The Stormy Sixties · Vietnam Diem gov’t in Saigon had ruled shakily since the split of Vietnam...
Transcript of The Stormy Sixties · Vietnam Diem gov’t in Saigon had ruled shakily since the split of Vietnam...
The Stormy Sixties
1960 - 1968
John F. Kennedy
Youngest cabinet
◼ Robert “Bobby” Kennedy as Attorney General
Reform the FBI: focus more on organized crime & civil rights violations instead of all on internal security
◼ Sec of Defense – Robert S. McNamara
“New Frontier” – domestic policy
Peace Corps – bring American skills to underdeveloped countries
The New Frontier at Home
Proposed medical assistance for the aged and increased federal aid to education◼ Remained stalled in Congress
Helped negotiate a noninflationary wage agreement with the steel industry in 1962◼ Steel industries increased prices then backed
down
General tax-cut to stimulate the economy
Project to land on the moon◼ 1969 – Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin & Neil Armstrong
1969 moon landing
On July 20, 1969, American astronauts
Neil A. Armstrong (shown above) and
Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., plant an
American flag on the moon, thus
fulfilling President John F. Kennedy's
pledge to land a man on the moon by the
end of the 1960s. (NASA)
1969 moon landing
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Rumblings in EuropeJFK met Khrushchev in June 1961 in Vienna
Soviets threatened to make a treaty with East Germany & cut off Western access to Berlin◼ Soviets backed down but began to construct the
Berlin Wall in Aug 1961
Expansion of European-American trade◼ Trade Expansion Act in 1962 – cut tariffs by 50%
Promote trade with Common Market countries (Kennedy Round)
Charles de Gaulle of France started developing his own atomic force
Foreign Flare-ups African Congo
◼ Received its independence from Belgium in 1960 then exploded into violence
◼ UN sent in a peace keeping force financed mainly by the US
Laos
◼ Freed from France in 1954, then civil war began
◼ JFK imposed a shaky peace in 1962
“Flexible Response” – McNamara
◼ Developing an array of military options that could be matched to the crisis
◼ Replaced Dulles’s massive retaliation policy
◼ Developed the Special Forces (Green Berets)
An elite antiguerrilla outfit trained to survive under harsh conditions
Vietnam
Diem gov’t in Saigon had ruled shakily since the split of Vietnam in 1954
Anti-Diem group headed by Viet Cong threatened to topple the pro-American gov’t
1961 – JFK ordered an increase in the number of “military advisors” in South Vietnam
◼ Encouraged a successful coup against Diem in Nov 1963
Bong Son, Vietnam, 1966
A Vietnamese mother and her children,
framed by the legs of a soldier in the
U.S. First Cavalry Division. (Wide
World/AP Photo/Henri Huet)
Bong Son, Vietnam, 1966
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Cuban Confrontations
1961 – Alliance of Progress
◼ Extended the hand of friendship with Latin America // Marshall Plan for Latin America
CIA planned to overthrow Fidel Castro
◼ Invade Cuba with anticommunist exiles & they would trigger an uprising
◼ April 17, 1961 – Exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs
No match for Castro’s air force
Exiles were forced to surrender
Castro was pushed further towards the USSR
Cuban Missile CrisisOctober 1962 – U-2 spy plane discovered that the Soviets were installing nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba
October 22 – JFK ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba & demanded immediate removal of the weapons
◼ Warned USSR that an attack on the US would lead to an attack on the USSR
◼ Soviet ships approached the patrol line
October 28 – Khrushchev agreed to a partially compromise & agreed to remove the missiles
◼ US agreed not to invade Cuba & would remove US missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR
Catch up with the Russians
US expanded the military
JFK pushed for a nuclear test-ban treaty with the USSR
◼ Pact prohibiting trial nuclear explosions was signed in 1963
Aug 1963 – Moscow-Washington “hot line” was installed
JFK tried to lay the foundations for a realistic policy of peaceful coexistence
◼ Origins of the “dètente” policy (French for relaxation)
Struggle for Civil Rights JFK had pledged to eliminate racial discrimination in housing during his campaign
◼ Took him 2 years
◼ He did not want to isolate Southerners in Congress
Freedom Riders – 1960
◼ Goal was to end segregation in facilities serving interstate bus passengers
◼ May 1961 - white mob torched a bus in Alabama
◼ Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s personal representative was beaten unconscious
◼ Federal marshals were sent to protect the Freedom Riders
Dogs turned on Birmingham demonstrators
The ferocious attempts by local authorities in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Eugene "Bull"
Connor, to repel nonviolent black protesters using fire hoses (capable of 100 pounds of water
pressure per square inch), electrically charged cattle prods, and police dogs were shown nightly on
television. Tactics such as these made white supremacy an object of revulsion throughout most of
the country and forced the Kennedy administration to intervene to end the crisis. (Wide World)
Dogs turned on Birmingham demonstrators
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JFK & Civil Rights JFK became weary of King’s associates
(Afraid that they had communist associations)
◼ Robert Kennedy ordered the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, to wiretap King’s phone in 1963
Voter Education Project launched to register black voters in the South
Oct 1962 - James Meredith registered at the University of Miss with the help of 400 federal marshals & 3000 troops
TV viewers watched peaceful marchers attacked
June 11, 1960 – On TV, JFK called for civil rights legislation
More Civil Rights March on Washington
◼ King & 200,000 demonstrators sowed support for JFK’s civil rights legislation
“I Have a Dream Speech”
June 11, 1963 – Medgar Evers was killed
Sept 1963 – explosion at a Baptist church in Birmingham killed 4 young girls
JFK died before passing his civil rights bill
The Killing of Kennedy Nov 22, 1963 – JFK was assassinated in Dallas
◼ Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested then shot
◼ Jack Ruby assassinated Oswald
◼ Chief Justice Warren conducted an investigation
The Warren Commission
Lyndon B. Johnson became president
◼ Followed most of JFK’s policies
JFK known more for his ideals than his accomplishments
JFK assassination
As Jacqueline Kennedy reacts to her husband being fatally shot in the head, their
open-air limousine races to nearby Parkland Hospital. The president died less than an
hour later. CBS television news anchor Walter Cronkite cried as he told the nation
the news. (National Archives)
JFK assassination
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LBJ as PresidentLegislative wheeler & dealer◼ More successful in Congress
Honor JFK by supporting his Civil Rights Bill◼ Civil Rights Act of 1964
Banned racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public – theaters, hospitals, restaurants
Strengthened federal gov’t to end segregation in schools & other public places
Created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Title VII passed with the sexual clause
Issued an executive order requiring affirmative action (federal jobs)
President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 1964
Surrounded by an illustrious group of civil rights leaders and members of Congress,
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Standing behind the
president is Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (Corbis-Bettmann)
President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 1964
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LBJ treatment
Not content unless he could wholly
dominate friend as well as foe, Lyndon
Johnson used his body as well as his
voice to bend others to his will and gain
his objectives. (Lyndon B. Johnson
Presidential Library)
LBJ treatment
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LBJ’s Domestic Policies LBJ was successful in passing JFK’s tax bill with added proposals for his “War on Poverty”
◼ Concerned about Appalachia
“Great Society”
◼ Set of New Dealish economic & welfare measures aimed at transforming American life
◼ Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962)
20% of population in poverty
40% of blacks in poverty
Johnson v. Goldwater Election of 1964
Democrat – Johnson
Republican – Barry Goldwater
◼ Attacked federal income tax, Social Security, TVA, civil rights, nuclear test-ban treaty, & the “Great Society”
Johnson won easily
Tonkin Gulf Episode Aug 1964 – US Navy ships had been helping South Vietnam in raids along the coast of North Vietnam ◼ 2 US ships were allegedly fired upon on Aug 2 & 4
◼ (Later reports believe NV fired in self defense on 2nd
& nothing happened on the 4th)
Johnson deemed this an unprovoked attack◼ Ordered an air raid against North Vietnamese bases
◼ Convinced Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution Gave the president a blank check in dealing with Southeast
Asia
The Great Society Congress
War on Poverty
◼ Doubled the appropriations of the Office of Economic Opportunity
◼ Granted money to Appalachia
◼ 2 new cabinet offices
Department of Transportation
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
◼ First black cabinet member – Robert C. Weaver
◼ Creation of the National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities
LBJ’s Great SocietyBig Four
◼ Aid to education
Project Head Start
◼ Medical care for the elderly & indigent
Medicare – elderly - 1965
Medicaid – poor 1965
◼ Immigration reform
Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965 – abolished the quota system
◼ “family unification” provisions
◼ New voting rights bill
Black Revolution ExplodesStruggle◼ 24th Amendment (1964) abolished poll tax in federal
elections
◼ Freedom Summer of 1964 3 were killed in Mississippi // FBI arrested 21
◼ 1965 – King resumed voter registration in Selma, Alabama Attacked with tear gas & whips
Voting Rights Act of 1965◼ Outlawed literacy tests & sent federal voter
registrars into several southern states
Black PowerWatts Riot in Los Angeles (1965)◼ Blacks were enraged by police brutality burned &
looted their own neighborhoods
◼ Began militant confrontation
Malcolm X – Nation of Islam◼ Black separatism
Stokely Carmichael – leader of SNCC◼ Black Power
◼ Emphasized African American distinctiveness
April 4, 1968 – King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis
Combating Communism Dominicans rose in revolt in April 1965
◼ American troops were sent to restore order
◼ Johnson was widely condemned
Vietnam continues
◼ Viet Cong attacked American air base at Pleiku, South Vietnam in Feb 1965
◼ Johnson ordered retaliatory bombings & land attacks
◼ March 1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder
Regular full-scale bombing attacks against North Vietnam
Vietnam Johnson planned “step-by-step” escalation of American forces
◼ This would drive the enemy to defeat
◼ Not successful
South Vietnamese were becoming spectators in their war
Domino theory
◼ Began in the 1950s by Eisenhower
◼ Idea that if one nation in Asia fell to communism then others would follow
Vietnam Vexations Several nations expelled Peace Corps volunteers because of American involvement in Vietnam
◼ de Gaulle ordered NATO off French soil in 1966
Soviet Union expanded their influence in the Mediterranean area, especially in Egypt
◼ Six-Day War June 1967 – Israel defeated Egyptians
◼ Israel gained new territories including Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem
Anti-War Demonstrations Began on a small scale in 1965 on college campuses
Gradually expanded into much larger protest
Draft dodgers went to Canada & others burned this draft cards
Marchers filled the streets of New York, San Francisco, other major cities
Opposition in Congress ◼ Senator William Fulbright head of the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations
◼ Televised hearings in 1966 & 1967
◼ “Credibility gap” between government & the people
"Girls say yes to boys who say no,"
1968
Those opposing the war in Vietnam not
only demonstrated against the war but
also encouraged young men to resist the
draft. Here, singer and activist Joan Baez
(left) and her sisters suggest one
"benefit" those who say "no" to the draft
might expect. (National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.)
"Girls say yes to boys who say no," 1968
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Johnson Responds Announced “bombing halts” in 1966 & 1967
◼ Used by both sides to funnel more troops into South Vietnam
1967 – LBJ ordered the CIA to spy on antiwar activists
◼ FBI was instructed to sabotage peace groups
Tet Offensive Jan 1968
◼ Viet Cong attacked 27 key South Vietnamese cities including Saigon, simultaneously
◼ Military defeat for Viet Cong but it was a political victory
◼ American military leaders responded with a request for 200,000 more troops
Request rejected
Campaign of 1968Democrats
◼ Eugene McCarthy – antiwar college students as campaign workers
◼ Robert F. Kennedy
◼ Lyndon B. Johnson
Announced on March 31, 1968 that he would apply the brakes to Vietnam
Freeze American troop levels & shift more responsibility to South Vietnam
Also declared that he would not seek reelection
Violence at Democratic Convention
Photographs and televised pictures of the Chicago police beating and gassing antiwar
protesters and innocent bystanders at the Democratic convention in 1968 linked
Democrats in the public mind with violence and mayhem. The scenes made
Republican Richard Nixon a reassuring presence to those he would term "the silent
majority." ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)
Violence at Democratic Convention
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Presidential Election of 1968Hubert H. Humphrey – replaced Johnson
June 5, 1968 – Robert Kennedy was assassinated
◼ Because of his pro-Israel views
Democratic Convention – Aug 1968
◼ Riot broke out
Republicans – Richard Nixon
◼ Spiro Agnew – running mate
American Independent Party – George C. Wallace
Nixon won - Minority president who owed his election to divisions over the war & protests
Lyndon Johnson
Accomplished a lot for civil rights
Compassion for the poor, blacks, & the ill educated
Crucified by Vietnam
Cultural Upheaval in the 1960sNegative attitude against authority
Change in traditional morals & values
Loss of patriotism
Free Speech Movement – Berkeley in 1964
Mind-Bending drugs such as LSD very popular
Hippies
Sexual revolution – birth control◼ Dr. Alfred Kinsey – wrote books on adultery &
premarital sex
Flower Children & Flower Power
Hippies in their garden of grass
"Grass opened up a new space for middle class white kids," wrote chronicler of the
drug culture Jay Stevens, "an inner space as well as outer space. It became a ritual--
sitting around with your friends, passing a joint from person to person, listening to
music, eating, talking, joking, maybe making out--all the senses heightened." (John
and Leni Sinclair Collection, Bentley Historical Library,University of Michigan)
Hippies in their garden of grass
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3 Ps of the 1960s
Population – youthful bulge
Protest against racism & the Vietnam War
Prosperity