Nixon and the 1970s: The Era of Cynicism Emerges

Transcription

1 Nixon and the 1970s: The Era of Cynicism Emerges I. Vietnam A. Describe Nixon s exit strategy for the U.S. in Vietnam. Include Vietnamization and peace with honor. (1969) - In the election of 1968, the Vietnam War was not as crucial an issue as was expected. However, both the Republican and Democratic platforms promised that the war would not end unless an honorable peace was reached with the enemy. This roughly translated to an American victory. When Nixon won the election and became president, his first order of foreign policy business was to quiet the Vietnam dissenters with his exit strategy. He called for a new policy of Vietnamization that would gradually remove over half a million U.S. troops from South Vietnam. This would allow the South Vietnamese to slowly gain control and fight their own war. American money, weapons, and training would help to fund and aid the South Vietnamese as well. Nixon s exit strategy spurned the Nixon Doctrine. B. Nixon Doctrine (1969) - The Nixon Doctrine emerged due to the need to calm the tumult over Vietnam and Nixon s plans to withdraw American troops from South Vietnam. The Doctrine declared that the US would carry out all current commitments to helping the South Vietnamese. However, it also stated that Vietnam and other foreign countries would not receive great numbers of American troops in future wars. This Doctrine significantly changed Roosevelt s promise to bear any burden and Nixon said that the US couldn t possibly help every nation in the world. C. Nixon s Silent Majority Speech (1969) As Vietnam dissenters staged a national Vietnam moratorium to show their disapproval of Nixon s continued involvement and desire to win the Vietnam War, Nixon himself appealed to the silent majority in a televised speech. He called upon the war supporters to back his policies. However, in his attempt to win over the public, he created a deep division. Nixon also had his vice president, Spiro Agnew, attack the news media and those who wanted a hasty withdrawal from the Vietnam War. In this, Nixon showed his intent to stay in the war until the U.S. secured a victory. D. My Lai incident revealed (1970) - The Vietnam War became the longest foreign conflict in US history, as well as the most catastrophic with hundreds of thousands deaths and injuries, by January As the death toll went up, the war s unpopularity increased too; not only was morale low in the States, but even soldiers were overwhelmed by disillusionment of the war. Soldiers inability to form bonds with their units, the difficulty they had distinguishing the enemy, and rumors that soldiers were actually killing their officers, all helped deepen the disapproval of the war. In 1970, the hatred for the Vietnam War increased even more when people found out about the My Lai incident in It was revealed that in a village called My Lai, in 1968, US soldiers had slaughtered several innocent women and children. Looking to end the war quickly, after the leak of the My Lai incident, Nixon decided to actually extend the war and attack Cambodia.

2 E. U.S. bombs (1969) and invades Cambodia (1970) - North Vietnam and the Viet Cong had been using neutral Cambodia to harbor their supplies, weapons, and troops during the war. After a few years, President Nixon ordered American troops, along with South Vietnam, to bomb the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong hideouts in Cambodia. Protests occurred at Kent State and Jackson State Universities in the U.S. Nixon then sent American troops to invade Cambodia the following year. However, he withdrew them after only two months. Supporters argued that the invasion was successful because U.S. forces took the enemy supplies and gave South Vietnam time to build themselves up. Yet, the invasion failed to destroy Viet Cong bases. North Vietnam also joined forces with Cambodian communists, the Khmer Rouge, and quickly took over parts of the nation. The Cambodian bombing and invasion greatened the bitterness between the right- and left-wing radical groups, the hawks and the doves. It also increased blacks disillusionment with the war. The Senate looked for ways to hold Nixon back; one was repealing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that Johnson was given in Lessening the draft calls and period of draft ability, as well as passing the 26th Amendment were also effects. F. protests at Kent State and Jackson State Universities (1970) - Students across the country were angered by Nixon s decision to invade Cambodia. They reacted by starting fires, breaking windows, and other forms of protest. During a protest in Ohio at Kent State University, many protesters were wounded; a few were even killed, after National Guard members fired into the crowd. A similar incident occurred in Mississippi at Jackson State University when highway patrol officers killed two students after firing at a dormitory. As the war dragged on overseas, mayhem ran high in the US as riots erupted, fires were set, and antiwar protesters banged heads with police. G. Pentagon Papers are published (1971) - Unhappiness with the Vietnam War was furthered in 1971 when The New York Times published an exposé on America s involvement in Vietnam. The information about this top-secret study by the Pentagon was leaked to the newspaper by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Pentagon official. The Pentagon Papers revealed all of the faults that the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had made concerning America in the Vietnam War, as well as the falsehoods they spun. This included, specifically, the provocation of North Vietnam to attack the Gulf of Tonkin in H. Amendment 26 passed- The Twenty-sixth amendment, passed in 1971, lowered the voting age to eighteen. The Vietnam War played a large role in the passage of this amendment. The idea to lower the voting age came from the belief that if people were old enough to fight and die in a war, then they were also old enough to vote. The amendment also passed, in part, to appease the country s rebellious youth who strongly opposed the Vietnam War. While the amendment did please America s youth to an extent, the number of young voters that registered to vote by the next presidential election was extremely low. I. Détente policy and impact (1969) - As Nixon continued to look for a way out of Vietnam, he soon realized that the way to do this was to force peace out of North Vietnam through pressure from the two communist superpowers, China and the Soviet Union. His theory was supported by his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, who began to meet with North

3 Vietnam officials in Paris to negotiate a peaceful end to the war in Vietnam. While acting on Nixon s behalf in Paris, he was also clearing a path for Nixon to visit China and the Soviet Union. Nixon went to China in early 1972, despite the shock it caused the U.S. public. The president was intent on improving the relationship between Bejing and Washington. Then, playing China against the Soviet Union, Nixon traveled to Moscow. The Soviets agreed to compromise because they were in need of American food supplies and afraid of a rivalry with America s new ally, China. Both of these visits helped establish a period of relaxed tension, or détente. Nixon s new policy had several positive effects, like a three-year, multi-million dollar food deal with the S.U. Two pacts to curb the arms race also resulted, ABM and SALT. The anti-ballistic missile treaty, or ABM, limited the countries types of defense missiles. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT, was an agreement that put a stopper on the amount of longrange missiles for a certain period. However, with the U.S. and S.U. developing Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles, or MIRVs, the arms race soared. The détente policy also partially thawed the Cold War, and by working China and the Soviet Union with and against each other, Nixon created an American exit from Vietnam. J. Nixon visits China (1972) - Nixon came to believe that in order to get out of the Vietnam War the US would have to go through Beijing and Moscow. He thought that the US would be able to use influence from both to help get North Vietnam to agree to peace. Henry Kissinger, Nixon s national security advisor, worked towards getting Nixon into both Beijing and Moscow. In 1971, Nixon agreed to visit China in This news surprised the American people since they were used to Nixon being an extreme, unbending anti-communist. As expected, Nixon visited China in February This significant trip broke the ground for a better relationship between the US and China in the future. K. Causes and impact Peace treaty (1973) - During the presidential campaign of 1972, North Vietnam crossed into the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, with heavily armed tanks. In response, Nixon began a huge bombing campaign on important bases in Northern Vietnam. He also dropped contact mines that would block off the top harbors of North Vietnam. When North Vietnam realized that neither China nor the Soviet Union was going to step in on their behalf, they stopped their intrusion. Very close to Election Day, President Nixon was able to promise the American public that a peace treaty was close to being reached. However, the treaty came three months later, after another bombing on North Vietnam ensued because Nixon refused to agree to a treaty with loopholes. North Vietnam finally agreed to a cease-fire after they received the heaviest bombing of the war. This agreement was called peace with honor, but the title held no weight as it was essentially an American exit. The treaty reached called for Americans to remove their remaining troops and collect their PoWs. South Vietnam was allowed U.S. support but not military forces while North Vietnam was permitted to keep some of their troops in the southern part of the country, but this amount turned out to be one-third of South Vietnam. The fate of the country was uncertain until an election was held. The peace treaty failed to establish a stable peace.

4 L. the War Powers Act (1973) - In 1973, the US found out that secret bombings of Cambodia were being carried out by the Air Force. These air raids began and continued through many years before they became known and people were especially bothered by the fact that government officials had been lying, saying that the neutrality of Cambodian was being respected. Even after Vietnam ceased fire, Nixon continued bombing communist locations, aiding Cambodia. Anger over this decision ran high in the American public, as well as Congress, since most people felt that Nixon was taking advantage of his war-making powers to the point where his actions were unconstitutional. Despite Congress s many attempts to end funding, Nixon s vetoes were always one vote short of being overturned. Eventually, Nixon compromised, but Congress greatly opposed the extension of presidential war powers that took place with Nixon, as well as Lyndon B. Johnson. In order to prevent the same stretch of presidential power from reoccurring Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973 after overruling Nixon s veto. Under this act, the president is required to notify Congress within two days if they have committed American troops to an overseas conflict. They also have to tell Congress if they have largely increased the number of troops in a foreign country. If the president decides to take action, for the mission to continue, Congress must approve an extension of thirty days, otherwise it must end within sixty days. Even with the War Powers Act however, most presidents have ignored some of the boundaries and often act without prior discussion or permission. M. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia - Pol Pot became the Cambodian Communist party, known as the Khmer Rouge, leader in the early 1960s. He gained the support of the North Vietnamese in the early 1970s, when the U.S. bombed their camps in Cambodia, and Cambodian support as the number of casualties from the bombings rose. America left Cambodia in a disastrous state with a terrible economy, which allowed Pol Pot to come to power in He began instituting a plan for the perfect agrarian society, an idea he took from Mao Zedong s Cultural Revolution in China. However, the forced movement of urban Cambodians to the countryside by the Pol Pot s Khmer Rouge army resulted in huge Cambodian death tolls. In 1978, he was forced out of power when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in hopes of stopping Khmer Rouge attacks on their border. Pol Pot and members of the Khmer Rouge army fled to Thailand as Vietnam set up their military forces in Cambodia for the next several years. N. The War ends North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam head on as anticipated in early Since South Vietnam no longer had large support from the US, and Ford s failed attempts to provide them with more weapons, South Vietnam crumbled quickly. The remaining American troops and over one hundred thousand Vietnamese, who Ford allowed to stay in the US, were airlifted out of Vietnam. The Vietnam War, the longest and most frustrating war for America, had officially ended, quietly and without victory. Technically, the US did not lose the Vietnam War. American effectively held North Vietnam at bay while aiding South Vietnam, however once US troops were withdrawn, the outcome of the war lay with the South Vietnamese. Even with the great amount of help the US gave in arming South Vietnam s army, it was now their own responsibility to win the war. However, the US did still suffer from the loss in Vietnam, the cost in American lives and stature was vast. The Vietnam War hurt America s reputation among foreign countries, as well

5 as the country s confidence in itself. Both the US economic standing and revere for the military had been lost due to the loss in Vietnam. Americans and the country faced a long road of recovery after their power and pride had both been extremely damaged by the Vietnam War. II. Nixon and the Cold War: Keep détente in mind for this category as well A. The Chilean Revolution ( ): Detail U.S. role and position * - Salvador Allende was elected Chile s president in 1970, a representative of the Popular Unity party, or a combination of the Socialist and Communist parties. Allende s actions as president angered the U.S. because they were deeply invested in Chilean copper. Allende nationalized the Chilean copper industy, and insisted that Chile didn t owe American companies any money because they had been ripping off the Chilean public. Although Allende didn t intend to challenge capitalism s authority, workers and peasants turned against him because they weren t willing to compromise their goals for the sake of a united country and economy. The revolution that the Chilean lower class started scared the bourgeoisie, or opposing upper class. A military coup was quickly launched against Allende by the Chilean military under the command of Augusto Pinochet. The army was trained by the U.S., and the coup was supported by the C.I.A. The military murdered any opposing workers, and the coup succeeded in overthrowing Allende. B. Yom Kippur War and the Arab Oil Embargo (1973) - In October 1973, Syria and Egypt launched an attack on Israel hoping to retake the land that Israel won from them in the Six Day War in This began the Yom Kippur War between the Arabs and Israelis. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rushed to Moscow to get the Soviets to stop aiding the Arabs (Syria and Egypt). At the same time, Nixon provided Israelis with a generous amount of weapons and arms. Due to the US efforts, the attacks ended and a cease-fire ensued. The Arabs then retaliated by issuing the Arab Oil Embargo which stopped exports of oil to the US and any other country that supported Israel. This resulted in long lines at gas stations and the lowering of thermostats in homes in the US. Due to this energy crisis, Congress approved the Alaskan Pipeline and lowered speed limits. Arabs lifted the Embargo in 1974, but the price for oil from the Middle East soared, marking the end of cheap energy. The American s were previously extremely liberal in their use of oil, and while the Middle East remained one of the US s interests, the country had to face the fact that it was time to cut consumption. C. The Helsinki Accords (1975) (Ford s presidency) - Several national leaders met in Helsinki, Finland in the summer of 1975, among them President Ford, who wanted to preserve and better the détente policy that Nixon set up with the Soviet Union. There, agreements were signed, including a series that officially ended World War II by formally recognizing the Soviet Union s new Eastern European boundaries. The Soviets, in return, promised more East-West people and information trading. The group of agreements they signed also protected specific human rights. The Accords caused Eastern Europeans and Soviets to challenge the USSR s authority, but the USSR swiftly ended the small dissident movements. In Western Europe, the Accords were regarded as a good continuance of the détente policy, however, in America; détente was criticized as being an exclusively American effort. American grain and technology was shared with the USSR, but the Soviet s contributions were

6 insignificant by comparison. The Soviets also continued to supply communist nations with military intelligence and weaponry. This led President Ford to abandon and reject détente by the end of his term III. Politics: Democracy Receives its Greatest Test A. break-in of Daniel Ellsberg s psychiatrist (1971)*- In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, an ex- Pentagon official, leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. These papers revealed information about decisions made during the Vietnam War. In order to protect national security, Nixon s administration ordered a break-in of Ellsberg s psychiatrist s office. They hoped to find his file in order to discredit Ellsberg possibly by showing instable mental health. The burglars were unsuccessful in finding Ellsberg s file, and the break-in remained undiscovered until This break-in was one of the most dishonorable actions of the plumbers unit which worked to cover up any exposed confidential information. B. Election of Because he was elected as a minority president in 1968, Richard Nixon created a plan, which he called the southern strategy, to win himself a majority in the presidential election of His idea was to appeal to white voters by not enforcing civil rights or demanding racial equality, but the scheme became irrelevant in the election as foreign policy took over the campaigning. Although he had not won the peace he promised in 1968 yet, Nixon ran as the Republican candidate and stressed how greatly he had reduced the number of American troops in Vietnam over his first term, which he called the Democratic war. He also quickly halted North Vietnam in their crossing of the DMZ with heavy bombings and contact mine droppings. Right before Election Day, Kissinger even announced that peace in Vietnam was on its way, giving Nixon s campaign an extra push. Opposite Nixon was Democrat George McGovern, a senator from South Dakota. McGovern s platform centered around his promise to get the rest of American troops out of Vietnam within the first three months of his presidency, winning him the support of a large antiwar element in the Democratic party. However, he lost the needed support of the workingclass by appealing to racial minorities, feminists, leftists, and young voters. The discovery of Thomas Eagleton s (McGovern s VP) psychiatric care also hurt his campaign. Nixon won the election in a landslide, taking every state except Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia. C. Reasons for the Watergate break-in (1972) - Illegal activities plagued the committee to reelect President Nixon. Their illegal activities ranged from wiretapping to illegal funds, but the most notorious event occurred with the Watergate break-in. In June of 1972, a group of men, authorized by Nixon s staff, broke into the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Once in the Democratic National Headquarters, wiretaps and listening devices were placed around the room. These bugs were put in place in order for the Republican Party to illegally stay one step ahead of their opponent. The information gathered would be used to both prepare for any attacks on Nixon and to find information that could hurt the Democratic candidate, McGovern.

7 D. Nixon s White House tapes controversy (1973) - During the Watergate hearings, former White House lawyer John Dean III accused President Nixon of aiding in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in, which was essentially obstructing justice. However, the White House, as well as Nixon, denied that they knew anything about Watergate before it happened. In July of 1973, a former presidential aide stated that the president had ordered bugging equipment to be installed. All of Nixon s phone and in-person conversations were tape-recorded without the other parties knowledge. This new information would prove if Nixon was being honest in his denial of knowledge of the Watergate scandal, and if Dean s memory served correctly. Nixon refused to allow the tapes to be used as evidence for months, claiming that the executive privilege of confidentiality and separation of powers applied even in court. However, Nixon was eventually forced to turn the tapes over when the Supreme Court declared that the executive privilege didn t apply under the circumstances. The tapes supported Dean s testimony and Nixon was forced to resign. E. Spiro Agnew s resignation (1973) - Tensions in the White House, already running high from Watergate and the tapes controversy, heightened even further when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in Agnew resigned after being charged of accepting bribes as Governor of Maryland and during his vice presidency. Since Nixon also faced impeachment and removal as president, Congress turned to the twenty-fifth amendment and filled Agnew s place with Gerald Ford, a Michigan congressman. Ford had an unsuspicious financial past or public life and eventually became the first appointed president in F. Saturday Night Massacre (1973) - Soon after Nixon s VP, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign, the Saturday Night Massacre occurred. Archibald Cox, who was appointed special prosecutor for the Watergate investigation by Nixon in May of 1973, ordered that all tapes and White House documents that pertained to the Watergate scandal be turned over to the Senate committee. However, Nixon didn t want to admit to being cornered, so he first denied Cox s subpoena and instead gave summaries of the tapes to Cox. Cox refused to accept his Stennis Compromise. Nixon attempted to fire Cox, but both the deputy attorney general and the attorney general proceeded to resign in protest instead of firing Cox. G. Nixon s resignation (1974) - As Nixon s impeachment investigation continued to raise questions about his character, he finally agreed to share the Watergate tapes. However, large chunks of those tapes were removed, which he refused to share with the courts until the Supreme Court decided that he did not have the right to keep information connected with crime from the court, despite executive privilege. The House Judiciary Committee continued voting on the charges that Nixon would be tried for. These charges included hindering the administration of justice, the misuse of his presidential powers, and withholding evidence and tapes even after subpoenas were issued. In hopes of lessening the repercussions of unavoidable discoveries, Nixon released three of the tapes and ended up proving himself guilty of being involved in the Watergate cover-up. These tapes revealed Nixon discussing Watergate only six days after the event and showed that he lied to the American people about his knowledge of the Watergate scandal. Releasing the tapes backfired on Nixon, the American public was outraged over this scandal, and Republican s

8 in congress advised him to resign with honor as his impeachment and removal from office were now unquestionable. On April 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation in a televised Farewell Address. During his speech he unsuccessfully tried to convince the public that, despite some bad decisions, he always did what he thought would be best for the country at the time. In the span of his presidency, Nixon managed to go from mass approval to complete disgrace. The process of Nixon s impeachment and resignation showed that if the nation insisted, the impeachment process could actually be successful. It also bolstered the belief that even presidents are responsible for their actions and no one is above the law. H. Ford pardons Nixon (1974) - As President, Ford pardoned former President Nixon for any crimes he committed while in office, whether they were known or unknown. The Democrats were greatly angered by Ford s actions, and wanted revenge on Nixon, which caused them to accuse Ford of making a deal with Nixon while he was vice president. However, they had no evidence to prove Ford s motive, only Ford s word that he had pardoned Nixon to end his suffering, and to help the political world and the country move on in their affairs. Despite Ford s reasoning, the pardon was regarded with doubt and suspicion through his presidency, and his chances for election 1976 were hurt. IV. Economic Affairs ( ) A. Explain reasons for the drop in productivity and inflation in the early 1970s- The 1970s saw a sharp decrease in production by the American workers. Throughout the entire 1970s, productivity increased as much as it did in only one year of the previous decade. There are many different theories as to why productivity declined so much, none of which are concrete. Some believe that the slump occurred due to the increased number of women and teens in the work force. These new workers were not at an equal skill level as adult males and did not work at jobs that would build up skill. Another theory credits the decline to the lack of new machinery, and the strict work regulations set by the government. The economy switched from manufacturing to services and therefore made increasing productivity hard to accomplish. Also in the 1970s, while productivity decreased, inflation increased. Inflation increased partly due to the Vietnam War since tax money that needed to go towards domestic issues like education and manufacturing instead was spent on Southeast Asia. The largest causes of inflation in the 1970s actually occurred in the policies of the 1960s. LBJ is especially guilty for inflation due to funding both the Vietnam War and his Great Society program with no tax raises. Since people had more money, but the same amount of available goods, prices increase causing inflation. With the rise of inflation and drop in productivity, a dormant economy emerged and brought an end to the post war era of confidence and economic boom. B. Nixon s New Federalism - Nixon created a plan, which he called New Federalism, that directed money and power toward the state and local levels, instead of the federal bureaucracy. His believed that the bureaucracies held back entrepreneurship, which his new policy would fix by better catering to the people s needs. Nixon used New Federalism to increase the amount of money spent on programs at home. However, the policy s focus on efficiency made it seem as if Nixon agreed with the conservative principle of a small, less costly government.

9 Two programs instituted under New Federalism reflected radicalness in Nixon s ideas - revenue sharing and the Family Assistance Plan. With revenue sharing, the federal government collected taxes, but the state and local governments received money from the taxes to use as they wanted in their municipalities. This plan was hated by bureaucrats, who felt threatened by it, and Congressmen, because they freely handed out money to their hometowns, but was very popular among the local and state governments. The Family Assistance Plan, however, was not nearly as popular, which hurt Nixon. The plan wanted to replace welfare, which he felt was growing into a useless bureaucracy, and provide a cash income to the working poor and single-family households on welfare. The FAP was harshly criticized by both welfare supporters and nonsupporters, causing Nixon to give up the plan and New Federalism to win re-election in C. New Economic Program (1971) - In 1971, with inflation creeping above five percent, Nixon instituted new economic policies. First, he stopped wages and price from increasing for a short term. He imposed this freeze in an attempt to curb increasing inflation. Nixon then took a major economic step by taking the US off of the Gold Standard, surprising many economists. By taking the country off of Gold Standard, he devalued the dollar in an effort to make American exports more affordable to foreign countries. Nixon hoped to stimulate the country s newly inert economy. Through Nixon s new economic program, as well as his expansion of Johnson s Great Society, many improvements were made to the country including the lowering of US poverty levels. D. Ford s WIN policy (1974) - WIN, or Whip Inflation Now, was a policy created by President Ford to curb the ever-growing inflation of the 1970s. He first established a National Commission on Inflation to begin his fight, and appealed to the American public for ideas to reduce inflation. Ford then address Congress in a WIN speech, where he planned out steps to lessen inflation through targeting supply and demand. Ford s lack of immediate action made his WIN policy into a national joke. He realized that rising inflation was part of the bigger economic picture and not just the problem itself, but failed to show this to the American public. The policy ultimately failed, hurting Ford s chances of making further economic change. V. Social Movements and Upheaval continue A. Moon Landing (1969) - In order to gain stature and to stimulate the economy, Kennedy first supported the mission to land on the moon. His plan received much question since many people felt that the money could be used for better causes. Despite opposition, in 1969, the multi-billion dollar project was successful and two American astronauts, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, landed and walked on the moon. While the Soviet Union beat the US into Space, the US carried out Kennedy s hopes and beat the Soviets to the moon. This moon landing boosted American pride. The Space Program forced the US to find new technologies that would eventually spin-off many different products and boost America s economy. B. Silent Spring (1962) - Author Rachel Carson gave the modern conservation movement a huge boost with her book Silent Spring in It was a piece of muckraker literature that showed the dangers of pesticides on the environment.

10 Concern for the environment had been growing since 1950, when the Air Pollution Control Office was created in Los Angeles. Carson s book brought more awareness to the poisons begin released in the air. In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration were established. Both of these organizations helped to enforce legislation such as the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of C. Summarize environmental reform in the early 1970s- Due to increasing concern about the environment which began in 1950 with the creation of the Air Pollution Control Office, and the publishing of books like Silent Spring, major environmental reform came under Nixon. The biggest accomplishments were the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, OSHA. These organizations were bolstered by the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of Together these laws and Administrations worked to clean waterways, reduce car pollution, and clean toxic waste sites. In 1972, Congress, overwhelmed by the strong environmentalist atmosphere, contributed to environmental reform. They decided not to fund anymore irrigation projects in the West. Concern for the environment continued throughout the early 1970s. D. Griswold vs. Connecticut (1965) and Roe vs. Wade (1973) - Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court made several decisions that had a great impact on sexual freedom. One of these rulings occurred in the case Griswold vs. Connecticut, concerning the Connecticut state law that prohibited anyone s use of contraceptives. The court ruled that the state was in violation of a right of privacy right, but as this right was not explicitly stated in the Constitution, the court earned criticism for inventing a right. However, this invented right laid the foundation for a landmark ruling in the case of Roe vs. Wade. In this case, the Supreme Court used the Constitutional right of privacy to rule that states could make laws that essentially prohibited women from getting an abortion in the early stages of her pregnancy. The ruling brought harsh criticisms of the Court from pro-life advocates, but also gave pro-choice supporters a place to build their abortion rights cases. E. the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment ( ) - The battle to have an Equal Rights Amendment added to the Constitution began back in the 1920s, but failed to make its way to the floor of Congress until The Equal Rights Amendment would ensure that equal rights would not be denied due to a person s sex. In 1972, it passed in Congress, however, in order for the amendment to be added to the Constitution, thirty-eight states had to ratify it by March At first, states quickly ratified the ERA but eventually the ratifications slowed. By 1979 only thirty-five states had ratified the Amendment. Congress then extended the deadline to 1982, but once again, the amendment failed to pass. Opposition argued that women were already protected by the constitution and that the ERA was unnecessary, and by 1983 hope of and attention to the Amendment had been lost. While the Equal Rights Amendment did not get added to the country s constitution, several states have added it to their own state constitutions. F. Wounded Knee Incident (1973) - Members of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, met in 1968 to discuss problems they faced regarding the federal government. Then, in

11 1973, the Lakota Sioux of the Black Hills of South Dakota asked the AIM for help battling the corruption that plagued their tribal government and the BIA. The traditional Lakota Sioux people wanted to recapture their hometown, Wounded Knee, which the government and government-supporting Lakota people took from them in violation of the 1868 Sioux Treaty of Black Hills. The Lakota Sioux took back Wounded Knee in February 1973, but Federal Marshals and the National Guard quickly intervened, blocking to the area. AIM fighters defended Wounded Knee and demanded that the corruption of the tribal government and BIA be investigated. The government refused and cut off food supplies and electricity to Wounded Knee. A 71-day war ensued between the government and AIM in which several fighters were killed. However, for the duration of the war, the Lakota Sioux people were able to rule their homeland as free people. The war ended with hundreds of arrests by the government, who subsequently took over Wounded Knee and began a Reign of Terror.