The Stormy Sixties American Pageant, Chapter 38 1960-1969.

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