The history of the United States from 1964 to 1980 includes the climax and end of the Civil Rights Movement; the escalation and ending of the Vietnam War; the drama of a generational revolt with its sexual freedoms and use of drugs; and the continuation of the Cold War, with its Space Race to put a man on the Moon. The economy was prosperous and expanding until the Recession of 1969–1970, then faltered under new foreign competition and the 1973 oil crisis. American society was polarized by the ultimately futile war and by antiwar and antidraft protests, as well as by the shocking Watergate affair, which revealed corruption and gross misconduct at the highest level of government. By 1980 and the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran, including a failed rescue attempt by U.S. armed forces, there was a growing sense of national malaise.
The period closed with the victory of conservative Republican Ronald Reagan, opening the Age of Reagan with a significant change in national direction.Steven F. Hayward, The Age of Reagan, 1964–1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order (2001) The Democratic Party split over the Vietnam War and other foreign policy issues, with a new strong dovish element based on younger voters. Many otherwise liberal Democratic "hawks" joined the Neoconservative movement and started supporting the Republicans—especially Reagan—based on foreign policy.Seymour Martin Lipset, "Neoconservatism: Myth and reality. " Society 25.5 (1988): pp 9–13. Meanwhile, Republicans were generally united on a hawkish and intense American nationalism, strong opposition to Communism, support for promoting democracy and human rights, and strong support for Israel.Colin Dueck, Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II (2010).
Memories of the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s shaped the political landscape for the next half-century. As President Bill Clinton explained in 2004, "If you look back on the Sixties and think there was more good than bad, you're probably a Democrat. If you think there was more harm than good, you're probably a Republican."Quoted in M. J. Heale, "The Sixties as History: A Review of the Political Historiography", Reviews in American History v. 33#1 (2005) 133–152 at p. 132
Johnson administration
Climax of liberalism The climax of liberalism came in the mid-1960s with the success of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–69) in securing congressional passage of his Great Society programs, including civil rights, the end of segregation, Medicare, extension of welfare, federal aid to education at all levels, subsidies for the arts and humanities, environmental activism, and a series of programs designed to wipe out poverty.Robert Dallek, Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (2004)Irving Bernstein, Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson (1994) As a 2005 American history textbook explains:David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Edwin S. Gaustad, John B. Boles, Sally Foreman Griffith, Randall M. Miller, Randall B. Woods, Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People (2005) pp 1052–53 Gradually, liberal intellectuals crafted a new vision for achieving economic and social justice. The liberalism of the early 1960s contained no hint of radicalism, little disposition to revive new deal era crusades against concentrated economic power, and no intention to redistribute wealth or restructure existing institutions. Internationally it was strongly anti-Communist. It aimed to defend the free world, to encourage economic growth at home, and to ensure that the resulting plenty was fairly distributed. Their agenda—much influenced by Keynesian economic theory—envisioned massive public expenditure that would speed economic growth, thus providing the public resources to fund larger welfare, housing, health, and educational programs. Johnson was sure this would work.
Johnson was rewarded with an electoral landslide in 1964 against conservative Barry Goldwater, which broke the decades-long control of Congress by the conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats. However, the Republicans bounced back in 1966, and Republican Richard Nixon won the presidential election in 1968. Nixon largely continued the New Deal and Great Society programs he inherited; a more conservative reaction would come with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.James Reichley, Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (1982)
Cultural "Sixties" The term "The Sixties" covers inter-related cultural and political trends around the globe. This "cultural decade" began around 1963 with the Kennedy assassination and ending around 1974 with the Watergate scandal.Alexander Hamilton (1984) intro to The Literature of Exhaustion, in The Friday Book.
Shift to the extremes in politics
The common thread was a growing distrust of government to do the right thing on behalf of the people. While general distrust of high officials had been an American characteristic for two centuries, the Watergate scandal of 1973–1974 forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who faced impeachment, as well as criminal trials for many of his senior associates. The media was energized in its vigorous search for scandals, which deeply impacted both major parties at the national, state, and local levels.J. Lull, and S. Hinerman, "The search for scandal' in J. Lull & S. Hinerman, eds. Media scandals: Morality and desire in the popular culture marketplace (1997) pp. 1–33. At the same time there was a growing distrust of long-powerful institutions such as big business and labor unions. The postwar consensus regarding the value of technology in solving national problems came under attack, especially nuclear power, came under heavy attack from the New Left.Timothy E. Cook and Paul Gronke. "The skeptical American: Revisiting the meanings of trust in government and confidence in institutions." Journal of Politics 67.3 (2005): 784–803.
Conservatives at the state and local levels increasingly emphasized the argument that the soaring crime rates indicated a failure of liberal policy in the American cities.James O. Finckenauer, "Crime as a national political issue: 1964–76: From law and order to domestic tranquility." NPPA Journal 24.1 (1978): 13–27. Abstract
Meanwhile, liberalism was facing divisive issues, as the New Left challenged established liberals on such issues as the Vietnam War, and built a constituency on campuses and among younger voters. A "cultural war" was emerging as a triangular battle among conservatives, liberals, and the New Left, involving such issues as individual freedom, divorce, sexuality, and even topics such as hair length and musical taste.James Davison Hunter, Culture wars: The struggle to control the family, art, education, law, and politics in America (1992).
An unexpected new factor was the emergence of the religious right as a cohesive political force that gave strong support to conservatism.Paul Boyer, "The Evangelical Resurgence in 1970s American Protestantism" in Schulman and Zelizer, eds. Rightward bound pp. 29–51.:Stephen D. Johnson and Joseph B. Tamney, "The Christian Right and the 1980 presidential election. " Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1982) 21#2: 123–131.
The triumphal issue for liberalism was the achievement of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, which won over the black population created a new black electorate in the South. However, it alienated many working-class ethnic whites, and opened the door for conservative white Southerners to move into the Republican Party.Jack M. Boom, Class, race, and the civil rights movement (1987).
In foreign policy, the war in Vietnam was a highly divisive issue in the 1970s. Nixon had introduced a policy of detente in the Cold War, but it was strongly challenged by Reagan and the conservative movement. Reagan saw the Soviet Union as an implacable enemy that had to be defeated, not compromised with. A new element emerged in Iran, with the overthrow of a pro-American government, and the emergence of the stream of hostile ayatollahs. Radical students seized the American Embassy, and held American diplomats hostage for over a year, underscoring the weaknesses of the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter.David Farber, Taken hostage: The Iran hostage crisis and America's first encounter with radical Islam (Princeton UP, 2009).
The economic scene was in doldrums, with soaring inflation undercutting the savings pattern of millions of Americans, while unemployment remained high and growth was low. Shortages of gasoline and the local pump made the energy crisis a local reality.W. Carl Biven, Jimmy Carter's economy: policy in an age of limits (U of North Carolina Press, 2003).
Ronald Reagan in 1964–1968 emerged as the leader of a dramatic conservative shift in American politics, that undercut many of the domestic and foreign policies that had dominated the national agenda for decades.Bruce J. Schulman and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (Harvard UP, 2008) pp. 1–10.Andrew Busch, Regan's victory: the presidential election of 1980 and the rise of the right (UP of Kansas, 2005).
Civil Rights Movement
The 1960s were marked by street protests, demonstrations, rioting, civil unrest, antiwar protests, and a cultural revolution. African American youth protested following victories in the courts regarding civil rights with street protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and the NAACP. King and Bevel skillfully used the media to record instances of brutality against non-violent African American protesters to tug at the conscience of the public. Activism brought about successful political change when there was an aggrieved group, such as African Americans or feminists or homosexuals, who felt the sting of bad policy over time, and who conducted long-range campaigns of protest together with media campaigns to change public opinion along with campaigns in the courts to change policy.Hugh Davis Graham, The Civil Rights Era: Origins and Development of National Policy, 1960–1972 (1990)
The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 helped change the political mood of the country. The new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, capitalized on this situation, using a combination of the national mood and his own political savvy to push Kennedy's agenda; most notably, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In addition, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had an immediate impact on federal, state and local elections. Within months of its passage on August 6, 1965, one quarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one third by federal examiners. Within four years, voter registration in the South had more than doubled. In 1965, Mississippi had the highest black voter turnout, 74%, and had more elected black-leaders than any other state. In 1969, Tennessee had a 92.1% voter turnout, Arkansas 77.9%, and Texas 77.3%.Thomas E. Cavanagh, "Changes in American voter turnout, 1964–1976." Political Science Quarterly (1981): 53–65. in JSTOR
Election of 1964
In the election of 1964, Lyndon Johnson positioned himself as a moderate, contrasting himself against his GOP opponent, Barry Goldwater, who the campaign characterized as solidly conservative. Most famously, the Johnson campaign ran a commercial entitled the "Daisy Girl" ad, which featured a little girl picking petals from a daisy in a field, counting the petals, which then segues into a launch countdown and a nuclear explosion. Johnson soundly defeated Goldwater in the general election, winning 61.1% of the popular vote, and losing only five states in the Deep South, where blacks were not yet allowed to vote, along with Goldwater's Arizona.