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CHAPTER 30
Rebellion and Reaction, 1960s and
1970s
This chapter continues to describe the youth revolt of the late 1960s, expands that discussion to include
the New Left and the counterculture, and traces the gains made by women and ethnic minorities. The
influence of the youth rebellion in protesting the Vietnam War and responses to pressures to conform
also receive attention. The chapter looks at the new women’s movement, including differences among
feminists themselves. As the country moved toward the mid-to-late 1970s, the various social movements
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. “Forever Young”: The Youth Revolt
A. The New Left
B. Anti-War Protests
C. Rising Violence
D. The Weather Underground
E. The Counterculture
F. Do Your Own Thing
II. Social Activism Spreads
A. The New Feminism
i. Gloria Steinem
ii. Inner Turmoil
iii. Feminist Victories
B. Latino Rights
i. The United Farm Workers
C. Native Americans’ Quest for Equality
D. Gay and Lesbian Rights
III. Nixon and the Revival of Conservatism
A. The Conservative Backlash
B. Richard Nixon
C. Nixon’s Appointments
IV. “Peace with Honor”: Ending the Vietnam War
A. Gradual Withdrawal (1969–1973)
B. Divisions at Home
C. War without End
D. The Collapse of South Vietnam
A. The CIA in Chile
B. The Nixon Doctrine
C. The People’s Republic of China
D. Embracing the Soviet Union
E. Shuttle Diplomacy
VI. Watergate
A. “Dirty Tricks”
B. Uncovering the Cover-Up
LECTURE IDEAS
1. Give a presentation on the rise and fall of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to illustrate the
youth revolt of the 1960s. See the following:
• James Miller’s Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago (1994)
• William O’Neill’s The New Left: A History (2001)
• W. J. Rorabaugh’s Berkeley at War: The 1960s (1994)
2. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the Beatles on American popular culture through the
1960s and thereafter. A presentation on this topic is guaranteed to be a student favorite and an
3. For a lecture on feminism of the 1970s, see the pertinent sections of William H. Chafe’s Women and
Equality (1977). Marcia Cohen’s The Sisterhood (1988) contains an interesting account of Betty
Friedan and The Feminine Mystique and would be useful for a discussion of how that book changed the
women’s movement. Rites of Passage: The Past and Future of ERA, edited by Joan Hoff-Wilson (1986),
is more detailed on the failure of the ERA. Also see:
4. One of the defining moments of the Nixon administration was the Watergate affair. Divide the class
into groups and assign each a particular aspect of this event. Include the motivation for conducting
such an operation; the operation itself; and, of course, the cover-up and its aftermath. Sources include:
• Michael Schudson’s Watergate in American Memory (1992)
• Leonard Garment’s In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time (2000)
5. An overview lecture of American society in the 1970s will enable your students to gain an
understanding of future events. Focusing on the Ford and Carter years would be helpful, as you
probably covered the Nixon years in earlier lectures. See the following:
6. The busing controversy in Boston is an excellent way to illustrate the backlash to the social changes of
the 1960s and the long-term damage it did to the liberal political coalition. Recommended sources
include:
• J. Anthony Lukas’s Common Ground (1986)
• Ronald Formisano’s Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. Consider the ways the rights movement expanded in the 1970s to include women, Hispanic
2. Divide the class into groups and have each identify the main characteristics of the youth rebellion in
the 1960s and 1970s. Be sure to identify the difference between the New Left, the Counterculture, and
the Yippies. What sort of influence did each aim to have on the mainstream? In what ways did their
protests succeed or fail? Have each group present their findings and see if any common trends can be
3. Have student groups research and identify the ultimate causes that led to the end of the Vietnam War
4. Assign groups of students to research the various aspects of Nixon’s domestic policies with the goal to
better understand how they helped contribute to the rise of conservatism. What was Nixon’s
“southern strategy”? Who were the “silent majority”? What was Nixon’s domestic agenda, his
economic policy, and his attitude toward the civil rights movement? For reference, see Evan Thomas’s
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the impact of the New Left on the youth and protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
2. How did the rise of the women’s movement begin to change the way America understood gender
relations and the role of women in society?
3. Evaluate Richard Nixon’s handling of the protests against the Vietnam War. What impact did those
protests and the revelation of the Pentagon Papers have on bringing the war to an end?
4. Why did Nixon make a concerted effort to open doors to China and the Soviet Union? What were his
intentions?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
When the leaders of Students for a Democratic Society spoke of their commitment to “participatory
democracy,” they meant that a commitment to democracy required far more of citizens than periodic
voting, that it implied an ongoing engagement in public affairs. What they could not foresee in the early
1960s was the degree to which the technological revolution of our own era has facilitated such
engagement in the public sphere. Act upon this by going to Meetup.com or a similar online site to connect
