The Stormy ’60s

Chapter 38

Decade of Upheaval

   At the end of the complacent 1950s nobody foresaw how stormy and tumultuous the 1960s would be.

      Sexual revolution Civil Rights struggles Anti-war protests Assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy Feminist revolution Youth culture Upheaval across the western world. Protests in France, Germany and England.

Factors leading to cultural upheaval

Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit

     JFK is the youngest President elected; glamorous Cabinet is young; Robert Kennedy.

Kennedy inaugural themes Kennedy inspires idealism  New Frontier  Peace Corps Kennedy is Harvard educated, glib and personable.

The New Frontier At Home

The Right Stuff     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.  Costs 24 Billion, but was successful in 1969.

Why the Moon? What Kennedy says. Real reasons?

Rumblings In Europe

 June 1961 Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna  Berlin Dispute.

 Berlin Wall.  Becomes symbol of Soviet domination and repression of E. Europe

Stubborn French

 Kennedy European tariff policy.

 Charles De Gaulle blocks British application to the Common Market in 1963. Why?

 French policy toward NATO.

 French Nukes

“Flexible Response”

 With the end of colonization, the newly independent colonies became a headache as they flared into civil wars.

  Laos Leads Kennedy to move away from Ike’s “massive retaliation” and to adopt the doctrine of “flexible response”   develop an array of military responses that can be precisely calibrated to the gravity of the crisis.

Problems with “flexible response”

Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire

      Corrupt right-wing, pro-US government in South Vietnam. Diem Communists in the south, Viet-Cong, waging guerrilla civil war.

Late 1961 Kennedy sharply increases US military advisors.

CIA coup against Diem. Kennedy increases military and economic aid.

Modernization Theory

Cuban Confrontations

 Latin American attitude toward the US.

 Alliance for Progress;  Purpose  Impact?

 Bay of Pigs Plan  4/17/61 invasion at Bay of Pigs. Dismal failure.

 Kennedy assumes full responsibility.

Cuban Missile Crisis

 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

   What does JFK says an attack from Cuba would mean?

Russian ships and quarantine line.

Khrushchev finally blinks when he agreed to a compromise.  Details  Seems to be a clear US victory

Missile Crisis Fallout

     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.

  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.  Origins of the policy of

Détente

.

The Struggle For Civil Rights

   Kennedy moved very slowly on Civil Rights  Reasons  Blacks impatient Events forced the President’s hand.

 Freedom Riders Kennedy works with SCLC to promote civil rights and to register black voters

Civil Rights Violence

     Integrating Southern universities.

 Kennedy forced to send in 3000 troops.

Spring 1963 Birmingham.

Police reaction.

 Bull Conner, the face of racism .

June 11, 1963 Kennedy responds.

 Calls for new Civil Rights legislation.

Medger Evers

I Have a Dream

  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

 Breaking news on TV

The LBJ Brand On The Presidency

    Lyndon Johnson was profane, earthy, vain, idealistic.

Master politician; former Senate Majority Leader in the Senate.

Political ideology. He hit Washington like a thunder-bolt, seizing hold of the Presidency once the shock of Kennedy’s death had abated.

Johnson’s Great Society

   Johnson puts power behind Civil Rights Bill. Civil Rights Act of 1964.

 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.   Dubbed the Great Society Program.

Medicare/Medicaid central pillar

Johnson Battles Goldwater In 1964

  Johnson is easily nominated in 1964; runs on a very liberal platform.

Republicans nominate Senator Barry Goldwater     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

      “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 nation that Goldwater “scary” Daisy Ad Johnson wins biggest landslide in US history.

Solid South?

1964 Election

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

 Tonkin Gulf incident August 1964.

 Johnson calls the attack unprovoked.

 Johnson uses to get Tonkin Gulf resolution  Consequences?

 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

      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 100 days.

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.

 Names the first Black cabinet secretary — Robert Weaver Creates national Endowment for the arts.

Legislative Landmarks

  

Four legislative achievements

Great Society: 

Federal Aid to Education

at heart of   

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

 In 1964 voting rights becomes the main goal of civil rights movement.

 Freedom Summer of 1964  1965 Selma.  March from Selma to Montgomery

Voting Rights Act

   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

    Civil Right movement moves north and out of the control of MLK.

1965 —Watts riots.

New voices advocate confrontation, violence and separatism.

   Malcolm X Stokely Carmichael Black Panthers.

Civil Rights Movement increasingly focuses on economic demands

King Assassination

 April 4, 1968  Last Days of Martin Luther King  Robert Kennedy Announces  Reaction

Six Day War

    6-Day war. June 1967. Soviet-backed Egyptians attack Israel. Israel captures the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem.

1 Million Palestinian Arabs come under direct Israeli control.

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

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

    World opinion was turning against the US. Appeared that US was beating up a third-world nation.

Made it harder for US to respond elsewhere.

Led to a lot of domestic discontent.   Anti-war demonstrations gradually mounted on campuses.

Draft resisters flee to Canada, burn draft cards, burn flags

War Protests

 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. Fulbright 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.

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.

Tet Offensive

 Jan. 1968 Tet offensive.

 Military defeat but political victory for Viet Cong.

 Impact on public perception  Protests escalate  Military demands 200,000 more troops.

Vietnam Topples Johnson

 Johnson challenged from within his party by Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy.  New Hampshire Primary  Johnson’s Announcement

1968 Election Chaos

 Hubert Humphrey front-runner for the democratic nomination.

 Stance on war?

 Strong challenge from Robert Kennedy.  Stance on war?

Convention Chaos

     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

 Republicans nominate Richard Nixon who is running as a conservative moderate.  Platform  Which Dems vote for Nixon?

Return of the Dixiecrats

 George Wallace  American Independent Party.  Wallace ardently anti integration  “Segregation Now, Segregation tomorrow, Segregation forever.”

Victory For Nixon

     Nixon and Humphrey have similar policies on VN. No real choice between the two.

 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.

1968 Election

Cultural Upheaval

 Vietnam, Civil Rights Struggle and materialism undermine faith of youth in government and “establishment”  Values in flux  Peace movement  Hippie movement  Sexual Revolution