A number of presidents between 1960 and 1980 used executive power to carry out acts that created backlash and tensions.

John F. Kennedy used federal troops to protect the safety of civil rights activists during the Freedom Rides of 1961.

President Lyndon Johnson used the dubious evidence of a North Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin to escalate the war in Vietnam in 1964.

President Richard Nixon used executive power to carry out the secret bombing of Cambodia in 1970. Nixon also attempted to invoke executive privilege during the Watergate scandal in 1973.

President Gerald Ford used his office to pardon Nixon for all crimes committed while he was in office. President Jimmy Carter issued an order providing amnesty for Vietnam-era draft dodgers.