The Sixties In The 1960's

The Sixties. A time of civil rights advancement and social change, as well as the age of knowledge- with breakthroughs in the maths and sciences. A time of renewed entertainment and pop culture as well as political turmoil. The 1960’s was a decade where America saw a change in the way minorities were treated. Groups such as the women’s liberation movement, gay rights movement, and racial equality groups such as the Chicano Movement and the SNCC, all saw progress in this time. The Space Race also occurred in this time, starting from the launch of Sputnik in 1957 to the launch of Apollo 11, a spaceship that carried a man to the moon and back, only twelve years later. New forms of artistic expression also grew out of the sixties including rock

It was mainly a civil war between North and South Vietnam but US involvement made things complicated. The United States supported the South Vietnamese against the Communist North. Initially the US only sent supplies and offered counsel to the Southern Vietnamese. After Kennedy’s assassination and Johnson’s oath into office, more soldiers were sent into the war. A big turning point in America’s aid to Southern Vietnam, was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a document providing the president the power “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force” to ensure the safety of the US (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution). It was drafted in response to a supposed attack from North Vietnam on American troops (later proven to be inaccurate). After the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed, the United States is practically full fledged in the war. It wasn’t until Nixon’s Vietnamization plan that the troops stationed there were brought

Vietnamization was passed in 1969 by Nixon, pulling US military out of Vietnam in a stalemate. Soon after the United States sent their soldiers back home, South Vietnam was taken over by the Communist North. Containment of communism didn’t work in Vietnam. When Nixon ordered offensives on North Vietnam by going through Cambodia and Laos, he also made those two countries more susceptible to communist influence and within the decade, they fell to the communists. Besides not stopping communism from spreading, the Vietnam War also made people back home less trusting of the government. It was during the war that the Pentagon Papers were leaked, and the Americans were paranoid of being lied to again. Nixon’s Watergate Scandal did not help the cause much either. The younger generation- the generation after the baby boomers- grew especially suspicious of the government and older people in general. The Vietnam war caused a growing divide between the citizens of America and the white house that is still felt