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| author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), which raised the issue of a woman's place in society and how deadening suburban "happiness" could be for women; her ideas sparked the women's movement to life in the 1960s. |
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| Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) |
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| proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification in 1971; outlawing discrimination based on gender, it was at first seen as a great victory by women's-rights groups. The amendment fell 3 states short of the 38 required for ratification. However, many states have adopted similar amendments to their state constitutions. |
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| unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1972; he called for immediate withdrawal form Vietnam and a guaranteed income for the poor. When his vice presidential choice got into trouble, he waffled in his defense, which cost him further with the electorate. |
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| president, 1974-1977, who served without being elected either president or vice president; appointed vice president under the terms of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment when Spiro Agnew resigned, he assumed the presidency when Nixon resigned. |
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| a key aide to President Nixon who ordered the CIA and FBI not to probe too deeply into the Watergate break-in; he helped provide money to keep the burglars quiet and was later sentenced to prison for his role in Watergate. |
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| members of the youthful counterculture that dominated many college campuses in the 1960s; rather than promoting a political agenda, they challenged conventional sexual standards, rejected traditional economic values, and encouraged the use of drugs. |
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| one of the "plumbers" who worked for the White House to plug "leaks" to the media; he committed illegal break-ins and surveillances. His revelations in 1973 that he was being paid to keep quiet began the unraveling of the Watergate cover-up. |
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| White House aide who participated in the Watergate cover-up; in a plea bargain, he testified that President Nixon knew and participated in the cover-up. Many did not believe his testimony until the White House tapes surfaced. |
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| Nixon's first attorney general and his close friend and adviser; many people believe he ordered the Watergate break-in. He participated in the cover-up and served nineteen months in prison for his role. |
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| author of Sexual Politics (1969), a book that energized the more radical elements in the women's liberation movement with its confrontational messages about the male-dominated power structure in American society. |
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| label for the political radicals of the 1960s; influenced by "Old Left" of the 1930s, which had criticized capitalism and supported successes of Communism, the New Left supported civil rights and opposed American foreign policy, especially in Vietnam. |
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| National Organization for Women (NOW) |
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Definition
| founded by Betty Friedan and others in 1966; it focused on women's rights in the workplace, fought against legal and economic discrimination against women, and lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment. |
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| Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) |
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| cartel of oil-exporting nations, which used oil as a weapon to alter America's Middle East policy; it organized a series of oil boycotts that roiled the United States economy throughout the 1970s. |
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| the policies of the first Reagan administration, which increased defense spending, reduced social programs, and cut taxes; they were based on "supply side" theory of growing the economy by cutting government interference and taxes. |
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| president, 1981-1989, who led a conservative movement against detente with the Soviet Union and the growth of the federal government; some people credit him with America's victory in the Cold War while others fault his insensitive social agenda and irresponsible fiscal policies. |
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| Saturday Night Massacre (October 1973) |
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Definition
| name given to an incident in which Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor who was relentlessly investigating Watergate; Richardson refused and resigned along with his deputy, who also refused to carry out Nixon's order. A subordinate then fired Cox. The incident created a firestorm of protest in the country. |
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| label Nixon gave to middle-class Americans who supported him, obeyed the laws, and wanted "peace with honor" in Vietnam; he contrasted this group with students and civil rights activists who disrupted the country with protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s. |
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| vice president, 1969-1973, and a vocal critic of antiwar and civil rights opponents of the Nixon administration; he resigned the vice presidency in 1973 when it was discovered he had accepted bribes as governor of Maryland and as vice president. |
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| name given the economic condition throughout most of the 1970s in which prices rose rapidly (inflation) but without economic growth (stagnation). Unemployment rose along with inflation. In large part, these conditions were the economic consequences of rising oil prices. |
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| Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)(1962) |
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| radical political organization founded by Tom Hayden and others; it set forth its ideals in the Port Huron Statement: government should promote equality, fairness, and be responsive to people. It was probably the most important student protest group of the 1960s. |
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| Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1969-1986; although considered more conservative in leadership then Earl Warren, his court upheld school busing, a woman's right to an abortion, and ordered Nixon to surrender the Watergate tapes. |
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| name applied to a series of events that began when the Nixon White House tried to place illegal phone taps on Democrats in June 1972; the burglars were caught, and rather than accept the legal and political fallout, Nixon and his aides obstructed the investigation, which cost him his office and sent several of his top aides to prison. |
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| a three-day rock music festival (August 15-17, 1969) held on a farm in New York's Sullivan County; attended by some 300,000 young people, this remarkable and unusually peaceful event is considered the high point of the counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s. |
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