8. From Camelot to Watergate 8.1 The Triumphs and Turmoil of the 1960’s 8.2 Post Industrial America: Nixon to Carter 8.3 Conservatism Revived, 1980 - 1992 8.4 New Millennium, 1992 - Present 8.1 The Triumphs and Turmoil of the 1960's 8.1.1 JFK and Civil Rights 8.1.2 Nonviolent Radicals and Violent Conservatives 8.1.3 New Frontiers and Old Rivals 8.1.4 Reaching for the Stars 8.1.5 "President Kennedy Has Been Shot” 8.1.6 The Great Society 8.1.7 The Longest War 8.1.8 The Culture of Protest 8.1.1 JFK and Civil Rights 1960 • Sit-ins in Greensboro • Four Black college students sit at the Woolworth lunch counter • Denied service • Sparks a decade of public activism • John F. Kennedy elected President • “The torch has been passed to a new generation…” • Top priority: • “Best and brightest” worked on foreign policy

Marching for Freedom • Students spearhead the movement • 1960: Woolworth sit-in • 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee • 1961: Freedom Ride • Congress of Racial Equality members purchased tickets for a 1,500 mile trip from Washington D.C. to New Orleans • Racially mixed group of 13 • One bus firebombed • One bus attacked by White mob Freedom Ride: May, 1961

• Anniston, Alabama: White mob burns bus carrying interracial group of Freedom Riders.

JFK & Civil Rights • JFK: generally sympathetic, but not deeply committed to civil rights • Segregation hurt U.S. image worldwide • Feared loss of Southern vote in Congress • Appointed 5 segregationist federal judges • Allowed J Edgar Hoover to harass MLK and other civil rights leaders • Grassroots activists and violence forced JFK’s hand • 1962: 500 U.S. marshals protect James Meredith, first African American student at U. Mississippi 8.1.2 Nonviolent Radicals & Violent Conservatives Dr. King Plays “Chicken”

• Birmingham • MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference planned 1963 campaign in Birmingham • Project C = confrontation • King wanted nonviolence to provoke hatred and violence • April 1963: Hundreds arrested • King put children on the front lines • Some as young as 6 • Police used water cannons • Kennedy forced a settlement • Southern whites caved under pressure Hosing Down Civil Rights Demonstrators Birmingham, Alabama: 1963 “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever” • Alabama Governor • Promises to “bar the schoolhouse door” to prevent desegregation at U. Alabama • Kennedy commits federal power to guarantee racial justice • June, 1963: “Our nation’s promise of democracy must be made now…’ • Hours later, Medgar Evers is killed in his driveway • Days later, JFK asks Congress to pass a civil rights bill “We Shall Overcome!” • March on Washington • August 28, 1963: 250,000 meet at Washington Mall to support Civil Rights Bill • Freedom Summer • Summer, 1964: more than 1,000 White students join Mississippi voter mobilization project • Freedom Schools: taught literacy and constitutional rights • June 21: James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman murdered

Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech “When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Selma March: 1965 • Civil rights demonstrators march from Selma to the state capital at Montgomery. • This Life magazine cover shows that the civil rights movement had found a national audience. • Moments after the photo was taken, state troopers beat marchers with billy clubs. • Soon thereafter, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Malcolm X

• The charismatic black leader called for black separatism. • Malcolm later tempered his separatist rhetoric.

8.1.3 New Frontiers & Old Rivals Camelot • 1959-60 Campaign and Early Years • “New Frontier” • Federal government will eradicate poverty, guarantee health care, and improve education • Will put a man on space • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) begins Apollo program • 1962: John Glenn orbited earth Nation-building in the Third World • Kennedy vs. Khrushchev • Khrushchev endorsed “wars of national liberation” • JFK called for “peaceful revolution” • Took steps to help nations’ through early growth • Oversaw a multibillion-dollar alliance for progress (Peace Corps) • 1961 Summit meeting is disastrous • JFK and Khrushchev disagree on ‘preconditions for peace’ The Berlin Wall • The wall separating East and West Berlin is a hated symbol of the division of Europe into democratic and communist camps. • November, 1961: East German soldiers stand guard as the concrete wall is constructed

Tensions Mount • Bay of Pigs Invasion • Eisenhower left a partial plan to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro • CIA-trained rebels would conduct amphibious attack • April 17, 1961: complete fiasco • Anti-American sentiment throughout Latin America

Cuban Missile Crisis • 1962: Soviets secretly deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba • U-2 spy planes gather evidence • Kennedy orders naval quarantine of Cuba • October 22: Kennedy addresses the nation and demands Soviet • October 28: compromise is arranged • U.S. will not invade

• U.S. will remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey • Soviets will withdraw from Cuba

8.1.4 Reaching for the Stars To the Moon

This moon’s-eye-view of the earth greeted the first men to land on the lunar surface.

“One Giant Leap for Mankind” • Astronaut Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin descends from the Lunar Landing Craft. • Crewmate Neil Armstrong: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”

8.1.5 "President Kennedy Has Been Shot." 1963 Congressional campaign • Civil Rights tops domestic agenda • JFK goes to Dallas • Assassinated November 22, 1963

8.1.6 The Great Society Johnson’s Great Society • Great Society • Johnson imagines an America of abundance and liberty for all • Civil Rights: top priority • Signed • Ends legal discrimination • War on Poverty • Economic Opportunity Act • Office of Economic Opportunity • Job Corps • Legal Services for the Poor President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

• Johnson presidency shattered by trauma of Vietnam. • • 1968, so unpopular he was heckled everywhere he went.

Giving Thanks for Medicare April 1965: An elderly woman shows her gratitude to President Lyndon B. Johnson for signing the Medicare bill Poverty in the United States, 1960–2006 • 1963-68: Great Society programs & poverty rate • 2000: the poverty rate fell to 11.3 percent • Lowest level since 1979. • Poverty threshold: tied to the consumer price index. • Poverty rate: the percentage of all Americans living below that threshold.

8.1.7 The Longest War Vietnam Conflict • Johnson inherited hostilities in Vietnam • Kennedy had sent 1600 “advisors” • LBJ: Tonkin Gulf Incident and Resolution expanded American involvement exponentially • U.S. destroyers “under attack” by North Vietnamese boats • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave Johnson full authority to repeal attacks • “Non-declaration” of war: Congress surrendered its war making powers to Johnson • Escalation: U.S. commits increasing ground forces “Spineless”

• The United States supports South Vietnam. Vietnam Conflict II • American Soldiers in Vietnam • Faced an enemy’s guerilla tactics • Americanization: U.S. vs. communism • Vietcong soldiers were “wearing us down, driving us mad, killing us.” • War became a stalemate • Public Sentiment • Dropped steadily during the war • Because of use of weapons like Agent Orange and napalm • Specific incidents: My Lai Masssacre, Tet Offensive 1968 • The nation seemed to be coming apart • Americans frustrated over Vietnam, racial violence • Tet Offensive • January 31, 1968 (Vietnamese New Year) • North Vietnamese struck several cities at once South Vietnam • American public wondered if war was winnable Vietnam and Southeast Asia, 1954–1975 • Le Ly Hayslip’s memoir, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, describes the trauma endured by ordinary Vietnamese as a result of America’s fight against the Viet Cong: “In 1963—the year the Viet Cong came to my village— American warplanes bombed Man Quang. It was at noon, just when the children were getting out of school. My aunt Thu and her pregnant daughter-in-law were making lunch for her husband and four grandchildren when the air-raid signal blared…

High Tech War

• + Modern equipment (e.g., the helicopter) gave the Americans a military advantage. • - Lack of political purpose and a national will to win

Vietnam Vets Protest the War, 1971

• Public opinion turned against the war. 1965: 15% of Americans favored withdrawal of U.S. troops • 1969: 69% considered the war a “mistake” • 1970: 52% supported withdrawal • April, 1971: eight hundred veterans threw away their Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, and other military honors to protest a war they no longer support.

President Lyndon Johnson Haunted by Specters of Vietnam, 1967 8.1.8 The Culture of Protest The Free Speech Movement Berkeley, California, 1964 • The Free Speech Movement University of California-Berkeley was the first large- scale student mobilization • Became common throughout the 1960s.

• Here a student trained in passive resistance is dragged by police to a “paddy wagon”.

The Siege of Chicago: 1968 • August 1968: thousands of antiwar protestors demonstrates at the Democratic National Convention • Police & National Guard violently broke up peaceful “festival of light” by 2,500 members of the Youth International Party (Yippies) • Tarnished Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign

The First Gay Pride Parade, New York City, 1970 On the first anniversary of homosexuals’ celebrated resistance to police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, two hundred men and women marched from Greenwich Village to Central Park

Negative Campaigning

• This infamous “attack ad” was televised only once, but it signaled the emergence of a new style of political campaigning. • The child dreamily pulls petals from a flower. Suddenly a man counts down from 10, and a nuclear bomb explodes.

• “Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” • The ad implies that a vote for Barry Goldwater would be a vote for nuclear war. Presidential Election of 1968 (electoral vote by state) • George Wallace won five states • denied major-party candidates a clear majority in 25 states. If election have gone to the House of Representatives, Wallace would have had bargaining position.

8.2 Post Industrial America: From Watergate to the Iran Hostage Crisis 8.2.1 The Fight for Justice Expands

8.2.2 Farewell, Vietnam

8.2.3 and the World 8.2.4 Nixon & the Nation

8.2.5 Watergate

8.2.6 An Unelected President

8.2.7 "Call Me Jimmy" 8.2.1 The Fight for Justice Expands Native American Activism • 1968-1975: Native Americans wanted their demands heard • Wanted a return to traditional folkways • November 1969: Indians of All Tribes (IAT) occupied Alcatraz Island, demanding it be returned to them • “Red Power” movement • Congress and the courts returned millions of acres of land to tribal ownership • 1975: Passed Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act

Affirmative Action

• Equality as a fact vs. equality as a result • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) • Saw racial and sexual discrimination in American education • Affirmative action laws are passed to address workplace and educational discrimination faced by women and historically underrepresented minorities • Impacts hiring for jobs and admissions to college The Women’s Movement • The Feminine Mystique: the women’s movement had reached suburbia • National Organization for Women • Goal was to force the EEOC to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act • Advocated for an end workplace discrimination • 1972: Title IX • Higher Education Act: prevented federal funds from going to any college that discriminated against women • Universities channeled money to women’s athletics • Participation boomed

Gay Liberation

• Early ‘70s • Gay men and lesbians faced widespread discrimination • Prior to 1973, homosexuality was labeled a mental disorder • “Gay Power” and Homophile organizations • Police raided gay bars, such as the Stonewall Inn in NYC for violating a law that said “no more than three homosexuals could occupy a bar concurrently.” • “Gay Power” slogans appeared throughout the city 8.2.2 Farewell, Vietnam Vietnam: The Epilogue • Invasion of Cambodia • Nixon’s policy of - building up South Vietnamese forces to replace U.S. forces • April 1970: South Vietnamese and U.S. troops invade Cambodia • Protests and Counterdemonstrations • May 4, 1970: National Guardsmen in Ohio fire into a crowd of students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding 11 • 5/14/1970: Police blast women’s dormitory at Jackson State University, killing 2 and wounding 9 • • Kissinger signs a cease- fire agreement with North Vietnamese Kent State: Spring 1970 • Nixon’s order to invade Cambodia sparked angry protests on American campuses. • At Kent State University in Ohio, the nation watched in horror as four student demonstrators were shot by jittery National Guardsmen.

8.2.3 Richard Nixon and the World Nixon, Kissinger, and the World • • Nixon and Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State) accept the limits of U.S. power • U.S. will provide economic aid to allies, but allies no troops • Détente • Measured cooperation with the Soviets within environment of rivalry • Check Soviet expansion and limit Soviet arms • May 1972 ABM Treaty: limits IBM’s and antiballistic missile defenses • Opening • Nixon goes to China, where he and Mao agree to disagree on many issues except no Soviet expansion in Asia President Richard M. Nixon • Reversing Kennedy’s inaugural promise to “bear any burden,” Nixon told Congress in February 1970, “America cannot— and will not—conceive all the plans, design all the programs, execute all the decisions and undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world.” Balancing Act • 1973: Nixon balances between two communist superpower • He offers surplus U.S. wheat as bargaining chip for détente.

Middle East • Wars in the Middle East • Arab-Israeli Six-Day War (1967) • gained land, but found they were governing people who hated them • New Jewish settlements were established • Arab resentment grew • Terrorists associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) made guerrilla raids on settlements, killed athletes at 1972 Olympics • Israel retaliated by assassinating PLO leaders • October ’73: Egypt and Syria attack Israel on Yom Kippur • To punish U.S. for supporting Israel, OPEC embargoes oil shipments to U.S. and others • Kissinger arranges ceasefire, but embargo not lifted until March, 1974 Oil Shock

• When OPEC increased oil prices in the 1970s, many Americans failed to realize that the era of low energy prices had ended forever.

8.2.4 Nixon & the Nation Nixon’s Domestic Agenda • Liberal Agenda • Pioneered Affirmative Action, doubled the budgets of NEH and NEA, signed environmental legislation, created Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) • Conservative Agenda • Devolution: shifting federal government authority to states and localities, attacked protesters as “naughty children” • Enemies and Dirty Tricks • Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) • June 17, 1972: Five CREEP members break into the Democratic National Committee’s offices at Watergate to “bug” opponents Nixon, the “Law- and-Order-Man” The Nixon Wave • During Nixon’s presidency, Americans experienced the first real inflation since the post–World War II era. • By the late 1970s, the consumer price index rose over 10 percent a year.

8.2.5 Watergate ‘Smoking Gun’ • The tape-recorded conversations between President Nixon and his top aides on June 23, 1972, proved mortally damaging to Nixon’s claim that he had played no role in the Watergate cover-up.

Aftermath of Watergate • No proof Nixon was directly involved in Watergate • He was clearly involved in the cover-up • Aided by informant called “Deep Throat,” two relatively unknown reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, followed the money trail • Impeachment and Resignation • On August 9, 1974: Facing near-certain impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigns • Ford becomes president and pardons Nixon • Ford’s public approval rating plummets • As president, Ford does little domestically 8.2.6 An Unelected President Gerald R. Ford • Likable and honest • Asked Americans to “put Watergate behind them.” • Weak economy • Asked Americans to cut back on oil and gas

Ford’s Foreign Policy

• Like Nixon, wanted to negotiate with China and Soviet Union • Signed Helsinki Accords – sought cooperation 8.2.7 "Call Me Jimmy" Jimmy Carter • Relative unknown peanut farmer and small-state governor • Brought down-to-earth style • Confronted Energy Crisis with complicated National Energy Act

Median Household Income, 1970–2005 • During the long post– World War II economic boom (from about 1950 to 1970), family incomes increased dramatically • After 1970, “real,” incomes stagnated.

Carter and Civil Rights

• Appointed several African Americans to important government jobs • Fell short of expectations The Abortion Wars

• Pro-choice and pro-life demonstrators clash verbally. By 2000, the debate over abortion had become the most morally charged and divisive issue in American society since the struggle over slavery in the 1800’s.

Celebrating Camp David Accords, September 1978 • Anwar Sadat of Egypt and of Israel join U.S. president Jimmy Carter in historic accord that brought hope of peace to the Middle East.

Two-Way SALT Talks

June 1979: The grim specter of nuclear holocaust haunted the SALT II talks between President Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Iran Hostage Crisis

• Militants seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages. • Quiet, but intense, efforts to free hostages fail. Historical Double Take • Americans longed for Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Rider” diplomacy were outraged at the Panama “giveaway.” • Carter, looking to the future, argued that relinquishing control of the canal would be healthy for U.S. – Latin American relations.

Iranians Denounce President Jimmy Carter, November 1979 • Scenes like this one appeared almost nightly on American television during the 444 days of the Iranian hostage crisis, humiliating Carter and angering American citizens.

8.3 Conservatism Revived, 1980-1992 8.3.1 Ronald Reagan's America

8.3.2 "The Reagan Doctrine”

8.3.3 Bush's "New World Order" 8.3.1 Ronald Reagan's America Reagan and the Conservative Resurgence • Known for right wing rhetoric • New Conservative Coalition • Strengthen national defense, limit federal power, deregulation, tax policies that benefit corporations • Agenda • Roll back liberalism of past fifty years that made nation responsible for the nation’s economic health and the social welfare of its citizens The Triumph of the Right, 1980 • Republican conservatives won both the White House and the Senate • Dominated the House in coalition with conservative Democrats

President Ronald Reagan

• Older than any man previously elected to the presidency

“January Surprise”

• After over a year in captivity, the Iranian Embassy hostages were released on the very day of Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration.

Conservative Agenda • Attacks on social welfare • Reagan: government cannot solve social problems • Supporters resented paying taxes for “freeloaders” • 1981: social welfare by $25 billion • Increased defense spending by $1.2 trillion • Pro-Business • Removed government regulation in order to “restore the creativity of American enterprise” Wallflowers

• Reagan’s budget cuts fell almost exclusively on social programs. • Military outlays increased substantially.

Conservative Agenda II

• Anti-labor • August 1981: strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization • Federal workers protested working conditions, not wages • Reagan fired all 11,330 strikers • FAA can never rehire them • Reagan NLRB appointees were anti- labor lawyers • 44% of union families voted for Reagan because of his values and his anti- communist stand • Former president of Screen Actors Guild (union) The New Right • Loosely-organized, fundamentalist Christian group, • Supporters of anti- abortion laws and prayer in public schools • Supreme Court became more conservative • Appointees: Anthony Kennedy, Anton Scalia, and Sandra Day O’Connor • Upheld Georgia law against anal or oral sex (Bowers v. Hardwick) • 1989: Ruled a Missouri law restricting abortions was constitutional • Encouraged additional challenges to Roe v. Wade (1973) The Justice Is a Lady, 1981

• Herblock hails Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment to the Court.

The Moral Majority, 1981

• TV evangelist Rev. Jerry Falwell mobilized his Moral Majority organization in support of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign.

Economy • Federal Reserve Bank • 1981: To battle inflation, the Fed raised interest rates for bank loans to 21.5%, tightening the money supply and slowing the economy • U.S. plunged into a recession • But… • Inflation reduced and GNP raises • Economy improves • Deregulation • The reduction government control over a particular industry, usually enacted to encourage competition within the industry. The Rich Get Richer • 1980’s Boom • Junk bonds: high interest / high risk investments • Insider Trading Scandals • Savings & Loan industry lost billions. • Government bailout cost taxpayers .5 Trillion dollars • During Reagan’s administration, the rich got richer at the expense of the poor and the middle class. • Tax policies increased the effective tax rate for the top 1% by 14.4% • Increased taxes for the poorest fifth by 16% Share of Income Received by Families, by Quintile, 1980–2005 • Since 1980 the incomes of the lowest 20 percent and the middle 60 percent have been shrinking. • Incomes of the highest 20 percent, and especially the top 5 percent, have climbed steadily.

The National Debt, 1930–2006 • World War II provided a major boost to the national debt. • The policies of Reagan and G. H. W. Bush, 1981–1993, explosively expanded the debt to the $4 trillion level. • By the 1990s, 14 percent of federal revenues went to interest payments on the debt. • Clinton (1997–2001) budget surpluses raised the prospect that the debt might be paid off. • But G. W. Bush tax cuts and increased military spending sent the debt soaring again after 2001.

Sources: Historical Statistics of the United States and Statistical Abstract of the United States, relevant years; Office of Management and Budget, “Mid-Session Review: Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2008.”

8.3.2 "The Reagan Doctrine" Reagan and the World • Soviet-American tension • Reagan called Soviets an “evil empire” and increased tensions • Believed substantial military build-up would reduce the Soviet threat • Reagan Doctrine • The U.S. would openly support anti-communist movements • We would liberate freedom fighters seeking democracy East Meets West

• President Reagan greets Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at a summit meeting in Moscow in May 1988.

Star Wars Fantasies • President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (popularly known as Star Wars) invited ridicule from the scientific community. • Others suggested it might provoke a pre- emptive Soviet attack if it did work.

Contra War in Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan civil war (1979) • Leftist insurgents called Sandinistas overthrew Somoza, a U.S. ally • Reagan charged that Nicaragua had become a Soviet client • 1981: The CIA trains, arms, and directs thousands of ‘contras’, to overthrow the new government • 1984: Congress voted to stop U.S. military aid to contras but the Reagan administration secretly funneled money and weapons through countries like Saudi Arabia, Panama, and South Korea • 1987: U.S.-funded party beat the Sandinistas in national elections Iran-Contra Scandal • November 1986 • Reagan’s national security adviser (Oliver North) and CIA director Casey covertly sold weapons to Iran in an unsuccessful attempt to win the release of Americans held hostage. • North later admitted that he illegally destroyed government documents to hide the operation

Mikhail Gorbachev 1985… General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union Glasnost… policy of Openness (Freedom of the Press) Perestoika… Less government control of the economy

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

• 1987: INF Treaty arms control for both nations allowed each nation to make on-site inspections of the other’s military 8.3.3 Bush's "New World Order" George Herbert Walker Bush Campaigning, October 1988

• Bush soundly defeated Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in the November 1988 election.

Collapse of Communism November 9, 1989: East Germany opened the Berlin Wall Soon after, Czechs withdrew from Warsaw Pact

Fallen Idol

• Romanians toppled this statue of Vladimir Lenin in 1990, symbolically marking the collapse of the Marxian dream that had agitated the world for more than a century.

Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, June 1989

• The Chinese communist state mobilized all its forces against students demonstrating for a more democratic China. Persian-Gulf War

• Conflict with Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein • Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to monopolize its oil • U.S. shielded (Operation Desert Shield), then invaded (Operation Desert Storm) • To maintain Kuwait’s independence • To preserve access to oil supplies The Highway of Death • The allied coalition wreaked gruesome destruction on Iraqi forces fleeing back to Iraq after their defeat in Kuwait in 1991.

Read My Nose

• When President Bush went back on his 1988 campaign promise of “no new taxes,” he all but threw away his reelection bid in 1992.

8.4 New Millennium, 1992 - Present 8.4.1 A New Democrat

8.4.2 The Election of 2000

8.4.3 September 11 and the War on Terror

8.4.4 The Winds of Change 8.4.1 A New Democrat William Jefferson Clinton • Becomes president after defeating two other candidates, President George Herbert Bush and businessman Ross Perot • Clinton claims to represent a new type of Democrat • A centrist (closer to the middle than most candidates) Presidential Debate, 1992

• George Bush, Ross Perot, and squared off at the University of Richmond on October 16, 1992. Clinton dominated the televised debates.

Economy and Crime

• Deficit reduction is core of Clinton’s economic plan • Uses political capital to pass NAFTA and World Trade Organization • BOTH are important for globalization • A global, united economy • He also passes an anticrime bill with limitations on assault weapons Protesting NAFTA, 1993

• Unions feared adoption of NAFTA would replace high-paying American labor with low-wage, nonunion Mexican labor. Experts still argue about whether NAFTA has hurt American workers.

Intifada Against Israeli Control, 1994 • 1987: Palestinians living in the Israeli-controlled territories (West Bank & Gaza) protested violently.

• The likelihood of Middle East peace receded, despite repeated international diplomatic efforts.

Republicans and Clinton • Clinton stumbles over health care reform and foreign policy • Republicans gain control of Congress in 1994 for the first time in fifty years, advocating a “contract for America” • Newt Gingrich and the Republicans overreached and Clinton won again in 1996

The Legacy of Impeachment • Time magazine’s cartoonist asked how future generations would judge the Clinton impeachment episode— and how it might be treated in history textbooks.

Clinton Era Not-so-high- lights • 1995: antigovernment extremists blow up a federal building in Oklahoma, killing workers and children • 1998: Clinton sex scandal involving a White House intern • 1999: Columbine HS shooting leaves 13 dead, 20 others wounded • 2000: Controversial election that requires U.S. Supreme Court to make final decision • Republican George W. Bush, Governor of , is declared the winner Oklahoma City Bombing, 1995

• A truck bomb killed 168 people in this federal office building in the worst act of terrorism in the United States until September 11, 2001. Convicted on eleven counts for the attack, antigovernment militant Timothy McVeigh became the first person executed by the federal government in nearly forty years in 2001.

8.4.2 The Election of 2000 Counting Chads • With Bush and Gore neck- and-neck in Florida’s presidential vote count, election officials in Broward County eyeballed paper ballots disqualified by machine. What a way to pick the next President!

8.4.3 September 11 and the War on Terror The Toll of Terror

• Grief overcame this exhausted firefighter during the search for survivors in the wreckage of New York City’s World Trade Center.

The Attacks Seen Around the World “Give Me Liberty!” Critics of the USA Patriot Act feared the extinction of cherished civil liberties, including the right to protest against the government’s policies.

On the Fiery Ground in Basra, Iraq, 2004 • These British soldiers are running from a gasoline bomb detonated during a protest by Iraqi job seekers The British oversaw the southern Iraq city of Basra, a role that proved so unpopular with British voters that Prime Minister Tony Blair was eventually forced to resign.

Torture at Abu Ghraib Prison, Baghdad, 2003 • Revelations that American soldiers had tortured Iraqi prisoners contributed to condemnation of the nation’s disregard for human rights and growing disquiet about America’s unilateral policing of the world.

8.4.4 The Winds of Change

After the Levees Broke in New Orleans, August 2005

• When Hurricane Katrina hammered the Gulf Coast, it overtaxed a deficient levee system and unleashed floodwaters into New Orleans, submerging 80 percent of the city and destroying more than a quarter million of its homes. After the Levees Broke in New Orleans, August 2005 The Democrats Win Back Congress, 2006

Barack Obama

• Riding public discontent with the Bush administration, Sen. Obama (IL) beat Sen. McCain (AZ) in 2008 to become our first African American President.