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The Stormy Sixties

The Stormy Sixties. 1960-1968 Chapter 39. The New Frontier. Kennedy was the youngest president to ever take office Assembled one of the youngest cabinets Named his brother Robert as Attorney General Created the Peace Corps. – army of youth to help underdeveloped nations. The New Frontier.

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The Stormy Sixties

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  1. The Stormy Sixties 1960-1968 Chapter 39

  2. The New Frontier • Kennedy was the youngest president to ever take office • Assembled one of the youngest cabinets • Named his brother Robert as Attorney General • Created the Peace Corps. – army of youth to help underdeveloped nations

  3. The New Frontier • Southern Republicans and Democrats hated the New Frontier plan • Goal was to curb inflation • Part of Kennedy’s plan was a multi-billion dollar mission to the moon.

  4. Rumblings in Europe • June 1961 – Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna • Aug. 1961 – Soviets began to construct the Berlin Wall • Designed to stop the population drain from East to West Germany

  5. Europe • Western Europe was prospering from the Marshall Plan • The Common Market – free trade was set up in Western Europe • “Flexible Response” - developing an array of military options that could be precisely matched to the necessities of the crisis at hand.

  6. The Vietnam Quagmire • 1961 - JFK increased the number of “military advisors” in South Vietnam in order to help protect Ngo Dinh Diem from the communists. • In November 1963, after being fed up with U.S. economic aid being embezzled by Diem, JFK encouraged a successful coup and killed Diem.

  7. Cuba • April 17, 1961, 1,200 exiles landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigsto try to take over Cuba • JFK gave no direct support, thus they were defeated • This pushed Cuba further into Soviet embrace • Fidel Castro retains control over Communist Cuba

  8. Cuban Missile Crisis • Oct. 1962 – it was found (aerial photos) that USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba • Oct. 22, 1962 – JFK ordered naval quarantine of Cuba and demanded removal of weapons • Americans waited 1 week while Soviet ships approached the naval blockade • Oct. 28 – Khrushchev agreed to a compromise and removed the weapons – N.K. thought JFK was weak and was surprised by his response!

  9. Civil Rights • Freedom Riders – Blacks and Whites who rode on buses across the South to end segregation • White mob torched a bus in Alabama in May 1961

  10. I Have a Dream • August 1963 – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led 200,000 black and white demonstrators on a peaceful “March on Washington” in support of the proposed new civil rights legislation. •  This was the site of the “I Have a Dream” speech

  11. John Fitzgerald Kennedy • November 22, 1963 • JFK shot and killed while riding in an open motorcade in Dallas, Texas • Lee Harvey Oswald arrested for the murder • Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner

  12. The LBJ Presidency • After prodding by LBJ, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed • In 1965, President Johnson issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to take “affirmative action” against discrimination. 

  13. LBJ • LBJ dubbed his domestic program the “Great Society” • Sweeping set of New Deal-like economic and welfare measures aimed at transforming the American way of life.

  14. Election of 1964 • Democrats nominated Lyndon Johnson • Republicans chose Barry Goldwater, an ultraconservative from California • Goldwater was against most of LBJ’s social programs

  15. LBJ’s victory • August 1964 - Gulf of Tonkin - U.S. Navy ships had been cooperating with the South Vietnamese in raids along the coast of North Korea.  • August 2 and 4 - 2 U.S. ships were allegedly fired upon.  • LBJ used the event to spur congressional passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution; lawmakers virtually gave up their war-declaring powers, handed the president a blank check to use further force in Southeast Asia.  • Lyndon Johnson overwhelmingly won the election of 1964.

  16. The Great Society • A flood of legislation was passed in the “Great Society” Congress • Created the Dept. of Transportation and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development • 1965 came Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor • Hint: E= Elderly, D= Disadvantaged

  17. Black Rights • Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government more power to enforce school-desegregation orders and to prohibit racial discrimination. • The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, abolished the poll tax in federal elections, yet blacks were still severely hampered from voting.  • Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, banning literacy tests and sending federal voter registers into several southern states.

  18. Black Power • Riots broke out all over the US over civil rights • Malcolm X deepened the division among black leaders.  He was first inspired by the militant clack nationalists in the Nation of Islam.  • 1965, he was shot and killed by a rival Nation of Islam.

  19. Black Movement • The violence or threat of violence increased as the Black PantherParty emerged, openly carrying weapons in the streets of Oakland, California.  • April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. 

  20. Vietnam • By 1968, Johnson had put more than 500,000 troops in Southeast Asia, and the annual cost for the war was exceeding $30 billion. • Casualties, killed, and wounded had exceeded 100,000, and more bombs had been dropped in Vietnam than in World War II.

  21. LBJ and Vietnam • January 1968, the Viet Cong attacked 27 key South Vietnamese cities, including Saigon • March 31, 1968, President Johnson issued an address to the nation stating that he would freeze American troop levels. • Bombing would also be scaled down.  He also declared that he would not be a candidate for the presidency in 1968.

  22. Election of 1968 • June 5, 1968, the night of the California primary, candidate Robert Kennedy was shot and killed by an Arab immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan, who was resentful of the candidate’s pro-Israel views

  23. Election of 1968 • Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of Johnson, won the Democratic nomination. • Republicans nominated Richard Nixon for president and Spiro T. Agnew for vice president • Republicans called for a victory in Vietnam

  24. Election of 1968 • The American Independent party, headed by George C. Wallace, entered the race and called for the continuation of segregation of blacks. • Nixon won the Election of 1968

  25. Cultural Upheaval • In the 1960s America, a newly 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 morals.

  26. College Commotion • One of the first organized protests against established authority took place at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964, in the Free Speech Movement.  • Leader Mario Savio condemned the impersonal university “machine.”  Angered by the war in Vietnam, some middle class sons and daughters became radical political rebels.

  27. The Sexual Revolution • The 1960s also witnessed a “sexual revolution.”  • The introduction of the birth control pill made unwanted pregnancies easy to avoid.  • By the 1960s, gay men and lesbians were increasingly emerging and demanding sexual tolerance

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