The Stormy

1
The Stormy 60s

• Chapter 38

2
Kennedys New Frontier Spirit

• JFK is the youngest President elected, World War
  II hero, Harvard educated, from a wealthy family
• Cabinet is young, mostly Harvard educated, called
  his brain trust
• Brother Bobby is Attorney General
• Wants to be a more active president, calls his
  vision for America the New Frontier
• Kennedy inspires idealism
• Peace Corps is an army of idealistic volunteers
  that bring first world skills to Third World
  countries

3
The New Frontier At Home

• JFK had only a narrow Democratic majority in
  Congress hard to get proposals through Congress
• Kennedy has problem with conservative Southern
  Democrats
• Most of his social legislation is axed by
  Congress
• Kennedys disputes with Big Business
• They see him as unfriendly
• Kennedy does cut taxes though
• Announces project to put a man on the Moon.
• Costs 24 billion, but was successful in 1969.

4
Rumblings In Europe

• June 1961 Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna
  
• Berlin Dispute
• Khrushchev threatens to cut off Western access to
  Berlin to keep population of Berlin from going to
  democratic West
• 1961 begins construction of Berlin Wall
• Becomes symbol of Soviet domination and
  repression of E. Europe

5
(No Transcript)
6
Stubborn French

• Kennedy European tariff policy
• He cut tariffs up to 50 to promote trade between
  Europe and the U.S.
• French refuse to participate
• They fear American domination of Europe
• French develop their own nuclear arsenal and
  want a Europe free of American influence

7
Flexible Response

• With the end of colonization, the newly
  independent colonies became a headache as they
  flared into civil wars.
• Congo
• Laos
• Leads Kennedy to move away from Ikes 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.
• Kennedy increases military spending and bolstered
  the special forces.

8
Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire

• Corrupt right-wing, pro-US government in South
  Vietnam.
• Communists in the south, Viet-Cong, waging
  guerrilla civil war.
• Late 1961 Kennedy sharply increases US military
  advisors
• Coup against South Vietnamese leader.
• U.S. steps into Vietnam to foster political
  stability
• Kennedy increases military and economic aid
• Modernization theory- believed that traditional
  societies could develop into industrial,
  democratic nations by following the Western
  nations path

9
Cuban Confrontations

• Latin American countries saw the U.S. as a bully
• Alliance for Progress
• Marshall Plan for Latin America to provide aid
  for economic development
• doesnt have much effect.
• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• CIA backed plan to topple communist government in
  Cuba
• April 1961 invasion at Bay of Pigs was a failure
• Kennedy assumes full responsibility.
• Pushed the Cubans further toward the Soviets

10
Cuban Missile Crisis

• Castro pushed into the arms of the Soviets.
• October 1962 Khrushchev starts to install nuclear
  tipped missiles in Cuba
• Spy photos reveal the missiles
• Plan was to keep pressure on the US to back down
  on issues in other parts of the world
• Kennedy rejects air strike instead orders a
  military blockade and demands immediate removal
  of missiles.
• Russian ships and quarantine line
• Khrushchev finally blinks when he agreed to a
  compromise.
• Pulls missiles out of Cuba
• US agrees to not attack Cuba and to pull missiles
  out of Europe targeted at Soviet Union
• Seems to be a clear US victory

11
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.

12
The Struggle For Civil Rights

• Kennedy moved very slowly on Civil Rights
• Lack of southern Congressional support
• Events forced the Presidents hand.
• Freedom Riders tried to end segregation in
  facilities serving bus passengers
• After violent incidents federal marshals were
  sent to protect Freedom Riders
• Kennedy works with SCLC to promote civil rights
  and to register black voters

13
Civil Rights Violence

• Integrating Southern universities.
• Kennedy forced to send in 3000 troops.
• Spring 1963 King begins a campaign against
  discrimination in Birmingham.
• Police reaction
• Attacked protesters with dogs and fire hoses
• All seen on TVs across the country
• June 11, 1963 Kennedy responds.
• Calls for new Civil Rights legislation
• Calls problem a moral issue

14
I Have a Dream

• Medger Evers black civil rights worker is killed
• August 1963, March on Washington and Kings I
  have a Dream Speech
• September 1963 bombing of black Birmingham church
  kills 4 black girls at Sunday School
• Kennedys Civil Rights Bill was making little
  headway and many African Americans were growing
  impatient

15
THE KILLING OF KENNEDY

• November 22, 1963 Kennedy is shot in Dallas
• Johnson takes over as president

16
The LBJ Brand On The Presidency

• Lyndon Johnson was profane, earthy, vain,
  idealistic
• Master politician former Senate Majority Leader
  in the Senate.

17
Johnsons 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 billion dollar war on poverty
  designed to help those not yet getting the
  benefits of Americas vast wealth.
• Dubbed the Great Society Program.
• Medicare/Medicade central pillar
• New Deal type economic and welfare measures
  designed to free Americans from poverty and
  social injustice

18
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.
• Johnson convinces national that Goldwater scary
• In your heart you know hes right vs. In your
  gut you know hes nuts
• Johnson wins biggest landslide in US history.

19
Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• Tonkin Gulf incident
• August 1964 Johnson calls attack by North
  Vietnamese on U.S. Navy ship unprovoked
• Orders air raids on North Vietnam
• Johnson uses to get Tonkin Gulf Resolution from
  Congress
• 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.

20
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 FDRs 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 secretaryRobert
  Weaver
• Creates national Endowment for the Arts

21
Legislative Landmarks

• Four legislative achievements at heart of Great
  Society
• 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
• Despite critics poverty did decline and general
  health conditions improved for many Americans

22
Voting Rights Act

• In 1964 Voting Rights becomes the main goal of
  civil rights movement.
• Passage of 24th Amendment
• Freedom Summer of 1964 was a massive voter
  registration drive in Mississippi
• Three civil rights workers were murdered
• MLK resumed voter registration drive in AL,
  March to Selma
• 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.

23
Black Power

• Voting Rights Act ends era of non-violence for
  civil rights movement
• Civil Right movement moves north and out of the
  control of MLK, becomes more militant and violent
• 1965Watts riots.
• New voices advocate confrontation, violence and
  separatism.
• Malcolm X
• Stokely Carmichael
• Black Panthers
• Riots across the US in 1967, all shown on TV
• Many white Americans become outraged
• Civil Rights Movement increasingly focuses on
  economic demands
• MLK assassinated in 1968 wisest black voice gone.

24
Vietnam Escalation

• 1965 Johnson escalates the war
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• Starts bombing and the use of troops on the
  ground.
• War becomes Americanized
• By end of 1965, 184,000 America troops 1968
  almost 500,000
• Believes American escalation will show US resolve
  and north will back down.
• Believes in domino theory
• The fall of one non-communist state would cause
  neighboring countries to become communist as well
• US casualties start to mount, end is nowhere in
  sight

25
Vietnam Vexations

• World opinion was turning against the US
• Hawks vs. Doves
• Appeared that US was beating up a third-world
  nation over US zeal to spank communism.
• Made it harder for US to respond elsewhere
• Six Day War (Israel and Egypt)
• Led to a lot of domestic discontent.
• Many blamed Johnson.
• Major protests in San Francisco, New York and on
  college campuses.
• Anti-war demonstrations gradually mounted on
  campuses.
• Draft resisters flee to Canada, burn draft cards,
  burn flags

26
Quagmire

• By late 1960s opposition to the war was
  hardening.
• 1966-1967 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, 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.

27
Vietnam Topples Johnson

• Jan. 1968 Tet offensive
• Political and psychological victory for the Viet
  Cong
• Military demands 200,000 more troops.
• Johnson challenged from within his party by
  Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy.
• March 1968 Johnsons announcement he would not
  run for the presidency

28
1968 Election Chaos

• Hubert Humphrey front-runner for the democratic
  nomination.
• Strong challenge from Robert Kennedy.
• June 1968 Kennedy assassinated after primary
  victory in California

29
Convention Chaos

• 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago in chaos.
• Democrats were bitter, divided and angry over the
  death of Kennedy, the war, etc.
• Many young, radical, anti war protester showed up
  to vent their frustration
• The Chicago police and demonstrators clashed
  outside of the convention
• Democrats came off looking like a disorganized,
  fratricidal mob.
• Humphrey wins the nomination on the first ballot.

30
Richard Nixon and George Wallace

• Republicans nominate Richard Nixon who is running
  as a conservative-moderate.
• Platform
• Tough on crime, , hawk on Vietnam
• Supported by white, conservative southern
  Democrats
• George Wallace
• American Independent Party.
• Wallace ardently anti-integration
• Segregation Now, Segregation tomorrow,
  Segregation forever.

31
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.

32
Cultural Upheaval

• 1960s become a dividing line of two different era
  of morals, values and behavior
• Vietnam, Civil Rights Struggle and materialism
  undermine faith of youth in government and
  establishment
• Roots in the 1950s among the beats who voiced
  disillusionment with material pursuits
• Division also appeared between more educated and
  less educated Americans
• Idea of shared purpose seemed to be losing its
  grip

33
Cultural Upheaval

• Organized students movements against established
  authority
• 1964 Free Speech movement in Berkley
• 1968 Students for Democratic Society were
  anti-war and anti poverty eventually became a
  domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground
• Many young people became political and cultural
  rebels
• Many protests fueled by outrage over Vietnam
• Became opposed to traditional American values,
  developed their own counterculture
• Sexual Revolution (development of birth control?)
  , gay rights also became issues at this time