The Presidencies of JFK &
LBJ
The New Frontier and the Great
Society
Ike Leaves Us With a Warning
• What is the “Military Industrial Complex”?
• How can we prevent it from “endangering our
American Liberties and democratic process”?
• Name some modern day examples that justify
Eisenhower’s warning in his farewell address.
Ike Leaves Us With a Warning
• “The Military Industrial Complex”
• Warns of the comfortable relationship between
the those that manage wars and those that
produce weapons
• The “War Profit Theory”
• “Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes, not
need just feed the war cannibal animal... What
we don't know keeps the contracts alive and
moving”
The Election of 1960
• Richard Nixon [R] and John F. Kennedy [D]
• Nixon was the Vice President & had a modest
upbringing
• Kennedy was a child of wealth & privilege, went to
finest private schools and graduated from Harvard
• Nixon did not receive support from Ike who wanted to
replace him as VP
• No Roman Catholic President had ever been elected,
JFK was Roman Catholic
• 80 million Americans watched their first debate on TV
– Kennedy radiated confidence and charm
• JFK won 303 – 219 electoral votes and 34,227,00 –
34,109,000 popular votes
“Ask not what your country can do
for you ask what you can do for
your country”
Quotes from the Inaugural
• “Ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country”
• “The torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans”
• “Let every nation know, whether is wishes us
well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear
any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival
of liberty”
CAMELOT
“New Frontier” – Domestic
• Attorney General _
Robert F. Kennedy
• $5 billion education bill
• Comprehensive Civil
Rights Bill 1963
• Space Race - 1969
• Raised minimum wage
and championed urban
renewal (ARA)
• Harrignton’s The Other
American (1962)
• Equal Pay Act (1963)
ASSASSINATION
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Dallas 11/22/1963
Dealey Plaza
Lee Harvey Oswald
Jack Ruby – 2 days after
Conspiracy Theories
The Warren Commission
The Zapruder Film –
Abraham Zapruder
• Lyndon Johnson
A Magic Bullet?
Jimmy Carter on the Kennedy
Assassination
“I wept openly for the first time in
ten years, for the first time since
my own father died”
Lyndon Baines Johnson
• “I felt from the first day in office that I
had to carry on for President Kennedy. I
considered myself the caretaker of both
his people and his policies”
• “The day is over when top jobs are
reserved for men”
• War on Poverty – Office of economic
opportunity (OEO), Head Start, VISTA.
The Election of 1964
LBJ Tries to Continue
the Kennedy Legacy
JOHNSON
VS
GOLDWATER
The Election of 1964
• Johnson v. Barry Goldwater
• Goldwater was a conservative
candidate who wanted to abolish social
programs i.e. social security
• 6th most lopsided in history
• Johnson won 44 states & DC also 61%
of popular vote
The Great Society
• “Kennedy inspired….Johnson delivered”
• Civil Rights, healthcare, education & urban
renewal
• “War on Poverty”
• Medicare (+65), Medicaid (needy)
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 - $1.3 billion to poor areas
• Department of Housing & Urban
Development – (HUD) oversee federal
housing projects
• Water Quality Act (1965), Air Quality Act
(1967), Water Pollution Act (1968)
Warren Court
• Chief Justice Earl Warren
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) – state
provided public defenders
• Escobedo v. Illinois – right of the
accused to have lawyer present during
investigations
• Miranda v. Arizona – accused must be
read rights