A.P.
U.S. History Notes
Chapter 39: “The Stormy Sixties”
~
1960 – 1968 ~
I.
Kennedy’s
“New Frontier” Spirit
1.
In
1960, young, energetic John F. Kennedy was elected to president of the
United States—the youngest man ever elected to that office.
2.
The
1960s would bring a sexual revolution, a civil rights revolutions, the
emergence of a “youth culture,” a devastating war in Vietnam, and the
beginnings of a feminist revolution.
3.
JFK
delivered a stirring inaugural address, and he also assembled a very young
cabinet, including his brother, Robert Kennedy, as attorney general.
i.
Robert
Kennedy tried to recast the priorities of the FBI, but was resisted by J.
Edgar Hoover.
ii.
Business
whiz Robert S. McNamara took over the Defense Department.
4.
Early
on, JFK proposed the Peace Corps, an army of idealist and mostly
youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.
5.
Graduated
from Harvard, JFK was very vibrant and charming to everyone.
II.
The
New Frontier at Home
1.
Kennedy’s
social program was known as the New Frontier, but conservative Democrats
and Republicans threatened to kill many of its reforms.
i.
JFK
did expand the House Rules Committee, but his program didn’t expand
quickly, as medical and education bills remained stalled in Congress.
ii.
JFK
also had to keep a lid on inflation and maintain a good economy.
iii.
However,
almost immediately into his term, steel management announced great price
increases, igniting the fury of the president, but JFK also earned fiery
attacks by big business on the New Frontier.
2.
Kennedy’s
tax-cut bill chose to stimulate the economy through price-cutting.
3.
Kennedy
also promoted a project to land Americans on the moon, though apathetic
Americans often ridiculed this.
III.
Rumblings
in Europe
1.
JFK
met Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev and was threatened, but didn’t
back down.
2.
In
August of the 1961, the Soviets began building the Berlin Wall to
separate East and West Germany.
3.
Western
Europe, though, was now prospering after help from the super-successful Marshal
Plan.
i.
America
had also encouraged a Common Market, which later became the European
Union (EU).
ii.
The
so-called Kennedy Round of tariff negotiations eased trade between
Europe and the U.S.
4.
Unfortunately,
French leader Charles de Gaulle was one who was suspicious of the U.S.,
and he rejected British application into the Common Market.
IV.
Foreign
Flare-Ups and “Flexible Responses”
1.
There
were many world problems at this time:
i.
The
African Congo got its independence from Belgium in 1960 and then erupted
into violence, but the United Nations sent a peacekeeping force.
ii.
Laos,
freed of its French overlords in 1954, was being threatened by Communism, but
at the Geneva conference of 1962, peace was shakily imposed.
iii.
Defense
Secretary McNamara pushed a strategy of “flexible response,” which developed an
array of military options that could match the gravity of whatever crises came
to hand.
a.
One
of these was the Green Berets, aka the Special Forces.
V.
Stepping
into the Vietnam Quagmire
1.
The
American-backed Diem government had shakily and corruptly ruled Vietnam
since 1954, but it was threatened by the Communist Viet Cong movement
led by Ho Chi Minh.
2.
JFK
slowly sent more and more U.S. troops to Vietnam to “maintain order,” but they
usually fought and died, despite the fact that it was “Vietnam’s war.”
VI.
Cuban
Confrontations
1.
Kennedy’s
Alliance for Progress was dubbed the Marshall Plan for Latin America,
and it aimed to close the rich-poor gap in Latin American and thus stem
Communism.
i.
However,
too many Latin Americans felt that it was too little too late.
2.
Kennedy
also backed a U.S.-aided invasion of Cuba by rebels, but when the Bay of
Pigs Invasion occurred, on April 17, 1961, it was a disaster, as Kennedy
did not bring in the air support, and the revolt failed.
i.
This
event pushed recently imposed Cuban leader Fidel Castro closer to the
Communist camp.
3.
Then,
in 1962, U.S. spy planes recorded missile installations in Cuba. It was later revealed that these were, in
fact, nuclear missiles aimed at America.
i.
The
Cuban Missile Crisis lasted 13 nerve-racking days and put the U.S., the
U.S.S.R., and the world at the brink of nuclear war, but in the end, Khrushchev
blinked, backed off, looked very weak, and lost his power soon afterwards.
ii.
The
Soviets agreed to remove their missiles if the U.S. vowed to never invade Cuba
again; the U.S. also removed their own Russia-aimed nuclear missiles in Turkey.
iii.
There
was also a direct phone call line (the “hot line”) installed between Washington
D.C. and Moscow, in case of any crisis.
iv.
In
June, 1963, Kennedy spoke, urging better feelings toward the Soviets and
beginning the modest policy of détente, or relaxed defense.
VII.
The
Struggle for Civil Rights
1.
While
Kennedy had campaigned a lot to appeal to Black voters, when it came time to
help them, he was hesitant and seemingly unwilling, taking much time to act.
2.
In
the 1960s, groups of Freedom Riders fanned out to try to end
segregation, but White mobs often reacted violently towards them.
3.
Slowly
but surely, Kennedy urged civil rights along, encouraging the establishment of
the SNCC, a Voter Education Project to register the South’s
Blacks.
4.
Some
places desegregated painlessly, but others were volcanoes.
i.
29
year-old James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of
Mississippi, but White students didn’t let him, so Kennedy had to send some
400 federal marshals and 3000 troops to ensure that Meredith could enroll in
his first class.
5.
In
spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a peaceful campaign
against discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama, but police and
authorities responded viciously, often using extremely high-pressured water
hoses to “hose down” the sit-in strikers.
i.
The
entire American public watched in horror as the Black protesters were treated
with such contempt, since the actions were shown on national TV.
ii.
Later,
on June 11, 1963, JFK made a speech urging immediate action towards this “moral
issue” in a passionate plea.
6.
Still,
more violence followed, as in September 1963, a bomb exploded in a Birmingham
church, killing four Black girls who had just finished their church lesson.
VIII.
The
Killing of Kennedy
1.
On
November 22, 1963, while riding down a street in Dallas, Texas, JFK was shot
and killed, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was himself shot by
self-proclaimed avenger Jack Ruby, and there was much controversy and
scandal and conspiracy in the assassination.
2.
Lyndon B. Johnson became the new president of the United States as only the fourth
president to succeed an assassinated president.
3.
It
was only after Kennedy’s death that America realized what a charismatic,
energetic, and vibrant president they had lost.
IX.
The
LBJ Brand on the Presidency
1.
Lyndon
Johnson had been a senator in the 1940s and 50s, and his idol was Franklin
D. Roosevelt, and he could manipulate Congress very well (through his
in-your-face “Johnson treatment”); also, he was very vain and egotistical.
2.
As
a president, LBJ went from conservative to liberal, helping pass a Civil
Rights Act of 1964, which banned all racial discrimination in most private
facilities open to the public, including theaters, hospitals, and restaurants.
i.
Also
created was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which
was aimed at eliminating discriminatory hiring.
3.
Johnson’s
program was dubbed the “Great Society”, and it reflected its New Deal
inspirations.
i.
Public
support for the program was aroused by Michael Harrington’s The
Other America, which revealed that over 20% of American suffered
in poverty.
X.
Johnson
Battles Goldwater in 1964
1.
In
1964, LBJ was opposed by Republican Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, who
attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security system, the Tennessee
Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty,
and the Great Society.
2.
However,
Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf Incident, in which North Vietnamese ships
had allegedly fired on American ships, to attack (at least partially)
Vietnam, and he also got approved the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave
him a virtual blank check on what he could do in affairs in Vietnam.
3.
But
on Election Day, Johnson won a huge landslide over Goldwater to stay president.
XI.
The
Great Society Congress
1.
Johnson’s
win was also coupled by sweeping Democratic wins that enabled him to pass his
Great Society programs.
2.
Congress
doubled the appropriation on the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2
billion and granted more than $1 billion to refurbish Appalachia, which had
been stagnating.
3.
Johnson
also created the Department of Transportation and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), headed by Robert C. Weaver, the
first Black cabinet secretary in the United States’ history.
4.
LBJ
also wanted aid to education, medical care for the elderly and indigent,
immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill.
i.
Johnson
gave money to students, not schools, thus avoiding the separation of church and
state by not technically giving money to Christian schools.
ii.
In
1965, new programs called Medicare and Medicaid were installed,
which have certain rights to the elderly in terms of medicine and health
maintenance.
iii.
The
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the “national origin”
quota and doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. annually,
to 290,000.
5.
An
antipoverty program called Project Head Start improved the performance
of the underprivileged in education.
XII.
The
Black Revolution Explodes
1.
Johnson’s
Voting Rights Act of 1965 attacked racial discrimination at the polls.
2.
The
24th Amendment eliminated poll taxes, and in the “freedom
summer” of 1964, both Blacks and White students joined to combat discrimination
and racism.
i.
However,
in June of 1964, a Black and two White civil rights workers were found
murdered, and 21 White Mississippians were arrested for the murders, but the
all-White jury refused to convict the suspects.
ii.
Also,
an integrated “Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party” was denied its
seat.
3.
Early
in 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. resumed a voter-registration campaign in Selma,
Alabama, but was assaulted with tear gas by state troopers.
i.
LBJ’s
response the stunned American people sped more reform.
XIII.
Black
Power
1.
1965
began a time of violent Black protests, such as the one in the Watts are
of the LA, as Black leaders mocking Martin Luther King, Jr. like Malcolm X
(born Malcolm Little), who was inspired by the Nation of Islam and its
founder, Elijah Muhammed, urged action now, even if it required
violence, but he was killed in 1965.
2.
The
Black Panther openly brandished weapons in Oakland, California.
3.
Trinidad-born
Stokley Carmichael led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
urged an abandonment of peaceful demonstrations.
4.
Black
power became a rallying cry by Blacks seeking more rights, but just as they
were getting them, more riots broke out, and nervous Whites threatened with
retaliation.
5.
Tragically,
on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
i.
Quietly,
though, thousands of Blacks registered to vote and went into integrated
classrooms, and they slowly built themselves into a political power group.
XIV.
Combating
Communism in Two Hemispheres
1.
Johnson
sent men to put down a supposedly Communist coup in the Dominican Republic and
was denounced as over-anxious and too hyper.
2.
In
Vietnam, though, he slowly sent more and more U.S. men to fight the war, and
the South Vietnamese became spectators in their own war. Meanwhile, more and more Americans died.
3.
By
1968, he had sent more than half a million troops to Asia, and was pouring in
$30 billion annually, yet the end was nowhere in sight.
XV.
Vietnam
Vexations
1.
America
was floundering in Vietnam and was being condemned for its actions there, and
French leader Charles de Gaulle also ordered NATO off French soil in 1966.
2.
In
the Six-Day War, Israel stunned the world by defeating Egypt (and its
Soviet backers) and gaining new territory in the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan
Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan
River, including Jerusalem.
3.
Meanwhile,
numerous protests in America went against the Vietnam War and the draft.
i.
Opposition
was headed by the influential Senate Committee of Foreign Relations,
headed by Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas.
ii.
“Doves”
(peace lovers) and “war hawks” (war supporters) clashed.
4.
Both
sides (the U.S. and North Vietnam) did try to have intervals in bombings, but
they merely used those as excuses to funnel more troops into the area.
5.
Johnson
also ordered the CIA to spy on domestic antiwar activists, and he
encouraged the FBI to use its counterintelligence program (“Cointelpro”)
against the peace movement.
6.
More
and more, America was trapped in the awful Vietnam War, and it couldn’t
get out, thus feeding more and more hatred and resentment to the American
public.
XVI.
Vietnam
Topples Johnson
1.
Johnson
was personally suffering at the American casualties, as he wept as he signed
condolence letters and even prayed with Catholic monks in a nearby church—at
night, secretly, and the fact that North Vietnam had almost taken over Saigon
in a blistering offensive during Tet, the Vietnamese new year, didn’t
help either.
2.
Johnson
also saw a challenge for the Democratic ticket from Eugene McCarthy and Robert
Kennedy, and the nation, as well as the Democratic Party, was starting to
be split by Vietnam.
i.
LBJ
refused to sign an order for more troops to Vietnam.
3.
Then,
on March 31, 1968, Johnson declared that he would stop sending in troops to
Vietnam and that he would not run in 1968, shocking America.
XVII.
The
Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968
1.
On
June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot fatally, and the Democratic ticket went
to Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s “heir.”
2.
The
Republicans responded with Richard Nixon, paired with Spiro Agnew, and
there was also a third-party candidate: George C. Wallace, former
governor of Alabama, a racist who wanted to bomb the Vietnamese to death (what
a radical!).
XVIII. Victory for Nixon
1.
Nixon
won a nail-biter, and Wallace didn’t do that badly either, though worse than
expected.
2.
A
minority president, he owed his presidency to protests over the war, the unfair
draft, crime, and rioting.
XIX.
The
Obituary of Lyndon Johnson
1.
Poor
Lyndon Johnson returned to his Texas ranch and died there in 1973.
2.
He
had committed American into Vietnam with noble intentions, and he really wasn’t
a bad guy, but he was stuck in a time when he was damned if he did and damned
if he didn’t.
XX.
The
Cultural Upheaval of the 1960s
1.
In
the 60s, the youth of America experimented with sex, drugs, and defiance.
2.
They
protested a lot against conventional wisdom and beliefs.
3.
Such
poets like Allen Ginsberg and novelists like Jack Kerouac voiced
these opinions.
4.
Movies
like Rebel without a Cause also showed this belief.
5.
At
the UC Berkeley, in 1964, a so-called Free Speech Movement began.
i.
Kids
tried drugs, “did their own thing” in new institutions, and rejected
patriotism.
6.
In
1948, Indiana University “sexologist” Dr. Alfred Kinsey had published Sexual
Behavior in the Human Male, and had followed that book five years later
with a female version, and his findings about the incidence of premarital sex
and adultery were very controversial.
i.
He
also estimated that 10% of all American males were gay.
ii.
The
Manhattan Society, founded in LA in 1951, pioneered gay rights.
7.
Students for a Democratic Society, once against war, later spawned an
underground terrorist group called the Weathermen.
8.
The
upheavals of the 1960s can largely be attributed to the three P’s: the youthful
population bulge, the protest against racism and the Vietnam War, and the
apparent permanence of prosperity, but as the 1970s rolled around, this
prosperity gave way to stagnation.
9.
However,
the “counterculture” of the youths of the 1960s did significantly weaken
existing values, ideas, and beliefs.
