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

Chapter 30: THE CRISIS OF AUTHORITY

Main themes of Chapter Thirty:

• The liberation movements of youths, ethnic minorities, and women in the late sixties and early seventies, and their challenge to prevailing social norms



• The change in Vietnam strategy under Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to achieve "peace with honor" rather than outright victory



• The foreign policy emphasis on a "multipolar" world in the diplomacy of Nixon and Kissinger, in forging a bold new relationship with China and seeking a détente with the Soviet Union through grain sales and arms reductions



• The political and practical effects of Nixon's efforts to build a policy of less federal dominance of the states and more respect for traditional values, and his continued advocacy of welfare state programs



• The growing economic problem of "stagflation" under Nixon and Ford, an economic malaise as much international as domestic in origin



• The origins and evolution of the Watergate scandals, culminating in the resignation of Richard Nixon

• The reasons for the rise of the New Left and the counterculture



• The problems facing American Indians, Hispanics, and gays in the seventies, and the nature of their respective protest movements



• The meaning of the New Feminism



• The Nixon-Kissinger strategy for ending the Vietnam War, and the subsequent Paris peace settlement



• The changes in American foreign policy necessitated by the new perception of the world as multipolar, particularly with regards to China and Russia



• The ways in which the Supreme Court issued several liberal rulings and then in the Nixon years began a change to a more conservative posture



• The reasons for the decline in the American economy in the early 1970s and President Nixon's reaction to the decline



• The evolution of Watergate from an obscure hotel break-in to the first presidential resignation in American history



• The varying historical interpretations of Watergate