● Period 8 marks a period of heavy American involvement in global affairs, especially in regards to Communism. It also marks a period of heavy participation in American politics by the young generation of Americans who protested against racism, poverty, and inequality.
● Government Activism in Global Affairs: Cold War, checking the spread of Communism, involvement in the Vietnam War and the Korean War, Third World affairs, Cuban Missile Crisis
● Social Divide in the Public: Conservatives, Progressives, segregationists
● Participation in Politics: New Left, protests against Cold War involvement
● Cultural Movements: Civil Rights Movement, Feminism, Native American voting, the Counterculture, KKK
○ Began at the end of WWII when the differences in American and Soviet ideologies became clearer
○ Soviet Takeover: WWII had left many small nations within Europe utterly destroyed. Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia had pro-Communism groups take over their regions. Regions previously backed up by European national power (England, Great Britain) no longer had protection and were vulnerable to Communist takeover.
○ Truman Doctrine: an attempt to contain Soviet expansion into Europe.
■ Stated that the US would help nations who were trying to resist subjugation by other outside groups
■ Avoided fighting, and instead stated that the US would defend rather than attack
○ The Marshall Plan: US loans money toward European nations to help them rebuild and gain enough strength to resist Communist takeover
○ North Atlantic Treaty Organization: alliance between America, Canada, and a number of European nations
■ Unique in that it is the first of its kind; America was always warned against permanent alliances by George Washington
○ The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Wall (two different things!)
■ Two events that note rising tensions between America’s democratic views and the Soviet’s communist ideologies.
■ Problems that occurred in Germany
○ Asia
■ Communists take over China and exile the democratic government to
Taiwan.
■ US took possession of Japan and the southern half of Korea
■ Soviets took the northern half of Korea
■ Truman aided the French against the Vietnamese war for independence
○ With the Cold War, the Red Scare gained more prominence in America who started to fear the presence of Russian spies. McCarthy rode the wave of fear, claiming he had a list of Communists working for the government. He destroyed the careers of multiple innocent people by falsely accusing federal officials.
○ Unemployment and Inflation: with the end of the war, factories started laying off workers and unemployed veterans also came back looking for work. Unfortunately, Congress was conservative at the time, and Truman was unable to pass any federal proposals that would help those struggling.
○ Unions: after a strike occurred in the coal industry, Truman seized the mines and forced the strikers to go back to work, leading to his unpopularity.
○ President’s Committee on Civil Rights: started to promote desegregation and anti-lynching laws. Fortunately, this helped advanced black civil rights, but also led to Truman’s unpopularity within his own Democratic party.
○ The Republican-Controlled Congress: against Truman, they made proposals that tried to cancel Truman’s promotion of civil rights, made unions less powerful, and decreased aid to farmers, schools and elderly. This led the conservative Republican party to lose their popularity, and also led to Truman’s reelection.
○ Soviet-backed North Korea invades US-backed South Korea, and Truman supports the South’s invasion to try and reunify Korea. However, the Communist Chinese step in and bring the divide back to where it was originally.
● Federal Spending: Eisenhower inherited the responsibilities of the Cold War. Though he tried many times to balance the federal budget to help the Americans in the post-war sphere, military spending was made the top priority to keep afloat the troops for the Cold War.
● Interstate Highway System: built to help quickly transport troops, but also ended up promoting tourism
● Native Americans: Eisenhower tried to terminate the land reservations and cut off federal support to Native Americans in order to have them subject to state law. Native Americans protested and eventually prevented Eisenhower’s plan, but the plan already put a number of tribes in poverty.
○ Eisenhower was a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, and his two terms of presidency experienced many advancements for blacks
○ Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka: Supreme Court case that overturned the separate but equal case from Period 6
○ Montgomery Bus Boycott: peaceful protest against the Jim Crow law of buses in Montgomery that won the desegregation of buses
○ Greensboro, North Carolina Sit-In: inspiration for a nation-wide sit-in movement that protested against segregation in diner seating.
○ Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960
○ Eisenhower followed a method of deterrence, in which the threat of mass destruction prevented both the Soviets and the Americans from attacking first. The two powers continued in their creation of stronger bombs and nuclear technology.
○ With the Soviet’s launch of Sputnik into space, America quickly created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
○ Eisenhower defended the two Taiwanese islands (Nationalists) against the bombing caused by Communist China, hinting at a threat of mass destruction.
○ With many European powers left weak, their African counterparts liberated themselves from European control and became independent nations that were unwilling to ally themselves with the US or the Soviets (hence, their name “the Third World”).
○ America tried creating alliances, but their history of slave trade and expansionism led potential allies to be suspicious. America eventually used CIA operations to affect politics and business in these countries.
○ Warned that the implied alliance between America’s military might and America’s profiting businesses (that profit off of the Cold War) may later create a powerful relationship that would go against the public’s opinion.
○ When Communists overthrow the US-friendly Nationalist government of Cuba, dictator Fidel Castro takes over Cuba and allies itself with the Soviets. The UStries to overthrow Castro with the BOP investigation, but it fails and antagonizes the Soviets.
○ Cuban Missile Crisis: spy planes detect Soviet missiles being built in Cuba, inflaming tensions between the nations. Publicly negotiating, the Soviets agree to remove the missiles with the promise that the US would never invade Cuba again.
■ Behind the scenes discussions added a second condition that the US would remove their missiles from Turkey.
○ American group that helped Third World countries with infrastructure, agriculture, and health
○ Meant to promote American-like progress in these nations
○ Supported the Equal Pay Act that gave men and women equal pay in equal jobs
■ Helped promote women’s rights and worked to allow female participation in all social aspects.
○ Civil Rights
■ Worked for the desegregation of the University of Mississippi
■ Worked for legislation that would remove segregation in all aspects
● Lyndon Johnson later pushes this legislation through during his term
○ Martin Luther King
■ Created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and continued to set up boycotts, sit-ins, and other peaceful protests
■ The police brutality against these peaceful protests was aired on TV, spurring the movement among Americans
● Civil Rights Act of 1964: Johnson quickly made commitment to push this legislation through, which banned discrimination on the basis of skin color, gender, or religious practice.
○ Voting Rights Act of 1965: enforced the 15th Amendment in states that barred blacks from voting
○ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: enforced the removal of discrimination in employment
○ Johnson also worked to ban discrimination in housing, as well as give voting rights to Native Americans
○ Economic Opportunity Act: set aside federal funds for poverty relief
○ Job Corps: trained individuals so that they could be employed in better jobs
○ Department of Housing and Urban Development: helped those with low income that rented apartments
○ “Great Society”: the term for Johnson’s cumulative sweeping changes across government and society
○ His plans were successful and did not hurt taxpayers due to the already expanding economy that supported his plans.
○ Johnson’s success however was met with critics who opposed the expanding government and the racists that did not approve of the successes of the Civil Rights movement
○ Chief Justice Earl Warren: in addition to Johnson’s successes in civil rights, the Warren Supreme Court also helped expand the agenda by prohibiting prayer in public schools and ensuring representation in congressional districts.
■ Also promoted the guarantee of a lawyer to anyone convicted of a felony, as well as the statement of Miranda rights during arrests.
○ The Movement’s Opposition:
■ KKK: burned down black churches and homes
■ Police: prevented blacks from voting and treated protesters with brutality
○ Malcolm X: another civil rights activists that urged blacks to claim their already existing rights, rather than waiting for their rights to be peacefully given to them
○ The movement became very fragmented after King’s assasination, with some groups advocating for peaceful change while others wanted more abrupt changes.
● The New Left: groups of progressive individuals on college campuses who aimed to end poverty, racism, and American involvement in the Cold War.
○ Also started the Free Speech Movement when they were shut down by their campuses
● National Organization of Women: when New Left groups excluded women, women started their own feminist movements
○ Fought for abortion rights in the Supreme Court
● Stonewall Riots: beginnings of the gay-rights movement
● Counterculture: the growth of “hippies” who went against customs and standard culture by growing their hair long and wearing counter-fashion
● All of these groups opposed American involvement in the Cold War
○ After helping defeat the Japanese in WWII, Vietnam expected to be liberated from European power and drafted its declaration of independence. However, its former French colonizers were trying to regain control, and America denied Ho Chi Minh (leader of Communist Vietnam) help and instead went against their ideologies to help their French allies. France gains control of Nationalist South Vietnam while Ho controls Northern Communist Vietnam. The US assassinates the South’s leader and replaces him with Ngo Dinh Diem, but Diem later proves to be vicious and dictator-like. Afraid of being hypocritical, the US continues their support of South Vietnam. Later the US assassinates Diem and his brother, and President Johnson takes over.
○ Johnson increased the number of American troops in Vietnam and continued to believe with his advisors that the war could be won. Taking over South Vietnam’s position in the war, the drafts of Americans got longer and more numerous, causing public outrage.
○ As news of the torture that American soldiers put the Vietnamese through spread, public opinion became more enraged and protested the war. In 1968, Johnson announced that he would begin peace discussions with North Vietnam.
● With all the protesting inside the US and the fighting going on outside the US, a Conservative tendency rose up in people who sought to return to peaceful American life.
○ These Americans who did not fully support the changes in America, as well as globally, helped Nixon win the election.
○ Nixon promised to end involvement by handing over the war to the Southern Vietnamese, but continued to bomb Cambodia in hopes of winning the war and rooting out Vietcong armament sources. The war continued until 1973, when America’s Secretary of State negotiated a treaty with Northern Vietnam.
■ Northern Vietnam eventually gained control of the South
○ Nixon negotiated trade agreements with Communist China, which he then used as leverage to increase trade with the Soviet Union (who hated China).
○ Détente: Nixon’s peaceful approach in which the Soviet Union and the US would cooperate with each other and respect each other’s differences
■ Helped relax tensions
○ Nixon Doctrine: US would reduce troops overseas and check the spread of communism through alliances rather than military might.
○ Continued worsening in the American economy
○ American society divided amongst Progressives who wanted to go against racism and poverty, and America’s Conservatives who preferred a peaceful nation
○ Pentagon Papers: revealed all government dealings with the Vietnam War, including all the disgraceful involvements and lies told to the public
○ In an effort to prevent future revelations of top-secret government information, Nixon mobilized a team of investigators called the “plumbers”, who disgracefully broke into Democratic Party headquarters for information. These plumbers were arrested as the White House tried to cover-up this scandal.
○ As Nixon’s closest advisors were charged, it was revealed that Nixon had tapes of every conservation in the White House. He was told by the Supreme Court to hand them over, and to escape any impeachment hearings, he formally resigned.
● Replaced the Vice President of Nixon, and took over when Nixon and Spiro Agnew resigned
○ Instantly granted Nixon a presidential pardon to prevent any trials against him
● Troubled with the controversial pardon, severe economic problems, raising gas prices due to the embargo arranged by Arab oil nations, and unemployment, he lost the election in 1976.
● Took over the weakening economy but failed to balance the federal budget to do anything major to help.
● Nuclear Energy: due to the rising costs of petroleum, Carter increased funds for nuclear energy research.
○ Helped issue a peace agreement between two nations: Egypt and Israel
○ Created an arms agreement with the Soviet Union
○ American hostages taken by Iran (solved next period)
***Note: Understand how Period 8 is riddled with foreign policy and global issues. America’s involvement in global affairs also led to changes at home in terms of racial and gender inequity. Poverty and unemployment was also a big problem that many presidents had a hard time solving. Overall, most of the social and economical aspects have connections to major political issues.