Period 8: 1945-1980
Washington D.C. Anti Vietnam Demonstration. U.S. Marshals bodily remove one of the protesters during the outbreak of violence at the Pentagon Building
This image from the National Archives depicts a protester being forcibly removed by U.S. marshals during an anti-Vietnam War protest. Period 8 saw the onset of the Cold War as result of World War II. Cold War politics were largely based on the theory of containment developed by George F. Kennan and adopted by nearly all U.S. Presidents in the era, beginning with Truman. At the same time various movements and individuals emerged, some opposing the Cold War and some supporting, marking the golden age of American liberalism. The counterculture, largely associated with anti-war protests, came about as a residue of the 1950s period of consensus. At the same time, they became associated with liberalism and subsequently linked with the civil rights movement -- which climaxed during the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" was marked by a series of legislation passed to battle poverty and an ensure the equal rights of all Americans, regardless of background. This was at the same time the court of Earl Warren made numerous landmark decisions protecting individual liberties, such as in Miranda v. Arizona, as did the court of Warren Burger, such as in Roe v. Wade. In summary, the above picture symbolizes period 8 because it represents a synthesis of how dissident movements in anti-war and civil rights developed concurrently after World War II in response to both new and old political and social issues, as the government took on an increasingly involved role in peoples' lives and foreign policy.