New Frontier and Great Society

New Frontier

and Great Society

Section 18.1

Style or Substance?Which is more important in making an effective president?

Describe Kennedy as President.• Inaugural address

– A statement that the young were taking control

– Vigorous, energetic, bold

– Hawkish

• In Practice

– Slow, cautious to initiate new legislation

– Why?

• Lacked a mandate

– Election was slim

– Not a clear endorsement of his ideas

• Conservative Congress

What was the New Frontier?• Kennedy’s personal domestic

progressive program

• Not an organized set of new laws (like the New Deal)

• Included legislation for public schools, wilderness preservation, infrastructure, medical insurance for elderly

• Invigorated the liberals

– Had become complacent with the economic prosperity of the 1950s

What is meant by describing JFK’s Administration as “Camelot”?

• Seemed Royal, like a King

• JFK and Jackie (his wife) were elegant, stylish, and good looking

• Cultivated this image on TV, magazines

Describe Kennedy’s Working Style:• Surrounded himself w/ highly educated advisers

– Called the “best and the brightest”

• Pragmatic– Called himself “A Practical Idealist”

– Did what worked rather than what liberal ideology wished

• Visionary

– Set goal of landing man on moon for NASA

• John Glenn-= 1st American to orbit earth (2/62)

• Peace Corps

– Volunteers sent to developing countries to assist in education, building

» 80 thousand sent to 88 nations

Describe his Assassination:

Describe his Assassination:

Describe his Assassination. • JFK went to Dallas, TX to

begin campaigning for ’64 election

• Shot twice as he rode in open car

• Lee Harvey Oswald– Ex Marine, communist,

Cuba sympathizer – Shot from 6th floor of Dallas

Book Depository– Arrested in movie theater– Assassinated by Jack Ruby

at police station

Zapruder Film

Zapruder Slow Motion

What was the Warren Commission and why were its findings controversial?

• Investigative committee headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren

• Concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassination

• Controversial– Why?

• Difficult shot – 3 shots in 6 seconds

• Zapruder film – Made it look like shot

came from “Grassy Knoll”

• “Magic Bullet”– Developed by Arlen

Specter to explain how both JFK and Gov. Connally were hit

• Seemed impossible• Oswald assassinated by

Jack Ruby (nightclub owner)– Mob hit?

What was the Warren Commission and why were its findings controversial?

Cubans? Texas oil men?

Oliver Stone’s TheoryClick to Play

Lone Assassin or Conspiracy?

Oswald Assassinated

How did the nation react to the assassination?

How did the nation react to the assassination?• Shocked and devastated

–“Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”

• Shattered hopes of many

–African Americans

–Liberal idealists

• Camelot image of fallen hero became legendary

The End of Camelot

Describe Lyndon Baines Johnson’s style as president.

• Opposite of Kennedy– Crude, intimidating,

unpolished– Experienced Southerner

(Texas)• Coalition Builder

– “The Treatment”• Flattered or threatened

congressmen into voting for his proposals

What was the Great Society?• LBJ’s continuation

and extension of JFK’s New Frontier program

• His vision for a just, fair society without poverty, racism, etc.

• Declared ‘war on poverty’

What were some of the most important laws of the Great Society?

• Civil Rights Act of 1964/Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Economic Opportunity Act– Fed programs that fought

poverty• Medical Care Act

– Provided money for: • Medicare = Elderly • Medicaid = Poor

• Model Cities Act– Gave money to build housing,

recreational facilities, transportation for poor

– Created HUD

Was the Great Society successful?• Poverty dropped:

– 1959= 22%– 1969= 12%

• Under funded– War in Vietnam began to steer

money away from programs, which continued regardless

– Liberal economists spoke of having ‘guns and butter’

• Resorted to deficit spending, which led in the 1970s to “double digit” inflation

Criticism

• Did it create a welfare generation?

• Give a man a fish, feed him for a day

• Teach a man to fish, feed him for life….