JFK

1. JFK “…And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

2. I. Election • 35th President, elected at 43 (youngest), in one of the closest presidential elections in American history. -only Roman Catholic elected prez. -last democrat from outside the South to be elected -popular because of his energy, enthusiasm, vigor, looks, charisma, personality… -selected LBJ as vice-prez because he needed southern support for Civil Rights legislation • TV & Politics -Sept & Oct 1960, JFK debated Nixon in the 1st televised debate. During the debates, Nixon looked tense & uncomfortable, while Kennedy was composed, which led the television audience to deem Kennedy the winner. -the debates are considered a political landmark: the point at which the medium of TV played an important role in politics

3. II. Inaugural Address • Theme: the freedom of the individual -civil rights -poverty -communism • The role of the gov’t • Role of the US in foreign affairs

4. III. Domestic Agenda • “New Frontier”: -ambitious promises for funding for education, medical care for the elderly, gov’t intervention to half recession -end to racial discrimination -1963: proposed tax reform (cuts) to provide capital & stimulate economic growth -secured funding for space program -much was resisted by southern democrats

5. Civil Rights • End to state-sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing domestic issues of the era. • US Supreme Court, 1954, ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Many schools, however, ignored the ruling. • Segregation on buses, in restaurants, movie theaters, bathrooms, and other public places remained. • Although Kennedy supported Civil Rights, as president, he initially believed the grassroots movement would only anger southern whites and make it even more difficult to pass legislation through Congress (dominated by southern white democrats), and he distanced himself from it. As a result, many civil rights leaders viewed Kennedy as unsupportive of their efforts.

6. IV. Foreign Policy Agenda • Bay of Pigs Invasion • Berlin Wall (1961) -speech (1963): -”Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep out people in.” -“Ich bin ein Berliner” • Cuban Missile Crisis -direct product of Bay of Pigs invasion… Cuban fears of another American-led invasion -US posed with a serious nuclear threat -nuclear proliferation in the Western Hemisphere -should the US attack?

7. Latin America: JFK sought to contain Communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Peace, which sent foreign aid to troubled countries in the region and sought greater human rights standards in the region • Peace Corps: Americans volunteered to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction. • Advisors in Vietnam: -proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism, JFK enacted policies providing political, economic, and military support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese gov’t -16,000 military advisors & US Special Forces -agreed to the use of napalm, defoliants, free-fire zones, and air strikes

8. V. Assassination • President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, Nov 22 1963 -Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder, but was himself killed two days later • Results -LBJ is sworn in, inheriting Kennedy’s stalled domestic agenda, growing US presence in Vietnam, dramatic racial tensions, & a growing counter-culture movement.

9. Legacy • Television became the primary source by which people were kept informed about events surrounding JFK’s assassination, and ultimately daily / national news. • US networks switched to 24-hour news coverage for the first time • Coupled with the murder of his brother, Sen. Robert Kennedy, that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and growing protest over Vietnam, the five tumultuous years from 1963 to 1968 signaled a growing disillusionment towards the promise of social and political change • Additionally, Johnson’s escalation of the war in Vietnam and Nixon’s Watergate scandal affected a growing distrust in the federal government.

10. Lyndon Baines Johnson “For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.” • 1963

11. I. Who was he? • 36th President, former Senate majority leader of the Democratic party -responsible for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first Civil Rights legislation passed by the Senate since Reconstruction -added to JFK’s presidential ticket to help carry southern votes • Sworn in after JFK’s death 1963 • Elected to office 1964 in a landslide victory (61% of the vote – then the largest popular margin), but popularity declined after 1966, and his reelection bid in 1968 collapsed as a result of turmoil in his party

12. II. Domestic Agenda • Great Society: -Wanted to use the power of the presidency to eliminate poverty and spread the benefits of prosperity -aid to education, attack on disease, medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, control & prevention of crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. -lifelong commitment to the belief that education was the cure for both ignorance and poverty, and was an essential component to the American dream… emphasis on helping the poor -Greatest burst of legislative activity since the New Deal

13. Civil Rights • Overcoming southern resistance, Johnson helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively outlawed most forms of racial segregation. -Johnson to an aide, “We have lost the South for a generation” • 1965, he achieved passage of a second civil rights bill, the Voting Rights act, that outlawed discrimination in voting – thus allowing millions of southern blacks to vote for the first time.

14. Urban Riots • Major urban riots in black ghettos coincided with the Civil Rights movement, racial tensions, and the growing distrust of the gov’t • Starts with a violent disturbance in Harlem in 1964, and the Watts district of L.A. in 1965 • The biggest wave came in April, 1968, when riots occurred in over a hundred cities in the wake of the assassination of MLK. • Newark, NJ, burned in 1966, where six days of rioting left 26 dead, 1500 injured, and the inner city a burned out shell. • Detroit, 1967, Gov. Romney sent in 7400 national guard troops to quell fire bombings, looting, and attacks on white-owned businesses and on police. Johnson finally sent in federal troops with tanks and machine guns. Detroit continued to burn for three more days until finally 40 were dead, 2250 injured, 4000 arrested, property damage in the hundreds of millions. • Johnson called for billions to be spent in the cities and another federal civil rights law regarding housing, but his political support had plummeted as a massive white political backlash took shape.

15. III. Foreign Policy Agenda • Very much dedicated to the American military effort in Vietnam • Firmly believed in the Domino Theory & that containment required serious efforts -“If we allow Vietnam to fall, tomorrow we’ll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week in San Franciso” • Utilized Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to escalate American involvement • By 1968, 550,000 American soldiers in Vietnam, killed at a rate of over 1000 per month • Believed that the US could not appear weak in the eyes of the world • However, as casualties mounted his popularity plummeted -rise of the protest movement / counter-culture