What Did Watergate and Vitnom Do to Liberalism?

Liberalism has always been associated with a kind of cynical distance from an thing that could be called patriotism. Is this what watergate and vitnom did to liberalism? I think it begins with the civil rights movement and the recognition that ad s in particular, had allowed jim crow to continue and flourish in the south. And then, of course, viet nom, which really broke the contract between the american government and the American people.