In the early twenty-first century, Poindexter was
employed in the George W. Bush administration to
design and oversee computer systems that would fer-
ret out signs of terrorist activity by analyzing the pur-
chasing and communication patterns of all Ameri-
cans. The program was ended by Congress, in large
part because Poindexter’s prior involvement in the
Iran-Contra affair called into question his claims
that the government could be trusted not to abuse
such a massive surveillance system.
Further Reading
Walsh, Lawrence E.Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspir-
acy and Cover-Up.New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
Wroe, Ann.Lives, Lies, and the Iran-Contra Affair. New
York: I. B. Tauris, 1992.
Leigh Husband Kimmel
See also Iran-Contra affair; Iranian hostage crisis;
Klinghoffer, Leon; Latin America; North, Oliver;
Reagan, Ronald; Reagan Doctrine.
Political correctness
Definition A term for the use of words or
behavior intended to be inoffensive to identity
groups or social minorities
The late 1980’s witnessed language wars about proper ter-
minology for social groups, raising free speech issues.
Although the term “political correctness” did not
come into widespread use in the United States until
the late 1980’s, it had its modern roots in rapid soci-
etal changes taking place in the 1970’s related to eth-
nicity, feminism, multiculturalism, and the disabled.
The term “black”—which had formerly progressed
from “Negro” and “colored,” terms used until the
1960’s—was replaced by “Afro-American” and fi-
nally “African American.” The term “handicap” was
replaced by “disability” in the early 1980’s. In
schools, problem learners were termed students with
special education needs. On college campuses, os-
tensibly bastions of free speech, “politically incor-
rect” points of view were denounced as hateful, sex-
ist, racist, or Eurocentric. “Political correctness,”
once a term used only in a communist context (to be
within the party line, the correct line), took on new
shades of meaning within a culturally, ethnically,
and politically diverse American society.
The large number of discrimination and sexual
harassment suits in the 1970’s and 1980’s further
served to make a number of terms taboo both in
schools and in the workplace. Language and termi-
nology were viewed as powerful tools for labeling
people in a group in positive, neutral, or negative
terms. Such language affected not only how others
viewed an individual but also how individuals viewed
themselves and made an impact on everything from
social inclusiveness to career opportunities. Logos
also underwent scrutiny. Major League Baseball’s
Cleveland Indians’ logo, for example, was redrawn
in 1973, and many school teams dropped their “In-
dian” logos altogether. Meanwhile, the term “Indi-
ans” underwent scrutiny and was replaced by more
accurate terms such as “American Indians,” “Amer-
indians,” “Amerinds,” “Indigenous,” “Aboriginal,”
“Original Americans,” and “Native Americans.”From Campus to Society During the 1980’s, new
affirmative action programs were implemented on
college campuses; non-Western studies programs
rapidly expanded along with women’s studies and
ethnic studies. The production of radical feminists,
gay rights activists, globalists, and ethnic militants
was a natural and perhaps needed outcome to gen-
erate a wider variety of educational viewpoints. How-
ever, at the same time, it fostered cultural separatism
and intolerance for other values and beliefs. By the
late 1980’s, political correctness moved from the
campus to the larger society. Americans using politi-
cally incorrect terms could be denounced as racist,
sexist, homophobic, or chauvinistic, or, in a kinder
vein, labeled prejudiced or insensitive. As victims,
identity groups became empowered to denounce
critics. By the end of the decade, a backlash had oc-
curred; “politically correct” (PC) had become a pe-
jorative term used to describe an intellectual strait-
jacket.
Many critics of political correctness were con-
servatives who used the term as a vehicle for attack-
ing what they viewed as left-wing college curricular,
liberal educational reform in public schools and
rapidly changing social values. Philosopher Allan
Bloom’sThe Closing of the American Mind(1987) be-
came a best-seller because of its powerful denuncia-
tion of “thought control” in academia. Liberals also
denounced the censorship and freedom-limiting as-
pects of political correctness. Professional organiza-
tions such as the American Historical AssociationThe Eighties in America Political correctness 767