The 1960s:Big Changes in America

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)• First Catholic elected as

POTUS• Promises to get “America

moving again”• The New Frontier• Massive investment in the

space program and military technology

• Minuteman missile program

• Man on the moon by the end of the decade

• Bay of Pigs disaster

Showdown with the Communists

• Ousting Fidel Castro in Cuba

• Renewing our commitment to Berlin

• Increasing the number of military advisors to Vietnam

• Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

Dialogue with the Soviets• After Cuban Missile

Crisis, JFK & Khrushchev renew commitment to discuss peace

• Red line from the White House to the Kremlin

• Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Commitment to Vietnam

Tackling Civil Rights• 1st took office = not at the

top of his agenda• Numerous clashes in the

South• Urged by his brother,

Bobby Kennedy, to take action

• Televised national address

• Introduction of new Civil Rights legislation

• Stalls because of Southern opposition

Kennedy Assassination• November 22, 1963• Trip to Dallas to smooth

over differences within the Democratic Party over Civil Rights

• Dealey Plaza = shots ring out

• Lee Harvey Oswald• Warren Commission

Report• Conspiracy???

Dealey Plaza & The Book Depository

A Different View

JFK’s Burial• Funeral patterned after Lincoln’s• Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Compare to his brothers’ gravesites at Arlington Nat’l Cemetary

LBJ’s Great Society• Lyndon B. Johnson

(1963-1969)• From Texas = Very

different from JFK• Great Society Programs• War on Poverty• Massive increase in

programs to fight hunger, poverty, homelessness, etc.

Civil Rights Legislation

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 = Outlawed discrimination in restaurants, housing, motels/hotels, public bathrooms, libraries, public schools, etc.

• Banned unequal interpretations of voter registration standards

• 24th Amendment = elimination of poll taxes

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 = Literacy tests & grandfather clauses are illegal; voter intimidation is illegal

Huge Escalation of Troops to Vietnam

• Domino Theory• Tonkin Gulf Resolution• Gave the president broad powers

to wage war in Vietnam• Massive increase in the number of

troops sent to Vietnam• To check communism• US troops vs. peasant farmers

(communist rebels led by Ho Chi Minh)

• Beginning of the War = Strong US support

• By the end = many had turned against it

Counter Culture of the ’60s

Election of 1968• Eugene McCarthy (D) = peace candidate

forced to drop out because of RFK• Robert Kennedy (D) = peace candidate

who is assassinated• Hubert Humphrey (D) = LBJ’s VP ends up

being the Democratic nominee• Richard Nixon (R) = secures the

Republican nomination & wins a narrow election

Many Factors

Nixon Wins

• Richard Nixon wins the 1968 election

• Promises that he has a secret plan to get America out of Vietnam