Zinn Under Control Analysis

What does Zinn mean by “Under Control?”

What I believe Zinn means by using the phrase “under control” is that the government had the opposite of over control. It is apparent the government lacked control in just about every aspect during this time. Meaning the system was out of control because there was a lack of control. The first indication that the government was loosing control during this time was found in the view of the United States citizens. People no longer had any trust in or showed any loyalty towards the government. In fact, people were probably the most skeptical towards the system now than ever before. The public was soured towards the government largely in part to the Vietnam war. There was extreme shame, death, and government …show more content…
Of course these poll numbers varied due to class but were still extremely low as a whole. People also believed the government was run by a small group of “big interest” people during this time who didn’t care about anyone else. Citizens were clearly not happy with the democrats or the republicans and as a result the Country saw a huge influx of independent voters who refused to side with one party. The next issue that showed a complete lack of control was found in the court system. The courts were a complete mess which can be seen using a few different examples. A well known communist was set free by a West Coast jury, a black gang group called the Black Panthers failed to get convicted not just once but on several occasions, and a young activist tore down a five-hundred-foot nuclear power plant tower and had his case was thrown out. Most shockingly was that the Superior Court did not convict six men who picketed the white house for bombing Cambodia. In past history events like these would have never gone unpunished. But what probably proved to be the biggest failure of control during this time was the Nixon administration. This administration was …show more content…
What I mean by this is after studying all three incidents it became apparent that the United States government was involved in extremely questionable events during this time. They knew the public would not be ok with their actions and so they tried to keep the incidents secret or chose to tell the public lies about why they did the things they did. In Vietnam the government claimed it entered into war to stop the “threating” spread of communism. We now know that, that wasn’t the case at all in fact, it entered into war for its own personal gain and benefits. In return the United States really didn’t achieve much other then the fact that they lost countless American lives and killed countless innocent Vietnamese. However, the Vietnam war did help terrible government lies to surface. Watergate was one of the first scandals during this time to be exposed. Watergate was the name given to an event that involved five armed burglars that were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee. After an intense FBI investigation some interesting connections between the burglars and the government began to surface. It was thought that president Nixon was involved (conducted) in these burglaries and also other illegal incidences against opponents. Nixon lied and tried to cover up his involvement but the information and personal statements were leaked to the media. The true facts of Watergate were