The Stormy Sixties

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