Nixon himself was not in power.
o
Nevertheless, the leak
occurred during the Nixon presidency, convincing him that he was engaged in the
battle of a lifetime—to protect his presidency as well as the nation. In his
eyes, the publication of the Pentagon Papers confirmed the existence of a
radical, left-wing conspiracy throughout the government and media, whose
purpose was to delegitimize him and topple his administration.
o
Nixon resolved to fight
back with every tool at his disposal, making the fateful decision to break the
law to achieve his ends.
o
The story of the
Pentagon Papers begins with Daniel Ellsberg, a defense analyst specializing in
nuclear weapons strategy and counterinsurgency theory. Ellsberg had deep
knowledge of Vietnam, having served in the Pentagon's International Security
Affairs (ISA) division from 1964–65 then as an analyst in South Vietnam for two
years. After returning to the United States to work for the RAND Corporation,
he became a member of Gelb's task force. The work confirmed what he already
suspected: US involvement in Vietnam was based on systematic deception by the
government. As the Nixon administration pursued its own policy in Vietnam,
Ellsberg became increasingly frustrated, seeing a continuing pattern of deceit
and escalation, and he began to consider leaking the study.
o
Over the course of
several weeks in the fall of 1969, Ellsberg managed to sneak out and photocopy
the study with the help of another former RAND employee.
o
Initially Ellsberg
turned to members of Congress such as Senator J. William Fulbright [D-AR],
Senator Charles Mathias Jr. [R-MD], Senator George McGovern [D-SD], and
Congressman Paul (Pete) McCloskey Jr. [R-CA] in the hope that one of them would
be willing to enter the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record. All four
declined. But Ellsberg’s efforts were not entirely fruitless. Future Democratic
Party nominee in 1972 McGovern suggested he provide his copies to either the
New York Times or the Washington Post. In March 1971, Ellsberg showed the study
to Times reporter Neil Sheehan.
o
On June 10, word reached
Sheehan that, against the advice of Lord, Day & Lord, the paper’s law firm,
the Times had decided to go ahead. Editors would use the Pentagon Papers to
analyze the war and publish dozens of pages verbatim, with the first selection
appearing on Sunday, June 13, 1971. That day's front page carried an article by
Sheehan, “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US
Involvement.” It was, the Times announced, part one of a series.
o
Taking legal action
against the Times was not Nixon’s first instinct. In this June 13, 1971,
conversation with National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger, the president
recognized that the Pentagon Papers could help him politically by reminding
readers that the Vietnam War was the product of his predecessors’ mistakes.
Nixon and Kissinger both assumed, mistakenly, that the release of the study was
timed to affect an upcoming vote on the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, which
would require the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam. To be sure, Nixon
denounced the publication as "treasonable," but he decided that the
administration should just plow ahead and “clean house” of disloyal people.
o
As promised, Monday,
June 14, brought another front-page article by Sheehan: “Vietnam Archive: A
Consensus to Bomb Developed before ’64 Election, Study Says.” Nixon’s
disposition changed little, and he remained resigned to continued publication.
During this conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, who told the president that
Attorney General John Mitchell wanted to warn the paper against further
publication, Nixon focused on finding out who leaked the Pentagon Papers, not
on stopping their publication.
o
Minutes later, Mitchell,
who feared that the government would forfeit the right to prosecute the Times
if it did not respond immediately, asked Nixon's permission to send the
newspaper a warning. Nixon was reluctant to interrupt the airing of the
Democrats’ dirty linen, but he agreed to Mitchell’s plan, reasoning that the
Times was an “enemy.”
o
While Nixon was under
the impression that the telegram to the Times would be a low-key request for a
cessation of publication, the message sent by the Department of Justice was
anything but—threatening criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act. The
telegram also requested that the Times immediately return the documents to the
government. Instead the paper continued to publish, saying it would accept only
a court decision.
o
Even so, on the evening
of June 14, Nixon remained relatively unconcerned with what he saw as an
unremarkable episode in a troubled relationship with a cantankerous press.
According to most accounts, it was Kissinger who was incensed by the leak,
fearful that it jeopardized both the United States’ chance to develop closer
relations with China and its negotiations with the North Vietnamese.
o
Regardless of the source
of his fears, Nixon quickly grew convinced that he was the target of a
conspiracy involving Johnson administration officials who had overseen the
Pentagon Papers project: Paul C. Warnke, Morton H. Halperin, and Les Gelb, all
high officials in the ISA. None of them had participated in the leak.
o
In public, Nixon wanted
to disassociate his administration from what he termed the “Kennedy-Johnson
Papers.” Instead he told Charles W. “Chuck” Colson, a White House political
operative, to focus on the "larger responsibility to maintain the integrity
of government" by keeping secret matters secret. "What the Times has
done," says the president in this conversation, "is placed itself
above the law."
o
A pivotal meeting took
place in the Oval Office. Kissinger distanced himself from Ellsberg, whom he
had known personally before their friendship had soured. At an MIT appearance,
Ellsberg had repeatedly interrupted Kissinger with questions about Vietnamese
casualties that would result from Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization. Kissinger’s
anger over the leak seems to have come at least partially from a sense of
personal betrayal.
o
A conversation then
escalated into a presidential order to commit burglary. Nixon, Kissinger, and
chief of staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman discussed getting former
President Johnson to speak out against the leak, and Haldeman suggested
blackmailing LBJ. The trio then reviewed a report from aide Tom Huston
suggesting that Gelb had a copy of undisclosed reports on Vietnam stored in a
safe at the Brookings Institution. Huston was the author of the "Huston
Plan," a secret proposal to expand the use of government break-ins,
wiretaps, and mail opening in the name of fighting domestic terror. Nixon told
his aides to implement the Huston Plan and steal the Vietnam documents from
Brookings. It would not be the last time he would suggest breaking the law.
o
By the time the Supreme
Court agreed on June 25 to hear United States v. New York Times Co. (403 U.S.
713 [1971]), several other papers had joined the Times in publishing portions
of the Pentagon Papers, including a codefendant in the Supreme Court case: the
Washington Post.
o
By a vote of six to
three, the Supreme Court ruled that “the government had not met the ‘heavy
burden’ of showing justification for a prior restraint.” In other words, the
Times and the Post, as well as other newspapers, could resume publication of
the Pentagon Papers. Believing the court case no longer mattered, Nixon’s
initial reaction was to remark on the distribution of votes, not the outcome.
Once again, he explained to Colson that nothing, not even the Court’s ruling,
would stand in the way of his putting Ellsberg in jail.
o
The ultimate
manifestation of this drive was the White House Special Investigations Unit,
informally referred to as the Plumbers, whose first assignment was to raid the
office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Later, members of the group carried out one
final mission, the Watergate break-in, which ultimately cost Nixon the very
thing he had sought to defend: his presidency.
o
“There’s an absolutely
clear line, if it hadn’t been for the Pentagon Papers, maybe Watergate would
have occurred later, maybe it would have been different, but the abuses would
not have been so great.” Sanford Ungar, author of "The Papers & The
Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle over the Pentagon
Papers"
·
Read Source #6. A
restraint would be that a court could order a cessation of publishing.
Constitutional validity is anything that is permitted under the Constitution.
o
What does it mean when the
Supreme Court ruled "Any system of prior
restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption
against its constitutional validity?" (“The
Government `thus carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the
imposition of such a restraint.’" Various but the students should grasp
that the Supreme Court favors the free expression of ideas in line with the
First Amendment. The government must demonstrate strong evidence as to why
information should not be made public.)
o
What did the Justices state against the government position? (“I believe that every moment's continuance of the
injunctions against these newspapers amounts to a flagrant, indefensible, and
continuing violation of the First Amendment.”)
o
Should the news be
published according to the Court? (“It is
unfortunate that some of my Brethren are apparently willing to hold that the
publication of news may sometimes be enjoined. Such a holding would make a
shambles of the First Amendment.”)
o
Can the government
halt the news? (No. “Now, for the first
time in the 182 years since the founding of the Republic, the federal courts
are asked to hold that the First Amendment does not mean what it says, but
rather means that the Government can halt the publication of current news of
vital importance to the people of this country.”)
o
What is the essential purpose and history of the First Amendment? (“In seeking injunctions against these newspapers,
and in its presentation to the Court, the Executive Branch seems to have
forgotten the essential purpose and history of the First Amendment. In the
First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it
must have to fulfil its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve
the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was
abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the
Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of
government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can
effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the
responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the
government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to
die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. In my view, far from
deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the
Washington Post, and other newspapers should be commended for serving the
purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly. In revealing the workings of
government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that
which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.”)
o
What was the premises of the Government’s case? (“The Government's case here is based on premises entirely different from
those that guided the Framers of the First Amendment.... We are asked to hold
that, despite the First Amendment's emphatic command, the Executive Branch, the
Congress, and the Judiciary can make laws enjoining publication of current news
and abridging freedom of the press in the name of "national
security." The Government does not even attempt to rely on any act of
Congress. Instead, it makes the bold and dangerously far-reaching contention
that the courts should take it upon themselves to "make" a law
abridging freedom of the press in the name of equity, presidential power and
national security, even when the representatives of the people in Congress have
adhered to the command of the First Amendment and refused to make such a law.
To find that the President has "inherent power" to halt the
publication of news by resort to the courts would wipe out the First Amendment
and destroy the fundamental liberty and security of the very people the
Government hopes to make "secure." No one can read the history of the
adoption of the First Amendment without being convinced beyond any doubt that
it was injunctions like those sought here that Madison and his collaborators
intended to outlaw in this Nation for all time.”)
o
In what circumstances
can prior judicial restraint be overridden by not publishing? (“Our cases, it is true, have indicated that
there is a single, extremely narrow class of cases in which the First
Amendment's ban on prior judicial restraint may be overridden. Our cases have
thus far indicated that such cases may arise only when the Nation "is at
war," during which times ‘[n]o one would question but that a government
might prevent actual obstruction to its recruiting service or the publication
of the sailing dates of transports or the number and location of troops.’"
Near v. Minnesota [1931].)
o
In what areas is the Executive endowed with enormous power as opposed to
a parliamentary form of government? (“In the governmental
structure created by our Constitution, the Executive is endowed with enormous
power in the two related areas of national defence and international relations.
This power, largely unchecked by the Legislative and Judicial branches, has
been pressed to the very hilt since the advent of the nuclear missile age. For
better or for worse, the simple fact is that a President of the United States
possesses vastly greater constitutional independence in these two vital areas
of power than does, say, a prime minister of a country with a parliamentary
form of government.”)
o
What is an effective
restraint upon executive policy and power? (“In
the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of
our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power
in the areas of national defence and international affairs may lie in an
enlightened citizenry -- in an informed and critical public opinion which alone
can here protect the values of democratic government. For this reason, it is
perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free most vitally serves
the basic purpose of the First Amendment. For, without an informed and free
press, there cannot be an enlightened people.”)
o
To restrain from publication would have to surely result in what? (“I cannot say that disclosure of any of them will
surely result in direct, immediate, and irreparable damage to our Nation or its
people. That being so, there can under the First Amendment be but one judicial
resolution of the issues before us.”)
o
What is the premise
regarding the speed of deciding this case on the part of the dissenting
Justice? (“Here, moreover, the frenetic
haste is due in large part to the manner in which the Times proceeded from the
date it obtained the purloined documents. It seems reasonably clear now that
the haste precluded reasonable and deliberate judicial treatment of these
cases, and was not warranted. The precipitate action of this Court aborting
trials not yet completed is not the kind of judicial conduct that ought to
attend the disposition of a great issue. The newspapers make a derivative claim
under the First Amendment; they denominate this right as the public "right
to know"; by implication, the Times asserts a sole trusteeship of that
right by virtue of its journalistic "scoop." The right is asserted as
an absolute. Of course, the First Amendment right itself is not an absolute, as
Justice Holmes so long ago pointed out in his aphorism concerning the right to
shout "fire" in a crowded theater if there was no fire.”)
o
If not done in haste
what should be done according to the dissent? (“There are other exceptions, some of which Chief Justice Hughes
mentioned by way of example in Near v. Minnesota. There are no doubt other
exceptions no one has had occasion to describe or discuss. Conceivably, such
exceptions may be lurking in these cases and, would have been flushed had they
been properly considered in the trial courts, free from unwarranted deadlines
and frenetic pressures. An issue of this importance should be tried and heard in
a judicial atmosphere conducive to thoughtful, reflective deliberation,
especially when haste, in terms of hours, is unwarranted in light of the long
period the Times, by its own choice, deferred publication.”)
o
How long had the Times reviewed the documents? (“It is not disputed that the Times has had unauthorized possession of the
documents for three to four months, during which it has had its expert analysts
studying them, presumably digesting them and preparing the material for
publication. During all of this time, the Times, presumably in its capacity as
trustee of the public's `right to know,’ has held up publication for purposes
it considered proper, and thus public knowledge was delayed. No doubt this was
for a good reason; the analysis of 7,000 pages of complex material drawn from a
vastly greater volume of material would inevitably take time, and the writing
of good news stories takes time. But why should the United States Government,
from whom this information was illegally acquired by someone, along with all
the counsel, trial judges, and appellate judges be placed under needless
pressure? After these months of deferral, the alleged `right to know’ has
somehow and suddenly become a right that must be vindicated instantly.”)
o
Given the lengthy review that the Times took should the Court decide
hastily? (Various: but students should
balance the First Amendment right to know vs. the leaked, secret and/or stolen
nature of the government documents. Which side has the stronger argument?).
o
The Justice states
that it is “one of the basic and simple duties of every citizen with respect to
the discovery or possession of stolen property or secret government documents.
That duty, I had thought -- perhaps naively -- was to report forthwith, to
responsible public officers. This duty rests on taxi drivers, Justices, and the
New York Times.” Is it the citizen’s duty to report? (Various: students may argue that citizens have a duty to report or
others may claim we are under no such obligation.)
·
As U.S. troop
withdrawals continued, conscription was reduced and in 1973 ended; the armed
forces became all-volunteer. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords
were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire
and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops; however, it did
not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to
withdraw. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before
fighting broke out again, this time without American combat involvement. North
Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975.
·
Nixon’s greatest triumphs as president were in
foreign policy. His Vietnamization plan simultaneously pulled American troops
out of Vietnam and increased the American military presence in other nations of
Southeast Asia. Most Americans were relieved to be removed from a situation
that was perceived as a stalemated “quagmire,” where American soldiers were
dying while fighting a war that could not be won.
·
Increasingly worried about the cost of the arms
race, Nixon also made overtures to the Soviet Union. Just months after going to
China, Nixon went to Moscow to meet with Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. In
this meeting he agreed to sell excess American wheat to the Soviets. The fact
that their country needed wheat was an early sign that Soviet-style communism
was not performing well economically, even though the Soviets attempted to hide
this fact.
·
Under the auspices of the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT), the two leaders also agreed to freeze the number of
long-range missile launchers and build certain new missiles only after they had
destroyed the same number of older missiles. This did not signify an end to the
Cold War, but it did demonstrate that the nations’ leaders were beginning to recognize
the problems inherent in an unchecked arms race.
·
As Vietnam simmered down as a national issue, Nixon
saw that relations between China and the Soviet Union were beginning to break
down. The two communist superpowers were at odds about how expansionary the
communists should be in Asia, and, attempting to push the two further apart,
Nixon began talks with China. His first step was to accept an invitation to
send the American table tennis team to compete in a friendly international
event in China. This gave his foreign policy toward China its name: Ping-Pong
Diplomacy. The players were the first Americans invited into China since its
founding as a communist country in 1949. In 1972, Nixon himself went to China,
and the two nations increased trade and cultural exchanges. They also agreed
that the Soviet Union should not be allowed to expand farther into Asia.
·
Nixon laid the groundwork for
his overture to China even before he became president, writing in Foreign Affairs a year before his
election: "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its
potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." Assisting
him in this venture was his National Security Advisor and future Secretary of
State, Henry Kissinger, with whom the President worked closely, bypassing
Cabinet officials. With relations between the Soviet Union and China at a
nadir—border clashes between the two took place during Nixon's first year
in office—Nixon sent private word to the Chinese that he desired closer relations.
A breakthrough came in early 1971, when Chairman Mao invited a team of
American table tennis players to visit China and play against top Chinese
players. Nixon followed up by sending Kissinger to China for clandestine
meetings with Chinese officials.
o
On July 15, 1971, it was simultaneously
announced by Beijing and by Nixon (on television and radio) that the President
would visit China the following February. The announcements astounded the
world. The secrecy allowed both sets of leader’s time to prepare the
political climate in their countries for the contact.
o The move proved to be a geopolitical game changer.
o When President Nixon took the oath-of-office in January
1969, the Vietnam War was raging. He wanted to bring the nation beyond
the decade long morass that was draining political capital and resources
abroad, and intensifying social strife at home.
o For the 37th president, rapprochement with China would
help the United States end the war through diplomacy with a more powerful
Communist country in Southeast Asia. It would also put pressure on the Soviet
Union, whose relations were frayed with the PRC following clashes on its
eastern border, make progress on the limitations of nuclear arms, and
peace in parts of the world where it continued to be engaged.
o What does Nixon suggest will bring peace? (“As I have pointed out on a number of
occasions over the past three years, there can be no stable and enduring peace
without the participation of the People's Republic of China and its 750 million
people.”)
o What was the goal of Nixon visiting Premier Chou En-lai
in China? (“The meeting between the
leaders of China and the United States is to seek the normalization of
relations between the two countries and also to exchange views on questions of
concern to the two sides.”)
o How long did Nixon think peace will last? (“It is in this spirit that I will undertake
what I deeply hope will become a journey for peace, not just for our generation
but for future generations on this earth we share together.”)
o The international nature and previously strained
relationship between the U.S. and China made a meeting precarious. Thus, how
did Nixon meet the Premier?
§ In February 1972, Nixon and his wife
traveled to China. Kissinger briefed Nixon for over 40 hours in preparation.
Upon touching down, the President and First Lady emerged from Air Force One and
greeted Chinese Premier Zhou En-lai. Nixon
made a point of shaking Zhou's hand, something which then-Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles had refused to do in 1954 when the two met in Geneva. Over
100 television journalists accompanied the president. On Nixon's orders,
television was strongly favored over printed publications, as Nixon felt that
the medium would capture the visit much better than print. It also gave him the
opportunity to snub the print journalists he despised.
·
Read Source #7. Memorialized by the
president as The Week that Changed the World, the trip culminated in the
announcement of the joint US-China Communiqué in Shanghai on 28 February 1972.
o
Are the U.S. and China essentially the same? (“There
are essential differences between China and the United States in their social
systems and foreign policies.’)
o
What do they agree upon? (“However,
the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should
conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of all states, non‑aggression
against other states, non‑interference in
the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful
coexistence.”)
o
How will disputes be settled? (“International
disputes should be settled on this basis, without resorting to the use or
threat of force. The United States and the People’s Republic of China are
prepared to apply these principles to their mutual relations.”)
o
What are four main points of agreement?
§ (“progress toward the normalization of relations
between China and the
United States is in the interests of all countries;
§ both wish to reduce the danger of international
military conflict;
§ neither should seek hegemony in the Asia‑Pacific region and each is
opposed to efforts by any other country or group of
countries to establish such hegemony; and
§ neither is prepared to negotiate on behalf of any
third party or to enter into agreements or understandings with the other
directed at other states.”)
o
What
is the long-standing serious dispute between? (“The two sides reviewed the long‑standing
serious disputes between China and the United States.”)
o
What
is the Chinese side? (“The Chinese side
reaffirmed its position: The Taiwan question is the crucial question
obstructing the normalization of relations between China and the United States;
the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government
of China; Taiwan is a province of China which has long been returned to the
motherland; the liberation of Taiwan is China’s internal affair in which no
other country has the right to interfere; and all U.S. forces and military
installations must be withdrawn from Taiwan. The Chinese Government firmly
opposes any activities which aim at the creation of `one China, one Taiwan,’ ‘one
China, two governments,’ ‘two Chinas,’ and ‘independent Taiwan’ or advocate
that ‘the status of Taiwan remains to be determined.’”)
o What is the U.S.
side? (“The U.S. side declared: The
United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait
maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United
States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest
in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With
this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of
all U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. In the meantime, it
will progressively reduce its forces and military installations on Taiwan as
the tension in the area diminishes.”)
o Both sides agreed to articulate their substantial
differences, make progress towards normalized relations, and refrain from
seeking hegemony in the Asia Pacific region.
o The most significant development came from the United
States on the issue of its democratic ally Taiwan, affirming that “there is but
one China and Taiwan is part of China,” and that a peace be settled by Chinese
on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
·
Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the
Soviet Union yielded to pressure for détente with the United States.
o Nixon used the improving international
environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. Following the announcement
of his visit to China, the Nixon administration concluded negotiations for him
to visit the Soviet Union. The President and First Lady arrived in Moscow on
May 22, 1972 and met with Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party; Alexei Kosygin, the Chairman of the Council of
Ministers; and Nikolai Podgorny, the head of state,
among other leading Soviet officials.
o
Nixon engaged in intense
negotiations with Brezhnev. Out of the summit came agreements for
increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the
two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,
which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming
missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful
coexistence".
o Seeking to foster better relations with the United States,
both China and the Soviet Union cut back on their diplomatic support for North
Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms militarily. Nixon correctly
worked out a successful strategy. Any successful peace
initiative in Vietnam was to enlist, if possible, the help of the Soviets and
the Chinese. Though rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union
were ends in themselves, Nixon also considered them possible means to hasten the
end of the war. At worst, Hanoi was bound to feel less confident if Washington
was dealing with Moscow and Beijing. At best, if the two major Communist powers
decided that they had bigger fish to fry, Hanoi would be pressured into
negotiating a settlement the U.S. could accept.
o
Having made considerable progress over the previous two years
in U.S.-Soviet relations, Nixon embarked on a second trip to the Soviet Union
in 1974. There were discussions about a proposed mutual defense pact,
détente, and MIRVS. While he considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban
treaty, Nixon felt he would not have time as president to complete
it. There were no significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.
·
After a nearly decade-long national effort, the
United States won the race against the USSR to land astronauts on the Moon on
July 20, 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11. Nixon spoke with Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk.
o Read Source #8. What did Nixon call the conversation? ("the most historic phone call ever
made from the White House.")
o Because of the American accomplishment what has become a part
of man’s world? (“The heavens.”)
o
Where the astronauts land and then what did
Nixon state about redoubling our efforts? (“And as you talk to us
from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring
peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history
of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what
you have done.”)
o
What is the world one in as the astronauts
return? (“one in our prayers that you will return safely to
Earth.”)
o
How did Armstrong respond? (“Thank you Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be
here, representing not only the United States, but men of peace of all nations,
and with interest and curiosity, and men with a vision for the future. It's an
honor for us to be able to participate here today.”)
·
Read Source #9. On March 7th 1970, President Richard Nixon issued a “Statement
About the Future of the United States Space Program.” The announcement
came about a month before the launch of Apollo 13. The “successful failure” of
Apollo 13 would have a significant impact on President Nixon’s opinions about
human spaceflight.
o Nixon announced the end of the Kennedy-Johnson era's excessive
spending during the space race against the USSR.
§ What was his
outline for six ambitious objectives regarding U.S. human spaceflight in the
coming years? They were:
§ (1. “We should continue to explore the moon.”
§ 2. “We should move ahead with bold exploration of the
planets and the universe…As a part of this program we will eventually send men
to explore the planet Mars.”
§ 3. “We should work to reduce substantially the cost of
space operations…we must devise less costly and less complicated ways of
transporting payloads into space.”
§ 4. “We should seek to extend man’s capability to live
and work in space… We expect that men will be working in space for months at a
time during the coming decade.”
§ 5. “We should hasten and expand the practical
applications of space technology… We should continue to pursue other
applications of space-related technology in a wide variety of fields, including
meteorology, communications, navigation…”
§ 6. “We should encourage greater international
cooperation in space.”)
o How did Nixon detail his administration’s approach to
continued space exploration and research efforts at a more manageable cost to
the nation? ("We must think of
[space activities] as part of a continuing process... and not as a series of
separate leaps, each requiring a massive concentration of energy. Space
expenditures must take their proper place within a rigorous system of national
priorities... What we do in space from here on in must become a normal and
regular part of our national life and must therefore be planned in conjunction
with all of the other undertakings which are important to us.")
o He then cancelled the last three planned Apollo lunar
missions to place Skylab in orbit more efficiently and free money up for
the design and construction of the Space Shuttle.
o Perhaps the single greatest achievement with respect to
America’s space program was his leadership directed at transforming the
existing space program policy from one of indulgent investment to one on par
with other national priorities.
o President Nixon achieved such a feat through two methods.
He formed a Space Task Group at the beginning of his presidency with the
mission of reevaluating NASA’s operational budget and priorities. As a result
of the Space Task Group’s recommendations, President Nixon in the beginning of
1972 directed that NASA commence its Space Shuttle program. The Space Shuttle
program – which retired in 2011 – is the longest yet program launched by NASA.
It produced 135 total flights and countless cutting-edge research missions
while minimizing the NASA budget through the use of a reusable spacecraft.
o President Nixon also recognized the correlation between
space exploration and foreign policy. In May, 1972, during the first Moscow
Summit of the SALT I talks, he and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an
Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for
Peaceful Purposes, which committed both the USSR and the United States to the
launch of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. This signaled a significant
shift from the combatant nature of the Cold War space race.
o President Nixon also presided over the launch of the
United States’ first space station – Skylab. Skylab orbited Earth from 1973 to
1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was
visited three times by manned NASA crews (3 crewmembers each) from 1973 to
1974.
o With these initiatives, President Nixon influenced the
greatest lasting impact on America’s space program. His redefinition of space
priorities, in line with the pragmatic needs of the public, guided the tenets
of NASA policy for the next 40 years. What had once been a race to the moon by
all means necessary became a more reliable mechanism for technological
innovation and perhaps more importantly, international cooperation.
o President Nixon was not necessarily paring down the
efforts of the nation’s space program, but rather attempting to instill a
withstanding national paradigm. It was his hope that space exploration would
become a component of national priorities, in line with the nation’s many
domestic programs and as a result a staple of American government. It would
compete, along with other national programs, for the government’s limited
resources.
o President Nixon’s aim to reprioritize this “massive
concentration” of energy given to NASA began when he created the Space Task
Group to study the future possibilities of the space program in February of
1969. After several months of examination, the Space Task Group sent the Nixon
administration their recommendations in October.
o One of the principle recommendations by the Space Task
Group included developing “low-cost, flexible, long-lived, highly reliable, operational
space systems with a high degree of commonality and reusability.” In other
words, NASA should be tasked with constructing something along the lines of a
reusable shuttle.
o The unveiling of the space shuttle program became reality
at the beginning of President Nixon’s iconic year of 1972. On January 5, RN met
with Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, to discuss the proposed space
shuttle vehicle.
o Shortly after the meeting, the President issued a
statement announcing the commencement of the Shuttle Program, closing the book
on the Apollo program and opening another for the future of space exploration.
o This new program will give more people more access to the
liberating perspectives of space, even as it extends our ability to cope with
physical challenges of Earth and broadens our opportunities for international
cooperation in low-cost, multi-purpose space missions.
o On December 19, 1972, Apollo 17 reentered Earth’s
atmosphere, marking an end to the prestigious and largely successful Apollo
program. President Nixon shared a message with the American people about the
future of the space program assuring that “the making of space history would
continue,” albeit at a more steady and economically viable pace.
o President Nixon described the possibilities the space
shuttle would bring:
o Economy in space will be further served by the Space
Shuttle, which is presently under development. It will enable us to ferry space
research hardware into orbit without requiring the full expenditure of a launch
vehicle as is necessary today. It will permit us to place that hardware in
space accurately, and to service or retrieve it when necessary instead of
simply writing it off in the event it malfunctions or fails. In addition, the
Shuttle will provide such routine access to space that for the first time
personnel other than trained astronauts will be able to participate and
contribute in space as will nations once excluded for economic reasons.
o The Space Shuttle program, retired in 2011, continued for
39 years–the longest yet program launched by NASA. It produced 135 total
flights and countless cutting-edge research missions. It is safe to say that
space travel and exploration as we know it today was a result of President
Nixon’s decision to economize the American space program in 1972.
o
Read Source #10. The 1972 presidential campaign is
generally overlooked as elections are concerned since it is overshadowed by
Nixon’s Watergate but it is a critical election nonetheless. The 1972
Democratic nominee, George McGovern, marks the first time a major party chose a
leftist candidate; also, it was a test of the electoral strength of the new-found
alliance between the far-left factions of the New Left and Black Power. Although
leftist, or even radical for 1972, many of the ideas that McGovern proposed
in his campaign have become part of mainstream American public policy on the
part of both Democrats and Republicans. Indeed, a good number of them, including inflation
adjustment for Social Security, increased federal aid to high poverty schools,
and a drug benefit under Medicare, were eventually first implemented by
Republican presidents.
o
Numerous
myths have arisen about the crucial 1968-1972 period in American presidential
elections. However, once upon a time, every student of history – and that meant
pretty much everyone with a high school education – knew this: The Democratic
Party was the party of slavery and Jim Crow, and the Republican Party was the
party of emancipation and racial integration.
o
Democrats
were the Confederacy and Republicans were the Union. Jim Crow Democrats were
dominant in the South and socially tolerant Republicans were dominant in the
North.
o
But
then, in the 1960s and 70s, everything supposedly flipped: suddenly the
Republicans became the racists and the Democrats became the champions of civil
rights.
o
Fabricated
by left-leaning academic elites and journalists, the story went like this:
Republicans couldn't win a national election by appealing to the better nature
of the country; they could only win by appealing to the worst. Attributed to
Richard Nixon, the media's all-purpose bad guy, this came to be known as
"The Southern Strategy."
o
It
was very simple. Win elections by winning the South. And to win the South,
appeal to racists. So, the Republicans, the party of Lincoln, were to now be
labeled the party of rednecks.
o
But
this story of the two parties switching identities is a myth. In fact, it's
three myths wrapped into one false narrative.
o
Let's
take a brief look at each myth in turn.
o
Myth
Number One: In order to be competitive in the South, Republicans started to
pander to white racists in the 1960s.
o
Fact:
Republicans actually became competitive in the South as early as 1928, when
Republican Herbert Hoover won over 47 percent of the South's popular vote
against Democrat Al Smith. In 1952, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower won
the southern states of Tennessee, Florida and Virginia. And in 1956, he picked
up Louisiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, too. And that was after he supported
the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated
public schools; and after he sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock Central
High School to enforce integration.
o
Myth
Number Two: Southern Democrats, angry with the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
switched parties.
o
Fact:
Of the 21 Democratic senators who opposed the Civil Rights Act, just one became
a Republican. The other 20 continued to be elected as Democrats, or were
replaced by other Democrats. On average, those 20 seats didn't go Republican
for another two-and-a-half decades.
o
Myth
Number Three: Since the implementation of the Southern Strategy, the
Republicans have dominated the South.
o
Fact:
Richard Nixon, the man who is often credited with creating the Southern
Strategy, lost the Deep South in 1968. George Wallace, as a renegade Democrat,
ran on his own American Independent Party and won the electoral votes in five
“Deep South” states. In contrast, Democrat Jimmy Carter nearly swept the region
in 1976 - 12 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And in 1992, over 28
years later, Democrat Bill Clinton won Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee,
Kentucky and West Virginia. The truth is, Republicans didn't hold a majority of
southern congressional seats until 1994, 30 years after the Civil Rights Act.
o
As
Kevin Williamson of the National Review writes: "If southern rednecks
ditched the Democrats because of a civil-rights law passed in 1964, it is
strange that they waited until the late 1980s and early 1990s to do so. They
say things move slower in the south -- but not that slow."
o
So,
what really happened? Why does the South now vote overwhelmingly Republican?
Because the South itself has changed. Its values have changed. The racism that
once defined it, doesn't anymore. Its values today are conservative ones:
pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-small government.
o
And
here's the proof: Southern whites are far more likely to vote for a black
conservative, like Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, than a white liberal.
o
In
short, history has moved on. Like other regions of the country, the South votes
values, not skin color. The myth of the Southern Strategy is just the
Democrats’ excuse for losing the South, and yet another way to smear
Republicans with the label "racist.”
o
Don't
buy it. Adapted from Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at
Vanderbilt University, for Prager University.
o
The
President had initially expected his Democratic opponent to be Massachusetts Senator
Ted Kennedy (brother of the late, assassinated president), but he was largely
removed from contention after the 1969 Chappaquiddick death.
§ The Chappaquiddick death was
a single-vehicle car accident that occurred on Chappaquiddick Island in
Massachusetts on Friday, July 18, 1969. After a late night private party the accident
was caused by Democratic Senator Ted “Lion of the Senate” Kennedy’s negligence.
The decisions of the thirty-seven year old Senator resulted in the death of his
28-year-old passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, who he left trapped under water inside
the vehicle.
§ According to Kennedy's testimony, he accidentally drove his car off the
one-lane bridge and into the tide-swept Poucha Pond. He swam free, left the
scene, and did not report the accident to the police for ten hours; Kopechne
died inside the fully submerged car. The car with Kopechne's body inside was
recovered by a diver the next day, minutes before Kennedy reported the accident
to the police. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an
accident, causing personal injury, and later received only a two-month
suspended jail sentence.
§ The Chappaquiddick death became national news that likely influenced
Kennedy's decision not to campaign for President in 1972 and thereafter.
§ At the time the death was largely eclipsed by the successful Apollo moon landing
occurring at the same time.
·
South
Dakota Senator George McGovern secured the Democratic nomination; the
Vice-Presidential nominee was Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy in-law. McGovern
intended to sharply reduce defense spending and supported amnesty for draft
evaders as well as abortion rights. While some of his supporters believed to be
in favor of drug legalization, McGovern was then perceived as standing for
"amnesty, abortion, and acid". Marijuana was totally illicit at the
time but McGovern wanted to decriminalize although not legalize the substance.
Likewise, the platform promised a national health system, unheard of at the time
and it was focused on catastrophic coverage; McGovern proposed an affordable
health care system. Energy policy should focus, the campaign said, on “long
term abundant supplies of clean energy at reasonable cost.” There was a call
for a vastly higher minimum wage and almost exactly equivalent to $15 of later
decades, adjusted for inflation, and a promise to provide a guaranteed
government job for everyone. The platform did endorse progressive taxes and
declared that more income should be subject to Social Security taxes, which is
a move that would have impacted higher earners.
·
The manifesto of a radical leftist from the early 1970s
shows that modern Democratic candidates have moved far to the left which is now
mainstream Democratic Party policy.
·
The radical leftist 1972 Democratic Party Platform was issued
on July 10, 1972 and entitled New Directions: 1972-76. What is the proposal for
the Vietnam War? (“We believe that war is
a waste of human life. We are determined to end forthwith a war which has cost
50,000 American lives, $150 billion of our resources, that has divided us from
each other, drained our national will and inflicted incalculable damage to
countless people. We will end that war by a simple plan that need not be kept
secret: The immediate total withdrawal of all Americans from Southeast Asia.”)
·
How does McGovern intend to end unemployment? (“Full employment—a guaranteed job for all—is the
primary economic objective of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is
committed to a job for every American who seeks work. Only through full
employment can we reduce the burden on working people. We are determined to
make economic security a matter of right. This means a job with decent pay and
good working conditions for everyone willing and able to work and an adequate
income for those unable to work. It means abolition of the present welfare
system.”)
·
How will taxes be reformed? (“Tax
reform directed toward equitable distribution of income and wealth and fair
sharing of the cost of government.”)
·
Will education be closed to anyone? (No, there will be no restrictions and everyone will be educated. “Vastly increased efforts to open education at all
levels and in all fields to minorities, women and other under-represented
groups.”)
·
Will there be high standards to qualify for entry-level
jobs? (No. “Opposition to arbitrarily high standards for entry to
jobs; Overhaul of current manpower programs to assure training-without sex,
race or language discrimination for jobs that really exist with continuous
skill improvement and the chance for advancement.”)
·
How will banking be rewarded? (“Use of federal
depository funds to reward banks and other financial institutions which invest
in socially productive endeavors.”)
·
How will industrial decisions be made? (“Assurance
that the needs of society are considered when a decision to close or move an
industrial plant is to be made and that income loss to workers and revenue loss
to communities does not occur when plants are closed.”)
·
Does the platform advocate a laissez-faire economy or
significant intervention? (The proposal
included extensive government control over the economy. “Toward Economic Justice The Democratic Party deplores
the increasing concentration of economic power in fewer and fewer hands. . . . To
this end, the federal government should: Develop programs . . . Help make parts
of the economy more efficient . . . . Step up anti-trust action . . . . Strengthen
the anti-trust laws . . . . Abolish the oil import quota . . . . Deconcentrate
shared monopolies . . . . Assure the right of the citizen to recover costs and
attorneys fees . . . . Adjust rate-making and regulatory activities . . . . Remove
artificial constraints in the job market . . . . Stiffen the civil and criminal
statutes . . . and Establish a temporary national economic commission . . . .”)
·
What was the plan for health care inspired by Senator
Kennedy? (“We therefore urge the Democratic
Party to adopt the principle that America has a responsibility to offer every
American family the best in health care, whenever they need it, regardless of
income or any other factor. We must devise a system which will assure that . .
. every American receives comprehensive health services from the day he is born
to the day he dies, with an emphasis on preventive care to keep him
healthy.-Joint Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Representative Wilbur
Mills, St. Louis Hearing, June 17, 1972.”)
·
How does the platform elaborate on comprehensive health
care for all Americans? (“We endorse the principle that good health is a right
of all Americans. America has a responsibility to offer to every American
family the best in health care whenever they need it, regardless of income or
where they live or any other factor. To achieve this goal the next Democratic
Administration should: Establish a system of universal National Health
Insurance which covers all Americans with a comprehensive set of benefits including
preventive medicine, mental and emotional disorders, and complete protection
against catastrophic costs, and in which the rule of free choice for both
provider and consumer is protected. The program should be federally-financed
and federally-administered. Every American must know he can afford the cost of
health care whether given in a hospital or a doctor's office.”)
·
Is it justice, social justice, and/or identity politics
that the leftist agenda advocates? (It is
social justice or identity politics. “Rights,
Power and Social Justice It is time now to rethink and reorder the institutions
of this country so that everyone—women, blacks, Spanish-speaking, Puerto
Ricans, Indians, the young and the old—can participate in the decision-making
process inherent in the democratic heritage to which we aspire. We must
restructure the social, political and economic relationships throughout the
entire society in order to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth and
power. . . . The Right to Be Different The new Democratic Administration can
help lead America to celebrate the magnificence of the diversity within its
population, the racial, national, linguistic and religious groups which have
contributed so much to the vitality and richness of our national life. As things
are, official policy too often forces people into a mold of artificial
homogeneity. Recognition and support of the cultural identity and pride of
black people are generations overdue. The American Indians, the
Spanish-speaking, the Asian Americans—the cultural and linguistic heritage of
these groups is too often ignored in schools and communities. . . . We urge
full funding of the Ethnic Studies bill to provide funds for development of
curriculum to preserve America's ethnic mosaic.”)
·
Should some guns be banned? (Yes. “There must be laws
to control the improper use of hand guns. Four years ago a candidate for the
presidency was slain by a handgun. Two months ago, another candidate for that
office was gravely wounded. Three out of four police officers killed in the
line of duty are slain with hand guns. Effective legislation must include a ban
on sale of hand guns known as Saturday night specials which are unsuitable for
sporting purposes.”)
·
Nixon
was ahead in most polls for the entire election cycle, and was reelected on
November 7, 1972 in one of the largest landslide election victories in American
history. He defeated McGovern and won the popular vote by a margin of 60.7
percent to 37.5 percent, losing only in Massachusetts and the District of
Columbia.
·
Nationally,
the election of 1972 is remembered for Richard Nixon’s decisive victory over
the Democratic nominee, George McGovern. Nixon had been elected president in
1968 on a “law and order” campaign, winning the support of moderate voters who
were growing wary of the pace of change, the increasing radicalism of
activists, and the images of hippies and protesters on their television
screens.
·
What
Nixon called his “silent majority” in 1969 propelled him to victory in 1972,
and his supporters continued to support him even as support for the war in
Vietnam diminished. McGovern’s grassroots activists who had led his primary
campaign couldn’t engineer a victory in the November election. Despite Nixon’s
landslide, both houses Congress remained firmly in the hands of Democratic
majorities, and yet at the national level Nixon appeared firmly in control.
o Watergate decisively changed Nixon’s
political situation.
o
The
term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often
illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those
activities included “dirty tricks,” or bugging the offices of political
opponents and the harassment of activist groups and political figures. The
activities were brought to light after five men were caught breaking into
Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. on
June 17, 1972. The Washington Post picked
up on the story; reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward relied on an
informant known as “Deep Threat”—later revealed to be Mark Felt, associate
director at the FBI—to link the men to the Nixon administration. Nixon
downplayed the scandal as mere politics, calling news articles biased and misleading.
A series of revelations made it clear that the Committee to Re-elect President
Nixon, and later the White House, was involved in attempts to sabotage the
Democrats. Senior aides such as White House Counsel John Dean faced prosecution:
in total 48 officials were convicted of wrongdoing.
o
Initially,
five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices
at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. One of the burglars worked directly
for Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Journalists discovered
that orders for the break-in had been issued from high up in the Nixon White
House.
o
The
Senate convened hearings, which were televised nationally. It seemed to many
Americans that Nixon had possibly ordered a break-in of his opponent’s
Washington offices. If proven, this would be a tremendous breach of public
trust and a dangerous attempt to use the power of the federal government to
illegally stifle his political opposition. It was a repugnant threat to the
nature of a Republic.
o
In
July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified under oath to
Congress that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded his conversations
and phone calls in the Oval Office. These tapes were subpoenaed by Watergate
Special Counsel Archibald Cox; Nixon provided transcripts of the conversations
but not the actual tapes, citing executive privilege.
o
With
the White House and Cox at loggerheads, Nixon had Cox fired in October in the “Saturday
Night Massacre,” Cox was replaced by Leon Jaworski.
o
In
November, Nixon's lawyers revealed that an audio tape of conversations, held in
the White House on June 20, 1972, featured an 18½ minute gap.
o
Rose
Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, claimed responsibility for the
gap, alleging that she had accidentally wiped the section while transcribing
the tape, though her tale was widely mocked. The gap, while not conclusive
proof of wrongdoing by the President, cast doubt on Nixon's statement that he
had been unaware of the cover-up.
o
Though
Nixon lost much popular support, even from his own party, he rejected
accusations of wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office. He insisted that he had
made mistakes, but had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any
laws, and did not learn of the cover-up until early 1973.
o
On
October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned —unrelated to Watergate— and
was convicted on charges of bribery, tax evasion and money laundering during
his tenure as Governor of Maryland. Nixon chose Gerald Ford, Minority Leader of
the House of Representatives, to replace Agnew.
o Nixon credibility
and administration was under severe attack. Then, during the midst of the Watergate scandal
that eventually ended his presidency, President Richard Nixon tells a group of
newspaper editors gathered at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida,
about his personal finances.
o The scandal had grown
to involve a slew of additional allegations against the President, ranging from
the improper use of government agencies to accepting gifts in office and his
personal finances and taxes; Nixon repeatedly stated his willingness to pay any
outstanding taxes due, and paid $465,000 in back taxes in 1974. Even with
support diminished by the continuing series of revelations, Nixon hoped to
fight the charges.
o Nixon made a now-famous declaration
during a televised question-and-answer session with Associated Press editors.
Nixon, who appeared “tense” to a New York Times reporter, was questioned
about his role in the Watergate burglary scandal and efforts to cover up the
fact that members of his re-election committee had funded the break-in. He
denied the accusation but he did, however, admit that he was at fault for
failing to supervise his campaign’s fund-raising activities.
o At one point during the discussion,
Nixon gave a morbid response to an unrelated question about why he chose not to
fly with back-up to Air Force One when traveling, the usual security
protocol for presidential flights. He told the crowd that by taking just one
aircraft he was saving energy, money and possibly time spent in the impeachment
process: “if this one [plane] goes down,” he said, “they don’t have to impeach
[me].”
o
Nixon was trying to be funny, but in fact the scandal was
taking a toll on his physical and mental health. In Carl Bernstein and Bob
Woodward’s book All the President’s Men, Nixon is described at this time
as being “a prisoner in his own house—secretive, distrustful… combative,
sleepless.” Nixon’s protestations of innocence with regard to the Watergate
cover-up were eventually eroded by a relentless federal investigation.
o Read Source #11. What does he say when asked about his personal finances?
Is he a crook? (“Let me just say this,
and I want to say this to the television audience: I made my mistakes, but in
all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from
public service--I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public
life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that
in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because
people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am
not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.”)
o
The
legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April 1974
Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations
between him and his aides. The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings
against the President on May 9, 1974, which were televised on the major TV
networks. These hearings culminated in votes for impeachment.
o On February 6, 1974, The Committee on the Judiciary of the House
of Representatives was authorized by Resolution 803 of the House “to
investigate fully and completely whether sufficient grounds exist for the House
of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach Richard M.
Nixon, President of the United States of America.”
o The motion was
carried by 410-4 and instructed the Committee to “report to the House of
Representatives such resolutions, articles of impeachment, or other
recommendations as it deems proper.”
recommendations as it deems proper.”
o On May 9, 1974,
under the chairmanship of Peter Rodino, the Committee began public hearings to
review the results of the Impeachment Inquiry staff’s investigation.
o
The
Committee voted to impeach him on three counts on July 30.
o
The
impeachment was the result of the scandal involving the bungled burglary of the
offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate apartment complex
in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 1972. Eventually, it was learned that there
was a criminal cover-up that went all the way to the White House.
o
On
July 24, 1974 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the full tapes, not just
selected transcripts, must be released.
o Read Source #12. However,
one of the new tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon
had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon
after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation. In a
statement accompanying the release of what became known as The “Smoking Gun
Tape” on August 5, 1974, Nixon accepted blame for misleading the country about
when he had been told of White House involvement, stating that he had a lapse
of memory.
o
The transcript and recording of a meeting between
President Nixon and his Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, took place in the Oval
Office on June 23, 1972 from 10.04am to 11.39am. The recording led directly to
Nixon’s resignation.
o
President Nixon released the tape on August 5. It was one
of three conversations he had with Haldeman six days after the Watergate
break-in. The tapes prove that he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate burglary.
The Smoking Gun tape reveals that Nixon ordered the FBI to abandon its
investigation of the break-in.
o
After the release of the tape, the eleven Republicans on
the Judiciary Committee who voted against impeachment charges said they would
change their votes. It was clear that Nixon would be impeached and convicted in
the Senate. Nixon announced his resignation on August 8.
o
What does Haldeman say that indicates Nixon knew about
the break in, payoffs to the operatives, or “plumbers,” and how Nixon ordered a
White House stop to further investigation? (“Haldeman:
Okay -that’s fine. Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in
thing, we’re back to the-in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under
control, because Gray doesn’t exactly know how to control them, and they have,
their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they’ve
been able to trace the money, not through the money itself, but through the
bank, you know, sources – the banker himself. And, and it goes in some
directions we don’t want it to go. Ah, also there have been some things, like
an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer
or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this
guy, Barker, and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letter
head documents and things. So I guess, so it’s things like that that are gonna,
that are filtering in. Mitchell came up with yesterday, and John Dean analyzed
very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with Mitchell’s
recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we’re set up beautifully to
do it, ah, in that and that…the only network that paid any attention to it last
night was NBC…they did a massive story on the Cuban…
o
Nixon: That’s right. . . .
o
Haldeman: Ah, he’ll call him in and say, “We’ve got the
signal from across the river to, to put the hold on this.” And that will fit
rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point,
feel that’s what it is. This is CIA.
o
Nixon: But they’ve traced the money to ’em.
o
Haldeman: Well they have, they’ve traced to a name, but
they haven’t gotten to the guy yet.
o
Nixon: Would it be somebody here?
o
Haldeman: Ken Dahlberg.
o
Nixon: Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?
o
Haldeman: He’s ah, he gave $25,000 in Minnesota and ah,
the check went directly in to this, to this guy Barker.
o
Nixon: Maybe he’s a …bum.
o
Nixon: He didn’t get this from the committee though,
from Stans.
o
Haldeman: Yeah. It is. It is. It’s directly traceable
and there’s some more through some Texas people in–that went to the Mexican
bank which they can also trace to the Mexican bank…they’ll get their names
today. And (pause) . . . .
o
Haldeman: And, and they seem to feel the thing to do is
get them to stop?
o
Nixon: Right, fine.
o
Haldeman: They say the only way to do that is from
White House instructions. And it’s got to be to Helms and, ah, what’s his
name…? Walters.
o
Nixon: Walters.
o
Haldeman: And the proposal would be that Ehrlichman
(coughs) and I call them in
o
Nixon: All right, fine.”)
o
What does Nixon add about how he is going to respond and
deflect criticism? (He states he will play hard ball and he will distract
inquiry by referring to the controversial Bay of Pigs fiasco during the
administration of John F. Kennedy. “Nixon:
Good. Good deal! Play it tough. That’s the way they play it and that’s
the way we are going to play it. . . .
o
Nixon: When you
get in these people when you…get these people in, say: “Look, the problem is
that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President
just feels that” ah, without going into the details… don’t, don’t lie to them
to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a
comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, “the President believes
that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because
these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in
and say that we wish for the country, don’t go any further into this case”,
period!”)
o On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The US government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.
o
He
met with Republican congressional leaders soon after, and was told he faced
certain impeachment in the House and had, at most, only 15 votes in his favor
in the Senate— far fewer than the 34 he needed to avoid removal from office.
o
Read
Source #13. In light of his loss of political support and the near-certainty of
impeachment, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974,
after addressing the nation on television the previous evening.
o
The
resignation speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on
radio and television.
o
Why
did Nixon state he was resigning? (Nixon
stated that he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation
to support the new president, Gerald Ford.)
o
What
did he review during the resignation speech? (Nixon went on to review the accomplishments of his presidency,
especially in foreign policy. He defended his record as president.)
o
Which
president did he quote? (Theodore
Roosevelt’s 1910 speech Citizenship in a Republic.)
o
What
had Nixon not done? (Nixon had not
admitted wrongdoing.)
o What was his
sacred commitment? (“When I first took the oath of office as President 51/2
years ago, I made this sacred commitment, to `consecrate my office, my
energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among
nations.’")
o After serving in the office of president what does he
leave with? (“To have served in this
office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every
American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you
in all the days ahead.”)
o
The speech was termed "a masterpiece" by Conrad
Black, one of his biographers. Black opined that "What was intended to be
an unprecedented humiliation for any American president, Nixon converted into a
virtual parliamentary acknowledgement of almost blameless insufficiency of
legislative support to continue. He left while devoting half his address to a
recitation of his accomplishments in office."
o
His
resignation had a major impact on the situation in Vietnam. Nixon had convinced
South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to consent to the provisions of the
Paris Peace Accords by personally promising (on more than 30 occasions) that
the United States would re-enter the conflict if the North Vietnamese violated
the peace agreement.
o
However,
when Nixon resigned, his successor, Gerald R. Ford, was not able to keep
Nixon’s promises. Ford could not, despite Thieu’s desperate pleas for help, get
Congressional bi-partisan support from Democrats to appropriate significant
funds to help the South Vietnamese. Having lost its sole source of aid and
support, South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese in April 1975.
·
The
Watergate affair and Nixon’s impeachment led to the only resignation of an
American president.
o
What is
impeachment? Impeachment is the first of several steps required to remove a
government official from office.
o
Is it a
common step? The impeachment process has been used infrequently in the United
States—at either the federal or state level—and even less so in Britain, where
the legal concept was first created and used. Nonetheless, impeaching a sitting
president or government official is hardly new, and has happened several times
in U.S. history.
o
What
does Article 2 Section 4 of the Constitution state? (“The President,
Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed
from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other
high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”)
o
After
much debate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the
attendees—among them George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin—approved
the concept behind the impeachment of government officials.
o Why were some Framers of the
Constitution opposed to the clause? (Some
framers of the Constitution were opposed to the impeachment clause, because
having the legislative branch sit in judgement over the executive might
compromise the separation of powers they sought to establish between the three branches of government: executive,
legislative and judicial.)
o
What did Elbridge Gerry argue? (Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who would later serve in the House of Representatives and as Vice President under James Madison, noted, “A good magistrate will not fear
[impeachments]. A bad one ought to be kept in fear of them.”)
o
What is the impeachment
process? (The impeachment process
involving the President of the United States, or any elected official at the
federal level, requires both houses of Congress, each serving different
functions.)
o Does impeachment remove an official?
(It’s important to note that impeachment
doesn’t refer to the removal of an elected official from office, but rather the
initial step in removing that official.)
o
What is
the two-step process through Congress? (The process includes
the filing of formal charges, which at the federal level is performed by the
U.S. House of Representatives, and the resulting trial, which is conducted by
the U.S. Senate.)
o
How can
impeachment begin in the House? (In the
House of Representatives, an individual representative can initiate impeachment
by introducing a bill, or the House can begin proceedings by passing a
resolution. A simple majority of votes is enough to pass one or more articles
of impeachment on to the Senate for trial.)
o What else happens in presidential impeachment trials? (The Senate then acts as courtroom, jury and judge,
except in presidential impeachment trials, during which the chief justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court acts as judge.)
o
What is
required to convict? (A two-thirds
majority of the Senate is required to convict).
o
What is
the usual penalty? (The penalty is
usually removal from office, and sometimes disqualification from holding any
future offices.)
o
How
many impeached presidents have there been and has the result been the same? (Eight U.S. presidents have faced
impeachment, but with very different results.)
o Why was he impeached and what happened? (On January 10, 1843, Representative John M. Botts of Virginia proposed a resolution that would call for the
formation of a committee to investigate charges of misconduct against Tyler for
the purposes of possible impeachment. Botts took issue with Tyler’s handling of
the U.S. Treasury and what he described as the president’s
“arbitrary, despotic, and corrupt abuse of veto power.” After a short debate,
however, the House of Representatives voted down Botts’ resolution.)
o Who was the second president and was the result similar? (Andrew Johnson wasn’t so lucky. Johnson, who rose from vice
president to president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was impeached in March, 1868, over his
decision to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
o What did Congress argue? (Congress argued that
Stanton’s termination violated the Tenure of Office Act, which had been voted into law the year
before and prohibited the president from removing officials confirmed by the
Senate without the legislative body’s approval.)
o
What
happened in this case? (On May 26, 1868,
the impeachment trial in the Senate ended with Johnson’s opponents failing to
get sufficient votes to remove him from office, and he finished the rest of his
term.)
o
After
Johnson, who else faced impeachment threats? (After Johnson, several
U.S. presidents faced threats of impeachment, including Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.)
o
What
happened in these cases? (All of these
former commanders-in-chief had articles of impeachment filed against them in
the House of Representatives; however, none of them were actually impeached,
meaning those articles of impeachment failed to garner the necessary votes to
move them to the Senate for a hearing.)
o President Richard M. Nixon faced impeachment over his involvement in the
Watergate
scandal and its fallout. In fact, the House of Representatives
approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, making him the second
U.S. president (after Johnson) to face a potential hearing before the Senate. However,
Nixon resigned in 1974 before Congress could begin the
proceedings.
o
Was
Bill Clinton impeached? (President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 over allegations of perjury
and obstruction of justice stemming from a lawsuit filed against him relating
to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.)
o
Was he
acquitted? (Yes, although the House of
Representatives overwhelmingly approved two articles of impeachment against
President Clinton, he was ultimately acquitted by the Senate the next year and
finished his second four-year term in office in 2000.)
o
As
these cases indicate, impeachment is considered a power to be used only in
extreme cases, and as such, it has been used relatively infrequently.
o
In all,
the House of Representatives has impeached only 19 federal officials, and the
Senate has conducted formal impeachment trials with seven acquittals, eight
convictions, three dismissals and one resignation (Nixon’s) with no further
action.
o
It’s
also important to note that the power of Congress to impeach is not limited to
the president or vice president. Indeed, throughout history, senators and
federal judges have also been impeached.
o
·
Trace SDS, Panthers, Weatherman, to Obama graduation from
the 12th grade, in 1979
Follow-up/Assessment Questions:
·
Who
determined the U.S. Post-War policy during the Cold War?
·
What
were the major statements of U.S. Post-War policy?
·
What
did the major statements state?
·
How
did the Soviets react?
·
What
crises emerged in the Post-War period?
Prompt Question for Next Lesson:
·
In
the early 1960s, what social movements emerged to significantly change American
society?
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