Chapter 38 The Stormy Sixties

Kennedy’s New Frontier• His youth brought vigor and a hope of renewal

– “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

– Peace Corps• Program for the nations youth to bring American skills to

underdeveloped countries.– .Domestic ideas

• .Medical assistance for the aged• .Increased federal aid to education• .Had a difficult time with a hostile conservative congress• .Tried to hold down inflation with noninflationary wage agreement

with the steel industry– )Failed because industry still raises prices

• Land a man on the moon by the end of the decade– )Would be good military strategy – )Good economic stimulus

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy• Berlin Crisis• Soviets begin construction of the Berlin Wall in

Aug. 1961• Trade Expansion Act of 1952

• Cut tariffs up to 50%• To promote trade with common market• Increased trade

• Flexible Response• Was the brain child of defense Sec. Robert McNamara• Was created to deal with the brush fire war that could not be

controlled by massive retaliation• Developing an array of military options that could be precisely

matched tot he scope and importance of the crisis like the Green Berets

• Helps us into the Vietnam War

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Alliance for Progress

• Marshall plan for Latin America• Close the gap between rich and poor• Slow communist agitation

• Had little impact because of other factors.

Bay of Pigs April 1961

• Planned by CIA and Eisenhower Admin.• Idea to help anti-Castro forces take back the island• The U.S. was going to train and give them air support • Kennedy let the pan go but refused to lend a hand

• Failed miserably and hurt U.S. Latin America relations

Cuban Missile Crisis• Soviets try to build missile bases in Cuba as

we discover form U-2 photographs• In October of 1962 Kennedy orders a naval blockade of Cuba • Kennedy said any attack on the U.S. from Cuba would be seen as

an attack from Russia• If we seized or sunk a Russian ship approaching the blockade

Russia might retaliate. • The world was extremely tense• Russia finally backs down.• Fallout of crisis

– Khrushchev was disgraced and toppled– Launched more military expansion – Kennedy pushed for test ban treaty and gets one – Sets up hot line

• Brings on Kennedy’s policy of Peaceful Coexistence

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Kennedy Assassination

• Nov. 22,1963• In Dallas Texas• By Lee Harvey Oswald who was later Killed by Jack Ruby• Question of conspiracy• Probably remembered more for the ideals he had

enunciated and the spirit he had kindled than the concrete goals he had achieved

LBJ

• Election of 1964• Johnson the DemocratThe

Living Room Candidate - Commercials - 1964 - Accomplishments

• Goldwater the Republican.• Goldwater seen as to conservative and Hawkish•Johnson used the gulf

of Tonkin incident to escalate the war

Great Society

• War on poverty• Flood of new legislation similar to the New Deal• Office of Economic Opportunity given 2 billion budget• Improves education in Appalachia• Creates Medicare for the elderly• Creates the Dept. of Transportation.• Project Head Start• Created the Dept. of housing and Urban Development

– Robert Weaver Sec. of HUD first black cabinet Mem.– Creates a demonstration cities program– Combats urban blight

Civil Right in the Johnson Era• Civil rights of 1964

• Gave federal government more power to enforce school desegregation. • Prohibits racial discrimination in public Accommodations and employment• Freedom riders

– 24th amendment does away with poll tax– Voting rights act of 1965

• Outlaws literacy tests• Sent voter registrars to the south• Ended the era of civil rights in the south

– Violence in the North• Watts riot• Movement towards the radical call for militant tactics• Malcolm X

– Preaches blacks separatism– Condemns whites.

• Stokeley Carmichael• Lead the Student non Violent Coordinating Committee SNCC• Pushes another voter registration march in Miss.• Encourages Black and peaceful demonstrations

. Riots in Newark– Kills 29– Riots in Detroit kills 43

• Martin Luther King Jr. killed in Tenn. In April of 1968

Election of 1968

• Robert Kennedy strong democratic challenger until assassinated in 1968– Eugene McCarthy for Minn. Strong peace candidate– Humphrey gets Democratic Nomination– Strong Demonstration at the Chicago Convention

• Mayor creates for Daley• Calls out the national guard• Many arrested and jailed

– Republicans nominate Nixon• Says he has a program to end the war• Really has no program but eventually came up with

Vietnamization– Nixon wins

Counter Culture of the 60s

• Struggles with racism, poverty, Vietnam

• Young People disillusioned with American Society– Lost their moral rudders– “Trust no one over thirty”

• Free Speech Movement at Berkley• Some turned to

– Drugs– Acid Rock– Dropped out of straight society