A. DISSENSION WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
1. The assassination of Robert Kennedy left the Democratic Party divided between supporters of Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Eugene McCarthy.
2. Humphrey won the nomination, but antiwar demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago forced Humphrey to lead a badly divided party into the fall election.
B. GEORGE WALLACE AND WHITE BACKLASH
1. George Wallace was the former governor of Alabama. He was a long-time champion of school segregation and states' rights.
2. Running as the candidate of the American Independent Party, Wallace's campaign appealed to Americans who were upset by the violence and civil disobedience associated with antiwar and civil rights demonstrations.
3. Wallace won five states in the South and received strong support in some Northern states.
C. THE RISE OF NIXON
1. The turmoil within the Democratic Party benefited former vice president Richard Nixon.
2. Nixon campaigned and won on a promise to restore law and order. He successfully appealed to many middle-class Americans fed up with years of riots and protest
TEST TIP
APUSH test writers have written a number of questions on the pivotal 1968 presidential election. Interestingly, several of their questions have focused on the role of George Wallace. Be sure you know that Wallace was a segregationist who ran as a third-party candidate. His campaign showed that a number of voters were upset by antiwar demonstrators, Black Power militants, and government officials, whom Wallace derisively called "pointy-headed bureaucrats."
A. THE DOVES DEMAND PEACE
1. Doves opposed the Vietnam War and staged massive demonstrations, demanding immediate troop withdrawals. 2. Senator William Fulbright was a leading Dove. He wrote a critique of the war entitled The Arrogance of Power.
B. HAWKS AND THE SILENT MAJORITY SUPPORT NIXON
1. Hawks supported the Vietnam War, believing that withdrawing troops would be tantamount to surrender.
2. The Silent Majority was the name given by President Nixon to the moderate, mainstream Americans who quietly supported his Vietnam War policies. Members of the Silent Majority believed that the United States was justified in supporting South Vietnam.
C. THE INVASION OF CAMBODIA, 1970
1. The Silent Majority favored gradual withdrawal from Vietnam.
2. Given that support, Nixon began to slowly withdraw American troops from Vietnam and replace them with newly trained South Vietnamese troops.
3. Withdrawal was known as Vietnamization; the policy promised to preserve U.S. goals and bring "peace with honor."
4. The United States invaded Cambodia. On April 29, 1970, President Nixon, suddenly and without consulting Congress, ordered American forces to join with the South Vietnamese army and clean out the Viet Cong sanctuaries in officially neutral Cambodia.
5. Nixon defended the action, saying that it was necessary to protect American forces and support Vietnamization.
D. KENT STATE, 1970
1. Stunned by the invasion, college students across the nation erupted in protest.
2. More than 1.5 million angry students shut down 1,200 campuses.
3. Disaster struck hardest at Kent State University in Ohio. A massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building. In response to the growing unrest, the local mayor called in the National Guard.
4. Nervous members of the National Guard fired into a crowd of protesters, killing four students and wounding nine.
5. The Kent State shootings triggered massive antiwar rallies across the United States.
E. ENDING THE VIETNAM WAR
1. Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's national security advisor and top negotiator in Vietnam, engaged in a series of secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese, aimed at reaching a negotiated settlement.
2. The United States and the North Vietnamese finally reached an armistice: The Paris Accords, January 1973.
3. The United States agreed to withdraw the last of its troops. In exchange, the North Vietnamese released over five hundred prisoners of war.
F. CONSEQUENCES OF THE VIETNAM WAR
1. The war affected the economy as follows:
• The United States could not afford both President Johnson's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War.
• The combination of spending on the war and expensive social programs produced the high inflation rates of the late 1960s and 1970s.
2. The war affected international involvements as follows:
• The Vietnam War increased public skepticism toward international involvements.
• In 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which stipulated that the president must inform Congress within 48 hours if U.S. forces are sent into a hostile area without a declaration of war.
A. BACKGROUND OF DÉTENTE
1. The United States and the Communist world had been locked in a Cold War since the end of World War II.
2. The United States and the Soviet Union had experienced a series of tense Cold War confrontations that included the Berlin Airlift, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban missile crisis.
3. Meanwhile, the United States had not formally recognized the Chinese Communist government.
4. Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed that the United States needed a new and more flexible foreign policy.
5. Détente called for a relaxation of tensions between the United States and the Communist world.
B. DÉTENTE AND CHINA
1. In late 1971, Nixon stunned the nation and the world by announcing that he intended to visit China, "to normalize relations between the two countries."
2. Nixon visited Beijing in February 1972. His trip to China marked a dramatic example of détente.
C. DÉTENTE AND THE SOVIET UNION
1. Just three months after becoming the first American president to visit China, Nixon became the first American president to visit Moscow.
2. Nixon's visit led to a series of agreements that reduced tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The most important agreements were:
• The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) (These talks led to the SALT I Treaty, which limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine- launched missiles each superpower could have in its arsenal.)
• A series of agreements that expanded trade between the two superpowers.
A. BACKGROUND
1. The Great Society programs had led to a dramatic increase in federal influence and federal spending.
2. Nixon wanted to reduce the size and influence of the federal government.
B. THE NEW FEDERALISM
1. Known as the New Federalism, Nixon's plan called for distributing a portion of federal power to state and local governments.
2. Under a program called revenue sharing, state and local governments could spend their federal dollars however they saw fit, within certain limitations.
A. THE ECONOMY
1. Inflation was the primary domestic issue during the Carter administration.
2. During the 197Os, the American economy experienced both an increasing rate of inflation and a slowing of economic growth.
3. This combination of rising inflation and rising unemployment was called stagflation.
4. All of the following characterized the economy during the Carter administration:
• Increasing unemployment
• Increasing inflation
• Increasing government spending
• Increasing prices of gasoline due to the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 revolution in Iran
• Increasing interest rates
5. All of the following were causes of inflationary pressure during the 1970s:
• Spending from the Vietnam War
• Rising energy costs
• Soaring federal budget deficits
• Rising healthcare costs
B. FOREIGN POLICY
1. President Carter emphasized a foreign policy based on human rights.
2. Carter's human rights policy aroused global concern and helped make human rights an international issue.
3. Carter was responsible for the Camp David Accords.
• In the summer of 1978, Carter invited the leaders of Egypt and Israel to Camp David—the presidential retreat in Maryland.
• After 12 days of intense negotiations, the leaders reached a peace agreement known as the Camp David Accords.
C. THE 1980 ELECTION
1. The Iran hostage crisis played a key role in President Carter's defeat in the 1980 election.
2. Other factors that hurt Carter included the following:
• Double-digit inflation
• The energy crisis
A. THE RISE OF REAGAN
1. Like Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan capitalized on his status as a Washington outsider.
2. Key issues in the 1980 election included the following:
• The Iranian hostage crisis
• The weak economy and high rate of inflation
• Hostility toward big government
• Call for a more conservative Supreme Court
B. REAGANOMICS
1. President Reagan implemented a series of economic policies known as "Reaganomics" or supply-side economics.
2. Key goals were as follows:
• Reduce federal tax rates for businesses and wealthy Americans (The Reagan tax cuts led to large increases in the incomes of wealthy Americans.)
• Reduce corporate tax rates and encourage private investment
• Promote economic growth by deregulating business
C. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
1. The 197Os witnessed a significant migration of Americans from the Frostbelt to the Sunbelt. This migration has continued to the present.
2. The South and West have experienced the greatest population gains since 1970.
3. The last 25 years have witnessed a significant increase in immigration from Latin America and Asia.
4. An aging population will ultimately threaten the long-term solvency of the Social Security system.
D. CLINTON PRESIDENCY
1. The United States approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) creating a North American trade bloc.
2. The United States became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements. It replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) formed in 1947.
E. THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA, 2008
1. In November 2008, a record number of voters elected Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president.
2. Obama thus became America's first African American president.
TEST TIP
APUSH tests typically include only a few questions covering the period from 1980 to the present. Questions on recent history have focused on Reaganomics, the key demographic trends listed above, and the key economic events from the Clinton administration also listed above. The 2008 election of Barack Obama marks a watershed event that will most likely turn up on future exams.