1968 and Nixon

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1968 and Nixons Presidency
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January 10

• The 10,000th US airplane is lost over Vietnam.

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January 31

• At half-past midnight on Wednesday morning the
  North Vietnamese launch the Tet offensive at Nha
  Trang. Nearly 70,000 North Vietnamese troops will
  take part in this broad action, taking the battle
  from the jungles to the cities.
• The offensive will carry on for weeks and is seen
  as a major turning point for the American
  attitude toward the war. At 245 that morning the
  US embassy in Saigon is invaded and held until
  915AM.

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February 1

• During police actions following the first day of
  the Tet offensive General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a
  south Vietnamese security official is captured on
  film executing a Viet Cong prisoner by American
  photographer Eddie Adams.
• The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph becomes yet
  another rallying point for anti-war protestors.
  Despite later claims that the prisoner had been
  accused of murdering a Saigon police officer and
  his family, the image seems to call into question
  everything claimed and assumed about the American
  allies, the South Vietnamese.

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February 4

• Martin Luther King Jr. delivers a sermon at his
  Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta which will
  come to be seen as prophetic. His speech contains
  what amounts to his own eulogy. After his death,
  he says, "I'd like somebody to mention that day
  that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his
  life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say
  that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to
  love somebody... that I tried to love and serve
  humanity,. Yes, if you want to, say that I was a
  drum major for peace... for righteousness."

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He had a dream
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February 18

• The US State Department announces the highest US
  casualty toll of the Vietnam War. The previous
  week saw 543 Americans killed in action, and 2547
  wounded.

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March 16

• Although it will not become public knowledge for
  more than a year, US ground troops from Charlie
  Company rampage through the hamlet of My Lai
  killing more than 500 Vietnamese civilians from
  infants to the elderly. The massacre continues
  for three hours until three American fliers
  intervene, positioning their helicopter between
  the troops and the fleeing Vietnamese and
  eventually carrying a handful of wounded to
  safety.

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April 4

• Martin Luther King Jr. spends the day at the
  Lorraine Motel in Memphis working and meeting
  with local leaders on plans for his Poor People's
  March on Washington to take place late in the
  month. At 6pm, as he greets the car and friends
  in the courtyard, King is shot with one round
  from a 30.06 rifle. He will be declared dead just
  an hour later at St. Joseph's hospital.

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April 4 James Earl Ray shoots MLK
After an international man-hunt James Earl Ray
will be arrested on June 27 in England, and
convicted of the murder. Ray died in prison in
1998.
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• The King assassination sparks rioting in
  Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City,
  Newark, Washington, D.C., and many others. Across
  the country 46 deaths will be blamed on the
  riots.

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May 3

• The US and North Vietnamese delegations agree to
  begin peace talks in Paris later this month. The
  formal talks will begin on May 10.

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June 3

• Andy Warhol is shot in his New York City loft by
  Valerie Solanis, a struggling actress, and
  writer.

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June 4/5

• On the night of the California Primary Robert
  Kennedy addresses a large crowd of supporters at
  the Ambassador Hotel in San Francisco. He has won
  victories in California and South Dakota and is
  confident that his campaign will go on to unite
  the many factions stressing the country.
• As he leaves the stage, at 1213AM on the morning
  of the fifth Kennedy is shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a
  24 year old Jordanian living in Los Angeles. The
  motive for the shooting is apparently anger at
  several pro-Israeli speeches Kennedy had made
  during the campaign.
• The forty-two year old Kennedy dies in the early
  morning of June sixth.

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June 28

• A bill adding a 10 percent surcharge to income
  taxes and reducing government spending is signed
  by President Johnson. The president effectively
  admits it has been impossible to provide both
  "guns and butter."

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September 7

• Women's Liberation groups, joined by members of
  New York NOW, target the Miss America Beauty
  Contest in Atlantic City. The protest includes
  theatrical demonstrations including ritual
  disposal of traditional female roles into the
  "freedom ashcan."
• While nothing is actually set on fire, one
  organizer's comment - quoted in the New York
  Times the next day - that the protesters
  "wouldn't do anything dangerous, just a symbolic
  bra-burning," lives on in the derogatory term
  "bra-burning feminist."

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October 12

• -The Summer Olympic Games open in Mexico City.
  The games have been boycotted by 32 African
  nations in protest of South Africa's
  participation. On the 18th Tommie Smith and John
  Carlos, US athletes and medalists in the
  200-meter dash will further disrupt the games by
  performing the black power salute during the
  "Star-Spangled Banner" at their medal ceremony.

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October 31

• President Johnson announces a total halt to US
  bombing in North Vietnam.

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1968 Candidates
Wallace
Nixon
Humphrey
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November 5

• -Election Day. The results of the popular vote
  are
• 31,770,000 or 43.4 percent for Nixon
• 31,270,000 or 42.7 percent for Humphrey
• 9,906,000 or 13.5 percent for Wallace
• and 0.4 percent for other candidates.

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November 26

• -After stalling for months, the North Vietnamese
  government agrees to join in the Paris peace
  talks.

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December 11

• The unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent, is the
  lowest it has been in fifteen years.

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1968?
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Richard Nixon My Hero?
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Tragic Childhood?
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High School
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Whittier College
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Thelma Catherine (Pat) Ryan
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Duke Law School
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F.B.I. Agent? O.P.A. Instead
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U.S. Navy
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HUAC Searching for Reds
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Alger Hiss-Communist?
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(No Transcript)
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Helen Gahagan Douglas A Pink Lady?
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Tricky Dick?
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Senator Nixon 1951-1952
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Ike and Dick in 1952
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The Checkers Speech
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Dick and Checkers
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Other Nixon Dogs
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Vice President Nixon
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The Kitchen Debates With Nikita Khrushchev
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1960 TV Debates
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A Sinister Chipmunk?
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1962 Last Press ConferenceYou wont have Dick
Nixon to Kick Around Anymore.
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Richard Nixon is a no-good lying bastard. He can
lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same
time, and if he ever caught himself telling the
truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in." --
Harry S Truman.
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Nixons Resurrection
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Nixons The One
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The New Nixon
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Picture This
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Nixon on the Home Front

• Nixon also expanded Great Society programs by
  increasing appropriations for Medicare and
  Medicaid, as well as Aid to Families with
  Dependent Children (AFDC), and created the
  Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which gave
  benefits to the indigent aged, blind, and
  disabled, and he raised Social Security.
• Nixons so-called Philadelphia Plan of 1969
  required construction-trade unions working on the
  federal pay roll to establish goals and
  timetables for Black employees.
• This plan changed affirmative action to mean
  preferable treatment on groups, not individuals,
  and the Supreme Courts decision on Griggs vs.
  Duke Power Co. (1971) supported this.
• However, whites protested to reverse
  discrimination (hiring of minorities for fear of
  repercussions if too many whites are hired).

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• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was
  also created to help nature, as well as OSHA, or
  the Occupational health and Safety
  Administration.
• In 1962, Rachel Carson had boosted the
  environmental movement with her book Silent
  Spring, which exposed the disastrous effects of
  pesticides, and in 1950, LA had already had an
  Air Pollution Control Office.
• The Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered
  Species Act of 1973 both aimed to protect and
  preserve the environment and made notable
  progress.
• Worried about inflation, Nixon also imposed a
  90-day wage freeze and then took the nation off
  the gold standard, thus ending the Bretton
  Woods system of international currency
  stabilization, which had functioned for more than
  a quarter of a century after WWII.

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Détente
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Nixons Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow

• China and the Soviet Union were clashing over
  their own interpretations of Marxism, and Nixon
  seized this as a chance for the U.S. to relax
  tensions.
• He sent national security adviser Dr. Henry A.
  Kissinger to China to encourage better relations,
  a mission in which he succeeded, even though he
  used to be a big anti-Communist. Nixon made the
  historic journey to China in February of 1972.
• Nixon then traveled to Moscow in May 1972, and
  the Soviets, wanting foodstuffs and alarmed over
  the possibility of a U.S.-China alliance against
  the U.S.S.R., made deals with America in which
  the U.S. would sell the Soviets at least 750
  million worth of wheat, corn, and other cereals,
  thus ushering in an era of détente, or relaxed
  tensions.
• The ABM Treaty (anti-ballistic missile treaty)
  and the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
  also lessened tension, but the U.S. also went
  ahead with its new MIRV (Multiple
  Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles)
  missiles, which could overcome any defense by
  overwhelming it with a plethora of missiles
  therefore, the U.S.S.R. did the same.
• Result more MIRV missiles on both sides.
• However, Nixons détente policy did work, at
  least a little.

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Our Friends the Russians
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Our Pal Mao
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Dinner with Chou
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This Certainly is a Great Wall!
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Nixon the Great?
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Happy Family Times
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The President and the King
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The Sportsman
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Secret Plans
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The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers
Act

• It was then discovered that there had been secret
  bombing raids in North Vietnamese forces in
  Cambodia that had occurred since March of 1969,
  despite federal assurances to the U.S. public
  that Cambodias neutrality was being respected.
• The public now wondered what kind of a government
  was there if it couldnt be trusted.
• Finally, Nixon ended this bombing in June 1973.
• However, soon, Cambodia was taken over by the
  cruel Pol Pot, who committed genocide by killing
  over 2 million people over a span of a few years.
• The War Powers Act of November 1973 required the
  president to report all committance of U.S.
  troops to foreign exchanges within 48 hours.
• There was also a New Isolationism that
  discouraged U.S. troops in other countries, but
  Nixon fended off all efforts at this.

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Peace with Honor?
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Protests by Bums?
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1972 Election
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What Energy Crisis?
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The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis

• After the U.S. backed Israel in its war against
  Syria and Egypt, which had been trying to regain
  territory lost in the Six-Day War, the Arab
  nations imposed an oil embargo, which strictly
  limited oil in the U.S. and caused a crisis.
• A speed limit of 55 MPH was imposed, and the oil
  pipeline in Alaska was approved in 1974 despite
  environmentalists cries, and other types of
  energy were pursued.
• Since 1948, the U.S. had been importing more oil
  than it exported, and oil production had gone
  down since 1970 thus marked the end of the era
  of cheap energy.
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting
  Countries) lifted the embargo in 1974, and then
  quadrupled the price of oil.

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Watergate
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A Crook?
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All the Presidents Men
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Deep Throat?
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The Tapes
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Impeachable Offenses

• Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
• Abuse of Power
• Contempt of Congress
• Unconstitutional Bombing of
• Cambodia
• (well go through the 15 cases of Watergate
  tomorrow!)

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Resignation
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Farewell
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Gerald R. Ford (Leslie King)
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Resurrection II
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Nixons Monica
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Death
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Legacy
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(No Transcript)