Transcript The Stormy ’60s

The Stormy ’60s
Chapter 38
Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit
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JFK is the youngest
President elected;
glamorous
Cabinet is young; Robert
Kennedy.
Kennedy inspires idealism
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New Frontier
Peace Corps
Kennedy is Harvard
educated, glib and
personable.
The New Frontier At Home
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JFK had only a narrow
Democratic majority in
Congress; hard to get
proposals through Congress.
Kennedy’s disputes with Big
Business.
Announces project to put a
man on the Moon.
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The Right Stuff
Costs 24 Billion, but was
successful in 1969.
Rumblings In Europe
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June 1961 Kennedy meets
with Khrushchev in Vienna
Berlin Dispute.
Berlin Wall.
Becomes symbol of Soviet
domination and repression of
E. Europe
Stubborn French
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Kennedy European tariff
policy.
Charles De Gaulle refused
to join the Atlantic
Community and blocks
British application to the
Common Market in 1963.
Why?
French policy toward NATO.
“Flexible Response”
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With the end of colonization, the newly
independent colonies became a headache as
they flared into civil wars.
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Congo
Laos
Leads Kennedy to move away from Ike’s
“massive retaliation” and to adopt the doctrine of
“flexible response”
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develop an array of military responses that can be
precisely calibrated to the gravity of the crisis.
 Kennedy increases military spending and bolstered
the special forces.
Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire
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Corrupt right-wing, pro-US
government in South Vietnam.
Communists in the south, VietCong, waging guerrilla civil
war.
Late 1961 Kennedy sharply
increases US military advisors.
Coup against South
Vietnamese leader.
Kennedy increases military
and economic aid.
Cuban Confrontations
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Latin American attitude
toward the US.
Alliance for Progress; doesn’t
have much effect.
Bay of Pigs Plan
4/17/61 invasion at Bay of
Pigs. Dismal failure.
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Kennedy assumes full
responsibility.
Cuban Missile Crisis
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Castro pushed into the arms of
the Soviets.
Khrushchev starts to install
nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba
Spy photos reveal the missiles.
Kennedy rejects air strike;
instead orders a military
blockade and demands
immediate removal of missiles.
Cuban Missile Crisis
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What does JFK says an
attack from Cuba would
mean?.
Russian ships and
quarantine line.
Khrushchev finally blinks
when he agreed to a
compromise.
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Details
Seems to be a clear US
victory
Missile Crisis Fallout
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Khrushchev forced out of power
Kremlin begins an aggressive program of military
expansion; New Arms Race
Democrats gain in the midterm elections.
Kennedy begins to push for arms control and greater
communications between Russia and the US.
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Hotline
Ban on above-ground nuclear tests agreed to in 1963
Kennedy urges Americans to live with the Soviets as
they are and find a method of peaceful coexistence.
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Origins of the policy of Détente.
The Struggle For Civil Rights
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Kennedy moved very
slowly on Civil Rights
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Events forced the
President’s hand.
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Reasons
Blacks impatient
Freedom Riders
Kennedy works with
SCLC to promote civil
rights and to register
black voters
Civil Rights Violence
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Integrating Southern
universities.
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Kennedy forced to send in
3000 troops.
Spring 1963 King begins a
campaign against
discrimination in
Birmingham.
Police reaction .
June 11, 1963 Kennedy
responds.
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Calls for new Civil Rights
legislation.
I Have a Dream
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Medger Evers
August 1963, March on
Washington and King’s “I
have a Dream” Speech.
September 1963 bombing
of black Birmingham
church kills 4 black girls
at Sunday School.
THE KILLING OF KENNEDY
(students on their own
The LBJ Brand On The Presidency
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Lyndon Johnson was profane,
earthy, vain, idealistic.
Master politician; former Senate
Majority Leader in the Senate.
Political ideology.
He hit Washington like a thunderbolt, seizing hold of the
Presidency once the shock of
Kennedy’s death had abated.
Johnson’s Great Society
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Johnson puts power behind Civil Rights Bill.
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Prohibits discrimination in facilities open to the public
Strengthened power to end segregation in schools
Created federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Prevents both race and gender discrimination.
Southern Senators try to kill with a lengthy filibuster.
Johnson launches a war on poverty designed to
help those not yet getting the benefits of
America’s vast wealth.
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Dubbed the Great Society Program.
Medicare/Medicade central pillar
Johnson Battles Goldwater In 1964
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Johnson is easily nominated in
1964; runs on a very liberal
platform.
Republicans nominate Senator
Barry Goldwater
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very, very conservative.
Strongly anti-red, strongly anti-New
Deal.
Believes in small national
government (Jeffersonian)
Wanted American field
commanders to have authority to
use tactical nukes in the battle field.
Election of 1964
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“In your heart you know he’s
right” vs. “In your gut you
know he’s nuts”
Reaction of average voters to
Goldwater.
Johnson convinces national
that Goldwater “scary”
Johnson wins biggest
landslide in US history.
Solid South?
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Tonkin Gulf incident August 1964.
 Johnson calls the attack unprovoked.
 Johnson uses to get Tonkin Gulf resolution
 Consequences?
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 Gives
the president a virtual blank check to
use force in Southeast Asia against the North
Vietnamese.
 Gives Johnson discretion to widen the war,
which he does after the election.
The Great Society Congress
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Johnson has 2-1 democratic majority in both
houses of Congress.
Legislative slate passed by Johnson after the
1964 election was comparable to FDR’s 100days.
Sweeping package of social reform and new
aid to the poor and down-trodden.
Continues the war on poverty
Created the Dept. of Transportation and
Housing and Urban Development.
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Names the first Black cabinet secretary—
Robert Weaver
Creates national Endowment for the arts.
Legislative Landmarks
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Four legislative achievements at heart of
Great Society:
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Federal Aid to Education
Medicare for the Elderly/Medicaid for the Poor
Immigration Reform
Voting Rights Act
Medicare and Medicaid provide medical
insurance at governmental expense for elderly
and poor
Medicare and Medicaid join social security and
unemployment insurance as part of social safety
net.
Voting Rights Act
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In 1964 Voting Rights
becomes the main goal of
civil rights movement.
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Freedom Summer of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Johnson sends in federal
officials to oversee voter
registration.
Over the next 25 years
totally transforms the south
because blacks are voting.
Black Power
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Civil Right movement moves north and
out of the control of MLK.
1965—Watts riots.
New voices advocate confrontation,
violence and separatism.
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Malcolm X
 Stokely Carmichael
 Black Panthers.
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Civil Rights Movement increasingly
focuses on economic demands
MLK assassinated in 1968; wisest black
voice gone.
Vietnam Escalation
1965 Johnson escalates the war
 Starts bombing and the use of troops on
the ground.
 By end of 1965, 184,000 America troops
involved.
 Believes American escalation will show US
resolve and north will back down.
 Believes in domino theory.
 US casualties start to mount
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600,000
500,000
400,000
U.S. Troops
300,000
200,000
100,000
1961 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
0
Vietnam Vexations
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World opinion was turning against the US.
Appeared that US was beating up a third-world
nation over US zeal to spank communism.
Made it harder for US to respond elsewhere.
Led to a lot of domestic discontent.
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Anti-war demonstrations gradually mounted on
campuses.
Draft resisters flee to Canada, burn draft cards, burn
flags
War Protests
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Many blamed
Johnson.
Major protests in San
Francisco, New York
and on college
campuses.
Attitude of Average
Americans
Economic impact of
War.
Quagmire
By late 1960s opposition to the war was
hardening.
 Fullbright hearings.
 Public feels increasingly misled about the
war and ability to win.
 By 1968 had become the longest and
most unpopular foreign war in US history.
 Government had failed to adequately
explain why we were fighting there and/or
what was at stake.
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Johnson Under Attack
Johnson, orders the CIA to spy on
American anti-war activists.
 FBI turns against peace groups
 Johnson stubbornly continues to assert
that victory is just around the corner.
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Vietnam Topples Johnson
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Jan. 1968 Tet offensive.
Military demands 200,000
more troops.
Johnson challenged from
within his party by Eugene
McCarthy and Robert
Kennedy.
New Hampshire Primary
Johnson’s announcement
1968 Election Chaos
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Hubert Humphrey
front-runner for the
democratic
nomination.
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Stance on war?
Strong challenge from
Robert Kennedy.
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Stance on war?
Convention Chaos
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Democratic convention in Chicago in chaos.
Democrats were bitter, divided and angry over the death of
Kennedy, the war, etc.
Mayor Daley and the police.
Democrats came off looking like a disorganized, fratricidal mob.
Humphrey wins the nomination on the first ballot.
Richard Nixon
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Republicans nominate
Richard Nixon who is
running as a conservativemoderate.
Platform
Which Dems vote for
Nixon?
Return of the Dixiecrats
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George Wallace
American
Independent Party.
Wallace ardently antiintegration
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“Segregation Now,
Segregation tomorrow,
Segregation forever.”
Victory For Nixon
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Nixon and Humphrey have similar policies on VN. No
real choice between the two.
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As a result, many doves sat out the election because no
standard-bearer for their views.
Nixon wins by half a percentage point without carrying a
single major city and with no coat-tails.
Both houses of Congress remain Democratic.
Democrats win 95% of the black vote.
Nixon wins only 43% of the vote because Wallace had
siphoned off votes from both. No mandate.
Wallace wins 46 electoral votes from the deep south.
Largest third-party electoral vote in American history.
THE OBITUARY OF LYNDON JOHNSON
 Students on their own
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Cultural Upheaval
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Vietnam, Civil Rights
Struggle and
materialism
undermine faith of
youth in government
and “establishment”
Values in flux
Peace movement
Hippie movement
Sexual Revolution