The Stormy Sixties

1
The Stormy Sixties

• Chapter 38

2
Kennedy Nixon Debates

• John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon had first
  presidential debate on TV

3
Kennedys New Frontier Spirit

• JFK elected by small margin over Nixon in 1960
• Youngest elected president and assembled young
  cabinet
• Robert Kennedy appointed as Attorney General who
  conflicted with J Edgar Hoover over priorities
  for FBI
• JFK inspired idealism and service
• ask not what your country can do for you ask
  what you can do for your country.
• Developed Peace Corps to help poor in other
  nations
• New frontier programs for medical assistance for
  elderly and money for education held up by pair
  of Republicans and Southern Democrats
• JFK backed down big steel to prevent inflation
  but also cut taxes to stimulate the economy
• Supported space program and to put a man on the
  moon

4
Rumblings in Europe

• Soviets disarmed and prevented East Germans from
  rebuilding but Allies encouraged development of
  West German industry
• Berlin Airlift
• 1948 USSR close off Berlin in hopes of forcing
  Allies out
• Allies send in airlift to Berlin to bring in
  supplies
• 1949 Stalin backs down and allows allied forces
  into Berlin
• Berlin Wall
• 1961 Soviet premier Khruschev built wall in East
  Germany to stop migration
• Symbol of Cold War
• Propaganda victory for west
• Common Market
• JFK supported free trade area established in
  Common Market (evolves into EU) with Trade
  Expansion Act in 1962

5
French Indochina (Vietnam)

• Eisenhowers Secretary of State Allen Dulles
  foreign policy doctrine called for massive
  retaliation JFK under Robert McNamara shifted to
  flexible response to give military more options
• Battle against French (1946-1954)
• Ho Chi Minh led peasant army
• French lose at Dien Bien Phu
• French lose Indochina
• Geneva Accords (1954) divided Vietnam between
  communist North led by Ho Chi Minh and
  non-communist south, supported by west led by Ngo
  Dinh Diem
• Vietcong south Vietnamese communist guerillas
• South Vietnamese government troops ineffective at
  fighting
• Domino Theory
• US fear one nation goes communist, others would
  follow
• US doesnt allow 1956 election because US fears
  communists will win

6
American Involvement (1959-1975)

• 1961 JFK increased troop involvement 1963
  supported a coup of Diem
• Gulf of Tonkin (1964)
• North Vietnamese attack USS Maddox in Gulf of
  Tonkin
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed LBJ sent more
  troops to Vietnam and into any Asian country
  without Congressional approvalAttack was never
  proven
• US sends increasing numbers of soldiers
• Aerial bombardment Operation Rolling Thunder
  attempted (1965)
• Increasing deaths of American soldiers and
  reports of atrocities (My Lai) erodes US support
  for war
• Tet Offensive
• Jan 30 1968 surprise attack all over South
  Vietnam by Vietcong
• Military loss for Vietcong, political victory
• Americans didnt believe military statements
  following offensive
• March 31, 1968 LBJ announced a freeze in troop
  levels and reduction in bombing

7
Debate over War

• 1967 growing peace movement people oppose war
• Use marches, songs, sit ins, teach ins, fled to
  Canada
• Opposition to Draft
• Many avoided draft
• Burned cards, move to Canada
• Opposed mission of war
• Protests about Vietnam intensified
• Kent State
• National Guard shoot protestors at an anti war
  rally
• Johnson authorized CIA and FBI to spy on domestic
  opponents of war (1967)
• Supporters of War
• believed communism must be stopped
• innocents were killed because of guerilla tactics
• US never put full force of military in war

8
Cuban Confrontations

• 1959 Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in
  Cuba
• Castro encouraged communism in other Latin
  American countries
• Alliance for Progress was developed to close gap
  between rich and poor in effort to undermine
  communism in Latin America
• 1961 Bay of Pigs
• Kennedy supported failed invasion of Cuba and
  assassination attempts on Castro
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1962 Khrushchev put nuclear missiles in Cuba
• In response to American nukes in Turkey and
  Greece
• US identified missiles with U2 spy planes
• JFK orders naval quarantine until Soviets removed
  missiles
• US and Soviets went to brink of nuclear war
• Khrushchev backs down and forced out of power
• Accelerated the arms race
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
• Signed to try to ease tensions between US and
  USSR
• JFK gave speech at American Univ that laid
  foundation for detente

9
JFK Assassination and LBJ

• November 22, 1963 killed by Lee Harvey Oswald
• Oswald was then killed by Jack Ruby
• Warren Commission was created to investigate
  conspiracy possibilities
• LBJ was sworn in as President
• Was able to pass many JFK ideas fallen
  President
• Civil Rights Bill of 1964
• Banned racial discrimination in private
  facilities open to public
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
  made to eliminate discrimination in job hiring
• LBJ established affirmative action via executive
  order in 1965
• LBJs Great Society was a series of programs to
  change American society
• Education Civil rights Environment
• War on poverty
• Welfare and Food stamps
• Support for program increased after Michael
  Harringtons The Other America (1962)
• Medicare and Medicaid

10
Election of 1964

• LBJ (Democrats) Barry Goldwater (Republicans)
• Goldwater was a conservative
• Attacked establishment politics
• Wanted to present clear choice to LBJ by opposing
  income tax, social security, civil rights, TVA
• Democrats portrayed Goldwater as violent and
  unstable
• Daisy Ad ran spots showing girl picking daisies
  then a nuclear cloud killed her. Said US would
  have WWIII if Goldwater elected
• LBJ wins easily
• LBJs Great Society Congress
• Office of Economic Opportunity given money to
  support Appalachia
• Department of Transportation Department of
  Housing and Urban Development National Endowment
  for Arts and Humanities were created
• Big Four legislative achievements
• Education aid would be tied to students not
  schools allows for aid to religious schools
• Health Insurance given to elderly (Medicare) and
  poor (Medical)
• Immigration and Nationality Act made it easier to
  immigrate to US
• Conservatives argued against programs as improper
  social engineering and money was wasted

11
Black Rights

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased school
  desegregation and prohibited public facilities
  discrimination
• Voting in South
• Mississippi only 5 of eligible blacks were
  registered to vote because of poll taxes,
  literacy tests and intimidation
• 24th amendment banned poll tax
• Freedom Summer 1964 voter registration drive
  had northerners go down south to help blacks
  register
• Mississippi Burning James Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
  and Michael Schwerner were murdered by KKK for
  registering blacks
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Passed in response to violence of South
• Gave blacks power of vote that led gradually to
  integration
• Black rights movement shifted towards integrating
  blacks into American society not just in the
  South

12
Black Rights

• Black Power
• Movement gets increasingly violent Watts Riots
  (1965)
• Malcolm X followed Nation of Islam led by Elijiah
  Muhammed and supported black separatism
• Black Panthers used weapons SNCC led by Stokely
  Carmichael preached Black power to smash western
  civilization
• Put emphasis on African and black communities and
  culture and rejection of white
• Some believed in back to Africa movement
• Shifted focus from voting to economic
  unemployment and opportunity
• Riots in 1967
• Newark, Detroit, Los Angeles neighborhoods
  burned and police were attacked
• Created white conservative backlash against Black
  Power movement
• Martin Luther King assassinated in 1968 weakened
  moderate civil rights movement