The Stormy Sixties
American Pageant, Chapter38
1960-1969
Kennedy & the New Frontier Spirit• The best & the brightest
– Robert F. Kennedy—Attorney General– Robert S. McNamara—Secretary of Defense
• New Frontier:– House Rules Committee:
• Kennedy forced expansion to stop bottle neck of his plans
– Non-inflationary wage agreement (Steel industry) & conflict:
• Negotiated non-inflationary wage agreement w/steel industry• Steel industry increased prices despite expectations• Kennedy chewed leaders out & they backed down
– Tax cut bill: Stimulate economy by slashing taxes to put $ in private hands
– The Moon: $24 billion on project; achieved in 1969
European Issues• Nikita Khrushchev, Vienna, June 1961:
– threatened to make treaty w/E. Germany & cut off west access to
Berlin
• Berlin Wall (August 1961):– Soviets built to stop population drain between E & W
European Issues• Common Market:
– Helped by Marshall plan, free trade area that evolved into theEuropean Area
– Trade Expansion Act (1962):• Authorized tariff cuts up to 50% to promote trade w/Common Market
Countries• Kennedy Round‖: Significant expansion of Euro-Amer. Trade
– Atlantic Community:• JFK wanted economic & military unity w/U.S. as dominant partner• Charles de Gaulle & veto of British application to Common Market:
– Didn’t like British-U.S. relationship & power of U.S. in European affairs
Asia & “Flexible Response”• Decolonization of European possessions:
– Post WWII—worldwide decolonization process
• Laos & Civil War:– As French colonist left, problems with communists element– U.S. sent $, but did not send troops– 14 Power Geneva Conference (1962): est. shaky peace in
Laos
• Brushfire wars: Series of conflicts; led Kennedy away from…– Secretary Dulles & Massive retaliation, and to…
• Defense Secretary McNamara & Flexible response:– Developing an array of military options to match gravity of
situation
• Special forces:– JFK increased $ on military & bolstered SF as antiguerilla
specialists
Asia & “Flexible Response”• Vietnam:
• Partition of Vietnam in 1954; Communist in North; democratic in South
– Diem’s South Vietnam government in Saigon:• Tons of U.S. $ but corrupt leader, Anti-Diem agitators
– Military advisors (1961):• JFK s increased advisors to help political stability
– South Vietnam coup (1963):• JFK eventually encourages a successful coup against Diem
– Led to dangerous political commitments for the U.S.
• Modernization Theory• U.S. foreign policy to help undeveloped countries to U.S. path of
modernization
– Walt Whitman Rostow & The Stages of Economic Growth• Most influential modernization theorists; framework for policy in Cold
War
Cuba and the Soviet Union• Alliance for Progress (1961): Marshall Plan for Latin
Amer.– Close gap between rich & poor; results disappointing
• Cuba:– Fidel Castro: leader of Cuba
• JFK inherits IKE’s plan to topple Castro with anticommunist exiles
– Bay of Pigs (April 17, 1961):• 1200 exiles bogged down in Bay of Pigs; Kennedy didn’t send
assistance; andexiles captured
• Kennedy takes full blame• Pushes Cuba into stronger relationship with USSR
Cuba and the Soviet Union• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962):
– Spy footage October 1962:• Soviets were installing nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba• Intended to shield Cuba & blackmail U.S. to back down over
Berlin issue
– Naval ―quarantine‖ (October 22, 1962):• JFK rejects strategic bombing & instead blockades island• Told Khrushchev that an attack from Cuba was same as if from
USSR• Soviet ships approached U.S. quarantine—on edge of nuclear
war
• October 28, 1962:– After intense week, Khrushchev blinks and agrees to pull
nukes
Cuba and the Soviet Union• Nuclear weapon buildup:
– After Cuban missile crises—Khrushchev removed– Soviets, embarrassed, massive nuclear weapon build up
for next decade– U.S. then plays catchup decade after
• Nuclear test ban treaty (1963):– Pact prohibiting trail nuclear explosions in the
atmosphere
• Moscow-Washington Hot line (August 1963):– Direct telephone line in case of crisis
• Détente:– JFK tried to lay foundation of what will become relaxation
of tension
Civil Rights
• Kennedy’s Civil Rights plans:– "With a stroke of a pen“ :
• Promised to help equal housing issue—but two year delay• Support of southern legislators: Delay due to needing their
support in othereconomic & social legislation
• Freedom Riders (1960): stop segregation in bus terminals– Alabama (May 1961): white mob torched a bus &
beat up RobertKennedy’s personal representative
– Federal marshals sent to protect Freedom Riders
• Marin Luther King, Jr.– Worked w/JFK although JFK had Hoover wiretap his
phone
Civil Rights• Voter Education Project (1963) & SNCC:
– Register Southern Black voters
• University of Mississippi & James Meredith (1962):– JFK sent 400 federal marshals & 3000 troops to enroll in
school
• Birmingham, Alabama (Spring of 1963):– MLK launched anti-discrimination campaign– 50 cross burnings; 18 bombs since 1957– Peaceful civil rights marchers repelled by police with dogs &
fire hoses– Televised; Horrified Americans
• Kennedy’s Speech (June 11, 1963):– Reaction to Birmingham; called the situation a moral issue– Called for new civil rights legislation
Civil Rights• March on Washington (August 1963):
• MLK led 200,000 peaceful demonstrators to Lincoln Memorial; gave speech…
– I have a Dream:• I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
– Violence continued, i.e.:
• Medgar Evers (JUNE 1963): – Black Mississippi civil rights worker—shot by white gunman
• September 1963– 4 little black girls killed from a bomb while in church– They just finished a lesson on The Love that Forgives
Assassination of Kennedy• November 22, 1963:
• JFK in open limousine in downtown Dallas, TX; shot by
– Lee Harvey Oswald:• Who then was shot (in front of TV cameras) by
– Jack Ruby:• Who later died in prison
– Chief Justice Warren led elaborate investigation but conspiracytheories still exist.
• Kennedy’s legacy:– Was more popular in death; LBJ could then accomplish
JFK’s ideas– Known more for the spirit he had kindled than for concrete
goals hehad achieved
Lyndon Baines Johnson• Background:
• FDR his political daddy• Expert wheeler dealer in the Senate; ego and vanity legendary• As President , shed any conservative tendencies
• Civil Rights:– Civil Rights Act of 1964:
– Banned segregation in private facilities open to the public; created the…
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):– Eliminate discrimination in hiring
• Title VII: A sexual discrimination clause used to help gender equality
– Originally put in by conservatives to make it NOT pass
– Affirmative action (1965):• Issued executive order to use affirmative action by all federal
contractors
Lyndon Baines Johnson• War on Poverty:
– Billion dollar plan– Forced through JFK’s delayed tax bill– Special focus on Appalachia
• Great Society– LBJ’s name for his New Deal-type plan
• Michael Harrington & The Other America (1962):– Book that helped garner support for LBJ’s antipoverty war– Showed 20% of white & 40% of black Americans were
below povertyline
Presidential Election 1964Republicans
• Barry Goldwater– Southwest– Attacked
federal income tax, Social
Security, TVA, and Great Society
– In your heart you know he’s right (Response: In your gut you know he’s nuts)
– Portrayed as trigger happy
• Loses 486-52 (EV) or
• 43,129,566 to 27,178,188
Democrats• LBJ
– Tonkin Gulf Incident (August 1964)
• US Navy destroyers fired on by N. Vietnamese (August)
• Later investigation—looks like selfdefense
• LBJ calls attack unprovoked– Orders limited retaliatory raid
– Tonkin Gulf Resolution• Congress issues LBJ Blank
Check to use further force in S. E. Asia
• Basically hands over war powers to President
– Incident showed LBJ’s statesmanship; aids his victory
“Great Society” Congress• Office of Economic Opportunity:
– Congress doubles $ to 2 billion + $1 billion to help Appalachia
• 2 new cabinet offices:• Department of Transportation• Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD):
– Robert C. Weaver: 1st black cabinet secretary
• National Endowment for the Arts & the Humanities:
• Lift the level of American cultural life
“Great Society” Congress• “Big Four” Legislative achievements:• Aid to education:
• Got over private vs. public school issues by designating funds per student
• Project Head Start: improve education performance of underprivileged youth
• Medicare & Medicaid:– Medicare: healthcare for elderly; Medicaid: healthcare for the poor
• Immigration & Nationality Act of 1964• Abolished national-origins quota system; doubled # of immigrants
allowed; 1st
time set limits on those from Western Hemisphere
– “family unification”: Also allowed in close relatives if citizens
• Voting Rights Act of 1965• LANDMARK bill outlawed literacy tests & sent federal registrars
to several southern states
Battling for Black Rights• Ballot-denying devices:
• Poll tax, literacy tests, intimidation; I.E. Mississippi only 5% of Blacks registered
• Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964):• Outlawed poll tax in federal elections
• Freedom Summer (1964):• Massive voter-registration drive in South by Northern volunteers
• Killing of 2 civil rights workers (Mississippi , June 1964):• 2 white civil rights workers disappeared; beaten bodies later
discovered• FBI arrested 21 Mississippi whites; white juried refused to convict
Battling for Black Rights• Voter-registration campaign in Selma, Alabama (1965):
• MLK led campaign; Black 50% of population but only 1% of voters• State troopers used tear gas & whips on demonstrators• Boston minster killed: Detroit woman shot by KKK on a highway
– Johnson’s speech• Response to Selma—said concerned all Americans; & then pushed
through…
– Voting Rights Act of 1965 (already defined on previous slide)
Black Power• Watts race riots (1965):
• 5 days after Voting Rights Act signed; riots in Watts (black ghetto in LA);
• Enraged by police brutality blacks burned & looted own neighborhoods for week
• 31 blacks and 3 whites dead; more than 1000 injured; showed new militant view
• Malcolm X:• Aka Malcolm Little; disliked MLK’s moderate methods; charismatic
preacher• Inspired by militant black nationalists in Nation of Islam led
by Elijah Mohammed; later distanced himself and moved toward mainstream Islam
• Gunned down in early 1965 by rival Nation of Islam
• Black Panthers• Black power group; open brandished weapon in Oakland, CA• Stokely Carmichael—began preaching ―Black Power‖; leader of
SNCC• Emphasis on African American distinctiveness; changed
names, hair, etc.
Black Power• Race riots, Summer of 1967:
• Northern big cities; Northerners shocked by Southern problem but ½ black population had moved North
• Newark, NJ: 25 dead• Detroit, MI: 43 dead• LA, CA: Black rioters torched own neighborhoods, attacked
police & firefighters• Black power focused less on civil rights & more on economic
issues
• Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.– April 4, 1968; Memphis Tennessee– Killed by sniper bullet outside his hotel– Triggered nationwide ghetto–gutting and violence that cost
40 lives
• Outcome:• By late 60s voters increased, some elected black officials in
South• By 1972 more elementary schools integrated in South than the
North
Combating Communism in 2Hemispheres• Dominican Republic (1965) & gunboat
diplomacy:• Revolt against military government• Johnson announced DR in danger of Castro-type coup; sent 25,000
troops• LBJ criticized for temporarily returning to gunboat diplomacy
• American air base, Pleiku, South Vietnam (Feb. 1965):• Viet Cong (N. Vietnamese) guerillas attacked• LBJ ordered retaliatory bombing raids against military installations; and• 1st time ordered U.S. troops to land• Operation Rolling Thunder—full-scale bombing attacks against N.V.• By end of 1965, 184,000 U.S. troops involved in Vietnam
• Escalation (1965-1968):• LBJ’s advisors thought step-by-step escalation would win war
w/minimum losses• S. Vietnamese spectators in own war• By 1968 more than ½ million US troops in S. E Asia; $30 billion cost; no
end in sight
Arab-Israeli Conflict• Six-Day War (1967)
– Israel stunned Soviet-backed Egyptians– Captures Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip &
West Bank, including Jerusalem– Brought 1 million Palestinians under Israeli control– Eventually withdrew from Sinai, but moved Jewish settlers
into other areas– Intractable standoff between Israelis and Palestinians led
by…
• Yasir Arafat & Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)• Middle East became more of a powder keg;
– U.S. can’t defuse: U.S. too involved in Vietnam
Opposition to Vietnam War• France & Charles de Gaulle:
• Leader of France ordered NATO off of French soil• Other nations expelled American Peace Corps volunteers
• Antiwar demonstrations:• Started on college campuses (sit-ins); turned into massive
movement• Thousands of draft registrants fled to Canada; other burned draft
card– Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?
• Opposition in Congress• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations & Senator William
Fulbright:– Staged series of TV hearings where committee voiced anti-war
opinions» U.S. Citizens felt deceived by causes & chance of wining war
– Defense Secretary McNamara: began to doubt; eased out of office
• CIA & FBI (Cointelpro):• LBJ ordered CIA to spy on antiwar activities at home• FBI used counterintelligence program by calling antiwar people
communists
Vietnam’s Effect on Johnson• Tet Offensive (January 1968):
• Viet Cong surprise offensive on 27 key S. Vietnamese cities; ended in militarydefeat but political victory of Viet Cong
• Response of American public—wanted speedy end to the war
• Eugene McCarthy• MN Senator became popular Democratic contender for president in
1968
• Robert F. Kennedy: Also popular Democrat contender• War Casualties:
• LBJ personally devastated by casualties in war
• March 31, 1968:– LBJ announces that he will not run for president
Presidential Election 1968• Robert F. Kennedy (June 5, 1968):
• Shot & killed by young Arab immigrant because of his pro-Israeli views
• Democratic Convention, Chicago 1968:• Massive demonstration; some throw excrement & shout obscenities;
police riot as officials clubbed innocent and guilty; also used tear gas.
• Hubert H. Humphrey• Wins Democratic nomination over McCarthy
• Richard M. Nixon:• IKE’s VP; Republican nomination; victory in Vietnam & strong
anticrime policy• Spiro T. Agnew: VP Candidate w/ tough reputation on dissidents &
militants
• George C. Wallace:• Former governor of AL; For segregation & massive bombing of
Vietnam
• Outcome: Nixon (301); Humphrey (191); Wallace (46)
Johnson’s Legacy• Death:
• Returned to TX in 1969; Died in 1973
• Great Society:– By 1966 programs were withering– Soaring war costs prevented from fulfilling plan– Inflation shot down prosperity
• Legacy:– Johnson had crucified himself on the cross of Vietnam,
but– Legislative leadership (for a time) was remarkable– No president since Lincoln had done more for civil
rights– Showed great compassion for the poor, blacks, & ill-
educagted
Cultural Upheaval in the 1960s• New cultural divide:
• Educated more secular & less educated more religious
• Fear of authority (Don’t trust anyone over 30)• Beat poets: voiced disillusions w/materialistic pursuits & the
establishment, i.e.• Allen Ginsburg• Jack Kerouac
• Rebel Without a Cause: Movie showed restless frustration of youth
• Free Speech Movement (1964):• At University of California at Berkeley; protested ban on political
debate• Later their mild sit-ins in direct contrast to more radical movements
Cultural Upheaval in the 1960s• Counterculture:
• Drugs (LSC); ‖acid rock‖ Flower children; communes; patriotism a dirty word
• Sexual revolution: birth control pill; Mattachine Society: gay rights• Cultural revolution: started as youthful idealism, became more radical
• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS):• Started off as peaceful civil rights demonstrators but by end of
decade startedterrorist group called the Weathermen
• 3 P’s or causes of upheaval:• Population: Youthful population bulge (Baby Boomers)• Protest: Racism and Vietnam• Prosperity: Apparent permanence of prosperity
– 1970s economic stagnation and as group aged, economic concerns changed focus to jobs, etc.
– Counterculture did not replace older values but weakened them perhaps permanently