Ch. 39: The Stormy Sixties

1960-1968

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been

passed to a new generation of Americans…”

“The Best and the Brightest” Power of Cabinet grows

R. Kennedy AG

Sec of Defense R. McNamara

Sec of State Dean Rusk

                                       

M. Bundy Nat’l Security Advisor                           

New Frontier Agenda1. Education2. Medicare3. Dept. of Urban Affairs

Today: Dept. of Housing and Urban Development – increase homeownership, urban development, affordable housing free from discrimination

4. Minimum wage: $1.25/hr.5. Increased SS benefits

Peace Corp• Volunteers who helped in developing countries such as Asia,

Latin America & Africa

Kennedy & Big Business• Acted more like a

Republican…• Cut taxes and give

loans• Reduce tariffs• And…

• Initiates moon missions• Economic stimulus• Military strategy• Scientific prestige

JFK & Khrushchev 1961

Khrushchev & The Wall 1961

Building of the “Death Strip”

Death Strip

French Opposition to U.S. influence in Europe

Charles De Gaulle

“Flexible response”a. Preparing for a variety of military responses rather than just

focusing on nuclear weaponsb. Kennedy built up all branches of militaryc. Special Forces AKA Green Berets

Vietminh & Ho Chi Minh Drive the French out of Vietnam

a. Eisenhower’s Domino theory

b. 1954: French post at Dien Bien Phu falls/guerilla tactics

c. July 1954:Geneva Accords (peace agreement)/temporary divide at 17th parallel

d. Diem agreed to countrywide elections for 1956

Kennedy and Vietnam

a. 1960: continues to support Diem via $ and military advisors, as did Eisenhower

b. Diem corrupt but nationalist; cancels election of 1956

c. Repressed Buddhist practices = Ngo Diem

Nationalist

Buddhist who sets himself aflame to protest Diem’s repression. Diem was a Catholic.

Kennedy and Vietnam

a. US executes Diem/JFK assassinated; within three wks of each other!

b. LBJ now president and does not want to appear “soft” on communism

Alliance for Progress

1. Provided economic help and promote democracy in LA; ineffective

2. Improved agriculture and crop exports but little change socially or politically

Bay of Pigs April 1961

a. US to train Cuban exiles: La Brigadab. Goal: to overthrow Castroc. Success or failure? Air support withdrawn! Plan failed miserably!

d. Public relations success for Castro

i. JFK considered incompetent

ii. $62 million in food and medical supplies for release of soldiers

Cuban missile crisis• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0suadZ6AmM

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

a. nuclear missiles in Cuba

b. Attack from Cuba = attack on Soviet Union

c. US quarantines Cuba = SU ships do not pass

d. Khrushchev & Kennedy make agreement?

Castro & Khrushchev

Fallout of Agreement between Khrushchev & JFK

a. Kennedyi. Used brinksmanship

not negotiationsii. Missed opportunity to

overthrow Castroiii. Cuban-Amer. go

Republican

b. KhrushchevLost face in SU &

worldwide

De’tente: Trying to ease tensions

a. Hotline- direct telephonic line between the White House and the Kremlin (1963)

b. Limited Test Ban Treaty- stopped nuclear testing in the atmosphere (1963)

Kremlin

JFK & Civil Rights

Freedom Rides 1961

1. Began with CORE organizationone of the earliest org. geared at nonviolent protest; est. sit-in concept

2. Goal of freedom rides? enforce desegregation

laws on interstate bus routes and terminals; Morgan v. Virginia (1946)

James Farmer

KKK at terminal Birmingham, Alabama & Bull Connor

James Meredith & Ole Miss (10/’62)

                           

Violence in Birmingham, Ala. (1963)

1. Need to get JFK to respond2. MLK – “most segregated

city in the U.S.”3. EBC –

a. Safety commissioner/mayoral candidateb. Responds with harsh forcec. Televised

4. Ends with desegregation

Eugene “Bull” Connor

Birmingham, Al. May 1963

Birmingham, AlLetter from MLK

• “I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters; … when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in the air-tight cage of poverty;…when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking:…”Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

April 16, 1963

                   

                  

16th St. bombing: Birmingham, Ala. (9/’63)

Guilty at 73 (1977)

Resistance to the Movement

1. “I say, segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

- George Wallace, Gov. of Alabama, June 1963

2. Pres. Kennedy orders Wallace to desegregate U of Al.

3. Medgar Evers;NAACP, veteran, assassinated by de la Beckwith (6/’63 Ms.)

March on WashingtonAug. 28, 1963

D. November 22, 1963

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964• federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating

against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. It generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state, and local governments. Title VII also applies to private and public colleges and universities, employment agencies, and labor organizations

• Specifically address gender and racial equality; especially sexual harassment

                           

          

F. Freedom summer:The Struggle for Voting Rights

1. MississippiAA 50% of pop.; only 5% of registered voters

Selma Campaign (Alabama 1965)

1. 50% of population were AA - Only 3% registered voters

2. Voter-registration drive organized in hopes of violent response by whites so that Johnson’s admin. would pass voting act.

Bloody Sunday: Alabama state troopers attack civil-rights demonstrators outside Selma, Alabama, on Sunday,

March 7, 1965.

Voting Rights Act 1965

1. Got rid of literacy test2. Agents of the Federal

gov’t could register voters

3. Registered African American voters tripled in the South

4. Voting &discrimination addressed; on to social and economic equality = poverty issues “By the way, what’s the

big word?”

MAP 28.2 Impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Voter registration among African Americans in the South increased significantly between 1960 and 1971.

24th Amendment (1964): abolishes poll taxes

Malcolm “X” Little

1. member of the Nation of Islam (NI)

2. advocated armed self-defense & black nationalism

3. received a lot of press/controversial

4. Hajj/returns w/“Ballots or Bullets” theory

5. Assassinated during speaking engagement by NI members

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

1. Members usually young college students; nonviolence

2. Wanted only Blacks to fight “for the cause” (Kling)

3. “Black Power!”4. PES independence5. discord amongst the

AA community Stokely Carmichael

1966

Black Panthers

Huey Newton

Bobby Seale

Urban Violence1. Harlem, Watts, Chicago, Detroit….

Police brutality the culprit

2. Needed opportunities in jobs, housing, and education

April 4, 1968• James Earl Ray assassinates MLK

Violence erupts throughout the US/125 cities

Civil Rights Legacy1. Civil Rights Act 1964:

employment/public places

2. Voting Rights Act 1965:3. Civil Rights Act 1968:

banned discrimination in housing

4. Affirmative action: making special efforts to hire or enroll groups that have suffered from discrimination in the past

• Black pride• AA curriculum• Entertainers• 2/3rds registered voters• 7,000 elected officials• Ended de jure segregation• School integration; better

in South than in the North• College enrollment

increased

Golden Doors & Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

1. National origins quotas abolished

2. Limits visas annually to 120, 000 WH; 170, 000 EH

3. Family sponsorship allowed = problems due to so many qualifying

Johnson’s Great Society

War on PovertyPrograms:

a. Educational; headstart

b. Medical care for elderly; Medicare for retirees; Medicaid for poor

c. Immigration reformd. Voting rights bill

Roots of Poverty1. Unequal income

distribution• LBJ never addresses

it2. Social Welfare

budget increases by > 50%• Medicare, Social

Security, and unemployment comp

Urban Uprising

1. Why?a. Police brutalityb. Unemploymentc. No health facilitiesd. Poor schoolse. Inadequate housing

2. Where• Watts, San Francisco,

Detroit, Cleveland, Newark Watts Riots (1965)

Pres. Johnson expands the conflicta. Gulf Tonkin Incident

i. US naval ships fired uponii. Second attack unclear if it happenediii. US spying on NV

B. Pres. Johnson expands the conflict1. Tonkin Gulf Resolution

(Aug. 1964): a. Granted Johnson military

powers in Vietnam without officially declaring war!

b. Written weeks prior to Tonkin incident

2. Operation Rolling Thundera. First prolonged bombing of

North Vietnamb. In hopes of avoiding

sending ground troops

Election of 1964

Great Society ProgramsLBJ’s Agenda

• Medical Care Act: Medicare & Medicaid• Dept of Housing and Urban Development• Higher Education Act• Civil Rights Act 1968 & Voting Rights Act 1965• Truth in Packaging Act

All of these programs are still around today!

Doves vs. Hawks

Opposed war & wanted troops to

withdraw from Vietnam

Should continue & increase force in

Vietnam

Domino Theory (Pres. Eisenhower’s)

If Vietnam fell to communism others would follow, so the U.S. must help.

Losing Morale

1. soldiersa. Lose confidence b. Drugs and alcoholc. Killing superior

officers

2. At homea. Economy suffers/

Inflationb. Using SS funds

c. Increased taxes d. $21 B a year on ware. Living room war: media and credibility gap effect U.S. citizens

Days of Loss (1968)

1. March: Johnson announces he will not seek a second term

2. April: MLK assassinateda. AA riots; 46 deadb. Stokely Carmichael “US

declares war on us”3. Citizens more critical of war4. June: Robert Kennedy

assassinated; Sirhan Sirhan5. DNC Chicago – fighting

inside and outside Chicago: Mayor Daley “shoot to

kill” order,

A. The Tet Offensive (1968)

1. Tet: January 30, Vietnam’s New Years Eve2. Week-long peace agreement with Vietcong in honor of

the holiday3. Funerals also being held during this time4. Vietcong used coffins as decoys; filled with with

weapons5. Deaths due to attacks

Vietcong: 32,000 US: 3,000

6. Americans and Congress: “unwinnable” war

Public Opinion on War

1. Before Tet Offensive28% Doves56% Hawks

2. After Tet Offensive40% Doves40% Hawks

3. 60 % war mishandled4. 50% mistake to go in

1968 DNC - Chicago

Presidential Election 1968

Hubert Humphrey (D)

Richard M. Nixon (R)

Counterculture

Woodstock, NY(concert?)

Pot & LSD

3. “Free love” & Communes

Early Campus Protests(SDS reading)

a. Classroom strikesb. Sit-insc. War and campus

issues