PBS- The Sixties

1)      During the last half of the 1960s 1.4 million men were drafted to Vietnam

2) In 1965 teachers at the University of Michigan organized an SDS supported teach-in to protest the war and by the end of that year there were 100,000 protesters in 80 cities around the country.

3) On October 15, 1969 the largest anti-war demonstration in the countrys history took place, 2 million people marched at the Peace Moratorium.

4) As television increased in popularity throughout the 1960s, movies began to die down in popularity, by 1969 95% of homes had at least one TV set and in 1962 there were about 6,000 drive-in theaters in the country, a year later there were only 3,500.

5) By 1969 a third of the population, 60 million people, had moved out of cities and into the suburbs

6) COINTELPRO was a Counter Intelligence Program used by the FBI to keep track of every organization in the country that was even remotely radical, such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Organization of Women, the SDS, and Malcolm X. The COINTELPRO hoped to discredit these activist leaders in anyway they could in order to break up their organizations.

7) In 1968 the CIA created its (illegal) Operation CHAOS in order to identify the foreign agitators behind protests for civil rights, peace, and free speech. Operation CHAOS had in-depth files on 7,200 individuals and on 100 groups in America.

8) They later added Operations Merrimac and Resistance to Operation CHAOS, these new groups were used to spy on peace groups, black activist organizations, campus radicals and students groups.

9) In the decades since World War II, voter turnout reached its highest in the 1960s, when political awareness was considered to be the responsibility of American citizens.

10) Since 1870 all white men 21 and over had the right to vote, however during the 1960s 18 year olds were being drafted into Vietnam when they did not even have the right to vote against the war itself, in 1971 Richard Nixon supported a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18.

Ten Facts on the 60s

• In fear that China would try and spread their Communist ideas to neighboring countries, the United States began giving money and support to these neighboring countries in an attempt to see America as a great friend and Democratic role-model.
• Two American ships are sunk of the Gulf of Tonkin and the president makes the decision to declare all out war on North Vietnam which was now occupied by Communists.
• Americans begin to bomb Vietnam and try to get the South Vietnamese to fight along side. The problem was that our troops had not known the territory and the native North Vietnamese would use Guerilla Warfare to attack the Americans.
• Eventually in 1973, America ends the war and takes all its people and supplies out of South Vietnam and this is considered a loss for America.
• Nixon wins the 1968 election in a land slide with the promise to end Vietnamese war and improve our nation.
• The contrevorsy over voting rights came back up in the 60s and in 64 there was an amendment passed allowing all African Americans to vote.
• Along with that Nixon lowers the voting age to 18 allowing young men to vote in the next election.
• The Civil Rights movement was stronger than ever during these years and it mostly occurred in school and college campuses.
• President Kennedy is assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn into office immediately in response that the assassination maybe an attempt to attack America.
• Many people didnt want to go to Vietnam and when the draft came out they tried to dodge it. The draft dodgers would be punished under law but were pardoned by Jimmy Carter.

Watergate

1) On June 17, 1972, 5 burglars were arrested at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. The five men had connections to the CIA and FBI and some were also part of anti-Castro activities.

2) The five men were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications.

3) In the 1972 election Nixon won by more than 60% of the vote, beating Senator George McGovern, this was the biggest landslide in American political history.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/index.html 

Facts

1. In 1954, Vietnam is a divided nation, with Communists controlling the North, and anti-Communists in the South.
2. In February 1965, Pres. Johnson begins the air war, ordering sustained bombing of the North. He also sends the first ground troops to the South.
3. In the 60s campuses became a breeding ground for political activism.
4. All American men over 21 have the right to vote after 1870.
5. In 1964, the first male Baby-Boomers turn 18 which is old enough to be drafted and sent to Vietnam but they are still not able to vote against the war because they are still three years to young.
6. John F. Kennedy wins the election for president by promising to keep the U.S. ahead of the Soviet Union in the Space Race and Cold War.
7. The FBI uses the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to investigate and interfere with dissident groups. It intended from the outset to operate beyond the approved limits of federal power.
8. During the 60s the Beatles become huge and are heard everywhere.
9. In '62, there are 6,000 drive-ins in the U.S.; a year later there are 3,550.
10. With 502 films the movie industry peaks in 1964and box office sales continued to increase with ticket prices.  Also, the selection of films would never again be so diverse.

http://www.watergate.info/

Facts

1. After the Watergate scandal the Watergate Hotel is one of Washington's plushest hotels.
2. Nixon had a long political career that began in 1947 when he was elected to the House of Representatives.
3. Nixon served as vice president for eight years and lost the 1960 election to Kennedy but won the 1968 election after two political assassinations.
4. Nixon made three major speeches on the Watergate Scandal.
5. The first one he announced the removal of Dean, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman. The second was bolder.
6. The third, which was the most difficult, is when he released partial transcripts of the White House tapes.
7. Political investigations began in February 1973 when the Senate established a Committee to investigate the Watergate scandal. The public hearings of the Committee were thrilling which included the evidence of John Dean who was Nixon's former White House Counsel.
8. In 1974 the House of Representatives approved the Judiciary Committee to consider impeachment proceedings against Nixon. Later that year the Judiciary Committee accepted three of four proposed articles of impeachment.
9. Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974 after making a nationally televised resignation speech.
10. Gerald Ford, after becoming president, pardoned Nixon.

Pbs

1)      95% of people have a tv (color)

2)      eight track stereos

3)      ken kesey wrote one flew over the cuckoos nest under heavy influence of lsd.

4)      Lsd was legal, many people would throw partys, and upon paying a cover charge you would get a cup of kool-aid

5)      Over 1 mill. North Vietnamese were killed in the Vietnam war

6)      An estimated 2-4 million civilians were killed in the Vietnam war

7)      Fbi spies on activists, such as malcom x. they tape phone line, use surveillance, ect.

8)      Voter turnout in the 60s is the highest since world war 2

9)      Voting age moved from 21 to 18

10)  Not only were activists spied upon, also student groups, and peace groups.

Watergate

2)      Frank Wills, a security guard, acted upon the burglary and opened the scandal

3)      two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigated the scandal.

4)      The reporters had the help of deepthroat, who then was an unknown informant. We now know he was a high ranking fbi offical

5)      It was discovered the Nixon had secret tapes under the desks of the white house, taping all conversations.

6)      Nixon refused to release the tapes.

7)      Upon congress forcing him, Nixon releases edited tapes.

8)      Tapes expose Nixon as paranoid, racist and a little crazy.

9)      To avoid impeachment, Nixon resigns office.

10 Facts about the 1960s.

1. During the 60s there were 70 million children that came from the post-war baby boom who were becoming teenagers and young adults.
2. The Black Panthers were formed to continue Malcolm Xs mission after he was assassinated in 1965.
3. American Indians faced unemployment rates of 50% and a life expectancy only 2/3 of whites.
4. Birth control became acceptable and widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967.
5. In 1967 abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states.
6. Loss of respect for authority declined among the youth and crime rates increased nine times the rate in the 1950.
7. The use of marijuana, LSD and other drugs soared during the hippie movement, they opposed violence, endorsed drugs, rock music, mystic religions and sexual freedom.
8. In 1962 a spy plane identified long-range missiles in Cuba.
9. John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.
10. The first man walked on the moon in 1969.
11. In 1965 cigarette manufacturers were forced to place warnings on all packages and in all ads after a surgeon general determined that smoking was a health hazard.
12. The first women to teach while pregnant and showing was s teacher in the Clear Creek School District in 1968.
13. The minimum voting age became 18 in 1971.
14. The population rate was 177,830,000 and unemployment was 3,852,000 with the national debt at 286.3 Billion.
15. Minimum wage was only $1.00

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html#events

2. By the end of the 1960s, 95 percent of the homes had at least one T.V.

3. By the end of the 1960s, nearly 60 million people, which was a third of the population, had moved out of cities and into suburbs in search of a brighter, cleaner world.

4. The FBI used the Counter Intelligence Program to investigate and interfere with dissident groups.

5. Operations Merrimac and Resistance were added to CHAOS, spying on peace groups, black activist organizations, campus radicals and student groups.

6. John F. Kennedy won the 1961 presidential election by promising to keep the U.S. ahead of the Soviet Union in the Space Race and Cold War.

7. In the next presidential election, candidate Barry Goldwater supports bombing in Vietnam, and loses the Presidential race by a landslide.

8. Shirley Chisholm, a black woman, received over 150 delegate votes in 1972.

9. In 1964, the first male Baby-Boomers turn 1ld enough to be drafted and sent to Vietnambut three years too young to vote against the war.

10. In 1960, a gallon of gas cost 31 cents, and in 1969 it cost 35 cents. (I had to put this since now its like $2.65 for a gallon of gas.)

1. In November 1968, Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey for the Presidency. It was one of the closest elections in U.S. history.

2. On June 13, 1971, the New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers, which was the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. The Washington Post began publishing the papers later in the week.

3. On September 9, 1971, the White House "plumbers" unit burglarized a psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, the former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers.

4. One June 17, 1972, five men were arrested at 2:30 a.m. because they were caught trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex. One of the men who was arrested said that he used to work for the CIA.

5. On November 11, 1972, Nixon was reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote and crushing the Democratic nominee, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota.

6. On June 3, 1973, the Washington Post reported that John Dean told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times.

7. On June 13, 1973, the Washington Post reported that Watergate prosecutors found a memo addressed to John Ehrlichman describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

8. On June 13, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, former presidential appointments secretary, revealed in congressional testimony that since 1971 Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his offices.

9. On October 20, 1973, the Saturday Night Massacre occurs. Nixon fired Archibald Cox and abolished the office of the special prosecutor. Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resigned. Pressure for impeachment mounted in Congress.

10. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to turn over the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, which rejected the president's claims of executive privilege.

Alex Z. wrote:

Alex Zarecki

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/index.html

Facts
1. The Republic of Vietnam (South) lost roughly 4 times as many soldiers as the U.S.
2. U.S. soldiers used Charlie as a derogatory term for members of the VC as a result of the radio alphabet term Victor-Charlie.
3. Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of the U2 plane, was detained for two years in Soviet territory.
4. The Presidential Television Debates provided Kennedy with limelight while making Nixon look bad (literally).
5. Elvis was discharged after two years in the army in 1960.
6. Also in 1960, Theodore Maiman, a physicist, successfully created the first LASER.
7. The sit-ins first occurred in 1960, too, protesting segregation in the South.
8. The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
9. The voting rights act was passed in 1965.
10. Star Trek first aired in 1966.

Thoughts
Although it took me a while to realize a timeline involved more than one year, I found it interesting how much happened in this decade. It seems as though more happens in recent years than in, say, during colonial times, but I wonder is that just because we are better at recording history now than we were before? Or even further, does it just seem this way because we dont realize whats really insignificant when things are still affecting us?

1. Barry Goldwater lost the presidential election because he supported bombing Vietnam.
2. The voting rights act of 1965 was passed.
3. In 1964 a young person could not vote at the age of 18, but could be drafted into the army.
4. SDS-Students for a Democratic Society was founded in 1962.
5. Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman to run for the presidency.
6. On August 24, 1967 Abbott Hoffman, founder of the Yippies, leads a leads a group of followers into the New York Stock Exchange, in order to protest the Vietnam War and capitalism.
7. The Tonkin Resolution is passed, which gives t he president power to wage war against North Vietnam.
8. Almost half of the population in America was under 18 in the 1960s.
9. 502 films are released in 1964.
10. 60 million people move out of the cities and into the suburbs by the end of the sixties.

Watergate

1.      On June 17 1972, the Watergate burglars broke into the Democratic Partys National Committee offices.

2.      The burglars were really people from the White House Plumbers unit and former CIA officials.

3.      The break in revealed the White House dirty tricks squad, and the plumbers unit.

4.      Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the two main reporters who researched the Watergate scandal.

5.      W. Mark Felt Deep Throat was the man who leaked the Watergate info to the reporters.

6.      Testimony from government officials who were involved, were held by the Senate Committee and were broadcasted on TV throughout May and August of 1973.

7.      Donald Sanders, during hid testimony, revealed that the oval office was being taped at all times.

8.      Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor on the case, was fired, due to the actions of Nixon, because he subpoenaed the tapes.

9.      On July 24, 1974 the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the tapes.

10.  As a result, Nixon became the first President ever to resign.