American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 30: THE CRISIS OF AUTHORITY

Study Questions

1
What led to the rise of the New Left? How did the Vietnam War and the draft inflame the movement? What were its results?
2
What were the main manifestations of the counterculture of the 1960s? What role did drugs play? To what extent was it "an exaggerated expression of impulses that were coursing through the larger society"?
3
What did the Woodstock and Altamont music festivals reveal about the positive and negative side of the youth culture of the 1960s?
4
Why did most Indians resist "termination"? How successful was the Indian civil rights movement?
5
Describe the influx of Hispanic residents to the U.S. from 1960-2000. What organizational efforts did these groups undertake to improve their conditions?
6
What were the accomplishments of the gay liberation movement? What resistance did it face?
7
What were the legislative victories for women's rights in the early 1960s?
8
What were the radical and more moderate manifestations of the women's liberation movement?
9
What gains did women make in education, the professions, and politics in the 1970s and 1980s?
10
What happened to the Equal Rights Amendment? Why?
11
What brought the abortion controversy to the front burner of American politics in the 1970s?
12
How did the science of ecology differ from more traditional conservationism/environmentalism? How did the ideas of ecology spread?
13
What effect did the growth of ecological science have on existing environmental organizations?
14
Describe the growing awareness of environmental problems such as water pollution, air pollution, and oil spills. What were the public policy responses to these problems? What effects have the policies had?
15
Explain Richard Nixon's "Vietnamization" policy. How well did it work? Why did it defuse some of the opposition to the war?
16
Why did Nixon order the bombing of Laos and Cambodia and the invasion of Cambodia? What direction did the antiwar movement take in reaction to the invasion?
17
What did the Pentagon Papers reveal about the nature of the Vietnam War?
18
What effect did the controversial and inconclusive nature of the war have on the military personnel who served in Vietnam?
19
Describe the bombings from March to December of 1972. What role did they play in the negotiations to end the war? What was the main stumbling block to agreement in late 1972? What did the bombings accomplish?
20
What were the main provisions of the Paris accords in January 1973? How did they fall apart?
21
On balance, what were the costs of the war to Vietnam and the United States?
22
Why did Nixon and Henry Kissinger decide that the time had come for rapprochement with China? What resulted from Nixon's visit and related initiatives?
23
What was the basic thrust of the Nixon Doctrine? What were its implications in Chile?
24
What dilemma of American policy in the Middle East did the Yom Kippur War make clear? What other lessons did the war teach?
25
To what extent was Nixon's domestic policy a mix of conservative reaction to the Great Society and new progressive proposals?
26
What major decisions of the Warren Court most outrage conservatives? What successes and rebuffs did Nixon meet in his attempts to reshape the Supreme Court?
27
In what ways did the Nixon-era court continue to uphold reform efforts? In what ways was it more conservative than the Warren Court had been?
28
What advantages did Nixon have going into the 1972 election? What were George McGovern's political liabilities?
29
What were the proximate and fundamental causes of the inflation problem of the late 1960s and 1970s?
30
Explain how the nation's manufacturing sector and, therefore, the nature of the economy was changing. How did corporate America respond?
31
Describe the general outlines of Nixon's economic policy. Was it consistent? Was it effective?
32
What aspects of Richard Nixon's personality and worldview led to the collection of scandals associated with the Watergate crisis? What other factors, according to some historians, help explain why the Watergate scandal occurred?
33
Which contributed more to the fall of Nixon, the general pattern of abuse of power manifested in Watergate or his attempt to cover up the incident?
34
Why did Spiro Agnew resign? Why did his removal and the appointment of Gerald Ford as vice president actually increase the pressure on Nixon?
35
On what charges would Nixon's probable impeachment and conviction have been based? Why did he finally resign?
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