Losing Isn't Fun

For America, the story of America in the 1970s is largely the story of trying to extricate itself from the Vietnam War. Student protests against the war continue to grow, as President Nixon relies on renewed bombing.

An earlier US bombing campaign during the 1960s had been scaled back due to disappointing results, but Nixon now authorizes direct bombing of North Vietnam, and even neighboring Cambodia.

This included extensive use of napalm bombs, which release a gelatinized form of gasoline that causes extensive, gruesome burns among civilians and combatants alike. This sparks further protests.
Withdrawal from Vietnam, 1970s map

  American Humiliation
Student protests escalate dramatically when the media gets wind of Nixon's secret bombing campaign in Cambodia. Classes are suspended at many schools, as students gather informally to decide what to make of all this. In the end, communist gains on the battlefield force Nixon to finally pull all US forces out of Vietnam in 1973.

Watergate and Arab oil, 1970s map

  Cancer on the Presidency
By 1973, the press is all over Nixon, who has been implicated in the long-running Watergate Scandal. This involves illegal White House efforts to spy on political opponents.  At the same time, Nixon is busy trying to prop up the corrupt South Vietnamese government, with US troops now gone, and dealing with the Arab Oil Embargo. Despite success in other areas, Nixon is finally forced to resign after the release of a set of secret recordings of Oval Office conversations, revealing his personal involvement.


Nuclear brinkmanship, 1970s

  Duck and Cover
Arsenals of nuclear-tipped ICBMs continue to grow, with no thaw in US-Soviet relations. If anything, the Soviets now seem even more resolutely focused on surpassing their hated overseas rival. Schoolchildren are taught how to 'duck and cover,' in the event of a nuclear attack, by crawling under their desks. This would be laughable, if it didn't underscore how unprepared America is, in the 1970s, for a real atomic war. Even more chilling is the reality that the arsenals still exist today.