HIST 17C Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Port Huron Statement, Executive Privilege, Liberal Democracy
Liberalism in the 1960s
Traits
➔Global intervention against communism
➔Domestic reform to end racism
➔Protect rights
➔Stimulate economic growth through government spending
➔View of law as most effective way of achieving social change
Changed since FDR
➔Represented economic redistribution, establishment of safety net, and global
intervention
➔Continuation of New Deal liberalism, but a little different
Liberals were unreliable allies
➔Supported the Civil Rights Movement in abstract but didn’t want African Americans to
integrate
➔Talked about supporting it but didn’t practice it
◆“Ten degrees left of center in good times”
◆“Ten degrees right of center when it affects him personally”
➔Had a clear sense of limits and stopped short of fundamental social transformation or
wealth redistribution
➔Treated domestic reform and global intervention as interrelated
➔Treated law as the most effective means of achieving social change
◆If you changed the law, social change would follow
◆Liberalism at home was a way to win the Cold War
Law to achieve social change
➔Relied on litigation and federal courts
◆Brown v Board of Education set the paradigm for the Warren Court
● most liberal court of the 20th C that spread rights consciousness
Vietnam War
Still a strong Cold War consensus that Vietnam should not be lost to communism
➔Representation of the culmination of the bipartisan commitment to the Cold War and
containment
➔Began as a war against French colonialism
Ho Chi Minh
➔Led the war against French colonialism for independence
➔He was a communist, but more importantly, he was a nationalist dedicated to the idea of
national independence
➔Strategy: guerilla warfare
◆Win the hearts and minds of people among whom the guerilla moved and the
conventional enemy forces would be defeated
➔Assumed he would have the support of the US
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◆US wanted to please the French because it saw Western Europe as buffer
against the Soviet Union
● French wanted economic aid in reconquering their colony of Vietnam
➔National Liberation Front
◆United communists and non-communists fighting against South Vietnam
◆Political arm of the North Vietnamese struggle against Diem
Geneva Accords 1954
➔Result of French defeat
➔Temporarily divided VIetnam at the 17th parallel, pending national elections in 1956 to
reunify Vietnam
◆In the interim, status of North and South Vietnam remained fluid
➔Northern Vietnam became communist under Ho Chi Minh
◆Why did Ho, the winner of the war, accept only half of Vietnam?
● He counted on elections being held
● Believed all of Vietnam would be unified as an independent, communist
state
◆Believed in building up North Vietnam first
● Socialist development of the economy that could compete with the South
Diem
➔Anti-communist and nationalist
➔First President of South Vietnam
➔US hoped he would provide an alternative to France’s colonialism and Ho’s communism
➔US provided financial assistance into South Vietnam
➔US and Diem prevented national elections from occurring
◆Knew that Ho would win authorization to reunify Vietnam
◆Redefined Geneva Accords to create two separate nations
➔Insurgency after he refused to hold national elections
◆Diem associated them with Ho Chi Minh
● Labeled his opponents “vietnamese commies” → “vietcong”
◆Vietcong received little aid from Ho because he was still focused on rebuilding
the North
What was the war?
➔Supporters of the anti-war movement saw the National Liberation front as a spontaneous
movement
◆Rebellion against the repressive Diem
◆Against imperialism of US
➔Vietnamese was not about two supporters
◆Was a war about one country with two warring factions
◆Weaker had been created by the US
➔US supporters saw Vietcong as a puppet of Ho
➔The war, in its “American phase” was an internal revolt based in the South
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◆Received some support from the North that increased as time went one
➔North Vietnam was acting as the agent of the Soviets and Chinese
◆The South was the victim of external aggression
● This ignored the fact that the US had created the nation of South Vietnam
John F Kennedy
Foreign policy
➔Concerned with proving American dominance
➔Made reckless decisions that grew out of America’s need to show dominance
◆Bay of Pigs
JFK and LBJ shared in Cold War consensus
➔saw the worlds (first, second, third) in terms of black and white
➔Didn’t always live up to ideals of liberalism for US domestically
Epitomized the culture of “coolness”
➔Arrival to replace the old men of the 1950s signified the beginning of a transformation in
lifestyles
➔Rhetoric of “doing your own thing”
◆Suggested the way that politics in the 1960s mingled with new attitudes towards
lifestyle, customs, and institutions
◆JFK prefigured the melding of politics and lifestyle
JFK never liked French colonialism, but didn’t want to be responsible for South Vietnamese fall
to communism
➔Communists were successful because they adopted unconventional tactics
◆Guerilla warfare
◆Believed in winning the hearts and minds of people
➔Counterinsurgency was the “thinking man’s war”
◆Emphasized a combination of civilian, political, military activity to:
● encourage nation-building
● encourage democracy
● win hearts and minds of Vietnamese people
● counter efforts of guerilla fighters
Put his faith in Diem
➔Diem was too dictatorial
➔By 1961, Diem’s situation was deteriorating
◆JFK sent advisors to South Vietnam
➔By 1963, it was clear that if South Vietnam were to be saved from defeat, it must get rid
of Diem
◆Repressiveness and unpopularity convinced JFK that his regime must go
◆CIA became involved in plots to overthrow Diem
● Diem’s generals organized the coup → overthrew Diem → murdered him
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
View of law as most effective way of achieving social change. Represented economic redistribution, establishment of safety net, and global intervention. Continuation of new deal liberalism, but a little different. Supported the civil rights movement in abstract but didn"t want african americans to integrate. Talked about supporting it but didn"t practice it. Ten degrees left of center in good times . Ten degrees right of center when it affects him personally . Had a clear sense of limits and stopped short of fundamental social transformation or wealth redistribution. Treated domestic reform and global intervention as interrelated. Treated law as the most effective means of achieving social change. If you changed the law, social change would follow. Liberalism at home was a way to win the cold war. Brown v board of education set the paradigm for the warren court. Most liberal court of the 20th c that spread rights consciousness.
