A People's History of the United States

Repeating what came before, the Vietnam War began at almost the same time that the civil rights movement reached a boil. The origins of the conflict date back to 1945 when Vietnamese rebels, under the command of Communist leader Ho Chi Mihn, seized control of the country from retreating Japanese forces (470). Just weeks later, British troops landed in the South and Chinese forces occupied Hanoi and the North. Both turned their occupation zones over to the French, who tried to bring the area back into their colonial orbit. But by 1954 it was obvious that the French were losing and that they would negotiate a peace that allowed them a graceful exit (472). Many in Washington feared that if South Vietnam fell to Communism then the economy of Southeast Asia, including Japan, would be in danger. So, the United States intervened and took up the anti-communist cause. However, the new government in South Vietnam was not popular either in Saigon or Washington. By 1963, discontent with South Vietnam’s leader Ngo Dinh Diem had spilled over into a coup attempt (474). The position of the United States on the coup was ambiguous at best. But the generals who replaced Diem were no better able to solve South Vietnam’s problems than Diem had been, and so in 1964 the US seized on a flimsy pretext to become more directly involved in the conflict. But by 1968 the war had become incredibly unpopular. President Johnson announced he would not run for re-election. Republican Richard Nixon became president. Rather than end the war, Nixon transformed it from a ground war in South Vietnam to an air war stretching across the region and into neutral Laos and Cambodia (484).

Unlike the Spanish-American War, the Vietnam War dragged on year after year. And unlike the Second World War, America’s war effort looked increasingly ugly. As early as 1964, a small number of activists began to organize against the war. In 1966, the SNCC, which had been founded to aid the civil rights movement, transformed itself into an anti-war organization. From music to movies, American culture in the 1960s became part of the protest movement (487). This change caused something unique in the history of American activism: middle-class members of society, long supporters of the interests of elites, turned against the war. Daniel Ellsberg, a Harvard-trained economist working for the government-funded RAND Corporation, even stole documents from his work and distributed them to a friendly reporter. The Pentagon Papers revealed just how badly the war was going. This coalition of activists would eventually help bring an end to the war (503). But the coalition would last beyond the end of the war and would morph into an array of new movements and organizations.

As the civil rights movement reached its peak in the mid-1960s, many of its members began to think about America in broader terms than race. All over the country, women began to organize and work for their equality. In 1966 an alliance of middle-class women, led by Betty Friedan, formed the National Organization for Women (NOW). Their goal was to open opportunities for women outside the home. NOW took a moderate, liberal approach. They ran women candidates, and leading NOW activist Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968. And in the 1970s, NOW took a leading role in the debates over the Equal Rights Amendment. During the height of the anti-Vietnam protests, more radical organizations were formed including the satirically named WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). WITCH linked the women’s struggle to struggles against imperialism and racism.

American prisons in the 1960s and 1970s became an unlikely center for activism and change. Zinn argues that “the prisons in the United States had long been an extreme reflection of the American system itself,” overcrowded with lower-class people, often of color (515). At Attica prison in New York State, a riot captured the attention of the nation. For much of the 1960s, the prison had become overcrowded with mostly Black offenders. The prison also imposed strict rules and limited outdoor time, confining prisoners into their cells most of the day. Making matters worse, the parole system was “streamlined” so that hearings would take on average less than six minutes and the decision handed out by the board would come with no explanation. Inmates were permitted to attend inmate-led classes, including a popular sociology course in which inmates discussed ways to reform the prison. On September 9, 1971, the inmates clashed with the prison’s all-white guards. By the end of the day, 40 guards had been taken hostage. Rather than abuse the guards, the prisoners worked to build a more humane order. Despite this, the governor of New York decided to liberate the guards by force. On September 14, the National Guard and local police assaulted the prison, freed the guards, and killed 31 unarmed prisoners (521). Nine guards were also killed, though the cause of death was hotly disputed after the raid. Attica caused prisoners across the US to organize.

Watergate roiled the political situation in Washington. Vietnam had undermined people’s faith in government, but the shock of the Watergate scandal showed how deep America’s problems went. One night in 1972, five men broke into the Watergate hotel in Washington DC. They were caught attempting to steal materials and plant recording devices in the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Over the next two years, consistent investigation and reporting demonstrated that President Richard Nixon and his top advisors had operated a criminal conspiracy against opponents of the administration. This program, which included break-ins, sought to delegitimize and discredit opposition to Nixon’s policies. Making matters worse, Nixon and his advisors tried to cover up their program and push the FBI’s investigation off track (543). Zinn argues that, in resigning, Nixon avoided a national reckoning with the mechanisms which had allowed him to commit those crimes in the first place. Instead, he sacrificed his reputation to save the elite status quo (545). Once the establishment had saved itself from public recrimination, the penalties for wrongdoing disappeared. Nixon received a pardon protecting him from most consequences (547).

Once the twin crises of Watergate and Vietnam had cleared, the elite began to close ranks around the succeeding Ford Administration. In 1975 the S.S. Mayaguez was captured off the coast of Cambodia in waters disputed between Cambodia and Vietnam. The tanker had 39 American sailors aboard, and the White House moved rapidly to free them. The plan was to use the military to retake the ship and free the crew. In fact, the crew had already been moved to an inland airbase. Cambodia had also constructed defenses on Koh Tang Island. US Navy sailors succeeded in capturing the empty Mayaguez, but when Marines landed on the island they were met by heavy fire and suffered casualties. Only the intervention of bombers allowed the battered US force the space to withdraw. By the end of the operation, more US combatants had been killed attempting the rescue than there were crewmen to be rescued. Once the force had been recalled, the commander learned that the crew had been ransomed back to the US before his operation even began (552). Despite this catastrophic failure, the secretary of defense declared the operation a smashing success. Congress had passed the War Powers Act in 1973 but had in the Mayaguez operation refused to see the provisions of that law implemented. And American newspapers praised Ford’s resolve in showing the world that America could still lead (554). But by the time of the bicentennial celebration in 1976, just 29% of Americans reported that they were hopeful for the future (557).