New Frontiers: Politics and Social Change in the 1960s · The New Frontier • Kennedy versus Nixon...
Transcript of New Frontiers: Politics and Social Change in the 1960s · The New Frontier • Kennedy versus Nixon...
New Frontiers:
Politics and Social
Change in the 1960s
Chapter 31Lecture Outline
© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
LBJ
http://wwnorton.com/college/history/america9/full/ch/31/studyplan.aspx
The New Frontier
• Kennedy versus Nixon
– Vice-President Nixon was nominated for the presidency
representing by the Republicans, while the Democrats chose
Senator John F. Kennedy (JFK)
• The Vigorous New Administration
– JFK was the youngest president elected, he chose to select for his
administration leaders of industry instead of political appointees
Kennedy- Nixon debates John Kennedy’s poise and precision in the debates with Richard Nixon impressed viewers and voters.
The New Frontier• The Kennedy Record
– JFK’s domestic program was called the New Frontier.
– many of his programs blocked by partisans in Congress.
– did succeed in getting the Housing Act passed, which provided $5
billion for urban renewal over four years.
Kennedy’s Inaugural address:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxa4HDgfWFs
• The Warren Court
– The Supreme Court continued to be the decisive influence on
domestic life in this era.
• The abolishment of prayer in schools
• requiring a lawyer for every defendant regardless of ability to pay
• the notification of constitutional rights when being arrested are just some
examples of landmark cases.
Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement
• Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides
– When four African American
college students sat at a white-
only counter and refused to
move, the concept of the “sit-
in” was born.
– Few weeks later Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) is born.
– In 1961, to test a federal order
banning segregation of buses,
the Congress of Racial
Equality sent groups of people
on trips across the country to
make sure the law was upheld.
"Freedom Riders" Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CAKAXR-AM
Freedom Riders Two activists are escorted by armed National Guardsmen on a bus to Jackson, Mississippi.
Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement
• Federal Intervention
– In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in troops to
enforce a federal law abolishing segregation at the University of
Mississippi when the governor refused to abide by it.
• Letter from Birmingham City Jail
https://youtu.be/sVd2RNM4PlQ?t=970
Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963 Eugene “Bull” Connor’s police unleash dogs on civil rights demonstrators.
Forest Gump at U of Alabama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eluXKOqxM28
“I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963 Protesters in the March on Washington make their way to the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now- famous speech.
“I have a dream speech” https://youtu.be/smEqnnklfYs?t=719
Foreign Frontiers
• Early Setbacks
– Bay of Pigs failed.
– Two months after that, he met with
Khrushchev, who bullied and threatened the
inexperienced Kennedy.
– Upon returning home, JFK called up the army
reserve and national guard.
– The Soviets would respond by erecting the
Berlin Wall, dividing West and East Berlin.
Foreign Frontiers
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
– In 1962, Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba. They were put
there to protect Castro from another attempted coup.
– JFK would place a blockade around Cuba, not allowing anything
in or out until the missiles were removed.
– On October 24, Soviet ships stopped short of the quarantine line,
and two days later, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles.
13 days movie trailer: https://youtu.be/-yfIoHXOO9E
Foreign Frontiers
• Kennedy and Vietnam
– South Vietnam was still being
supported by the might of the US.
– However, the premier was showing
an unwillingness to govern his
people wisely or listen to American
advice.
– As Communist forces continued to
invade the south, Kennedy
dispatched military advisers to the
region to train the soldiers.
– In the fall of 1963, the United States
supported a coup against the
premier and he was murdered.
• Kennedy’s Assassination
– On November 22, 1963, JFK was
assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald
Presidential assassination John F. Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One before its return from Dallas with Jacqueline Kennedy (right), the presidential party, and the body of the assassinated president.
Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
• Politics and Poverty
– Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) had been added to the ticket to provide
balance to the inexperienced Kennedy.
– He would continue with Kennedy’s domestic program, and
through his leadership, had most of it passed.
– In 1964 he would announce a war on poverty aimed at educating
and elevating the nation’s poor.
• The Election of 1964
– LBJ would be nominated for president in 1964 and would face
Barry Goldwater, senator from Arizona.
– The result was a landslide, with LBJ winning 61 percent of the
vote
– Goldwater revitalizes conservatism
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 President Johnson reaches to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
• Landmark Legislation
– In 1965, LBJ got Congress to approve his Medicare program,
which provided for health insurance for the aged. In the end, the
Great Society would generate 435 bills that would pass
Congress.
• The Immigration Act
– The Immigration Act abolished the use of quotas from the 1920s
Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
• Assessing the Great Society
– Although there were many programs in the Great Society that
were successful, a good percentage of them were ill-conceived
and poorly funded.
– As a result, they did not have the impact they intended or had
unexpected effects
From Civil Rights to Black Power
• Civil Rights Legislation
– Congress passed the
Voting Rights Act of
1965, which ensured
all citizens had the
right to vote.
– It abolished literacy
tests and other state
policies designed at
keeping African
Americans from voting.
Selma movie trailer: https://youtu.be/x6t7vVTxaic
From Civil Rights to Black Power
• Black Power
– A race riot in Watts, a neighborhood in California, led off a
summer of racial violence in 1966.
• Malcolm X
– Groups of protestors supporting black power took to the streets,
and one of their leaders was Malcolm X. He would be
assassinated by a rival faction of Black Muslims in 1964.
Malcom X movie trailer: https://youtu.be/sx4sEvhYeVE
The Tragedy of Vietnam
• Escalation
– LBJ inherited the policy of preventing Communist supremacy in
Indochina.
– He did not see any reason to “save” Vietnam, but since the United
States was already committed, he saw no way to extricate the
advisers.
– On August 7, 1964, LBK appeared on TV and informed the
American public that the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy had
been fired on by North Vietnamese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin.
– He asked Congress for a resolution authorizing the president to
take all necessary steps to repel attacks against U.S. forces.
He would receive it.
– March 1965, combat troops began to arrive in Vietnam.
The Tragedy of Vietnam
• The Context for Policy
– LBJ’s decision to go
into Vietnam was
consistent with the
foreign policies of all
presidents back to
Truman.
– At the time, military
intervention was the
logical next step for
him to take.
– In a battle of wills, the
North Vietnamese
won, as public
support in the United
States eroded.
The Tragedy of Vietnam
• The Turning Point
– On January 31, 1968, the Viet
Cong launched an attack on South
Vietnam that was dubbed the “Tet
Offensive.” due to it occurring on
the Vietnamese New Year.
– Although it was beaten back and
was a staggering loss for the Viet
Cong, the American public viewed
it as a tremendous loss.
– LBJ’s popularity would decline
35%, leading him to announce that
he would not seek a second term
on his own in the 1968 election.
Ted Ed Ho Chi Minh Trail: https://youtu.be/poE_nNW9-yk
“How Deep Do You Figure We’ll Get Involved, Sir?” Although U.S. soldiers were first sent to Vietnam as noncombatant advisers, they soon found themselves involved in a quagmire of fighting.
The Tet offensive Many Vietnamese were driven from their homes during the bloody street battles of the 1968 Tet offensive. Here, following a lull in the fighting, civilians carrying a white flag approach U.S. Marines.
Sixties Crescendo
• A Traumatic Year
– The year 1968 was marked by tragedy. Martin Luther King Jr.
would be assassinated along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy,
who had just clinched the Democratic nomination for president.
• Chicago
– At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Mayor Richard
Daley ordered 20,000 police and national guardsmen to keep
order, but when they could not, anxious reporters broadcast the
riots across the nations.
Nixon Again