While the early to mid-1960s is known as period of hope, optimism, and liberal social/political advances, by the late 60s and into the 70s the nation veered to a more conservative right direction. What explains this shift? Be sure to identify examples or reasons for the early era of hope and optimism, as well as discuss the role that politics, economics, culture, and foreign policy played in the shift to the New Right.

The shift began in 1968 with the election of Richard Nixon who defeated the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey.
Nixon had also been the Republican nominee in 1960 when he was defeated by the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts senator, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was, and remains, the youngest elected president in American history. The Kennedy White House which, due to Jacqueline Kennedy's refashioning of her husband's legacy, became known as "Camelot," was associated with youth, hope, and arts and culture.
Kennedy famously encouraged citizens not to ask what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country. The Peace Corps was formed during his administration. However, the Vietnam War also began during the Kennedy administration, as the President was firmly against the spread of Communism, an ideology which led to a number of blunders, including the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Kennedy White House opened its doors to Civil Rights leaders, but moved little on Civil Rights until 1963.
It is always hard to be sure about the events that lead to seismic political shifts. The 1960s were tumultuous and the nation's fundamental values were questioned and tested. After the Kennedy assassination, the public, especially its youth, became more mistrustful of the government. The deaths of Civil Rights leaders, as well as confrontations with the police in disadvantaged black communities, led to various violent uprisings in major American cities. The final uprising, sometimes called "Holy Week Uprising," due to its occurrence during Easter, was a response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The white "silent majority," that is, middle-aged and elderly whites from the middle and upper-middle classes, many of whom lived in suburbs, were mobilized to vote for Nixon, due to his promise to restore law and order. As distant as these voters were from conditions in the cities, they feared violence, rapid social change, the hippie youth culture, and the drug culture. In response to the latter, Nixon initiated the War on Drugs in 1970.
During the late 1960s, the majority of American voters were in favor of the Vietnam War, which had been a focal point of the Johnson Administration and had been escalated by Nixon, particularly with his carpet-bombings of Cambodia (a key factor in the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge). The war's popularity did not diminish until the mid-1970s, partly due to a loss of faith in Nixon as a result of Watergate, and also due to the fact that the United States was not winning the war in Vietnam. The war, which had never been declared as such in Congress, ended in 1975.
Despite the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, the New Right maintained a strong influence, often at the state level. The Hyde Amendment, for example, was a piece of legislation passed by Henry Hyde (R-IL) to ensure that federal funds were not used to pay for abortions: a direct response to the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Opposition to abortion was a major factor in mobilizing conservative, particularly evangelical, voters in the late-1970s. Other factors included resentment among whites over affirmative action policies in education and employment, and an increase of the tax burden on the working-class which did not correlate with wages. These conditions, as well as the oil crisis and the Iranian hostage situation, set the stage for the election of Ronald Reagan.