The Stormy Sixties

1. The Stormy Sixties Chapter 37

2. The LBJ Brand on the Presidency

3. Lyndon Baines Johnson • Texan • Though he mistrusted “The Harvards”, he retained most of the bright Kennedy team • Managed a dignified and efficient transition • Pledged continuity with his slain predecessor’s policies • Looked up to Franklin D. Roosevelt • Supported New Deal Measures • Lost a senate race in 1941 • Changed his campaign and won in 1948 • Questionable 87 vote margin • “Landslide Lyndon”

4. Continued • Developed into a powerful wheeler-dealer • Democratic majority leader in 1954 • “Johnson treatment”- an intimidating display of backslapping, flesh-pressing, and arm-twisting that overbore friend and foe alike • Very big ego

5. LBJ’s Presidency • Convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in memory of Kennedy • The act banned racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public (theaters, hospitals, and restaurants) • Strengthened the federal government’s power to end segregation • Barred employers from discriminating based on race or national origin in hiring and empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) • Issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to take "affirmative action" against discrimination in 1965

6. Continued • Pushed Kennedy’s stalled tax bill through Congress and pushed his “War on Poverty” • Inspired by Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962) • Revealed that 20% of the affluent Americans and over 40% of the black population suffered in poverty • Composed a reform program called the Great Society • A set of New Deal-ish economic and welfare measures tried to reduce poverty and racial discrimination.

7. Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964

8. Goldwater vs. Johnson • The Democrats nominated Lyndon B. Johnson to run for president for the election of 1964. • The Republicans chose Senator Barry Goldwater.  • Goldwater attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security System, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society. • Followers proclaimed “In Your Heart You Know He’s Right”

9. Goldwater’s Nomination • Owes his nomination to a blooming conservative movement led by vibrant writers like William F. Buckley and his staff at National Review magazine • Conservative activists formed groups like Young Americans for Freedom and volunteered for the Draft Goldwater movement • Especially well received in the South • Lyndon lost them upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964

10. Tonkin Gulf Episode • U.S. Navy ships had been cooperating with South Vietnamese gunboats in raids along the coast of North Vietnam. • On August 2th and August 4th, two U.S. ships were allegedly fired upon by the North Vietnamese.  • Johnson called the attack "unprovoked" and moved to make political gains out of the incident.  • He used the event to get Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. • This basically let the president use unrestricted force (at his discretion) in Southeast Asia.

11. LBJ Wins the Election • Voters were herded into Johnson’s column by fondness for the Kennedy legacy, faith in Great Society Promises, and the fear of Goldwater • Johnson won 43,129,566 to 27,178,188 (popular) and 486 to 52 (electoral) • His record-breaking 61% of the popular vote caused Democratic majorities into both houses of Congress

13. The Great Society Congress

14. A Time of Social Reform • Congress poured out a flood of legislation • Johnson delivered at last on long-deferred Democratic promises of social reform • Congress gave more money to the Office of Economic Opportunity and granted more than $1 billion to redevelop the gutted hills and hollows of Appalachia • Johnson also prodded Congress into creating the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) • Robert C. Weaver, the first black cabinet secretary, was appointed to this

15. Continued • The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities was designed to raise the level of American cultural life • In regards to the Great Society plan, LBJ's big four legislative achievements were: aid to education, medical care for the elderly and poor, immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill • Johnson gave educational aid to students, not schools  • Congress created Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor • Created “entitlements” (They conferred rights on certain categories of Americans in perpetuity, without the need for repeated congressional approval) • The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the quota system that had been in place since 1921.  It also doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country annually. Allowed family members of U.S. citizens who were outside those numerical limits

16. Continued • The sources of immigration shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia. • Dramatically changed the racial and ethnic composition of the American Population • Conservatives said that poverty could not be fixed by the Great Society programs, but the poverty rate did decline in the following decade. • Medicare reduced poverty in elderly • Project Head Start improved the educational performance of underprivileged youth • Infant mortality rates also fell in minority communities

17. Battling for Black Rights

18. Black Voting Rights • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government more power to enforce school-desegregation orders and to prohibit racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment. • But not many blacks were registered to vote due to the poll tax, literacy tests, and barefaced intimidation •   The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, abolished the poll tax in federal elections. • Blacks joined hands with white civil rights workers in a massive voter-registration drive in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964

19. A Blight on Their Bright Hopes In late June 1964, one black and two civil rights workers disappeared in Mississippi Their badly beaten bodies were found buried beneath an earthen dam FBI investigators arrested 21 white Mississippians, including the sheriff Mississippi officials refused to prosecute for murder under state law It wasn’t until four decades later that the Mississippi court convicted the murderers on charges of manslaughter

20. More Disappointments • The Mississippi Freedom Democratic party delegates that challenged their state’s all-white “regulars” were denied seats at the Democratic National Convention • Only a handful of black Mississippians had succeeded in registering to vote

21. Martin Luther King, Jr. Campaign • Resumed the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama • 50% of the population was black but only 1% of voters were black • Demonstrators were assaulted with tear gas by state troopers and whips as they marched peacefully to the state capital at Montgomery • A Boston Unitarian minister was killed • A white Detroit woman was shotgunned to death by Klansman

22. The Nation Recoils in Horror • Johnson gave a compelling address that supported the civil rights movement • “And we shall overcome.” • Following the speech he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law • Outlawed literacy tests and sent several federal voter registrars into several southern states

23. The Effects of The Voters Rights Act • Climaxed a century of awful abuse and robust resurgence for African Americans in the South • Placed a lever for change is blacks’ hands

24. Black Power

25. Militant Confrontation and Black Separatism • Days after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, a bloody riot erupted in Watts, a black ghetto in Los Angeles.  The Watts explosion marked increasing militant confrontation in the black struggle. • Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister who rallied black separatism. In 1965, he was shot and killed by a rival Nation of Islam. • Racially-motivated violence continued to spread as the militant Black Panther party emerged. It openly carried weapons in the streets of Oakland, California.  • Stokely Carmichael preached the doctrine of Black Power, which emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural parties.

26. Continued • The civil rights movement caused more riots in the black ghettos than anywhere else • These outburst angered white Americans, who threatened to retaliate with their own “backlash” against ghetto arsonists and killers • Residential discrimination, white outmigration to suburbs, and deindustrialization all directly affected African Americans, who suffered unemployment at twice the rate of whites

27. The Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. • On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee.  • The country lost one of the most inspirational leaders in history, at a time when they could least afford it • Caused a nationwide outburst of violent ghetto-gutting riots, costing over 40 lives • Black voter registration eventually increased, and by the late 1960s, several hundred blacks held elected positions in the South. • By 1972, nearly half of southern black children sat in integrated classrooms • About a third of black families had risen to the ranks of the middle class • King left a shining legacy of racial progress, but he was cut down when the job was far from done

28. Vietnam Vexations

29. Foreign Policy Disrupts Johnson’s Political Life • The U.S. was sinking deeper into the monsoon mud of Vietnam. • The Viet Cong attacked an American air base at Pleiku, South Vietnam • By the middle of March 1965, "Operation Rolling Thunder" had begun. This involved regular bombing attacks against North Vietnam. • LBJ believed that an orderly escalation of American force in Vietnam would defeat the enemy. But the enemy matched every increase in American firepower with more men and more wiliness in the art of guerrilla warfare. • Before the end of 1965, some 184,000 American troops were involved

30. Continued • The conflict in Vietnam became very Americanized.  • Pro-war hawks argued that if the United Sates left Vietnam, other nations would doubt America's word and succumb to communism.  • By 1968, Johnson had put more than 500,000 troops in Southeast Asia, and the annual cost for the war was over $30 billion. • The war brought more and more defeat upon America. • World opinion became increasingly hostile • Frenchman Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO and ordered all American troops out of the country.

31. Issues in the Middle East • In June 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt's air force, starting the Six-Day War. • Following the war, Israel gained the territories of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. • The Israelis eventually withdrew from Sinai after signing a peace treaty with Egypt, but they refused to relinquish the other areas without a treaty • The Six-Day War markedly intensified the problems of the already volatile Middle East, leading to a standoff between the Israelis and Palestinians

32. Antiwar Demonstrations • Antiwar demonstrations increased significantly as more and more American soldiers died in the Vietnam War. • Started with campus “teach-ins” • Thousands of draft registrants fled to Canada, others publicly burned their draft cards • Marches filled the streets • “Hell no, we won’t go” • “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”

33. Continued • Opposition in Congress centered in the influential Senate Committee on Foreign Relations • Senator William Fulbright held a series of televised hearings in 1966 and 1967 in which he convinced the public that it had been deceived about the causes and "winnability" of the war. • When Defense Secretary McNamara expressed discomfort about the war, he was quietly removed from office. • By early 1968, the Vietnam War had become the longest and most unpopular foreign war in the nation's history. • The government failed to justify the war. Casualties exceeded 100,000, and more bombs had been dropped in Vietnam than in World War II.

34. Continued • In 1967, Johnson ordered the CIA to spy on domestic antiwar activists.  • He also encouraged the FBI to use its counterintelligence program, code-named "Cointelpro," to investigate members of the peace movement. •  These tactics made the FBI look like a totalitarian state’s secret police rather than a guardian of American democracy • To Americans, it seemed that Johnson was bent on “saving” Vietnam by destroying it

35. Vietnam Topples Johnson

36. The Tet Offensive • In January 1968, the Viet Cong (VC) attacked 27 key South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon.  • The Tet Offensive ended in a military defeat for the VC, but it caused the American public to demand an immediate end to the war. • President Johnson began to doubt the wisdom of continuing to send troops to Vietnam.

37. Johnson is Challenged by His Own Party • Eugene McCarthy had emerged as a contender for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination • The devout Catholic gathered a small army of antiwar college students as a campaign workers • Going “clean for Gene” they helped him gain an impressive 41.4% of the Democratic vote in the New Hampshire primary • Robert F. Kennedy also entered the race • Stirred a passionate response among workers, African Americans, Latinos, and young people

38. Johnson’s Bombshell Address • On March 31, 1968, President Johnson stated that he would freeze American troop levels and gradually shift more responsibility to the South Vietnamese.  • Bombings would also be scaled down.  • He also declared that he would not be a candidate for the presidency in 1968. • Johnson had an effect in preserving the military status quo • He held the “Hawks” in check, while offering himself as a sacrifice to the militant “doves” • The U.S. could thus maintain an acceptable amount of activity in Vietnam while also trying to negotiate a settlement

39. The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968

40. The Summer of 1968 • The hottest political seasons in the nation’s history • Johnson’s apparent heir was his liberal vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey • Senators McCarthy and Kennedy meanwhile dueled in several state primaries • Kennedy’s band wagon was gathering speed until June 5, 1968,when he was shot and killed by an Arab immigrant resentful of the Kennedy's pro-Israel views.  • Riots broke out over this

41. Humphrey vs. Nixon vs. Wallace • Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of Johnson, won the Democratic nomination. Humphrey supported the increased use of force in Vietnam. • The nominating procedures of the era left most of the power over delegate selection in the hands of state and party officials, who were overwhelmingly aligned with the administration • The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon for president and Spiro T. Agnew for vice president.  The Republican platform called for a victory in Vietnam and a strong anticrime policy. • The American Independent party, headed by George C. Wallace, called for the of segregation of blacks. • His vice presidential candidate supported smashing the North Vietnamese to smithereens by “bombing them back to the Stone Age”

42. Every Candidate Supported the War • Both candidates were committed to carrying on the war until the enemy settled for an “honorable peace”, which seemed to be an American victory • Many “doves” refused to vote

43. Nixon Wins the Election of 1968 • Nixon won 301 electoral votes, with 43.4% of the popular tally (31,785,480) • Nixon faced congressional majorities of the opposing party in both houses • He was a minority president who owed his election to divisions over the war and protest against the unfair draft, crime, and rioting. • Humphrey won 191 electoral votes, with 42.7% of the popular tally (31,275,166) • Won about 95% of the black votes • Tied to the policies of his predecessor • Wallace won 46 electoral votes, with 8.4% of the popular tally (9,906,473) • Won strictly southern states • Amassed the largest third-party popular vote in American history and was the last third-party candidate to win any electoral votes

45. LBJ’s Legacy • No president since Lincoln had done more for civil rights than LBJ.  • None had shown more compassion for the poor, blacks, and the ill-educated • The Vietnam War sucked tax dollars away from LBJ's Great Society programs, though. • LBJ was persuaded by his advisors that an easy victory in Vietnam could be achieved by massive aerial bombing and large troop commitments. • He did not want to continue to escalate the fighting, though, and this offended the war "hawks." His refusal to end the war also offended the war "doves." • Johnson was damned if he did, and damned if he did not

46. The Cultural Upheaval of the 1960s

47. “Trust no one over thirty” • In 1960s in America, a negative attitude toward all kinds of authority took hold. • Disillusioned by the discovery that American society was not free of racism, sexism, imperialism, and oppression, many young people lost their moral rudders • Nothing could define values and shape behavior with the certainty of shared purpose that many people believed had once existed • Weekly churchgoing declined from 48% to 41% • Educated Americans became increasingly secular while less educated Americans became more religious

48. Skepticism About Authority Had Deep Roots • “Beat” poets like Allen Ginsberg and iconoclastic novelists like Jack Kerouac had voiced dark disillusion with the materialistic pursuits and “establishment” arrogance of the Eisenhower era • In movies like Rebel Without a Cause (1955), James Dean expressed the restless frustration of many young people

49. The Free Speech Movement • The Free Speech Movement was one of the first organized protests against established authority. It took place at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964. • Leader Mario Savio condemned the impersonal university "machine."  • Students objected to an administrative ban on the use of campus space for political debate • They accused the Cold War “megaversity” of promoting corporate interests rather than humane values