MACBETH MEETS “THE ME DECADE”: AMERICA IN THE MID-1970S


By recontextualizing William Shakespeare’s play into a small northeastern town in the middle of the 1970s, Scotland, PA invites us to revisit an important era in our recent history. In The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics, author Bruce J. Schulman presents the decade as a pivotal time for our American character; shifts that began in the late '60s led to profound transformations, some of which continue to impact our lives today.


In 1975, a year before our collective 200th birthday, Americans were hardly celebrating. A disastrous war, unprecedented political scandal, a struggling economy, rising crime rates, decaying inner cities, and the growing threat of nuclear war had Americans feeling something had gone wrong with our country. Many people turned their attention on their own personal lives, leading to trends in personal growth, recreational drug use, and sexual exploration for men and women, straight and gay.


"GET OUT OF VIETNAM"


Mass demonstrations and domestic tension over Vietnam divided the country through the early 1970s.


The U.S. withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, unable to claim victory, after over 58,000 Americans had died in the most unpopular (and then longest) war in our history. Anti- war demonstrations had started almost simultaneously with the launch of direct military intervention in Vietnam in 1965, and by the early ‘70s, the country


was in turmoil. At Kent State University in 1970, National Guard troops shot at students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four demonstrators. One year later, the New York Times published a series of articles based on the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret report by the U.S. Department of Defense. The leaked document revealed that since 1945, all of our presidents had been covering up interventions and policies that perpetuated the conflict in Vietnam. This


revelation further eroded American support for the war and trust in our government.


WATERGATE: THE END OF INNOCENCE Americans experienced what was considered the worst political scandal in our nation’s history during the events known as “Watergate,” which began in 1972 and led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Several burglars who had been arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee office to steal documents and wiretap phones were revealed to have connections to Nixon’s reelection campaign. While Nixon took aggressive steps to hide his involvement, journalists and a special prosecutor investigation exposed the president’s abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Congress moved to impeach Nixon, but he resigned before the proceedings began. When his successor, Gerald Ford, immediately gave Nixon a full pardon, many Americans felt disappointment and skepticism about our leaders. The Washington Post opined that Watergate caused “the loss of innocence for all but the most jaded and cynical among us.”


AN ECONOMY OUT OF GAS Since World War II, Americans had enjoyed a booming economy and decades of personal prosperity, but in the


President Nixon leaves the White House after resigning in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Photo by Oliver F. Atkins


8 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


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