What We've Learned

During this era, there were many events and movements that changed history forever. They show lessons that can be taught to future generations of America. Just some examples include: the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the counterculture.

The civil rights movement was a series of worldwide political movements for equality before the law that peaked in the 1960s. The main aim of the civil rights movement include, ensuring that the rights of all people are equally protected by the law including, the rights of minorities.

The Vietnam War was a prolonged war (1954-1975) between the communist armies of North Vietnam who were supported by the Chinese and the armies of South Vietnam who were supported by the United States. The war had many faults, and those faults can be lessons learned for future generations. Just some failures from the war include diplomatic negotiations, presidential leadership, and cultural/social contexts.

Watergate was a series of scandals occurring during the Nixon administration in which members of the executive branch organized illegal political espionage against their perceived opponents and were charged with violation of the public trust, bribery, contempt of Congress, and attempted obstruction of justice. The results of Watergate show future generations to not go against the law.

The counterculture of the 1960s was a cultural phenomenon that developed first in the United States and United Kingdom and spread throughout much of the Western world between the early 1960s and the early 1970s. As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in US society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam,  race relations, human sexuality, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychoactive drugs, and differing interpretations of the American Dream. Lessons to be learned from the counter culture are to not get involved with drugs and alcohol. A lot of people back then didn’t know the permanent harm a lot of the substances would have on them.