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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
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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. • 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
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?
What was the Warren Commission and why were its findings controversial? • 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? Cubans? Texas oil men?
Oliver Stone’s Theory Click to Play
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
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….