794 Chapter 29 From Camelot to Watergate: 1961–1975
Cuban missile crisis The showdown between the
United States and the Soviet Union during
October 1962, after the Soviet Union had sneaked
medium-range nuclear missiles into communist
Cuba. After President John F. Kennedy publicly
demanded their removal and ordered the blockade
of Cuba, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed
to do so, averting a nuclear war, 768
détente A French term, meaning the relaxation of
tensions, applied to an easing of Cold War antago-
nisms during the 1970s. Under President Richard
Nixon and foreign affairs adviser Henry Kissinger,
détente was a strategy to allow the United States
to weaken the bonds between the Soviet Union
and communist China, 786
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) A fed-
eral agency created in 1970 to oversee environ-
mental monitoring and cleanup programs, 788
Great Society The sweeping legislative agenda of
President Lyndon Johnson; it sought to end
poverty, promote civil rights, and improve hous-
ing, health care, and education. The program was
criticized as costly and ineffective, 772
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Congressional action,
undertaken at President Johnson’s request, giving
the President the authority to deploy U.S. troops
to repel aggression in Southeast Asia. This pro-
vided congressional sanction for the escalation of
the Vietnam war, 780
Medicare A social welfare measure, enacted in
1965, providing hospitalization insurance for peo-
ple over sixty-five and a voluntary plan to cover
doctor bills paid in part by the federal
government, 776
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) A
treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet
Union in 1972, restricting the testing and
deployment of nuclear ballistic missiles, the first
of several such treaties, 787
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) A civil rights organization, founded in
1960, that drew heavily on younger activists and
college students. After 1965, under the leadership
of Stokely Carmichael and then H. Rap Brown,
the group advocated “Black Power.”, 769
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) An
organization created by leftist college students in
the early 1960s; it organized protests against racial
bigotry, corporate exploitation of workers, and,
especially after 1965, the Vietnam war, 779
Tet offensive A wide-ranging offensive, launched
by North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops
throughout South Vietnam in February 1968. It
failed to cause the South Vietnamese government
to collapse, but persuaded many Americans that
the war was not winnable. President Lyndon B.
Johnson announced his decision not to run for
reelection several months later, 782
United States v. Richard M. Nixon A Supreme
Court ruling (1974) that obliged President
Richard Nixon to turn over to the Watergate spe-
cial prosecutor sixty-four White House audiotapes;
these helped prove that Nixon had known about
the cover-up of the Watergate burglary, 792
Voting Rights Act of 1965 Federal legislation
that empowered federal registrars to intervene
when southern states and municipalities refused to
let African Americans register to vote, 776
Watergate scandal A complex scandal involving
attempts to cover up illegal actions taken by
administration officials and leading to the resigna-
tion of President Richard Nixon in 1974, 790Review Questions
1.The introduction emphasizes the difficulties JFK,
LBJ, and Nixon had in getting out of the “quag-
mire” that was the Vietnam war. What might they
have done differently? Why did they pursue the
course they chose?
2.Why did the escalation of the war from 1961 to
1968 fail to produce a victory? How did Nixon
change the Vietnam policies of his predecessors?
Why didn’t they succeed?
3.How did the war affect American society? What
effect did student protests have on the war?
4.How did Johnson’s Great Society differ from
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal? Which aspects
of the Great Society proved most successful? Why
did others fall short of expectations?
5.What explains the rise of Black Power during the
1960s? Why did the race riots strike just as the
federal government was providing tangible assis-
tance on matters of civil rights, racial discrimina-
tion, and poverty?
6.Why did Nixon form the “plumbers” and then
obstruct justice following the Watergate break-in?
Why did Ford pardon Nixon?