In his chapter, “The Seventies:Under Control?” Zinn emphasizes the distrust between the American people and the government during and after the Vietnam War. During the 70s something that unified people from every class and socio-economic background was their shared distrust in the government. This distrust only increased with Nixon’s scandal known as Watergate. For me, reading about Watergate was most interesting, because I had never actually learned what happened. Maybe that sounds crazy but I feel like many of my peers, specifically in highschool also had a lack of understanding for what Watergate truly was. We knew it was a scandal and that Nixon resigned because if it, but we never learned much else. Watergate exposed how corrupt Nixon and his administration truly were, as they were accepting illegal donations, interfering with the Democratic party, and illegally bombed places in Cambodia. Ford then became president however the American people were still restless because they had “cleaned” the government of corrupt people, but not of previous policies. There were no fundamental changes made to the system under Ford.<\/p>\n
Another main point that Zinn discussed was what was happening in Cambodia and how the US interfered. Not only was Nixon illegally bombing some areas of the country, but Ford somewhat followed in his footsteps and entered Cambodia (legally) but in a horrible unnecessary manner. A ship of men from the US had been captured by the Cambodians, however they were not harmed; in fact, they were given food and beds to sleep on from the soldiers that captured them. Nevertheless, Ford demanded Cambodia let the men free and when they did not answer the US began bombing Cambodian ships and sending troops over. Chinese diplomats later stated that they were working with the Cambodians to get the men back however it was too late, and the day the troops arrived, the men were released (some of them killed in the attack). I found the American government needing to assert their dominance to be a reoccurring theme through many things we have read this semester. This was the same, Ford wanted the world to know that although we had lost in Vietnam, we were still a strong military force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his chapter, “The Seventies:Under Control?” Zinn emphasizes the distrust between the American people and the government during and after the Vietnam War. During the…<\/p>\n