Nixon and Kissinger launch Operation Menu, a covert bombing campaign against neutral Cambodia conducted without congressional authorization or public knowledge. The secret carpet-bombing campaign—with missions codenamed Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, Dessert, and Supper—is confirmed at an Oval …
President Richard NixonNational Security Advisor Henry KissingerSecretary of Defense Melvin LairdSecretary of State William RogersGeneral Earle Wheeler+1 morewar-crimesgovernment-deceptionmilitary-industrial-complexillegal-surveillanceconstitutional-violations
Roger Blough, the 65-year-old retired chairman of U.S. Steel, founds the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Roundtable (CUAIR) in 1969, “affectionately known” as “Roger’s Roundtable,” with the explicit goal of breaking construction union power. Blough’s intention …
Roger BloughConstruction Users Anti-Inflation RoundtableU.S. SteelGeneral MotorsGeneral Electric+3 morebusiness-roundtable-precursoranti-unioncorporate-coordinationlabor-suppressionceo-coordination
Richard Nixon won the presidency with a strategy devised by political consultant Kevin Phillips that explicitly targeted white racial resentment to break up the New Deal coalition. Phillips, who worked on Nixon’s campaign, told journalists during the election that ’the whole secret of …
Richard NixonKevin PhillipsH.R. HaldemanGeorge WallaceRepublican Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategyrepublican-partysouthern-strategy+1 more
Richard Nixon’s campaign secretly communicates with the South Vietnamese government to sabotage President Johnson’s Paris peace talks, with H.R. Haldeman’s notes documenting Nixon’s direct instruction to “keep Anna Chennault working on SVN [South Vietnam].” Nixon …
Richard NixonAnna ChennaultH.R. HaldemanJohn MitchellSouth Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu+2 moreelection-interferencegovernment-deceptioncorruptionwar-profiteeringinstitutional-corruption
British media mogul and Labour MP Robert Maxwell secretly travels to Moscow to meet KGB head Yuri Andropov in 1968. This meeting occurs during Soviet planning for the invasion of Czechoslovakia, with Andropov as the main advocate for ’extreme measures’ against Prague Spring reforms. …
Robert MaxwellYuri AndropovKGBOleg GordievskyLabour Party+1 morekgbrobert-maxwellsoviet-intelligencemedia-captureczechoslovakia+2 more
The Supreme Court issues a 7-2 decision in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., holding that Congress can regulate private property sales to prevent racial discrimination under the Thirteenth Amendment’s power to eliminate “badges and incidents of slavery.” The case centers on Joseph Lee …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph Lee JonesAlfred H. Mayer Companyinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
On June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after declaring victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. He died 26 hours later on June 6, 1968. Kennedy’s assassination, coming just two months after the …
Robert F. KennedySirhan SirhanFBILAPDpolitical-violenceassassinationdemocratic-erosion1968-election
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) into law one week after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. The …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.National Association of Real Estate BoardsNational Association of RealtorsHouse Rules Committeehousingcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismreal-estate-industrycorporate-opposition
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM Central Standard Time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. King had traveled to Memphis to support Black sanitation workers who were striking for better pay, …
Martin Luther King Jr.James Earl RayFBIMemphis Policecivil-rightsviolenceassassinationinstitutional-racismdemocratic-erosion
U.S. Army soldiers from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment massacre between 347 and 504 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians—mostly women, children, elderly men, and infants—in the village of My Lai during a search-and-destroy mission. Led by Lieutenant William Calley, …
Lieutenant William CalleyCaptain Ernest MedinaCharlie Company 1st Battalion 20th Infantry RegimentHugh Thompson Jr. (helicopter pilot who intervened)U.S. Armywar-crimesmilitary-corruptiongovernment-deceptioninstitutional-corruptioncover-up
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), chaired by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner Jr., releases its report on the causes of the 1967 urban riots that killed 43 in Detroit, 26 in Newark, and caused casualties in 23 other cities. The Commission’s central finding …
Kerner CommissionGovernor Otto Kerner Jr.President Lyndon B. JohnsonRichard Nixonracial-injusticeinstitutional-racismgovernment-inactionurban-policylaw-and-order-politics
On December 15, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), prohibiting employment discrimination against workers aged 40 to 65 (later extended to all workers over 40). The law banned discrimination in hiring, firing, compensation, and terms of …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonU.S. CongressSecretary of Labor W. Willard WirtzChamber of Commerceworker-rightsdiscriminationregulatory-reformemployment
On August 25, 1967, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized the expansion of the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to create a new initiative targeting “Black Nationalist–Hate Groups.” This program represented a systematic effort by the nation’s premier law enforcement …
J. Edgar HooverFBIMartin Luther King Jr.Black Panther PartyWilliam C. Sullivansurveillancecivil-rightsfbi-abuseinstitutional-corruptiondemocratic-erosion
After losing a divisive fight for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women (for which she had served as first vice president since 1965), Phyllis Schlafly begins publishing The Phyllis Schlafly Report, a monthly newsletter intended to mobilize her supporters and inform them …
Phyllis SchlaflyEagle ForumNational Federation of Republican Womenconservative-movementpolitical-infrastructuregrassroots-organizingmedia-influence
Governor Ronald Reagan signs the Mulford Act into law, prohibiting the public carrying of loaded firearms in California without a permit. The legislation, crafted by Republican Assemblyman Don Mulford with assistance from the National Rifle Association, specifically targets the Black Panther …
Governor Ronald ReaganDon MulfordNational Rifle AssociationBlack Panther PartyCalifornia State Legislaturegun-controlracial-politicsnrablack-panthersselective-enforcement
A Detroit Police Department raid on an unlicensed after-hours bar in the heart of the city’s predominantly African American inner city ignites one of the most violent and destructive civil disturbances in American history. The five-day uprising leaves 43 people dead, more than 1,000 injured, …
Detroit Police DepartmentMichigan National GuardInsurance industryCorporate interestsDetroit residentsracial-injusticecorporate-disinvestmentwhite-flighturban-decayeconomic-abandonment
Ramparts magazine publishes Sol Stern’s article “NSA and the CIA” in March-April 1967, exposing that the Central Intelligence Agency has been secretly funding the National Student Association and revealing “the whole system of anti-Communist front organizations in Europe, …
Ramparts MagazineCentral Intelligence AgencyNational Student AssociationSol SternLyndon B. Johnson+1 moreciadark-moneyconservative-fundingcovert-operationsintelligence-capture+1 more
Defense contractor profiteering from the Vietnam War reaches extraordinary levels as the RMK-BRJ construction consortium alone holds contracts officially estimated to reach at least $900 million by November 1967. Over 60% of all construction work in South Vietnam during the war is accomplished by …
College students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in West Oakland, California, in response to systemic police brutality against African Americans. The organization emerges from the racial tensions and policing practices that plague Oakland, influenced by …
Bobby SealeHuey P. NewtonFBI Director J. Edgar HooverCalifornia State Legislaturesurveillancepolice-statecivil-rightscointelproinstitutional-repression
On September 9, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, establishing the first federal safety standards for automobiles and creating what would become the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The legislation passed unanimously after …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonRalph NaderGeneral MotorsJames RocheSenator Abraham Ribicoffconsumer-protectioncorporate-lobbyingregulatory-reformautomotive-industrywhistleblower
Dorothy Gautreaux, a community organizer and resident of the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on Chicago’s South Side, becomes lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by six Black tenants with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit alleges that the Chicago …
Dorothy GautreauxChicago Housing AuthorityAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
On July 4, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson reluctantly signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), establishing for the first time a legal right for citizens to access federal agency records. The legislation overturned the presumption of government secrecy that had prevailed since the founding, …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonRepresentative John MossSenator Edward LongAmerican Society of Newspaper Editorsgovernment-transparencypress-freedomdemocratic-erosionregulatory-reform
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Miranda v. Arizona that law enforcement must warn suspects of their constitutional rights before custodial interrogation, or else statements cannot be used as evidence at trial. The decision requires police to inform suspects of: (1) the right to remain silent; …
U.S. Supreme CourtChief Justice Earl WarrenRichard NixonLaw enforcement organizationslaw-enforcementcivil-libertiesinstitutional-resistanceconservative-backlashpolice-state
On November 30, 1965, attorney Ralph Nader published “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” a meticulously researched indictment of the auto industry’s prioritization of styling and profits over passenger safety. The book documented how …
Ralph NaderGeneral MotorsFord Motor CompanyChrysler CorporationAmerican Automobile Manufacturers Associationconsumer-protectioncorporate-disinformationautomotive-industryregulatory-capture
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) into law at the base of the Statue of Liberty, abolishing the National Origins Formula that has governed U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s. The legislation dismantles the racist quota system that …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSenator Philip HartRepresentative Emanuel CellerSenator James EastlandSenator Samuel Ervin+1 moreimmigrationcivil-rightsinstitutional-resistancecongressional-obstruction
President Johnson signs legislation creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a Cabinet-level agency, consolidating federal housing programs under one roof. Robert C. Weaver becomes the first HUD Secretary and the first African American Cabinet member. However, HUD inherits …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonRobert C. WeaverNational Association of Home BuildersNational Association of Real Estate Boardshousing-policyinstitutional-capturecivil-rightshousing
On September 8, 1965, Filipino American grape workers in the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee walked out on strike against Delano-area table and wine grape growers, protesting years of poverty wages and brutal working conditions, and asked Cesar Chavez’s National Farm Workers …
United Farm WorkersCesar ChavezAgricultural Workers Organizing CommitteeDelano Grape Growerslabor-organizingdemocratic-resistanceworker-power
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, outlawing discriminatory voting practices that have disenfranchised millions of African Americans since Reconstruction. The legislation passes the Senate 77-19 on May 26 and the House 333-85 on July 9, overcoming a 24-day …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.John LewisSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard Russellvoting-rightscivil-rightssouthern-strategyinstitutional-resistancevoter-suppression
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, creating Medicare and Medicaid with former President Harry Truman at his side. The legislation provides federal health insurance for Americans over 65 …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonPresident Harry S. TrumanAmerican Medical AssociationRonald ReaganWilbur Millshealthcareinstitutional-capturecorporate-resistancelobbyingpropaganda
On April 11, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) at the Junction Elementary School in Stonewall, Texas, where he had attended as a child. The landmark legislation established the first comprehensive federal investment in K-12 education, …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonCongressNational Education Associationeducationcivil-rightsgreat-societyfederal-fundingpoverty
On March 11, 1965, Reverend James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister from Boston, died from injuries sustained two days earlier when he was attacked by white supremacists outside a Selma, Alabama restaurant. Reeb had answered Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for clergy to come to Selma following …
James ReebElmer CookWilliam Stanley HoggleNamon O'Neal HoggleLyndon B. Johnsoncivil-rightsviolencejudicial-failureinstitutional-racismvoting-rights
On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 voting rights activists began a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery to protest the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson and the systematic denial of voting rights to Black citizens. Led by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairman John …
John LewisHosea WilliamsAlabama State TroopersAmelia BoyntonLyndon B. Johnsoncivil-rightspolice-brutalityvoting-rightsinstitutional-racismviolence
The term “credibility gap” enters widespread use to describe the growing disconnect between the Johnson administration’s optimistic public statements about Vietnam War progress and the grim reality experienced by soldiers and reporters in the field. The New York Herald Tribune …
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamaraPresident Lyndon B. JohnsonSenator J. William FulbrightDepartment of Defensegovernment-deceptionmilitary-industrial-complexinstitutional-corruptionpropagandasystematic-corruption
Bell Helicopter’s revenue explodes from $150 million in 1962 to over $2 billion by 1967 as the company manufactures more than 100 Huey helicopters per month during the peak of the Vietnam War. The Bell UH-1 Huey becomes the defining symbol of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, with the conflict …
Bell HelicopterU.S. Department of DefenseVietnam Helicopter Pilots Associationwar-profiteeringmilitary-industrial-complexcorporate-corruptiongovernment-waste
The Bracero Program officially ends on December 31, 1964, after labor and civil rights reformers successfully pressure Congress to terminate the 22-year guest worker system. The program’s conclusion comes as mechanization increases in agriculture and mounting evidence exposes systematic …
U.S. CongressUnited Farm WorkersLabor reformersCivil rights organizationsimmigration-policylabor-rightswage-suppressionunion-organizingcorporate-accountability
Representative Wright Patman subpoenas American Enterprise Institute’s tax papers and the Internal Revenue Service initiates a two-year investigation of AEI after William J. Baroody Sr. and several top AEI staff, including Karl Hess, moonlight as policy advisers and speechwriters for Barry …
William J. Baroody Sr.American Enterprise InstituteBarry GoldwaterWright PatmanInternal Revenue Service (IRS)+2 moreamerican-enterprise-instituteaeiirstax-exemptpolitical-campaigns+2 more
On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law, establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System and designating 9.1 million acres of federal land as protected wilderness. The legislation defined wilderness as “an area where the earth and its …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonHoward ZahniserWilderness SocietyU.S. Forest ServiceMining Industry+1 moreenvironmental-regulationpublic-landscorporate-lobbyingconservation
Between 1964 and 1975, as public schools in the Deep South begin to slowly desegregate through federal court orders, at least half a million white students are withdrawn from public schools nationwide to avoid mandatory desegregation. Private school enrollment across the South increases by more than …
White Citizens' CouncilsSouthern state legislaturesJerry Falwell Sr.Private school founderssegregation-academieswhite-flightprivate-school-subsidiesreligious-right-originspublic-education-undermining
Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution with near-unanimous support (416-0 in the House, 88-2 in the Senate), granting President Johnson broad war powers to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. The resolution responds to reported attacks on U.S. Navy …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSecretary of Defense Robert McNamaraNational Security AgencyU.S. Congressmilitary-industrial-complexwar-profiteeringgovernment-deceptioninstitutional-captureintelligence-manipulation
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. The legislation passes only after defeating a 60-working-day filibuster led by the “Southern …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard RussellStrom ThurmondSouthern business interests+1 morecivil-rightsinstitutional-capturesouthern-strategycorporate-resistancevoting-rights
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers—James Chaney, 21, of Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, 20, of New York; and Michael Schwerner, 24, of New York—were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan with the direct participation of Neshoba County law enforcement officials. The killings, during the first week of …
James ChaneyAndrew GoodmanMichael SchwernerKu Klux KlanCecil Price+5 morecivil-rightsvoter-suppressionviolenceinstitutional-racismlaw-enforcement-complicity
On June 10, 1964, the United States Senate invoked cloture by a vote of 71 to 29, ending a 72-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act—marking the first time in Senate history that cloture had been successfully invoked to break a filibuster on civil rights legislation. The Southern Bloc of 18 …
Phyllis Schlafly self-publishes ‘A Choice Not an Echo,’ a 128-page polemic attacking the Republican establishment and supporting Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. The book becomes an instant phenomenon, selling over three million copies by summer 1964 and bringing Schlafly …
The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified on January 23, 1964, abolishing the poll tax as it applies to primary elections leading to general elections for federal office. The poll tax—a fee required to vote—has been used primarily in Southern states since Reconstruction as a means of …
U.S. CongressState legislaturesCivil rights movementvoting-rightspoll-taxvoter-suppression24th-amendmentcivil-rights-legislation
The 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential campaign galvanizes a grassroots coalition of businesspeople, Southerners, Midwesterners, and libertarians who feel sidelined by the Republican establishment, establishing political infrastructure and strategies that become standard tenets of Republican politics …
Barry GoldwaterJohn M. AshbrookWilliam A. RusherF. Clifton WhiteJohn Birch Society+1 moreconservative-movementgoldwaterbusiness-political-mobilizationjohn-birch-societysouthern-strategy+1 more
On December 17, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Clean Air Act of 1963, the first federal legislation to establish a framework for controlling air pollution at the national level. The act authorized $95 million for research and state grants to develop pollution control programs, and gave …
President John F. KennedyPresident Lyndon B. JohnsonU.S. CongressAmerican Petroleum InstituteNational Coal Associationenvironmental-regulationpublic-healthcorporate-lobbyingregulatory-reform
On October 10, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy signed an authorization permitting the FBI to wiretap the telephones of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference offices in New York and Atlanta. The authorization, requested by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, …
J. Edgar HooverRobert F. KennedyMartin Luther King Jr.FBIStanley Levisonsurveillancecivil-rightsfbi-abuseinstitutional-corruptiondemocratic-erosion
On September 15, 1963, at approximately 10:24 AM, four members of the Ku Klux Klan detonated 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young African American girls—Addie Mae Collins (14), …
Ku Klux KlanRobert ChamblissThomas BlantonBobby Frank CherryFBIcivil-rightsterrorismviolenceinstitutional-racismjudicial-failure
On August 28, 1963, approximately 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration for civil rights in American history to that point. Organized by Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph, the march built an alliance of civil …
Martin Luther King Jr.Bayard RustinA. Philip RandolphJohn F. KennedyMahalia Jacksoncivil-rightsnonviolent-resistancedemocratic-participationinstitutional-racismlabor-rights
The Business-Industry Political Action Committee is founded in August 1963 as the first business political action committee, with initial funding and staff provided by the National Association of Manufacturers, establishing corporate infrastructure for direct political campaign contributions and …
Business-Industry Political Action CommitteeNational Association of ManufacturersBIPACpolitical-action-committeespaccampaign-financenamcorporate-political-spending+1 more