Chapter 29

1. Lyndon Johnson's great society were a series of federal programs to enrich ntaion life and create a country of wealth. These programs were so controversial because they expanded national power. These programs provided Medicare and Medicaid and added the Department of Housind and Urban Development to the president's cabinenet. In addition these progams upgraded classrooms in low income neighborhoods. In the beginign Johnson's Great Society programs were seen as giving an "helping hand" instead of providing direct assistance, but as the cost of the war in Vietnam inscreased the international economy started to decline in the the1960's, the public started to lose faith in these programs. Some critics even thought that Great Society programs were the cause for the economic distress. Another viewpoint about Johnson's programs was presented in Charles Murray novel, Losing Ground. In the novel Murray charged the these programs encouraged antisocial social behavior. He argued that these programs were encouraging people to abandon their goal of improving their economic state and just live off of government hand outs.

2. The counter culture was mostly composed of young people, know as the hippies. who supported causes such as cooperative movement, enviromentalism, and fight aganist restriction on life stlyed choices. The counter culture were mostly associated with drugs, communal living, and new fors of music such as fold rock and acid rock. Although, counter culture was looked down upon, the music industry, hollywood, and the advertising industry focused their attention on attracting the youth culture. The Youth culturel were inspired by musicians such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and the Rolling stones who produced music unlike the traditiona. The music industry took advantage of these musical icons of the counterculture. Holly wood also started move away from the traditional all-age market and started to attract a youth dominated audience with movies such as Bonnie and Clyde and the Easy Rider. Even the advertising industry connected consumer products with the counter culture.

3. The violent event overseas in 1968 was the Tet offensive, where the NLF and North Vietnamese mounted suprise attacks on South Vietnam and swept thorugh eight provisional capitals and even seized the U.S. in Saigon for a few hours. The Tet offensive ended with the NLF and North Vietnam suffering a great number of casulities, but it was still a physcological defeat for the the United States because it showed that it would not be an easy South Vietnamese-United States victory. As a result of the Tet offensive, Johnoson and Clark Clifford, the secretary of Defense, decided to stop sending more troops to South Vietnam and insisted that South Vietnamese troops assume more of teh military burden. Johnson also promised to spend the rest of his time in office trying to find a end to the war. Meanwhile at home, violence increased as the news of Martine Luther King Jr. assassination by James Earl Ray spread. Only a few months later, Robert Kennedy, brother of JFK was assassinated by a Palestinian immigrant. To calm the violence, Richard Nixon became a presidential candidate promising to restore "law and order" to the United States.

4. The economic problems of the Nixon era were caused by numerous factor but may be the most significant factor that caused the economic distress would be the war in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson, during his presidency, funded the war without cutting the costs of the Great Society programs and hid the rising cost of the war from the coutry. Also, inflation rate was on the rise and domestic spending did not decrease with the Democratic controlled congress. In addition to these problems unemployment rates had gone up to 6 percent by 1971. Normally, as unemployment rate increased, inflation was supposed to decrese, but both unemployment and inflation rose. This resulted in an unprecedented convergenc eof economic stagnation and price inflation, known as stagflation. Inaddition to stagflation, U.S. exports were becoming less competitive resulting in the first trade deficit in the 30th century, where the U.S. imported more products than it exported. Nixon tried to fix inflation by announcing a 90 day freeze on any increase in wages and prices.

5. Many Justices during Johson's presidency supported teh Great Society and therefore supported in bringing an expanding list of rights under constitutional protection. Cheif Justic Earl Warren and associate Justice William Brennan led the way in bringing many more rights under constitutional protection. One of the many important decision of the Warren court was the decision in the case Miranda v. Arizona which created the "Miranda Warning". The decision in this cases stated that the constitution requrie police officers, when arresting, to advise a felon of his/ her constitutional rights. Nixon opposed the Warren court so when Cheif Justice Warren resigned, President Nixon appointed Warren Burger a Republican as cheif Justice. The Burger Court faced many important rights related cases. One case was the Danridge v. Williams in which the Warren Court held that state laws capping the amount paid to welfare didn't violate the constution. The Burger Court also faced cases involving health and Safety and in general the Burger Court support the constitutionality of health and safety laws. Other cases that the court had to face involved women's rights. One of the most controversial case involving women's rights was the case Roe v. Wade in which the court ruled that a state law making abortion a criminal offense violated a woman's right to privacy.

6. Nixon's foreign policy mainly composed of Vietnamization and improving the tension with the Soviet Union and China. To improve the tension both naitons signed an agreement which limited the further development of both antiballsitic missiles and offensive intercontinental ballistic missiles. Also Nixon allowed Soviets greater access to U.S. trade and technology to help ther faltering economy. There was also the formation of People's Republic of China led by Mao Sedong, which the United states recognized as a legitamate goverment and started and exchanging informal dimplomatic missions. The other part of Nixon's Foreign policy was Vietnamization which was the withdrawal of U.S. ground forces from Vietnam, increasing the the air war and intensifying diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement. Although, Nixon official adhered to Johnson's bombing halt, Nixon and Kissinger increase both the ground and air wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, which was a neutral country. There was also the "May Lai" incident where Lieutenant Wiliam Calley killel over 200 innocent people. The finally incident that completely destroyed the public opinion of the war was known as the Christmas bombing. This was the heaviest bombardment in history, B-53 planes pounded militart and civilian targets in North Vietnam around the clock. All of the events just sickened Americans and lost enthusiasm in the war.

7. What ultimately led to Nixon's down fall was the Watergate Scandal. Initially, CREEP and the White House both claimed that neither had anything to do with burgalars, but the truth came out when one of the Watergate burglars opened his mouth unable to handle the pressure from Judge Sirice. Soon other witness joined with the watergate burglar in testifying in front of the Senate's Watergate committe, that linked Nixon and CREEP to burglary and other illegal activities. Nixon's situation got worse when John Dean, Nixon chief legal counsel, linked Nixon to an attempt to cover up Watergate. In addition to Nixon's problem, Nixon's vicepresident, Spiro Agnew was caught in an income-tax evasion.