Don't Ask Don't Tell - HISTORY

Ted Sorensen, JFK's 1960 Campaign speechwriter, tells the story of a congratulatory misunderstanding on the campaign trail.

FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

RELATED CONTENT

On September 20, 2011, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, which for 18 years banned gays from serving openly in the military, came to an end. In a press conference, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta welcomes the new era.

In this Ask Steve video, delve into the 1960's economy to find economic success, and economic decisions that would lead to a slowed economy, high unemployment, and high inflation. The economic decisions made in the 1960's caused the economy to weaken in the next decade. The social turmoil of the 1960's did not negatively affect the economy. In fact, the economy moved smoothly along thanks to the increase of spending for the Vietnam War. However, the decisions of the President and Congress to have "guns and butter" would make the economy slow down in the 1970's. By having both "guns and butter", the government decided to expand social programs at home and spending on the Vietnam War, without raising taxes. This led to stagnation, high unemployment and high inflation. Lastly, in the words of Tom Hayden, the founder of Students for a Democratic Society, in the 1960's they had to fight the "pigs", and in the 1970's they had to fight the high price of bacon.

In this Ask Steve video clip, the racial riots of the 1960's was discussed. During the civil rights movement there was a lot of progress being made, however much of it was in the South. Because there was a lot of progress in the South, the North, knowing that progress was possible, were frustrated by the fact that they were not experiencing it.

Through his Ask Steve video, Steve Gillon explains the reasons for the increasing drug use among young people in the 1960's. This new generation tried to define themselves through music, sex, and drug use. So many young people in the 1960's experimented with drugs because of the desire to drive their parents crazy, and to try to define themselves differently than their parent's generation. These young people were also getting permission to experiment with drugs from authority figures. For example, psychologist Timothy Leary told young people to "Tune in, turn on, and drop out", and urged them to try LSD. In 1966, about 1 million young people had experimented with LSD. However, the drug of choice was marijuana, with about 30% of young people having experimented with it by the end of the decade. Although these young people experimented with drugs, most of the drugs done in the 1960's were prescribed drugs and taken by this generation's parents. Thus, this generation was not that much different from their parents after all.