did anyone here live in the time period roughly from

[KeepCongressBlue]

when JFK was shot in Dallas all the way to Nixon resigning from office?

I'm in college and a history major and I think that era of 10-11 years was the most important time period in recent US history. I think it turned the US into the country it is today and a lot of the modern political ideas are from that era.

Another interesting aspect was the metamorphosis that took place during that era. From a pop culture perspective, the music and movies of the years before JFK was shot were corny and unaware of any real problems. Conversely, I recently watched "Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Blazing Saddles" which were made during and after the watergate era. In those movies I noticed a real cynicism from those movies. I don't think that either of those movies would have made sense to people even 15 years earlier.

[grasswire]

1. don't discount the massive effect when people realized...

...that they had been lied to about the Kennedy assassination. I believe that coverup is what began the deep cynicism in our society.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Which lies are you referring to?

Grassy knoll? LBJ/Castro/The Mafia engineered it?

I think that other than conspiracy theorists, who seem to have nothing better to do, most Americans accept the official Warren Commission report.

[villager]

11. *you* might accept the officially-sanctioned Warren Commission, but "most Americans"

do not...

thankfully.

[customerserviceguy]

24. Got any reliable polling data to back that up?

Was the Warren Commission the absolute unvarnished truth? I doubt that most Americans believe that, but I figure most are OK with it being substantially the story of what happened. In any case, anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald got completely away with it, and is probably in their grave right now, so it really doesn't matter, anyway.

I'll admit that the conspiracy industry has caused a lot of doubt in a lot of people, but nobody seems to have predominantly settled on any version other than the official story.

I gladly use the JFK assassination as a basis for debunking the Gospels of the New Testament. I compare accounts that were written many decades after the events that were supposed to have taken place in them, with an event that everyone knew about as it was happening, with modern journalists covering every aspect of it that could be known. If there are so very many versions of the Kennedy assassination, given the solid history that surrounds the story, how can we possibly believe any legends that became the books of the NT that were NOT thrown out by the Council of Nicea, etc., who did not possess the scientific methods we had in the 20th Century?

Thanks for helping me prove that point.

[Tumbulu]

45. I am 54 years old and have met many people

I have yet to meet a single person who believed the Warren report.

I sure did not.

Anyone with an IQ over 2 can see that these assassinations were all orchestrated by the same group.

And all covered up by rethuglicans.

Good grief.

[villager]

50. "74 Percent Say There Was a Government Cover-up"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/11/20/opinion/main23166.shtml

Your original assertion was wrong.

Thanks for helping me prove that point.

[flyarm]

63. try getting your hands on a copy of "Barry and the Boys" Daniel Hopsicker..

Its out of print but you might be able to get it in a library..it will tell you all you need to know about the JFK assassination! And who was responsible and all about the damn cover up!

[Desertrose]

89. I found it on Amazon...but chapter 35 is missing - deliberately!!

Product Description
NOTE: Chapter 35 is intentionally missing from the printing of this publication. This was intentionally done by the publisher and is not a printing error.

This is the story of Barry Seal, the biggest drug smuggler in American history, who died in a hail of bullets with George Bush's private phone number in his wallet...

Would love to read this....used start at $46 *gulp*

[flyarm]

97. get it and read it anyway, the book is full of incredible information and facts and truth!

I even talked directly with Daniel trying to get more copies, I gave away about 50 copies and have only one left out on loan..Daniel only has a few left he is keeping..for promotional reasons..the book is now hard to come by!
Buy it if you can! Read it and pass it among your friends and family!

[Desertrose]

99. If I can get some extra bucks together, I will.

Thx, flyarm.


How ya doin these days??

[grasswire]

20. you're wrong

In 2003, Gallup polled on this very question. 75 percent of those polled believed there was a conspiracy to murder JFK. Not a single assassin. Gerald Ford found that fact very sad.

Maybe you consider 75 percent of Americans to be conspiracy theorists who have nothing better to do?

[customerserviceguy]

28. The sowers of doubt

including those with access to motion picture studios, have done a very good job of playing on the suspicion and cynicism of the American public, but there is still no consensus on any of the thousands of other theories of what might have happened.

That Gallup poll is a measure of the distrust of government, and of the major institutions of the press. It's not an endorsement of any particular alternative theory of the Kennedy assassination. When it comes down to it, the average American (even those who were alive at the time of the shooting) doesn't really base their life activities on some as-yet unaccepted side story of any conspiracies. It's ancient history to the vast majority of us, and those who continue to fan the flames of their favorite set of fantasies about the assassination are the ones who I contend have way too much time on their hands.

[shraby]

39. I have always thought he was killed by a group of people.

Since I first heard about it. Just could never figure out what group, but I've pretty much settled on members of the CIA. They would have the means an ability to create the opportunity.

[seattleblue]

49. You asked for a poll. When provided one you attacked it.

I'll give you another one to attack. Count yourself in the 10% who believe anything the government tells them. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/11/20/opinion/main23166.shtml

[customerserviceguy]

92. Ok, you've convinced me

A sizable number of people don't agree with the official Warren Commission report, probably a majority.

But the number of ideas about the truth are rivaled only by the number of religions out there that claim to be the only source of truth, too. When it comes to the Kennedy assassination, most of us choose to believe our own set of assumptions, and look for someone who will feed into those assumptions with a narrative that matches our worldview.

It's really no different than picking out which church to go to.

[seattleblue]

102. I agree with you.

I have my own views based on research for a book I wrote (not on the Kennedy assassination but there was a tangent to it). Whether they are correct I don't know and I will probably be dead by the time the government completely opens up their files on it. The Congressional Select Committee on Assignations in the late 70s found there was a conspiracy but they didn't know by whom.

[laughingliberal]

54. The original post of villager stated most Americans do not accept the Warren Commission report.

You then asked for any reliable polling data to back that up which grasswire duly provided. I don't think it's necessary for a person to know who really was behind JFK's assassination to believe the Warren Commission was a whitewash. A woman has a husband who comes in late at night smelling of perfume who claims he was working late may not know who he was doing whatever with but she's pretty sure it wasn't in the nature of what most describe as work. She may not know what the truth is but she knows the official story ain't it.

Yes, the disbelief in their report, shown in the poll, is an indication of distrust in government, much of which was fostered by the Warren Commission to begin with.

At any rate, your request for reliable polling data to back up the claim that most do not accept the official report on Kennedy's assassination was met.

[customerserviceguy]

104. See above, I finally relented

But it still doesn't mean anything other than illustrating the cynicism that the OP was asking about. It's still alive and well within the American people. That's why it's become difficult for Presidents to get a large majority of the people to trust them for more than a few months, especially after a crisis.

[slackmaster]

78. More than half of Americans believe in angels, and 80% believe in miracles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/23/ST2008062300818.html

[MrScorpio]

36. The CIA killed JFK because he was going to reveal the fact that we got technology from space aliens

Jeez, everybody knows that.

[laughingliberal]

58. It's about as credible as the Warren Commission's 'findings'. nt

[sabrina 1]

68. Well, that's more believable than magic bullets that can

twist and turn and go in and out of different bodies, killing one person and wounding another.

What kind of gun WAS that, speaking of technology. Don't we have them anymore, or was that a one-of-a-kind weapon?

Wait, maybe it was from those space aliens, but it got into the wrong hands and they only gave out one which is why there has never, ever been another one that can shoot a magic bullet like that.

The Warren Commission = Conspiracy Theory.

[Individualist]

82. You're wrong. Most Americans believe the subsequent Select Committee on Assassinations

"The Committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy."

http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1c.html

[shraby]

2. I did, and was devastated when they killed Kennedy, then

when Ford pardoned Nixon I was purely pissed. Couldn't believe he'd do that but that was why he was named to take Agnew's place. Things have been totally screwed up since. As Stan would say to Ollie, "Look at the fine mess you've gotten us into now."

[SharonAnn]

16. Oh yes. Freshman in college in 1963, working professional in 1974.

What an era!

JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinated.

Nixon and the white house tapes, Watergate, the resignation.

Ford pardoning Nixon, the last flights from the American Embassy in Saigon.

Oh yes, I was there.

[WheelWalker]

43. Fuck me. I was a freshman in college in

September, 1967. My older brother had just shipped to Viet Nam.

[xxqqqzme]

37. I view the Ford presidency as the first American

coup. Dimson was the second. The third will be the take over.

[RandomThoughts]

3. Blazzing saddles seems to be more about the current years

then the older years. I especially like the town of cardboard cut outs, the vampire reference, although some of that is bias, the way the show spills over into many other shows, that movie can be seen as a tactical plan for many things.

There are some other things in it, the taking of the king by fast hand. The idea of not fighting and just spending time with the bottle. That is also in Sword of Truth.

Although it was not suppose to be the Waco kid, it was suppose to be the Wacko kid. Not sure how that mistake happened, biases are difficult things.

[KeepCongressBlue]

26. i think that blazing saddles makes fun of

movies that were popular 10-15 years earlier because they were very cliched and either had John Wayne in it or was made by an italian producer. I liked it at the beginning they played Frankie Laine and did the RKO Pictures thing to make it look old.

[LongTomH]

88. Actually, Blazing Saddles was a send up of racism!

I doubt that Blazing Saddles could be made today; it's way beyond the pale of political correctness.

My memories of Blazing Saddles are clouded by the fact that I had to run it for two solid months! I was working at a cable TV outlet in the '70s. Blazing Saddles was one of the features on our 'Hotel Theater' service (At the time, most of our programming came in via antenna, microwave link, or on 1/2 inch videotape.

Programming was supposed to change every month; but, the features for the next month didn't come in. Blazing Saddles was hilarious the first few weeks; but, after two months I felt like screaming every time I heard: "He rode a Blazing Saddle; he wore a shining star!"

[msongs]

4. to be fair about it, tie-dye shirts are back big time as are The Doors lol nt

[DURHAM D]

5. The major event of that period was our civil war about the Vietnam war.

We had a country divided.

Also the civil rights movement came to a head.

I have no idea what you mean by "modern political ideas". Are you referring to the partisan divide?

[DFW]

6. I did

Read "The Selling of the President, 1968"

Coming from someone inside the 1968 Nixon campaign, it really introduces the modern Republican party
as the germ of the poisonous weed it has become today.

[RufusTFirefly]

9. Nixon's media advisor in 1968 was one Roger Ailes. Where is he now?

Roger Ailes is the president of Fox News Channel.

Need I say more?

[DFW]

14. Ailes learned a lot in 1968

The Selling of the President 1968 was written by someone else from the campaign, Joe McGuinness. An excerpt
from a review:

The book is shocking because it shows how every public can be manipulated. Nixon's campaign was built around television shows where Nixon would answer live questions. McGinniss points out "Nixon could get through the campaign with a dozen or so carefully worded responses that would cover all the problems of America in 1968" (p. 63). The careful grooming of his image causes even Nixon to remark: "It's a shame a man has to use gimmicks like this to get elected."

[marlakay]

111. Must be where he got the idea for Fox nt

[GReedDiamond]

7. Psychedelics had a major impact on the direction...

...of "pop culture," and beyond, including serious groundbreaking scientific inquiry/development/implementation.

By "psychedelics," I mean, primarily LSD-25.

[WheelWalker]

17. When you come to a fork in the path,

take it...

[GReedDiamond]

25. Absolutely...

...also recommended when utilizing psychedelics: SET and SETTING

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting

[customerserviceguy]

8. I went through those times

They covered my pre-college school years, from having to get on my knees in Catholic school in the second grade when the announcement came over the PA system that Kennedy had been shot, to partying my ass off while rushing fraternities prior to entering my freshman year, when we heard that Tricky Dick had resigned.

You're right about the cultural transformation that took place. While it took TV a bit of time to catch up, movies went from squeaky-clean to being able to show some actual human sexuality, rather than just 'artistic' allegories of it. Music did the same sort of changes. Vietnam and Watergate turned Americans from people who trusted Ike and JFK to people deeply suspicious of government, as personified by Lyndon Johnson and by the aforementioned Tricky Dick.

I'd have to say that one of the great frustrations of the baby boomers is that we have not seen in our adult lifetimes the pace of change that we came to regard as normal during that era. It freaked out our parents' and grandparents' generation, but we figured it was what was supposed to be. Clearly, we were wrong about that.

A good movie from the era was M*A*S*H. The TV show became edgy as time went on, but the movie showed some real cynicism about a war that most Americans considered to be a 'good' war, much the same as WWII was regarded.

[napi21]

35. I will never forget the day Kennedy was shot! I was at work and

someone got a phone call with the news. We all started to cry & pray that he would be cured at the hospital. All the phone lines were tied up in all of Pittsburgh so none of us could get any additional info. Then we heard that he died. Ever since, no matter how much I've detested some of our Presidents, I've alwasy said I don't ever want them to get murdered in office. (That even includes Shrub.) There were good times then too though. The music was great, most of the movies were great, and Johnson did a good job getting medicare pushed through congress. Some terrible things happened too with the shooting of Bobby Kennedy, MLK, and of course the Nam war. Nixon got elected, his VP resigned in shame, and then so did he. It was a very tumultuous period in our history.

[spanone]

12. tough stretch...yet an incredible time

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Yes. I came aware during that period.

And some people wonder why I seem so cynical.

Glad you've detected the root cause.

[WheelWalker]

15. Yes...

and quite a while since, I might add. 1949 CE

[sandnsea]

It was simmering in the 50s

Check out film noir. There were some great movies earlier than the 60s that weren't all fantasyland. The Lost Weekend was first made in 1945 for instance.

I think after WWII that so many men went to college on the GI Bill and it changed the country forever. Throughout the 50s you see in books and cinema that people are starting to think and question. Think about movies like 12 Angry Men and On The Waterfront. People believed in what education could do for the individual and that it held promise to solve all the problems of society. Kind of that sophomoric glow combined with the delirium of winning wars against Nazis and the Japanese. Our economic engine was booming because no one else's was. We thought we were at the pinnacle of utopia. And that's what those parents taught us kids.

And then Kennedy was shot. Mind you, the country was as split about him at the time as they are about Obama now. Still, that really brought the country to its knees. The events of the 60s just continued, blow after blow. I think parents who had gone to college and had the promise of passing on an undreamed of future to their kids, watched their kids take that education to heart, and then come apart when the promise didn't match the reality.

[customerserviceguy]

29. You make an excellent point

Art was beginning to foretell the changes that would come about in the time span the OP is talking about.

Your post reminds me of another big change in society, and that is the distrust of science. Back in the late 40's, 50's, and early 60's, Americans (and their advertising) were talking about the Atomic Age, and then the Space Age after that. Sometime in the middle of the Sixties, that all stopped, and science was seen as something that produces harm as well as good.

The belief that science and technology would be the deliverance of humankind ground to a dead halt sometime in that period that the OP is referring to. A check of the advertising from magazines of each era confirms that.

[sandnsea]

38. Apollo 13, 1970

Don't you suppose that was just another blow to our collective psyche? But of course you're right about the Atomic Age. That was more powerful and prevalent than social sciences.

Do you suppose the reduction in college education opportunities has anything to do with it?

[customerserviceguy]

90. Apollo 13, certainly

But the Apollo 1 tragedy that took the life of one of the Mercury astronauts, and the life of America's first spacewalker (as well as another astronaut) was where some of the crumbling started. Add in the Challenger and Columbia disasters, and you have a nearly complete loss of support for manned space exploration that was unimaginable in JFK's time.

I don't see there as being a reduction in college education opportunities, at least not for the period being discussed. I saw massive expansions of the availability of college educations in that time, from equal opportunities for racial minorities, to increased grants and loans, and the continuation of draft deferrments during the Vietnam era, along with grade inflation to keep people from dropping out.

When you look at how relatively educated our population is relative to fifty years ago, you have to wonder why there are still so very many people who believe in astrology, the fringier forms of alternative 'medicine', and the Republicon Party. Education does not always produce wisdom or hope.

[doc03]

18. After Nixon I have pretty much lost faith in

government. If a Democrat gets elected he never gets a chance the MSM and the Republicans attack everything he does from day one.

[zipplewrath]

19. No, it was not the most important

It was however the most significant in one particular way. The right literaly killed off the left in a way unmatched in US history. There are the obvious assasinations of MLK and the rest of the alphabet soup. But all the "small" ones as well. The freedom riders, Meadgar Evers, and innumerable other people who could have become major leaders of the left.
It gave rise to a period of conservative domination. It was possible because they were willing to kill us off.

[laughingliberal]

59. I believe they're still willing to kill us off should we appear to be gaining ground. nt

[EFerrari]

21. Are you kidding?

Awards for 1962
Oscar

Best Picture

WINNER
West Side Story: Robert Wise
NOMINEES
Fanny: Joshua Logan
Judgment at Nuremberg: Stanley Kramer
The Guns of Navarone: Carl Foreman
The Hustler: Robert Rossen


Corny and unaware of any real problems?

Maybe you need to watch a few more movies.

[pinboy3niner]

31. Nominees the following year:

Lawrence of Arabia (Winner)
The Longest Day
The Music Man
Mutiny on the Bounty
To Kill a Mockingbird

[WheelWalker]

42. An interesting year

[Martin Eden]

94. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Would be on my list of movies that illustrated real problems in our society.

[Individualist]

103. On the Beach (1959) is one of the best anti-war, anti-nuclear movies ever made.

And in 1956 Grace Metalious caused an uproar with Peyton Place by saying things that (at that time) dare not be said.

[Atticus]

22. You're kidding, right? No one at DU is that old. nt.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

41. Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

:) I am! :bounce:

[pinboy3niner]

48. Hey, I'm still 19

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! (No matter what the mirror says!) :)

(ETA: Why do they offer me the senior discount without my asking? What's wrong with them?)

[Lint Head]

23. I did. MLK was shot on my birthday. That was a bad day for me.

I saw black and white television become color, JFK shot, Bobby shot, MLK shot and lost friends in Nam. The times kinda turned the country into what it is today but the lesson of non violence, peace and fairness did not survive. Greed has hijacked the 50's, 60's and 70's turning them into a bad movie with unrealistic stereotypes. The message of the 60's is really lost to time because of the bigots and corporate theocratic fascist that took power. Everyone with long hair in the 60's had a message of peace. The time line coincides to when red neck racists stopped wearing buzz cuts and flat top haircuts and grew there hair out and started listening to Lynard Skynard and the Allman Brothers.

[Martin Eden]

95. I remember hearing the news the next morning (I was 10)

My elderly Aunt lived with us. She was in the labor movement in the 20's & 30's and was the most caring person I ever knew. She was watching TV and sobbing when I came downstairs that morning. It was very sad news for both of us.

When I went to school that day most of the other kids reflected their parents reaction to the news -- they were celebrating :cry:

[pinto]

27. I did. Not sure what you're asking, but I'd be glad to add my 2 cents from that decade.

:hi:

[mopinko]

30. you are missing the real engine of change- the bomb.

people who grew up in that time frame grew up with duck and cover defense drills, bomb shelters, and our own military industrial complex on parade. we grew up knowing that in the blink of an eye, we could all be gone. the space race was great, but it was also unnerving, messing around with the cosmos, wondering what sort of pandora's box we would open next.
try watching "from here to eternity"

[pinboy3niner]

44. That's an important point

And the Cuban missile crisis was a BFD.

In the mid-80's I went to speak to a high school class in MD on "Major Issues of the 20th Century"--defined by the teacher as WWII, VN/Watergate and the Threat of Nuclear War. Both the class and the teacher were impressive. During VN, the teacher had served a jail sentence (either 18 or 24 months, I forget which) for refusing to report for induction.

[Arkansas Granny]

70. The threat of the bomb touched everyone. Even in our rural community

there was a Civil Defense building (not much more than a gazebo) where local people could go to spot planes in case of a national emergency or attack. My brother trained as a spotter and received a book that showed the markings and silhouettes of various planes for ease of identification.

There were also different buildings in town that were identified as Civil Defense Shelters where people could go in case of a nuclear attack. People were installing bomb shelters in their back yards and stocking them with food and water and other supplies. And there were those drills at school and the PSA's on tv showing what to do in case someone dropped a bomb on us.

Childhood back then wasn't quite as idyllic as it is commonly portrayed.

[mopinko]

75. i'm sure no one thinks twice these days about those

signs everywhere with the 3 triangles. they were an ominous presence then.

[slackmaster]

77. The Cold War dominated US foreign policy and a lot of other things

It provided one of the strongest motivators for the space program. It led to our entanglement in the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War.

[w8liftinglady]

32. yes- i was 4 when Kennedy was assassinated in 64..

My aunts(16 and 19 at the time)..took me to NYC to see the beatles deplane in 1966
my uncle went to Viet Nam in 1968-and came back a hardcore protester
My aunts both became hippies about the same time...smoked some wild pot and took acid...a lot.
my dad was in Cambodia and viet nam almost my entire childhood.
I remember Nixon resigning when I was babysitting a next door neighbor.grew up on military bases from 1963 on....strange childhood...

[jtuck004]

33. Don't discount the effect civil rights and drugs had on the late 50's.

I'm pretty sure the changes started in the late 50's when people started really challenging, and winning the challenges, to the existing order, Montgomery being one example. Without those stirrings of the pot, as it were, how much change would have been possible later I don't know.

[immoderate]

34. I was a freshman when JFK was shot.

I think the Vietnam War was critical because it exposed, on a national scale, that the government did not operate in the interests of the people. Many policies, and political attitudes stem from the blowback caused by Vietnam War resistance. The volunteer army, the war on drugs, the southern strategy, the moral majority and rise of fundamentalism, and Reaganism were all reactions to the anti-war movement.

Of course this is not to negate other good points here. This thread is a good read.

On edit: One of my fraternity brothers wrote Kentucky Fried Movie. Lots of in jokes from the fraternity table.

--imm

[mrcheerful]

71. That is my take on that time period as well because everyone I that supported Reagan

in 79 were the same assholes that supported the VN war and who refused to walk out of class in remembrance of Kent state. They were also the ones who listened to country music, wore short hair and kissed up to teachers while loudly telling everyone it was wrong to question leaders. Btw, what struck me as really odd is how, it seemed at the time, that the class of 75 cared more about the social issues of others and the class of 76 saw a dramatic increase in the me types who refused to help anyone except themselves. Maybe that was just my school.

[immoderate]

74. Good point.

1976 was the year of the "Tall Ships." The Bi-Centennial. And I do recall that change in attitude. No more war to fret about, and the government getting better at public relations. I don't think it was just your school.

--imm

[Bitwit1234]

40. I don't now why but....I think John Mitchell knew something about the

assassination of JFK. He was the republican attorney general under Nixon. To my dying day, I will believe that the FBI did something to Martha Mitchell. She made a big thing about telling something about the assassination and suddenly disappeared. Come to find out she was taken to a motel and locked in by the FBI. It was all hushed up. Shortly after that she passed away with cancer. Or so they said. I think she was going to spill the beans.

[grasswire]

46. a lot of people had strange things happen to them

It's pretty obvious that Martha Mitchell had to be controlled to maintain the cover.

[pinboy3niner]

52. And it was Helen Thomas who got Martha's story out

At least the part of it about Martha being squelched. When no one else would listen, Helen did.

[RufusTFirefly]

66. What about "the whole Bay of Pigs thing."

Haldeman also caught wind of something.

Haldeman says he was puzzled in that conversation when Nixon told him what to tell the CIA: "Look, the problem is that this will open up the whole Bay of Pigs thing again." When Haldeman did ask CIA Director Richard Helms that day to intercede with the FBI, he reports he at first got nowhere. Helms insisted that no CIA operation would be compromised if the FBI traced the money through a Mexican bank. But then Haldeman did as he was told by Nixon, warning that "the Bay of Pigs may be blown."

According to Haldeman, the reaction was galvanic. "Turmoil in the room, Helms gripping the arms of his chair, leaning forward and shouting, 'The Bay of Pigs had nothing to do with this. I have no concern about the Bay of Pigs.' " Recalls Haldeman: "I was absolutely shocked by Helms' violent reaction. Again I wondered, what was such dynamite in the Bay of Pigs story?"

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919342-6,00.html#ixzz0w092fElr

[csziggy]

47. Yes, I was in elementary school when JFK was shot, college when Nixon resigned

In 1963 I was just getting interested in politics so seeing the young president killed was horrific. Then in 1968 I was getting more involved and we had the double blow of MLK and Bobby Kennedy being killed.

When I started to elementary school we were segregated. Soon after they phasing in integration and in my home town the schools were fully integrated by the time I started junior high. After King's assignation, the teachers were all really nervous, but we had no problems.

In college a group of us would get together whenever possible and watch the Watergate hearings. We threw a big party the night he resigned and got really stoned. As happy as we were that night, we were totally bummed when Ford pardoned the crook. I will forever believe that if Nixon had been tried for the crimes of his administration, much of what has happened since (Iran Contra, the long list of Bush crimes) would not have gotten the pass they did.

The culture did change. While there had been movies and songs that were more penetrating before then, they were mostly not main stream popular culture top of the chart successes. But then, neither were Blazing Saddles or Kentucky Fried Movie. KFM was a big hit on college campuses but tanked everywhere else. Blazing Saddles has become a cult favorite, but was not a top movie at the time. M*A*S*H (the movie) was a big hit and made the anti-war feeling stronger, but it came out in 1970 and the anti-war movement was already fully mature and moving into the dominant culture.

I think my older sister was in the thick of the big culture shift while I was a few years too late to really see it. Her freshman year in college (1966), girls were not allowed to wear pants on campus, could not be seen outside of the dorms without stockings and makeup, and freshmen were not allowed to have a car. By the time she graduated, most colleges had no dress codes and make up and stockings were optional just about anywhere.

While in college, she was an active anti-war protester and was the chosen debater on the subject for many of the campus gatherings. She managed during a debate to convert the pro-war advocate and to this day he goes with her to protests - they've been married since 1972.

[Beam Me Up]

51. I was 15 in 1963. My political consciousness began with the McCarthy hearings.

The JFK assassination traumatized me in a way. JFK was such a charismatic figure, many of his speeches gave me a sense of real hope for America. I no longer have that. With his execution -- I never believed the 'lone nut' cover story for a minute -- I understood there is a 'deep' political arena that is very different from the images we're given on TV. There is no doubt in my mind that the JFK assassination and Watergate have some interconnections. It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey what the late 60s and early 70s were like to anyone who didn't live through them with some political awareness. If you're into watching movies about that era there are several that are worth considering:

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Berkeley_in_the_Sixties/60025099">Berkeley In The Sixties

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Sir_No_Sir/70043764">Sir! No Sir!

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Guerrilla_The_Taking_of_Patty_Hearst/60035202">Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Weather_Underground/60029983">The Weather Underground

Two Hollywood flicks that capture a sense of the times are Oliver Stone's, http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Born_on_the_Fourth_of_July/325268">Born on the Fourth of July and the down right prophetic http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Network/70044752">Network.

[pinboy3niner]

60. I was in the Valley then, too...

...and my HS in Sepulveda piped the JFK assassination news into the classroom over the PA system. I remember everyone, including the teachers, crying...

Later, when I was back from VN, I watched Watergate unfold with growing outrage. After the double whammy of VN and Watergate, we lost our innocence. Is it any wonder that most of us no longer trusted our government and our leaders?

I'd add another movie to your list: Oliver Stone's 'Platoon'.

[1monster]

53. 1963 through 1974 were the years of burgeoning idealism through the death of hope.

Our leaders were not perfect, but they did inspire a striving upward. Each time one was murdered, it took a huge chunk out of our ability to believe change for the better was possible. When MLK and RFK were killed so close together, there was no one who could or would pick up the torch and cynicism set in.

[oldlib]

55. I was a working Engineer

at Westinghouse in Thousand Oaks California when Kennedy was shot. I had just returned from lunch when it was announced over the intercom. The CEO of our operation led us in prayer from the intercom and most of us just drifted away for the rest of that Friday afternoon. As a Democrat, I as others, knew that it was dangerous for Kennedy to be in Dallas, and the possibility of an assassination was not unexpected. Watching the developing reporting of Oswald and Ruby, was all consuming that weekend, and I have always believed that Oswald was the sole actor in the shooting.
I first became aware of Richard Nixon during Ike's second run for President. Adlai Stevenson was the Democrat running against Ike and the party in California detested Nixon. Ike was so popular that the party focus was on Nixon. I was surprised when Nixon became Governor of California as I was equally surprised when he became President. I was consumed with work and raising a family at the time of Nixon's resignation and my only feeling, then was, good riddance.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

56. The culture changed so rapidly, especially among youth

Go find some pictures of the Berkeley Free Speech movement in 1964-65. The student protesters look as if they'd walked off the set of Mad Men. The women are wearing dresses and bouffant hair. The men are wearing coats and ties.

This is only twp years before the Summer of Love and five years before Woodstock.

No wonder all the adults I knew had severe future shock.

[Missy Vixen]

57. I was three when JFK was shot.

I was 14 when Nixon resigned. Despite being young at the time, those events shaped my world, along with the Vietnam War, the moon landing, and both RFK and MLK's assassinations.

There was a huge difference in entertainment from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, and it wasn't just the ten year time period, IMHO.

[flyarm]

61. I think there are many of us here who lived through those times!

and I think you are pretty perceptive!

Those were damn dark days..and mixed in was the Vietnam war and many of our brothers, friends and neighbors kids were coming home in coffins or armless or legless.

Damn dark days

[mia]

62. I was a Jr in high school when our Biology teacher announced that

the exam was over and we could all go home because President Kennedy had been shot. It seems like it was the middle of the day and I was just answering a question about the difference between deciduous and coniferous trees. I read the Warren Report as soon as I could get my hands on it. It was a thick white covered book. I didn't believe it and still think of it as my first experience with cover up. I believe now that Kennedy was assassinated because he was in favor of a law that would undermine the power of the Federal Reserve. The same forces are operating today.

When Nixon resigned, it was far less significant to me, somewhat amusing in fact. I'm wondering now who stood to gain by the Watergate investigation,

[flyarm]

64. we got sent home from school also..I remember walking into my house and my mom was on the floor of

the living room in front of our old black and white Tv and she was crying uncontrollably. She told us to all sit with her on the floor and she hugged us all and we sat there all day and night watching the broadcasts.

Mom never got up from the floor all day or night , she had us make our own Peanut Butter & jelly sandwiches for dinner.

I never saw my mom cry like that or saw the fear she had, that we could all see, ever again in her life.
Mom had us watch all of it.

She cried so hard for days ..I can still see her now ..and the coffin moving through the streets of DC and Little John John and Caroline and Jackie, like it was yesterday.

My mom kept saying, they did this to him..they killed him.. I never knew who "they were" at the time,but it left a mark on me to read anything and everything about the murder of a great president.

Nixon ..another story..I hated that scum bag, and Kissinger..I still have the newspaper of the NYT of his resigning and waving as he got on the Helicopter.

[mia]

65. You captured the moment. I remember the crying too.

Everyone was stunned by this event and I remember seeing TV reports of people crying on the streets in Ireland and in other places around the world. The United States represented hope for the world back then.

[Jeanette in FL]

69. You captured those day perfectly

It was the first time in my short life that I saw all the adults in my life crying. My parents, teachers, neighbors, they were all so upset by the events that were taking place. No one was talking.

I knew that our lives were changing. I didn't feel safe for the first time.

The television was on all day long, a first in our household. My parents were glued to it. Each day seemed to be more horrific than the previous day.

The funeral was unreal, my mom was crying and my dad was quiet.

It was the event that made me politically aware even at age 8.

[Mimosa]

67. Yes. I was an observant kid.

KeepCongressBlue, you said "Another interesting aspect was the metamorphosis that took place during that era. From a pop culture perspective, the music and movies of the years before JFK was shot were corny and unaware of any real problems."

Not true at all. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Manchurian Candidate, Lawrence of Arabia, Raisin in The Sun, Member of the Wedding, and many, many great films were made in the 1950s and early 1960s.(The list could go on and on.) The 'civil rights movement' started soon after WWII, when black soldiers came home and demanded equality.

And the music! Ever hear of Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Marion Williams, Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, jazz, bebop...? The early 1950s through mid 1960s were anything but bland or vacuous.


Please study a bit more.

[KeepCongressBlue]

105. well what I was referring to was more of the

beach movies with Frankie Avalon or Elvis Presley. Musically, I was talking about that type of stuff too (the teen idols with everyone being named Bobby). While there were some serious movies from that era like To Kill A Mockingbird, they still didn't have the coarseness of Kentucky Fried Movie or Blazing Saddles. If BS or KFM had been released 15 years earlier, it would have ignited a shitstorm.

[hayrow]

72. The big lies then was not so different from the big lies now

Living through the period of your interest was not a whole lot different than today because people just don't change. In the 1963 - 1974, we were lied to about the power of a competitor, the USSR, and their belief system, Communism. Today we have the Arab World and Islam. The proud ignorance of the mass of bible thumping retrof**ks has not changed, only now it is mainly in the Repuklican Party rather than in the Southern Democrats and the Western Repukes. Just as we were forced to continue a pointless war then, we are forced to continue a pointless war now. Prior to 1963 there was Joe McCarthy and his pals, Strom Thurmund, Paul Harvey, Dick Nixon, etc., etc., etc. all quite popular with the mass of creeps that popluate our country.

[Martin Eden]

73. The death of JFK and the war in VIETNAM destroyed the promise of the 1960's

In his inaugural address JFK urged Americans to "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" ... and legions of idealistic young Americans were ready to take up that challenge and started doing things like joining the Peace Corps. Our nation was rich and propserous and strong and less than 16 years after defeating the fascist powers in WWII we believed we could do anything if we set our minds to it ... we could even land a man on the moon and bring him safely home within a decade.

The murder of president John F Kennedy was a terrible blow, but what really destroyed the promise of the 1960's was the senseless and tragic war in Vietnam. Idealistic young people eager to make America better and to help the world saw their friends sent overseas to kill people for no valid reason and come home in body bags themselves. Betrayed by their own government, idealism turned to anger and protest and a counter-culture that produced some awesome music and expanded the bounds of personal freedom but also led to drugs and decadence and dissipation. What might have been was lost, and the spirit and optimism sparked by JFK was doused by blood and cynicism.

Opportunities such as existed for our country in 1961 seldom come along, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was another ray of hope for this troubled world. I was born in 1957 and had lived my entire life under the shadow of Mutually Assured Destruction. Believe me when I tell you that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a Real. Big. Deal. The future was uncertain but the Cold War was over and though the Clinton Years did not produce all of the fundamental change so many of us here at DU believe is necessary, the economy was booming and the future looked pretty good.

Then the 2000 presidential election was decided by a Republican Supreme Court and Dim Son took office along with Dick Cheney and a cabal of neoconservatives who saw the demise of the Soviet Union as an historic opportunity for the United States to dominate the world with unchallengable military supremacy. They were itching to find a way to implement their Project for the New American Century with a forcible regime change in Iraq, and the national tragedy of 9/11 gave them their pretext. It didn't matter that Iraq had nothing to do with those attacks or with al Qaeda; the truth didn't matter at all because to them the ends justified the means. They exploited the public's grief and anger and fear and patriotism and told lies about a "grave and gathering threat" posed by non-existent WMD and they smeared anyone who opposed their plans as un-American traitors. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists.

This was another major turning point in our history, and the colossal blunder that was the admiunistration of George W Bush is something from which I fear we may never fully recover. Vietnam killed a lot more young Americans and killed the promise of the 1960's, but we were stronger and more resilient then. Our manufacturing base had not been outsourced overseas along with so many good middle class jobs and we were a lender nation rather than a nation in debt. Our natural resources were still bountiful, and our human resources -- the American spirit, however you want to define it -- was much more alive and strong.

Hopefully I'm wrong on that last part. Now in my 50's and having witnessed so much tragedy and endured so many disappointments, maybe I underestimate the resiliency of the young people in this country and their ability to bring about the change that my generation has failed to accomplish. The hope for change that so many invested in our new president is a good sign, even if his administration has thus far fallen short of fullfilling those hopes.

History is not yet fully written, and it will be up to your generation to make the next chapters something that future generations will look back upon as the turning point toward a better future.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

84. Mr. Eden, you've hit the nail on the head.

I'm four years older than you but everything you said in your post is spot on. I too wonder if America will ever get over what Dim Son and his cabal, did to our country.

The fact that he's getting away scot-free from any sort of justice makes me as angry as I was when Ford pardoned Nixon in 1975.

I wish the American people would wake up and see these cretins for what they are and what they have done to our country.

[Martin Eden]

93. Thanks ... I too am angry that CheneyBush have escaped justice

But even more than that I am appalled that so many of our fellow Americans have not woken up to what they did, and that so many still defend them and are so dim-witted as to think someone like Sarah Palin should lead this country.

BTW, I graduated from Reavis High (class of '75) in Burbank, which borders oaklawnillinois (currently live in Downers Grove).

[LongTomH]

91. A great post, Mr. Eden!

I too, still have some hope for my country and the world. By the way, I'm about a decade older than you!

[Martin Eden]

98. Thanks ... care to share your recollection of Nov 22, 1963

The only solid memory I have is watching the funeral on TV.

[never cry wolf]

107. Excellent post! I am three years older and see the same, except...

I would add that the demonetization of Carter and the October surprise that brought a dotard B movie actor to the White House and instituted 30 years of supply side economics, making it the norm, should be added to the list of turning points.

[Martin Eden]

120. Yeah, and that dotard B movie actor is still made of teflon

None of the crap he pulled sticks except for those of us who keep an eye on the memory hole. There's still a lot of "Reagan Democrats" who remember his two terms fondly, even though they got royally fucked by him and the era he ushered in -- and Rethiglicans have bestowed sainthood upon him :mad:

[DailyGrind51]

76. The JFK assassination, Vietnam War, and Watergate hearings were all broadcast over the MSM!

To think that my parents' generation were limited to radio, print media, and newsreels at movie theaters. To us 'Boomers, the Media brought the message, today, unfortunately, the Media has become the message.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

79. Time of the Civil Rights Amendment. And that's a good thing.

RIGHT?

[Liberation Angel]

80. I was a little kid the day JFK was shot and i remember this:

they arrested men with guns on the overpass by the grassy knoll. I watched the news live when we were let out of school right after the shooting.

Then Officer Tippit was shot and Oswald was arrested in the movie theater and the men with guns disappeared from the airwaves (they had intel connections and were detained but then released with no record of the arrests apparently but photos were taken when they were brought in) I believe it was Frank Sturgis and Howard Hunt who were BOTH Watergate Burglars which imho was an op to see if the Democratic Chairman had info on bribes paid by Howard Hughes which were related to cover up of "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" (Nixon tapes) which included the assassination. BTW Nixon was in Dallas the day of the assassination but claimed later he did not remember where he was. Bush (I) was on the fringes of the assassination as a CIA operative as well.

The assassination of JFK was the turning point in our history. The powers behind Nixon did it.

RFK would have beaten Nixon in 1968 so they killed him too and MLK had to go as he was gonna help RFK end the Vietnam war and the fascists stranglehold on our country.

Yeah, I remember,

See my youtube site for more history if you can bear it, JFK spoke out against secret societies and exposed a global fascist conspiracy to scutiny in one speech I just put in my favorites which you should see.

www.youtube.com/user/LiberationAngels

COINTELPRO mirdered any activists who stood up to the fascist Fourth Reich (see Hunter Thompson for this reference)

[NNN0LHI]

81. Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde are more representative of the movies from that era

They were both game changers.

Bullet too.

Don

[DailyGrind51]

83. Tell me that Faye Dunnaway as Bonnie Parker was not the hottest actress of all time!

[NNN0LHI]

86. Yes I did fall in love with her

[BluePatriot]

85. re: JFK

A bit of a historical anecdote -

Dad told a story about my grandpa, who was a WWII vet and had seen many people shot, watching the motorcade video. He saw the way Kennedy's head moved and immediately called BS on the official story.

Considering the demographics of the era, maybe a lot of vets judged from experiences they had + the advent of new technology that let them see what happened (video and tv) that the official story didn't seem to add up? Interesting point to consider for a history major.

[Th1onein]

87. I'm 55.

Yes, I lived during that period.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

96. It was the best of times and the worst of times.

I had just returned from my tour in Japan and was on leave on the day JFK was killed. A year later I was asked to extend my enlistment to kill people I didn't know and had nothing against to show that LBJ was "tough on Communism". I refused and joined the Civil Rights and anti-war movement. Great days that held promise for a change in this society. The promise was dashed at Kent State and the Chicago convention.

The corrupt system won and since then America has returned to it's "normal" state of green,corruption, conformity, and endless war.

[ThomWV]

100. I was in High School when JFK was shot, a Viet Nam Vet when Nixon resigned

ask me anything, but let me tell you first that I disagree with your premiss. The most important time in our recent history is either Bush's theft of the 2000 election (which certainly changed everything) or it was the Iran/Contra Arms for Hostages deal that Reagan cut to take the 1980 election. Nixon was a mean-spirited bastard and as unethical as a turd, but as a destructive force he had nothing on either Reagan or Bush.

[frogmarch]

101. I was almost 20 when JFK was shot.

I agree that many political ideas stem from that period of time. As for movies, the only ones I can recall from the year following the Kennedy shooting are Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, and Viva Las Vegas.

Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. Oswald acted alone. No one in his or her right mind - and no group or foreign gov't - would have hired a batshit crazy loose cannon like Oswald to assassinate anyone.

Kennedy wasn't Oswald's first shooting victim. JFK may have been his first kill, but he wasn't his first victim.

I think I've read every conspiracy theory that's out there, and all the ones I've read conveniently omit any mention of Oswald's trigger-happy past prior to the JFK shooting.

[socialist_n_TN]

106. Yep, I did. What do you want to know?

I've enjoyed (maybe not exactly the right word) reading everybody else's take on this decade plus and it all seems pretty accurate to me. I was born and grew up in the South, so my surroundings were different than a lot of peoples, but even here it was a traumatic decade.

The thing that I take away from it is the fact that people who look back on it think it was a huge group of people who were the counterculture. That's not true. I spent some time in the 80s wondering where the ideals of the 60s went when Reagan was elected and my generation all became Yuppies because I was taken in by that hype too.

Then I remembered. The "hippies" and the "radicals" were all a VERY small percentage of my generation. Most of the folks I went to school with were only SLIGHTLY more liberal than their parents, if at all. For a little while in the early 70s they loosened up and smoked a little pot and screwed around a lot but MOST of the Boomers WERE NOT COMMITTED TO ANY SORT OF SERIOUS LIFESTYLE CHANGE FROM THEIR PARENT'S IDEAS. The first time somebody came along and said, "Don't feel guilty about being greedy, don't feel guilty about killing foreigners in wars for America, don't feel guilty about descrimination." (Reagan), they were QUICK to jump on the bandwagon because they never really got OFF the bandwagon. They just played with THINKING about getting off the capitalist bandwagon, they didn't do it.

[grasswire]

108. re-reading this whole thread has made me very sad

It's pretty clear that the attacks on democracy began after Eisenhower warned the American people against the Military Industrial takeover.

If only....

If only....

If only the generation coming of age now could experience the economic hope those who came of age in 1950s and 60s took for granted.

An unexceptional man could work an 8-5 job that supported his family. They would buy a house, one or two cars, have a retirement pension, send the kids to college.

[pinboy3niner]

112. That's actually a very good post

You identify, very elegantly, a huge change in our society. Which raises the question, what were the policies that led to such a negative result?

[grasswire]

115. greed

.....of one kind or another

[mnhtnbb]

117. Anti union: how to bring about the destruction of the middle class

[emsimon33]

109. Read the book, "JFK and the Unspeakable"

[marlakay]

110. Second grade to teenager

mostly i remember how sad my parents were when kennedy died. I went to a rally with them in CA for his brother campaigning for pres. My dad watched all the watergate stuff and I watched most of it with him. It was very interesting. At the time you just knew it went to the top.

Movies, I remember all those sad romance ones, like Love Story and all the Barbra Streisand ones, you left the theater crying. I don't remember a lot of happy stuff in the movies. That's when most of the vietnam ones were just coming out towards the end of that time.

[johnaries]

113. Watch "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

and Love the Bomb." It was released in 1964, after the JFK assasination but was written and filmed before. A lot of biting satire, including the best movie line of all time: "Gentleman, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room!"

And, yes, a lot of people back then thought that flouridation of water was a Communist plot.

[DailyGrind51]

119. Watching Rod Serling's "A Carol for Another Christmas" on Playhouse 90!

It predicted the rise of malignant form of individualism and the collapse of reason.

[Hannah Bell]

114. "don't think that either of those movies would have made sense to people even 15 years earlier."

there's something to that, i think.

but imo blazing saddles (1974) wasn't the dividing line; the jokes are still old school, just more cynical. it was written by mel brooks (b. 1926) & to me doesn't seem much different from his other work. there are *jokes* in blazing saddles.

imo, saturday night live (1975) was the dividing line. when it came out, i noticed a definite generational divide in who thought it was funny & who didn't. my stepfather, for one, didn't -- at all. he literally didn't see anything funny about it at all. there aren't *jokes* in a lot of the saturday nite live stuff, kinda like there aren't *plots* in some post-modern fiction.

[mnhtnbb]

116. "movies of the years before JFK was shot were corny and unaware of any real problems"

You seriously need to start watching some of the old classic movies.

Start with: On the Waterfront, 1954

If the 1954 film, On the Waterfront is not the best American film ever produced, it is without doubt among the ten best post—World War II American films. It was nominated for 12 Oscars, and won 8 including Best Picture. It is ranked the 8th Greatest American film of all time by the American Film Institute.
Waterfront Crime Commission

The idea for On the Waterfront began with an expose series written for The New York Sun by reporter Malcolm Johnson. The 24 articles won Johnson a Pulitzer Prize, and coupled by the April 1948 murder of a New York dock hiring boss, awakened America to the killings, graft and extortion that made up everyday life on the New York waterfront.

http://www.moderntimes.com/waterfront/

And then take a look at the 1957 movie, 12 Angry Men (originally produced as a teleplay, coincidentally, in 1954)

http://www.filmsite.org/twelve.html

Follow up with the 1955 classic James Dean movie: Rebel Without a Cause

http://www.filmsite.org/rebel.html

And yes, I was alive then: in 7th grade when JFK was shot. I, as do millions of people who were alive then, remember everything vividly about that day.

[RagAss]

118. The JFK murder was my first memory in life. If you hear about a study on ...

people who share the same distinction, please let me know. I would be very interested in their development as adults and political slant today. This is a sliver of the population(3.5 - 4.5 years of age in late 1963).

[Radical Activist]

121. Did your professors live through that time?

It was obviously an important and tumultuous time in American history. People who lived through it tend to think American history revolves around that period. Some of them teach it that way without enough historical perspective.