The Stormy Sixties

1960 - 1968

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John F. Kennedy

Youngest cabinet

Robert “Bobby” Kennedy as Attorney General

Reform the FBI: focus more on organized crime & civil rights violations instead of all on internal security

Sec of Defense – Robert S. McNamara

“New Frontier” – domestic policy

Peace Corps – bring American skills to underdeveloped countries

The New Frontier at Home

Proposed medical assistance for the aged and increased federal aid to education Remained stalled in Congress

Helped negotiate a noninflationary wage agreement with the steel industry in 1962 Steel industries increased prices then backed

down

General tax-cut to stimulate the economy

Project to land on the moon 1969 – Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin & Neil Armstrong

1969 moon landing

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts

Neil A. Armstrong (shown above) and

Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., plant an

American flag on the moon, thus

fulfilling President John F. Kennedy's

pledge to land a man on the moon by the

end of the 1960s. (NASA)

1969 moon landing

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Rumblings in Europe JFK met Khrushchev in June 1961 in Vienna

Soviets threatened to make a treaty with East Germany & cut off Western access to Berlin Soviets backed down but began to construct the

Berlin Wall in Aug 1961

Expansion of European-American trade Trade Expansion Act in 1962 – cut tariffs by 50%

Promote trade with Common Market countries (Kennedy Round)

Charles de Gaulle of France started developing his own atomic force

Foreign Flare-ups African Congo

Received its independence from Belgium in 1960 then exploded into violence

UN sent in a peace keeping force financed mainly by the US

Laos

Freed from France in 1954, then civil war began

JFK imposed a shaky peace in 1962

“Flexible Response” – McNamara

Developing an array of military options that could be matched to the crisis

Replaced Dulles’s massive retaliation policy

Developed the Special Forces (Green Berets)

An elite antiguerrilla outfit trained to survive under harsh conditions

Vietnam

Diem gov’t in Saigon had ruled shakily since the split of Vietnam in 1954

Anti-Diem group headed by Viet Cong threatened to topple the pro-American gov’t

1961 – JFK ordered an increase in the number of “military advisors” in South Vietnam

Encouraged a successful coup against Diem in Nov 1963

Cuban Confrontations

1961 – Alliance of Progress

Extended the hand of friendship with Latin America // Marshall Plan for Latin America

CIA planned to overthrow Fidel Castro

Invade Cuba with anticommunist exiles & they would trigger an uprising

April 17, 1961 – Exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs

No match for Castro’s air force

Exiles were forced to surrender

Castro was pushed further towards the USSR

Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962 – U-2 spy plane discovered that the Soviets were installing nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba

October 22 – JFK ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba & demanded immediate removal of the weapons

Warned USSR that an attack on the US would lead to an attack on the USSR

Soviet ships approached the patrol line

October 28 – Khrushchev agreed to a partially compromise & agreed to remove the missiles

US agreed not to invade Cuba & would remove US missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR

Catch up with the Russians

US expanded the military

JFK pushed for a nuclear test-ban treaty with the USSR

Pact prohibiting trial nuclear explosions was signed in 1963

Aug 1963 – Moscow-Washington “hot line” was installed

JFK tried to lay the foundations for a realistic policy of peaceful coexistence

Origins of the “dètente” policy (French for relaxation)

Struggle for Civil Rights JFK had pledged to eliminate racial discrimination in housing during his campaign

Took him 2 years

He did not want to isolate Southerners in Congress

Freedom Riders – 1960

Goal was to end segregation in facilities serving interstate bus passengers

May 1961 - white mob torched a bus in Alabama

Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s personal representative was beaten unconscious

Federal marshals were sent to protect the Freedom Riders

JFK & Civil Rights JFK became weary of King’s associates

(Afraid that they had communist associations)

Robert Kennedy ordered the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, to wiretap King’s phone in 1963

Voter Education Project launched to register black voters in the South

Oct 1962 - James Meredith registered at the University of Miss with the help of 400 federal marshals & 3000 troops

TV viewers watched peaceful marchers attacked

June 11, 1960 – On TV, JFK called for civil rights legislation

More Civil Rights March on Washington

King & 200,000 demonstrators sowed support for JFK’s civil rights legislation

“I Have a Dream Speech”

June 11, 1963 – Medgar Evers was killed (African American activist killed for voicing his opinion)

Sept 1963 – explosion at a Baptist church in Birmingham killed 4 young girls

Birmingham Campaign

JFK died before passing his civil rights bill

Dogs turned on Birmingham demonstrators

The ferocious attempts by local authorities in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Eugene "Bull"

Connor, to repel nonviolent black protesters using fire hoses (capable of 100 pounds of water

pressure per square inch), electrically charged cattle prods, and police dogs were shown nightly on

television. Tactics such as these made white supremacy an object of revulsion throughout most of

the country and forced the Kennedy administration to intervene to end the crisis. (Wide World)

Dogs turned on Birmingham demonstrators

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The Killing of Kennedy Nov 22, 1963 – JFK was assassinated in Dallas

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested then shot

Jack Ruby assassinated Oswald

Chief Justice Warren conducted an investigation

The Warren Commission

Lyndon B. Johnson became president

Followed most of JFK’s policies

JFK known more for his ideals than his accomplishments

LBJ as President

Legislative wheeler & dealer More successful in Congress

Honor JFK by supporting his Civil Rights Bill Civil Rights Act of 1964

Banned racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public – theaters, hospitals, restaurants

Strengthened federal gov’t to end segregation in schools & other public places

Created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Title VII passed with the sexual clause

Issued an executive order requiring affirmative action (federal jobs)

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 1964

Surrounded by an illustrious group of civil rights leaders and members of Congress,

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Standing behind the

president is Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (Corbis-Bettmann)

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 1964

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LBJ’s Domestic Policies LBJ was successful in passing JFK’s tax bill with added proposals for his “War on Poverty”

Concerned about Appalachia

“Great Society”

Set of New Dealish economic & welfare measures aimed at transforming American life

Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962)

20% of population in poverty

40% of blacks in poverty

Johnson v. Goldwater Election of 1964

Democrat – Johnson

Republican – Barry Goldwater

Attacked federal income tax, Social Security, TVA, civil rights, nuclear test-ban treaty, & the “Great Society”

Johnson won easily

Tonkin Gulf Episode Aug 1964 – US Navy ships had been helping South Vietnam in raids along the coast of North Vietnam 2 US ships were allegedly fired upon on Aug 2 & 4

(Later reports believe NV fired in self defense on 2nd & nothing happened on the 4th)

Johnson deemed this an unprovoked attack Ordered an air raid against North Vietnamese bases

Convinced Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution Gave the president a blank check in dealing with Southeast

Asia

The Great Society Congress

War on Poverty

Doubled the appropriations of the Office of Economic Opportunity

Granted money to Appalachia

2 new cabinet offices

Department of Transportation

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

First black cabinet member – Robert C. Weaver

Creation of the National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities

LBJ’s Great Society Big Four

Aid to education

Project Head Start

Medical care for the elderly & indigent

Medicare – elderly - 1965

Medicaid – poor 1965

Immigration reform

Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965 – abolished the quota system

“family unification” provisions

New voting rights bill

Black Revolution Explodes Struggle 24th Amendment (1964) abolished poll tax in federal

elections

Freedom Summer of 1964 3 were killed in Mississippi // FBI arrested 21

1965 – King resumed voter registration in Selma, Alabama Attacked with tear gas & whips

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Outlawed literacy tests & sent federal voter

registrars into several southern states

Black Power Watts Riot in Los Angeles (1965) Blacks were enraged by police brutality burned &

looted their own neighborhoods

Began militant confrontation

Malcolm X – Nation of Islam Black separatism

Stokely Carmichael – leader of SNCC Black Power

Emphasized African American distinctiveness

April 4, 1968 – King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis

Combating Communism Dominicans rose in revolt in April 1965

American troops were sent to restore order

Johnson was widely condemned

Vietnam continues

Viet Cong attacked American air base at Pleiku, South Vietnam in Feb 1965

Johnson ordered retaliatory bombings & land attacks

March 1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder

Regular full-scale bombing attacks against North Vietnam

Vietnam Johnson planned “step-by-step” escalation of American forces

This would drive the enemy to defeat

Not successful

South Vietnamese were becoming spectators in their war

Domino theory

Began in the 1950s by Eisenhower

Idea that if one nation in Asia fell to communism then others would follow

Vietnam Vexations Several nations expelled Peace Corps volunteers because of American involvement in Vietnam

de Gaulle ordered NATO off French soil in 1966

Soviet Union expanded their influence in the Mediterranean area, especially in Egypt

Six-Day War June 1967 – Israel defeated Egyptians

Israel gained new territories including Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem

Anti-War Demonstrations

Began on a small scale in 1965 on college campuses

Gradually expanded into much larger protest

Draft dodgers went to Canada & others burned this draft cards

Marchers filled the streets of New York, San Francisco, other major cities

Opposition in Congress Senator William Fulbright head of the Senate

Committee on Foreign Relations

Televised hearings in 1966 & 1967

“Credibility gap” between government & the people

Johnson Responds Announced “bombing halts” in 1966 & 1967

Used by both sides to funnel more troops into South Vietnam

1967 – LBJ ordered the CIA to spy on antiwar activists

FBI was instructed to sabotage peace groups

Tet Offensive Jan 1968 (Vietnamese New Year)

Viet Cong attacked 27 key South Vietnamese cities including Saigon, simultaneously

Military defeat for Viet Cong but it was a political victory

American military leaders responded with a request for 200,000 more troops

Request rejected

Campaign of 1968 Democrats

Eugene McCarthy – antiwar college students as campaign workers

Robert F. Kennedy

Lyndon B. Johnson

Announced on March 31, 1968 that he would apply the brakes to Vietnam

Freeze American troop levels & shift more responsibility to South Vietnam

Also declared that he would not seek reelection

Presidential Election of 1968 Hubert H. Humphrey – replaced Johnson

June 5, 1968 – Robert Kennedy was assassinated

Because of his pro-Israel views

Democratic Convention – Aug 1968

Riot broke out

Republicans – Richard Nixon

Spiro Agnew – running mate

American Independent Party – George C. Wallace

Nixon won - Minority president who owed his election to divisions over the war & protests

Violence at Democratic Convention

Photographs and televised pictures of the Chicago police beating and gassing antiwar

protesters and innocent bystanders at the Democratic convention in 1968 linked

Democrats in the public mind with violence and mayhem. The scenes made

Republican Richard Nixon a reassuring presence to those he would term "the silent

majority." ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)

Violence at Democratic Convention

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Lyndon Johnson’s Impact

Accomplished a lot for civil rights

No President since Lincoln had worked harder or done more for civil rights

Compassion for the poor, African Americans, elderly & the ill educated

Crucified by Vietnam

Cultural Upheaval in the 1960s Negative attitude against authority

Change in traditional morals & values

Loss of patriotism

Free Speech Movement – Berkeley in 1964

Mind-Bending drugs such as LSD very popular

Hippies

Sexual revolution – birth control Dr. Alfred Kinsey – wrote books on adultery

Gay rights movement

In the 1980s, worries about STDs will slow down the sexual revolution.

Flower Children & Flower Power

3 Ps of the 1960s

Population – youthful bulge

Protest against racism & the Vietnam War

Prosperity