HIST 2112 Lecture 20Outline of Last Lecture I. Vietnam: a short historyA. A “scrappy little country”B. The French and the “landochina” colony C. The Viet Minha. Nationalists b. Very Popular: progressive policiesII. Enter the USA. Vietnam, containment, and “monolithic communism”a. The “Domino Theory”b. Funding the French Indochina Warc. Geneva Settlement1. Divides Vietnam north and south2. No elections: war eruptsIII. Entering the QuagmireB. Support for Diem and the ARVNC. JFK and “military advisors”D. LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: 1964E. Direct US involvement beginsIV. Fighting the WarA. The ineffectiveness of air powerB. The ineffectiveness of the ground wara. “search and destroy” and “body counts”b. Frustration: My Lai massacreV. Tet Offensive, January 1968A. “Where’d all these VC come from?”B. The “credibility gap” and growing antiwar sentiment at homeC. The pullout beginsVI. ReactionA. Vietnam, the end of liberal dominance and the rise of conservatismOutline of Current Lecture I. The Sixties’ Protest Movements: Two PhasesA. “Hope”: reformists, positiveB. “Rage”: Bitter, cynical, sometimes violentII. Civil Rights: From “We Shall Overcome” to “Black Power!”A. Starts out “tame” and non-radicala. Legal phase: Brown v. Board, etc.b. Nonviolent Protest PhaseB. The turn toward radicalism: born of frustration and white violencea. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) / Black PanthersIII. The New LefA. A broad coalition of “social change” groupsB. The New Lef’s Loose set of idealsC. Students for a Democratic Society and critiques of American society / culture / politicsa. Racism, poverty, “inauthentic” suburbiab. “The Establishment”1. Government, military, corporation, universities: all working together to get and keep poweri. The falseness of Liberalism2. The unity of all problemsii. Vietnam War: the ultimate symbol and expression of The Establishment’s corruption D. Protecting Vietnama. Marches, teach-ins, etc.b. Fighting the DrafE. The turn towards radicalisma. Democratic Convention: Chicago, 1968b. The Weathermen (1969)1. Violent, revolutionary (at least rhetorically)IV. The counterculture and the HippiesA. Not the same as the New Lef!B. Protested “corrupt” America by refusing to take part: “Dropping Out”a. “Life as Politics”: dress, drugs, sex as protestb. Communes: hippie utopiac. Yippies: cynical version of hippies, fighting the system through mockeryCurrent Lecture: Days of Hope, Days of Rage- Panthers, Lefists, and Hippies in the 1960s- 50s v. 60s- You can see the 60s coming a mile awayI. The Sixties’ Protest Movements: Two PhasesA. “Hope”: reformists, positiveo Hope  Rageo The early 60s protest movements were reform movementso Not revolutionary, but reform… early 60s activists looked at America and said despite all of our progress, we still have extreme un-equality and we need to fixthis problem… same with povertyo Let’s make America work for all Americans… They aren’t arguing that America cannot be fixed! B. “Rage”: Bitter, cynical, sometimes violento Maybe America is too far gone to be saved?o We’re basically screwed, we don’t need to reform, we need to tear down and rebuildo Born out of frustrationo By 1970, a lot of these movements are on their way out.- Hope to Rage: Three groupsII. Civil Rights: From “We Shall Overcome” to “Black Power!”A. Starts out “tame” and non-radicala. Legal phase: Brown v. Board, etc. Equal access to education, public facilities, etc.  Modern, main-stream goals…  Win on paper Not very radicalb. Nonviolent Protest Phase Marches, sit-ins, boycotting, SNCC  March on Selma B. The turn toward radicalism: born of frustration and white violenceo Things are a little tougher than you thoughto Massive resistance just keeps going on and on and on… are we ever going to see any change??? o You can only get beaten up so many times before your attitude changes.a. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) / Black Panthers SNCC = multi-racial group until 1966 You start to get mixed tensions about white people in the group because of all of the violence… maybe white people are not reformable in the end?? 1966: whites asked to leave SNCC: why are you here?? You kind of act like you own the place and don’t appreciate the sacrifices we make. You need to leave, this is about ending Black violence and anti-segregation…this needs to be a movement by us and for us. BLACK POWER! : rejection of non-violence, a lot of this is theatre  Black Panthers: not passive, hit us and we’ll hit back… Big, black coats… eventually fall apart III. The New LefA. A broad coalition of “social change” groupso The New Lef is mainly a group of people with the same idealso Van Gos: Historian expert on New Lef: Seven Criteria of New Lef Civil Rights Movement- not segregated Voting Rights Right not to be intimidated or molested by violence Right not to be labeled as a subversive Equal access to jobs and employment The right to love who you want The right to be lef alone All of these groups put together make up the new lef: feminists, gays, blacks, etc.B. The New Lef’s Loose set of idealso The old lef is the labor unions, communists, radicals, etc. People that got caught up in the Red Scareo The new lef means that Marx is much less important.o Stalin is a dictator and evil- rejects Marx and Stalin.o There guru is C. Wright Mills C. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and critiques of American society / culture / politics : If you had to put New Lef into a category of one group it would be SDS. o Middle class college kids (normally white) is the main SDS persono Pretty hopeful, reform group, who are horrified by racism and povertyo Join civil rights movement as a start – learn how to do activismo Started in MI a. Racism, poverty, “inauthentic” suburbia SDS believed that there was something deeply wrong with America Even the middle class whites are raised in the suburbs the same as everyone else, then you go to the university, eventually become Babbitt All problems are linked!!  Decided that the problem is America is essentially run by this group (THE ESTABLISHMENT) b. “The Establishment”1. Government, military, corporation, universities: all working together to get and keep powero All the bad things exist because the powers that be