The Stormy Sixties: Kennedy's New Frontier and the Fight for Civil Rights
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Presentation Transcript
Chapter 38 The Stormy Sixties, 1960–1968
I. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Spirit • JFK’s “New Frontier” campaign successful • Kennedy inspired high expectations and idealism • EG: Peace Corps • John F. Kennedy: Inaugural January 20, 1961 • Personified glamour/vitality of new generation • Cabinet, was young, including his brother • “The best and the brightest”
II. The New Frontier at Home • Congress • Threatened to ax New Frontier proposals • Senior citizen Medical insurance, Fed $ to education • Vexing problem—the economy • Slashed taxes to stimulate the economy • Promoted a multibillion-dollar moon landing project $24 billion later success in 1969, two
III. Rumblings in Europe • Soviets build the Berlin Wall August 1961 • Designed to stop ‘brain drain’ from East Germany • European Economic Community(Common Market) • The free trade area in Europe • Expansion of European-American trade • Globalization—robustly international commerce • Kennedy's ambitious design for Europe: • Not “Atlantic Community” plans were realized • Much blocked by France (Charles de Gaulle) • Vetoed GB application for Common Market membership (1963) • Created French atomic force • Desiredan independent Europe, free of Yankee influence.
IV. Foreign Flare-ups and “Flexible Response” • Worldwide decolonization from Europe • Caused rfegional ‘hot spots’ • Foreign Policy strategy • Ended Ike’s doctrine of “massive retaliation” • Developed “flexible response” model • Defense Secretary McNamara’s strategy
V. Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire • Corrupt, right-wing Diem government • Unpopular and ineffective • Sharp increase in “military advisers” (late 1961) • To help protect Diem from the communists • JFK encouraged a coup (Nov 1963) • Diem assassinated
VI. Cuban Confrontations • Alliance for Progress (Latin America) • Results were disappointing • Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961) • Failed Invasion of Cuba with anti-communist exiles • Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct 1962) • USSR installing nuclear missiles in Cuba • JFK orders naval “quarantine” of Cuba • USSR removed missiles • Fallout from the Cuban missiles crisis • ‘Arms race’ speeds up, ‘hot line’ installed, start ‘détente’
VII. The Struggle for Civil Rights • Freedom Riders (1961) • End segregation in facilities serving bus passengers • Voter Education Project • Register disfranchised blacks • Integration of southern universities (1962) • Desegregation of Birmingham (1963) • Violent scenes on TV, JFK ‘moral issue’ speech • March on Washington (August 1963) • “I have a dream…” speech at Lincoln Memorial
VIII. The Killing of Kennedy • Dallas, Texas - November 22, 1963 • President Kennedy shot and killed • Lee Harvey Oswald shot to death in front on TV • Warren Commission could not quiet all doubts
IX. The LBJ Brand on the Presidency • Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Banned racial discrimination in public facilities • Affirmative action LBJ executive order (1965) • The Great Society (LBJ’s domestic program) • Aimed at transforming the American way of life • Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962)
X. Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964 • Democrats nominated Lyndon B. Johnson • Most liberal since FDR / Truman • Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater • Goal to eliminate New Deal, Great Society programs • 1964 Election results • Popular vote: LBJ=43,129, 566; AuH2O=27,178,188 • Electoral count Johnson won 486 to 52 • Goldwater – Won home state & 5 deep south states • Lopsided Democratic majorities in both houses
XI. The Great Society Congress • Created Department of Transportation • Department of Housing & Urban Development • Started National Endowments for the Arts • Federal aid to education • Medicare for the elderly • Medicaid for the poor • Immigration reform (Eliminated ‘origins’ quota) • Criticisms of Great Society programs • Too much “social engineering” • Later, too costly
XII. Battling for Black Rights • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Feds could enforce desegregation orders • 24th Amendment (Jan 1964) – no poll tax • Freedom Summer(1964) voter-registration drive • 1965 Selma, Alabama March led by ML King • Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Outlawed literacy tests • Feds oversaw state elections
XIII. Black Power • Leadership of Malcolm X, Black Panther party • Opposed MLK passive resistance approach • Many had considered race a “southern” problem • ~ ½ black population lived in the north • City-shaking riots erupted in northern black ghettos • Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated April 4, 1968