History of the American People since 1877 Eric Paul Totten

In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter did little to inspire American's faith in government. While Ford was a likeable and humble man, his administration achieved few goals and did little to abate the economic crises. His actions made enemies on the right and the left, and further exacerbated divisions within the GOP. Ronald Reagan led a conservative primary challenge in 1976 to Ford and narrowly lost. While Ford won the nomination, Ronald Reagan had positioned himself as the future of the Republican party. Ford ultimately lost to the former Naval Lieutenant and Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter.

Carter's administration was equally ineffective. Carter had campaigned as a Washington outsider and fiscal conservative. Carter's independent streak made it difficult for him to work with Washington power brokers, and he rejected the agenda of the progressive wing of his party, led by Senator Ted Kennedy. The ongoing economic and energy crisis brought out the moralist in Carter, who acknowledged the suffering but pointed to a deeper "crisis of confidence" in American culture. In the end, his speech fell flat, and his Democratic majority accomplished little, except for further deregulation.

Carter's foreign policy was also viewed as insufficient by many Americans. Though he furthered détente with China and Russia, his handling of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan further hurt Carter's reputation. As a result, Americans to this day equate Carter and Democrats as weak on foreign policy and war.


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In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues the Watergate break-in went from a third-rate robbery to a massive intra-governmental cover-up that ultimately took down Richard M. Nixon. Nixon's abuse of power and obstruction of justice caused a constitutional crisis that threatened the rule of law itself. Due to the heroic efforts of reporters, the thorough investigation by the FBI, the placing of principles over party by congressional Republicans, and the impartial conduct of the Supreme Court, justice was finally obtained. Nixon resigned from the presidency, the first president to do so, and was succeeded by Gerald Ford. Nixon's former Vice President, Spiro Agnew, had also resigned due to corruption charges stemming from a decade long bribery scheme that went from Baltimore County all the way into the White House. Nixon's legacy illustrates that Democracy is fragile and requires constant vigilance against the abuse of power and corruption. As a result of Watergate and Vietnam, Americans became extremely disenchanted with the government and politicians, and this distrust remains to this day.


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In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues Richard Nixon was a transitional figure between New Deal Republicans and modern conservatism. Nixon opposed the Great Society, but upheld and attempted to expand New Deal style policies. Nixon's rhetoric began the "emerging conservative majority," through various political strategies that picked up the pieces of the New Deal coalition.

Nixon also supported environmentalism, which attempted to alleviate the substantial damage caused deforestation, over chemical usage, pollution, and toxic dumping. As a result, the Earth Day movement emerged and the Environmental Protection Agency was created in order to address these issues.

Critically, Nixon's anti-communist credentials allowed him to thaw relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. This significantly reduced the tensions of the Cold War and proved peaceful coexistence was possible. However, it gave an added issue for ultra conservative Republicans to rally around, which later contributed to the Reagan Revolution.


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In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues the Vietnam War was a result of Cold War logic, where the U.S. government misinterpreted decolonization movements as communist threats. There was a brief moment where the U.S. could have supported Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese against French colonization, but since NATO needed French support, the U.S. was forced to back the French. This would later lead to Deja Vu, as the French experience in Vietnam would mirror the American experience the following decade.

With French defeat, the US supported the corrupt South Vietnamese regime, which was highly incompetent and oppressive. Inside South Vietnam, a civil war emerged between the National Liberation Front, also called the Viet Cong, and the Army of South Vietnam, called ARVN. At first, ARVN was effective, since it was dependent on American weapons and advisors. With equipment support from the Soviets and Chinese, the NLF beat back ARVN and controlled most of the countryside. Due to the repression of the Diem regime, widespread protests engulfed the country. This resulted in an American supported coup to remove Diem. Unfortunately, his successors were equally corrupt but not as effective, which led successive governments to rise and fall in quick succession.

American involvement in Vietnam increased after the false report of an attack on the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy, which gave LBJ the cover he needed to expand the war. American troops flooded into the country, which resulted in North Vietnamese troops coming South to work with the NLF to overturn the government. Combat in Vietnam was brutal and American troops suffered greatly. Civilians were also caught in the crossfire, and tens of thousands were killed, due to military commanders' obsession with body count as a measure of effectiveness.

In the end, LBJ was brought down by the war, and Nixon committed treason to win an election and continue the war for another five years, when it could have ended in 1968. Nixon began the gradual withdraw of American troops, but not before invading Cambodia, which destabilized the country and directly led to the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot. Peace in Vietnam finally occurred in 1973, and South Vietnam was conquered a two years later.

The legacy of the Vietnam war is tragic. American servicemen were disrespected when they came home. The people no longer trusted the government because of their lies about the war. Americans attempted to avoid large scale foreign intervention until the First Iraq War of 1991. Finally, tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians were killed as a result of the war. Many refugees escaped these countries and came to settle in the U.S., where they are valued members of society.


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In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues Lyndon B. Johnson was a tragic figure, as he did more for Civil Rights than any other president since Abraham Lincoln, but instead is chiefly remembered for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War. As the war abroad and society at home ran out of control, LBJ came under attack from right and left. At the same time, the counter-culture changed the ways many Americans lived, as they experimented with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Combined with the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, the result was a conservative backlash, which resulted in a massive political realignment that we live with to this day.


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In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues JFK saved the world from nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK won a tight election and brought with him a cabinet of the "best and brightest" to run the country. In office, JFK was late to support the Civil Rights Movement, and only did so after violent attacks on peaceful protesters. In addition, JFK was forced to do the Bay of Pigs invasion and commit US advisors to Vietnam due to political calculations. His assassination in 1963 shook the country and many wonder to this day what he would have done during his second term.


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