Chapter 8 The Torch is Passed: From Camelot to Hollywood on the Potomac

American Culture

 Politics

 War

Integration and Law

"...it was an extraordinary era in which all the accepted orthodoxies of government, church, and society were called into question."

Following in the footsteps of  books like Uncle Tom's Cabin (1850), The Jungle (1906), and Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,  The Feminine Mystique (1963)"... delivered a karate chop to the American perception of reality. Betty Friedan, a summa cum laude Smith graduate described ' " the problem without a name" ' that faced upper middle class women. They were being systematically barred from becoming anything more than a housewife and mother by society's institutions( governments, mass media and advertising, medicine and psychiatry, education, and organized religion). "Friedman's book helped jump-start a stalled women's rights movement."

The Spanish-American War (1897) was a victory  as a result of  Teddy Roosevelt's charge up San Wan Hill. A s a result, Cuba's sugar, mining, cattle, and oil wealth were brought almost entirely under American control.

 The Cuban Project, developed during the waning days of the Eisenhower administration, was aimed at overthrowing, and if necessary, assassinating Fidel Castro. Supported by CIA- planted insurgents who were to  blow up bridges and knock out radio stations and American war planes that would control the air, a brigade of 1,400 CIA trained Cubans would land at the Bay of Pigs (April 17,1961) and set off a popular revolt against Castro. 

President Kennedy decided no Americans would take part thus disarming the U.S. Air Force, Cuba reacted much better on all fronts, and the result was a disasters for American Foreign Policy. Cuban invaders killed, 114. Invaders captures, imprisoned, and then freed by President Kennedy who traded food for their return,1,189. Four members of the Alabama Air National Guard died during the invasion.

The Bay of Pigs hurt American prestige and goodwill.  "In Moscow, Kennedy was perceived as a weakling..." and they began arming Cuba more heavily.  American spy flights saw evidence of missile sites and fifteen tense days resulted after President Kennedy demanded the sites be disbanded and ordered a navel blockade to ' " quarantine" ' Cuba. The President, who took strong medications to lower severe pain caused by Addison's disease, avoided a nuclear disaster.

President Kennedy"...went Texas in the fall of 1963 to shore up southern political support for his upcoming 1964 reelection bid..." " A few months before, the good folks of Dallas had spat on Adlai Stevenson, JFK's UN Ambassador. " three shots rang out, the President died quickly, and Lyndon B Johnson became president.

In 1964, CIA trained South Vietnam guerrillas attacked the North but failed to undermine their military strength so the mode of attack was shifted to the Gulf of Tonkin where hit-and-run operations by small  torpedo boats supported by warships had been initiated. Radar blips observed by one destroyer resulted in  return fire  and torpedo blips observe by a second destroyer also brought return fire. Confirmation was not  made for  either attack, though the radar blips were later attributed to weather conditions.

History books indicate that President Johnson knew the dubious nature of the reports but he still ordered air attacks on North Vietnam as retaliation.  One downed pilot, Everett Alvarez Jr. became the first American POW, imprisoned in Hanoi for eight years.

Eventually, a Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which instructed President Johnson to " 'take all necessary measures" 'to repel attacks and "prevent further aggression," was passed by congress.

President Johnson successfully blunted Republican candidate Goldwater's accusations that he was
 '  "timid  before Communism" ' and easily won reelection.

The country was about to mourn a great man.

American Culture

Foreign Affairs/Politics

 War

Integration and Law

"America suffered the indignity of its massive power in a seeming decline"

Because the information did not covering the Nixon years, the White House was at first muted, but then they realized there were other highly classified secret documents that they wanted protected. So the administration threatened the Times with espionage charges. Ignored,  a court injunction to stop publication was received but, based on the  First Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 30, 1971, in favor of  the newspaper.

To stop these news leaks, A White House group called the ' "plumbers" ' was formed. They turned to ".. former CIA employee E. Howard Hunt and ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy to bring their special clandestine talents to the operation. One of their first tasks was a marginally successful break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

From one prospective, security credibility and thus intelligence operations had been damaged. From another prospective, the antiwar movement gained new strength. Either way, the Pentagon papers reinforced the ' "bunker Mentality" ' among the ' "palace guard." '

"... Watergate wasn't what Nixon press Secretary Ron Zeigler called it, ' " a third-rate burglary." ' That ludicrous larceny was only a tiny strand in the web of domestic spying, criminal acts, illegal campaign funds, enemies lists, and obstruction of justice that emerged from the darkness as ' " Watergate." '  "...crimes committed in the name of national security."

"Almost from the time it was born in 1948... Israel occupied a singular, untouchable position in American foreign policy." "Culturally, American felt a Kinship..." and Israel, a pro-western democracy, was a reliable "client-state" in  unstable Arab lands.

Israel had won the Six-Day War of 1967 and the 1973 Yom kipper War. After the 1967 war, the Arabs tried to get back lost lands by cutting off oil shipments to the West but lacked the necessary economic clout until another oil boycott in 1973, succeeded in increasing  the price of oil from $3 to $12 per barrel. Mayhem resulted in the United States where gas was rationed, speed limits lowered, environmental standards relaxed, and gas mileage targets set for automobiles. The result was historically high inflation  and unemployment hit its highest level since the Depression. 

Things got worse in 1978 when the shah of Iran, whose military dictatorship had been set up by a 1954 CIA-backed coup, was overthrown during a fundamentalist Islamic revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Gas exports to the U.S. were stopped. Then, to make matters worse, a nuclear spill at Three Miles Island curtailed  nuclear development, and OPEC, the oil cartel for most major oil  producers, raised prices again.

"To the war's supporters on the right, the atrocity at My Lai was an aberration and Calley a victim of a ' " leftist" ' antiwar movement."  "To the war's opponents, Calley and My Lai epitomized the war's immorality and injustice."

The seven to two 1973 Supreme Court ruling in  Roe v. Wade   prohibited state abortion limits during the first term (three months). It also limited prohibitions the states may make during the second term. For some, it was a matter of private choice (pro-choice), to others it was government-sanctioned murder (pro-life). President Reagan's appointees made the court more conservative and by a five to four vote in the 1989  Webster v. Reproductive Health Services case expanded state authority to limit abortions.

Harry Blackmun wrote
 the Court’s opinion.

Byron White was the 
senior dissenting justice.

American Culture

Foreign Affairs/Politics

 War

America seemed in economic decline and  Ronald Reagan seemed to embody that old-fashioned American can-do spirit. "To those who admired him, he was the man who restored American prestige and economic stability, and forced the Soviet Union into structural changes through a massive buildup of American defense. To critics, he slept and subordinates ran the show.

The ' "gay plague" ' began making news in 1981 as reports of a rare form of cancer began showing up in homosexuals. Officially named acquired immune deficiency syndrome,  AIDS began showing up in young hemophiliacs and the female partners of infected men. This started an alarm as people feared contamination of the nation's blood supply.  In 1983, scientists discovered it was a virus and in 1985, a blood test detection it arrived. Some religious  groups denounced AIDS victims as ' "immoral" ' while other religious groups showed compassion.  The same year movie and TV star Rock Hudson admitted to having AIDS and with his death, the face of AIDS was no longer a stranger. Former tennis sensation Arthur Ash was infected from a blood transfusion and basketball star Magic Johnson quit basketball in 1991 because of AIDS, though treatments made it possible for him to resume his career.

America was changed by AIDS and by the early 1990's, the words condoms, safe sex, and sex, not proper in polite society, were part of America common parlance.  In many ways, the AIDS crisis also brought homosexuality out of the American closet and a ' "gay rights" ' movement began to push for an end to sexual discrimination. 

Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign promised to cut taxes, reduce government deficits, reduce inflation, and rebuild America's defense.  Called ' "supply side economics,"' the logic was with lower taxes, more would be produce and  spent, and jobs created. Coupled with cuts in wasteful government spending, the budget would be in balance.  One Republican opponent called it ' " voodoo economics" '. But, "This country since the pre Revolutionary days of James Otis back in Boston (see p.64) doesn't like taxes." and Ronald Reagan was resoundingly elected putting in place a new conservative coalition.

While these polices were being enacted, Paul Volker appointed by Jimmy Carter to be Chairman of The Federal Reserve, was increasing interest rated to lower the extremely high inflation caused by the two 1970's oil shocks. The result was a "devastating recession" which spread around the world. This eventually caused an oil glut,  OPEC lost control, and oil prices came down. Stagflation (high unemployment and high inflation) came to an end as the recessions put an end to inflation and Reagan's tax cuts, pro business policies of deregulating industry and ignoring antitrust laws, brought an end to economic stagnation.

Cuts in domestic spending (welfare, housing, job training, drug treatment, and mass transportation) were not enough to make up for lost revenue from tax cuts and an increase in military spending. Historical high deficits resulted.

 Conservatives, who felt liberals tried to solve problems by ' "throwing money at them" ' were now going to solve the ' "weakness" ' of America's defense by throwing money at it. 

"To admirers, Reagan's successes in changing the American mood, reducing marginal tax rates from (a high of) 70 percent, and altering the political terrain of America, place him in the pantheon of great presidents. His critics point to his failures, most notably the creation of an enormous national debt; the foreign policy misadventures, in particular Iran-Contra; and a short-sighted plan to assist the rebels fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan."

Reagan was called the ' "Teflon president" ' because no matter what happened, he came out unscathed. Some was luck as with the Iran hostages who were freed the moment he became president and his surviving a March 30, 1981 assassination attempt. Others, like the failed American air attack on the home of Libyan strongman Muammar Khadaffy that ended with the death of a  few civilians, including his children, and the death of two American pilots, and the terrorists bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks that killed 239 marines. Both  ended simply when Reagan assumed responsibility and no questions were asked.

But the most notorious episode became known as the Iran-Contra. American hostages were being held in civil war-ridden Lebanon and the President wanted them out in the worst way. America's Democratically controlled congress had cut aid to the rebel army known as the Contras. An end run was planned by the administration using foreign contributions, donations from wealthy Republicans, and funds from the Saudis. Then funds from an arms sale to Iran were added to the pot designed to free the hostages. A political storm resulted when these activities became public. President Reagan tried to calm the storm with an addressed to the nation saying that only a few defensive weapons had been sent to Iran and that ' "We did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages." '

A congressional investigation revealed all the deceptions, lies to the public and congress, and illegal financial activities of the event.

" Although never taken as seriously by the public as was Watergate, the abuses of Iran-Contra were dangerous: a president  seemly out of touch with reality and allowing very junior officers to control a major foreign policy adventure without any oversight; a plan to set up a secret CIA operation to circumvent the Congress; an attempt to ignore the law by using a technicality, a maneuver that even the president's closest advisors said might be an impeachable offense."

The Soviet Union, with its fatally inefficient industrial system, government corruption, and severe political and social problems had been spiraling downward for a long time and it, along with Communism, came to an end about a year after Reagan left office. The Cold War, which had affected almost every aspect of American life for half a century, was over. "Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union and winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize,   "... was clearly the man who had taken history into his own hands."

Chapter 7 Commies, Containment and Cold War: America in the Fifties

American Culture

Foreign Affairs

 War

Race Relations

NATO troops were being beaten badly in a place very few people Americans knew about. But, President Truman and WWII hero General Macarthur said it was the right thing to do and that was good enough for most Americans.

Led by General Macarthur and a ' "China lobby " 'of senators and media moguls like Henry Luce, the war hawks wanted an all out war against Communism including Mao's China.

General Douglas MacArthur, UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of Incheon from the USS Mt. McKinley, 15 September 1950.

Chapter 6 Boom to Bust to Big Boom: From the Jazz Age, to the Great Depression, to Hiroshima

American Culture

Politics

 The Great Depression

Race Relations

Hemmingway  wrote his first novel, The Sun also Rises and Sinclair Lewis ruled the decade with Main Street(1920), Babbitt(1922) Arrowsmith(1925) and his great novel of religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry(1927)

Hemingway  with Col.Charles (Buck) T. Lanaham in Germany, 1944, during the fighting in Hürtgenwald, after which he became ill with pneumonia.

Amelia Earhart  flew across the Atlantic in 1928 with two men, becoming overnight an outspoken American heroine and model of ' " rugged feminism" ' 

Amelia Earhart  Los Angeles, 1928, X5665 – 1926 "CIT-9 Safety Plane" –

The Great War over, America wanted a return to isolation and to get back to business. This meant three Republican in the White House. Warren Harding started the parade in 1921 by promising a ' "return to normalcy." ' He died in office during the Teapot Dome bribery scandal and was replaced in 1923 by Calvin Coolidge. He believed '"the business of America is business." '  Silent Cal wanted to "stay the course."  He was an international hero because as commerce secretary during WW I, he administered a  food program that kept Europe from starving. Hoover, helped by a strong economy, an ever increasing stock market, and the belief by some that a vote for Roman Catholic, Democrat Al Smith was a vote for the "Pope," won by a landslide.

Economic collapse caused the Republican presidential run to end as Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt  took over in 1933.

In his inaugural speech, FDR told the nation his  ' "... firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" ' Roosevelt tried many remedies during his now famous first 100 days in office tried man saying if this fails try something else. Some economic activity returned and unemployment never got much below 10% with some cities having a much higher rate,

When the Supreme Court started disallowing many of his "New Deal" legislation, FDR fought back by trying to pack the court by reviving an old proposal that would allow him to add a  judges for existing judges over 70 years of age. The balance of power defined in the Constitution was important to the democratic congress and FDR received his first defeat during his five years in office.

The ' "Coolidge boom" ' with new companies like General Motors making investors rich, caused a stock market boom and nowhere was prosperity more conspicuous than by those investing in Wall Street. But all was not as it seemed.  Many were borrowing money to invest and  working in ' "pools," 'crooked manipulators bought cheap shares of stock, drove up the prices among themselves, then lured outside investors into the pool."

The postwar crash of farm prices had caused a depression among farmers. Mechanization was causing high unemployment and in 1927,  housing starts fell. By late 1929 steel and auto production were in decline. Europeans began withdrawing from U.S. stocks and  people who had bought stock with borrowed money were forced to sell stock to pay loans. What became known as ' "Black Tuesday" ' happened on October 29, 1929.

Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run 
early in the Great Depression.

What mad this depression great was it length and the way it touched so many in a devastating way. Over six thousand bank that had financed the Wall Street boom of the 1920's went bust and with them went the savings of a nation. Millions of Americans who had left the farm for an urbanized , mechanized society lost their job. Reported unemployment reached 25% though some thought it much higher. Henry Ford, who put 75,000 men out of work and on the road as ' "hoboes" ' in search of work thought all the travel was a great education. President Hoover, also a conservative,  thought any government assistance would be Socialist and Communist. The situation was made worse in 1930 as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff to keep foreign goods out failed as European countries enacted their own tariffs. By 1931, Europe and "most ominously Germany were sucked into a violent whirlpool of massive unemployment and inflation."  The summer of 1932 saw an army of 25,000 unemployed WWI veterans  descend on Washington from all around the entire country in search of early payment of their 1945 WWI bonus. Hoover responded by sending General Douglas MacArther and his young aid Dwight Eisenhower to push them out of town. This was easily accomplished and their village set ablaze to make sure they did not return. Wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army reported 4 dead, 1,117 injured and 689 police injured.

The turmoil in Europe lead to German Fascism which was a military dictatorship built on racist and powerfully nationalistic foundations with support of the business class. War eventually seemed inevitable and FDR got around an isolationist congress with a Lend-Lease program in which the U.S. lent to any country whose defense was deemed vital,  war materials that could be returned in kind after the war. 

Eventually we entered what became known as WWII. It ended when President Truman made the very difficult and complicated decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. The war cost over 50 million lives. Russia lost the most soldiers, about 7.5 million and civilians, about 23 million.  Germany's  "final solutions" killed 6 million Jews and millions of Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Gypsies, and homosexuals. For the U.S. 300.000 soldiers died, nearly 700,000 were wounded. 

The country was in an anti communist frenzy equal to the one caused by Senator McCarthy thirty years later. This one began in 1919 after President Wilson's attorney general Mitchell Palmer had a bomb go off in front of his house. A month earlier bombs had been sent to homes of prominent men including J.D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. The economic dislocation that typically follows a war meant high inflation, unemployment labor unrest. Under Palmer, who set up the  Radical Division run by supercharged anti- Communist J. Edgar Herbert Hoover,  mass arrests and deportation followed. Eventually immigration was cut drastically and somewhat limited to white Angel-Saxons from Great Britain

Were these riots or ' "ethnic cleansing?" '
Tulsa, Oklahoma, a fertile  recruiting home for the Ku Klux Klan, was the scene of a 1921 race riot. Blacks, some recently discharged veterans, tried to stop Dick Rowland from being lynched. He was eventually released when the women involved would not press chargers. But not before shots were fired and 10,000 whites, fully backed by the police, went wild.  More than 1,200 black homes were burned! Close to three hundred people died. Insurance companies refused to pay for fire losses and all newspaper accounts were cleaned out to remove evidence.  A similar event happened in Rosewood Florida where the small, mostly black town was practically wiped out. Several blacks were lynched and six blacks and two whites were killed. As in Tulsa, memory of the event was soon erased in a ..."conspiracy of silence, shame, and fear."  

American Culture

Foreign Affairs/Politics

 War

Big Business and The Law

American Culture

Foreign Affairs/Politics

 War

Race Relations

American Culture

Politics

 War

Race Relations

American Culture

 War

Politics

Race Relations

American Culture

Politics

 War

Race Relations