1950’s & 60’s

Domestic Politics

I. Dwight Eisenhower (1953-60)• Moderate (Keeps most New Deal/Fair Deal Policies)

& “apolitical” War Hero and Grandfather-like Image

• Reassures Cold War era anxieties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG4IX5jBc4Q

Economic & Social Trends in 1950’s:GI Bill, Interstate Highway Act, Military –

Industrial Complex, & Move to the Sun Belt, Suburbia

II. JFK (1961-1963)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf3r0_AdlEY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE7JDIkiEZg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDhcypoywCc&feature=related

“New Frontier” = JFK Domestic Plans

•Goals include: medical insurance for elderly, more civil rights, environmental regulation, increased funding for public transportation & education, higher minimum wage, reorganize income taxes

•Gets mixed Congressional support initially due to narrow victory

•Most programs passed when LBJ becomes President

JFK & Cold War• Space Race/Moon

Pledge• Establishes Peace Corps• Targets Latin America &

“3rd World” Nations • JFK adjusts “New Look”

to “Flexible Response”• Cuban Missile Crisis

III. LBJ as President

(1963 – 1968)

1964 Election: LBJ vs Goldwater

“Daisy Commercial” helps spark Landslide for LBJhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao

LBJ Aspires to be another FDR

•“War on Poverty”Job Corps, VISTA, Head Start, School Lunches, Appalachian Development, EEOC, HUD

•“Great Society”Education, Medicare,

Immigration, PBS, NEA, Environment, Consumer Protection, Civil Rights

Vietnam dilemma takes $ & focus away from domestic agenda (Guns vs. Butter)