History

THE NEW CONSERVATISM AND A NEW WORLD ORDER “I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.” California Governor Ronald Reagan, 1974 ficient Japanese carmakers […]

A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION Shifts in the structure of Ameri- can society, begun years or even de- cades earlier, had become apparent by the time the 1980s arrived . The composition of the population and the most important jobs and skills in American society had undergone major changes . The dominance of service jobs in

THE FORD INTERLUDE Nixon’s vice president, Gerald Ford (appointed to replace Agnew), was an unpretentious man who had spent most of his public life in Con- gress . His first priority was to restore trust in the government . However, feeling it necessary to head off the spectacle of a possible prosecution of Nixon, he

NIXON(S) ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND DEFEATS Vice president under Eisenhower before his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1960, Nixon was seen as among the shrewdest of Ameri- can politicians . Although Nixon subscribed to the Republican value of fiscal responsibility, he accepted a need for government’s expanded role and did not oppose the ba- sic contours

THE ELECTION OF 1968 By 1968 the country was in tur- moil over both the Vietnam War and civil disorder, expressed in ur- ban riots that reflected African- American anger . On March 31, 1968, the president renounced any inten- tion of seeking another term . Just a week later, Martin Luther King Jr .

THE WAR IN VIETNAM Dissatisfaction with the Great So- ciety came to be more than matched by unhappiness with the situation in Vietnam . A series of South Viet- namese strong men proved little more successful than Diem in mobi- lizing their country . The Viet Cong, insurgents supplied and coordinated from North Vietnam, gained

DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980 Johnson succeeded in the effort to provide more federal aid for el- ementary and secondary schooling, traditionally a state and local func- tion . The measure that was enacted gave money to the states based on the number of their children from low-income families . Funds could be used to assist

LYNDON JOHNSON AND THE GREAT SOCIETY Lyndon Johnson, a Texan who was majority leader in the Senate before becoming Kennedy’s vice president, was a masterful politician . He had been schooled in Congress, where he developed an extraordinary abil- ity to get things done . He excelled at pleading, cajoling, or threatening as necessary to

KENNEDY AND THE COLD WAR President Kennedy came into of- fice pledging to carry on the Cold War vigorously, but he also hoped for accommodation and was reluc- tant to commit American power . During his first year-and-a-half in office, he rejected American in- tervention after the CIA-guided Cuban exile invasion at the Bay of

KENNEDY AND THE RESURGENCE OF BIG GOVERNMENT LIBERALISM By 1960 government had become an increasingly powerful force in people’s lives . During the Great De- pression of the 1930s, new execu- tive agencies were created to deal with many aspects of American life . During World War II, the number of civilians employed by the