Civilisation des Etats-Unis 12c: Post-War America Prof. Sämi LUDWIG

Vietnam War 1954 French withdraw after Dien Bien Phu - Communist leader Ho Chi Minh Eisenhower encourages independent South Vietnam o civil war against Viet Cong from North - Kennedy sends military advisers o “Domino Theory” o 1965 bombing o ’000 US troops o rising costs: $20billion/year 1968 Tet Offensive (Vietnamese Lunar New Year)  almost reach US Embassy in Saigon

LBJ withdraws from re-election MLK assassinated Robert Kennedy assassinated 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago Mayor Daly

1968 Richard Nixon elected - against Eugene McCarthy Did liberal Democrats lose Southern votes?  George Wallace gets democratic votes in South - end “permissiveness” - end Vietnam War: “Vietnamization” o withdraw 25’000 troops o 1970 invade Cambodia, Laos

Protests:  Kent State U Ohio 4 students killed  Jackson State U Miss. 2 killed

Press coverage:

Negotiations in Paris o step up bombing:  1970 more than in all of WWII  Christmas bombings 1972; B-52s 1973 cease-fire  US troops withdraw  Embassy helicopters 1975 war ends Costs: $141 billion = $7000 for each inhabitant more bombs than in WWII Agent Orange

Apollo 11: Armstrong, Aldrich and Collins Wernher von Braun

1972 visit to People’s Republic of China - Nixon and Chairman Mao

Henry Kissinger (foreign minister) o 1972 visits Mao’s China o later visit Moscow, Eastern European countries o active foreign policy Domestic politics: o “New Economics” against Keynesian theory o welfare: minimum income o 1972 federal student loans $1400 per year but o conservative vice president Spiro Agnew o conservative justices on Supreme Court

1972 Nixon re-elected o landslide victory against George McGovern Watergate scandal  hotel in DC, Democratic headquarters  electronic recording devices 1973 Senate hearings televised many aids, cabinet resign, indicted: advisors Haldemann, Ehrlichman, Attorney General Mitchell, Vice President Agnew

Special Prosecutor  misuse of authority  Nixon pleads innocent  1974 part of secret tapes published  US shocked: “Tricky Dick”  like a “used car dealer”? Impeachment  TV resignation speech

1974 Vice-President Gerald Ford replaces Nixon o never elected (replaced Agnew) o immediately pardons Nixon o was college football star o “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln,” stumbles o relations with press, open Betty Ford (alcoholism) Oil crisis of 1970s SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) - “a fresh start” = independence from government bureaucracy Democratic House and Senate 1974 visits Brezhnev in Vladivostok 1975 visits Pekin

Gerald and Betty Ford... with Nixon