4 The 1970s The 1970s The 1960s had been an era of turmoil for the United States highlighted by violent events These events included the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 increased U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam and the protests against the war and inner-city riots The violence continued with the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in April 1968 and Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in June of that same year In August when the Democrats met in Chicago Illinois to choose their presidential nominee anti-war protesters gathered outside the convention hall Chicago’s mayor Richard Daley authorized the police to use force against the demonstrators It is easy to see why many Americans hoped that the election of Republican Richard Nixon in November 1968 would usher in a return to law and order Martin Luther King Jr Words to Know civil rights SIV-il rites The rights of citizens in relation to their government the right to vote is a civil right President and Mrs Kennedy rode in a convertible with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife on the day of Kennedy's assassination in 1963 Buzz Aldrin lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission walks on the moon on July 20 1969
Officially named the Woodstock Music and Art Fair it drew between 300,000 and 400,000 people to the rain-soaked grounds of a farm in Upstate New York for three days of music The unexpectedly large crowd caused major traffic problems and raised concerns about how to provide sanitation food and medical care Yet despite these problems Woodstock was remarkably peaceful and there were memorable performances by such stars as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin 6 The 1970s Nixon and his vice president Spiro Agnew claimed that the angry protesters were a minority and that the silent majority of Americans wanted to work hard and live peaceful lives On July 20 1969 just eight months after Nixon’s election the American people watched their television sets in awe as astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon This giant leap for mankind as Armstrong called it meant to many that the United States had won the space race with its Cold War enemy the Soviet Union Just a few weeks later an entirely different kind of event held the attention of hundreds of thousands of Americans It was an event for young people those born in the baby boom era after World War II who were now in their teens and twenties Words to Know Cold War KOHLD WOR The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States for several decades after World War II when a war of words substituted for what would have been a much more deadly war of weapons administration ad-min-uh-STREY-shuhn The president and the people who work with the president in the executive branch of the government resign ri-ZINE To give up a job a position or an office voluntarily coup KOO A sudden overthrow of the government usually by the military The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in August 1969 became a landmark cultural event of the late 60s
The 1970s 7 The year 1976 was America’s Bicentennial the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence Though the country had many problems it remained a largely successful experiment in a world filled with turmoil It seemed that no part of the globe was safe from unrest in this era The 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich West Germany faced a violent disruption when Arab terrorists held Israeli athletes hostage killing eleven before five of the eight terrorists were killed In 1973 the government of Chile was overthrown by a military coup also called a takeover allegedly with the involvement of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA and on the other side of the Western Hemisphere the Yom Kippur War battered Israel Olympic team members stand on the field as the Olympic flag flies at half-staff during a memorial service in the Munich Olympic Stadium in Germany on Sept 6 1972 Eleven Israeli team members were killed by Arab guerrillas at the Summer Olympic Games President Johnson visits Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam prior to Nixon's term in office President Nixon had vowed to end the Vietnam War Soon before the 1972 presidential election his administration announced that peace was at hand He was reelected and in January 1973 a treaty was signed that called for the return of U S prisoners of war POWs held by the North Vietnamese as well as the withdrawal of U.S. troops In April 1975 the North Vietnamese captured Saigon the South Vietnamese capital and the war was over By this time however a sensational scandal known as Watergate forced President Nixon to resign Gerald Ford whom Nixon had appointed as vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned over charges of bribe-taking and tax evasion was now president Ford would lose the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter
