IIRC "Affirmative Action" was first used in reference to Vietnam veterans and handicapped persons. (Before handicapped became otherwise "challenged"...).
Equal Opportunity was a different issue and implied a leveled playing field rather than granting of exalted status.
Sadly:
Vietnam vets were not so very popular in the mid seventies,
it takes some effort to accomodate handicapped workers,
and the same people were charged with enforcing AA and EEO...those offices were heavily weighted to female and minority, "progressive", personnel.
The rest is history but the original intent, as written into government contracts, was not what we got.