Chapter 29

Theme: Making Power

• Uptown, Chicago, Illinois
  


• In 1964, a small group of college students tried to help residents in a poor Chicago neighborhood.
  


• The activists were members of Students for a Democratic Society.
  


• Founded by white college students, SDS initially sought reform and grew by 1968 to have 350 chapters and between 60,000 and 100,000 members. <COMMUNITY>
  


• Efforts to mobilize the urban poor were unsuccessful, but SDS members helped break down isolation and strengthened community ties.
  


• By 1967, SDS energies were being directed into protests against the widening war in Vietnam.
  

Johnson's War

• Although pledging not to send American soldiers into combat, he manipulated Congress into passing a resolution that was tantamount to a declaration of war.
  


• When bombing failed to halt North Vietnamese advances, Johnson sent large numbers of troops into Vietnam to prevent a Communist victory. <He was trying to avoid Truman's legacy- stopping the Commies (China)>
  


• Search-and-destroy missions combined with chemical warfare wreaked havoc on the people and the land.
  


• LBJ was committed to a war of attrition to wear out and destroy Vietnam.
  

The Credibility Gap

• Johnson kept his decisions from the American public and distorted accounts of military actions. (Moralie Schafer, CBS)
  


• News media increasingly questioned the official descriptions of the war.
  


• As casualties mounted, more Americans questions LBJ's handling of the war. (800+ men killed a month)
  


• In Congress, Democratic senators led by J, William Fulbright opposed Johnson's handling of the conflict.
  

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"

• People of all ages protested against the war, but young people stood out. (College Campus)
  


• Early campus protests at Berkeley centered on students' rights to free speech. (700 person march, 800 were arrested-1967)
  


• Many felt that the university had become a faceless bureaucratic machine.
  


• In 1967, San Francisco attracted thousands of young people for the "Summer of Love." (Timothy Leary- Harvard Professor encouraged students to take LSD "Turn on, tune in, drop out.")
  


• Events like the Woodstock festival spoke to many young Americans' desires to create a new sense of community or counterculture. (revolutionary)
  

From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization

• College students organized protests that questioned the war effort and universities' roles in war-related research.
  


• Student strikes merged opposition to the war and other community issues.
  


• Public opinion polarized.
  


• Massive anti and pro-war rallies occurred.
  


• Nonviolent and violent protests erupted at draft boards. (Vietnam)
  

Teenage Soldiers

• The cultural attitudes of protesters were even found among their equally young GI counterparts.
  


• Working-class Latinos and African American young men made up a disproportionate share of the soldiers. (Majority of the men who enlist come out of poverty stricken areas….when overseas, separated by race.)
  


• Many soldiers grew increasingly bitter over government lies about their alleged victories (LBJ trying to figure out the problem- start making stuff up) and the inability of society to accept them once they returned home. (protestors, pro-war- did not exist, anti-war- put on stage of protest spotlight)
  

The Great Society

• Spurred by books like Michael Harrington's The
  Other America, American awareness of the problems of poverty greatly increased.
  


• Johnson established the Office of Economic Opportunity to lead the war on poverty.
  


• The Job Corps failed, but agencies focusing on education were more successful.
  


• Community Action Agencies threatened to become a new political force that challenged those in power. The Legal Service Program and Head Start (youth programs) made differences in the lives of the poor.
  


• The Great Society was opposed to income redistribution. (take taxes and distribute them)
  


• A 1970 study concluded the war on poverty had barely scratched the surface.
  

Crisis in the Cities

• Cities became segregated centers of poverty and pollution with large minority populations. (movie theatres- as white America moved out to cookie cutter suburbs, poverty stayed in the cities. Money wasn't given to the cities, they kept getting worse.)
  


• Urban black frustrations resulting in over 100 riots in northern cities between 1964 and 1968. (we've gotten through the civil rights movements- riots usually broke out from a white police officer assaulting an African American. Pure frustration)
  


• A presidential commission blamed the rioting on white racism, poverty, and police brutality and recommended massive social reforms.
  

1968- The Tet Offensive

• 
  
  On January 30, 1968 the North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive, shattering the credibility of American officials who had been predicting a quick victory. (attacked South Vietnam all at once)
  
  
  
  
  
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfvJqTN-qvT
    


• Despite the military victory, media reports triggered antiwar protests.
  


• LBJ declared a bombing halt and announced he would not seek re-election.