HIST 202 - HESEN
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Best and worst times in
history
Postwar economy peaked
in 1960s
Racial strife, Vietnam,
radicalism tore country
apart
U.S. learned its limits in
East Asia and at home
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Election of 1960
 Republicans – Richard
Nixon
 Democrats – John F.
Kennedy
 Results – Kennedy won
by 100,000 votes

The New Frontier
 Called aid to education
 Federal support for health
care
 Urban renewal
 Civil rights
 Mostly were struck down in
Congress
 Most were passed under
Johnson

Bay of Pigs Invasion
(1961)
 Fidel Castro – Cuba
 Central Intelligence
Agency
 Anti-Castro followers
 Kennedy denied the
incident
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Berlin Wall (1961)
 Called to meet with
Nikita Khrushchev in
Vienna
 Demanded U.S. troops
pulled out of Berlin
 Soviets built wall
separating East and West
Berlin
 1963 – JFK – “Ich bin ein
Berliner”
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Cuban Missile Crisis
(1962)
 Intel – Soviet missiles in
Cuba
 ICBMs could reach U.S. in
minutes
 U.S. naval blockade – 13
days
 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty –
no more testing of nukes
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Flexible response
 Proactive rather than
reactive
 Rely heavily on
intelligence from CIA
 Use of Special Forces
(Green Berets)
 RETALIATE ONLY IF
NECESSARY!
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November 22, 1963
 Dallas, TX
 Two bullets critically
injured JFK (throat and
head)
 Lee Harvey Oswald
 Warren Commission –
Chief Justice Earl Warren
 Conspiracies abound!
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Johnson becomes
president after JFK
Johnson wanted:
 Civil Rights Act – 1964
 Outlawed major forms of
discrimination against
racial, ethnic, national and
religious minorities, and
also women
 Voter’s Rights Act – 1965
 outlawed discriminatory
voting practices
 Cut income taxes
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Democrats –
LBJ/Hubert Humphrey
Republicans – Barry
Goldwater
 Extreme conservatism
 Hawkish qualities
 1964 commercial
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Medicare/Medicaid
Elementary and
Secondary Education
Act
Cut quota laws on
immigration
Department of
Transportation
Increased funding for
public education and
housing
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1964--Riots in Harlem
and BedfordStuyvesant, New York
City
1965--Riots in the
Watts section of Los
Angeles. Malcolm X
killed in New York
(Mujahid Abdul Halim)
1968--Martin Luther
King, Jr. killed on April
4th (James Earl Ray);
Robert Kennedy killed
on June 5th (SirhanSirhan)
Race riots broke out
around the country.
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Early stages:
 Eisenhower
 Kennedy – “domino
theory”
 Sent “advisors” to
Vietnam
 By 1963 – 15,000 troops
in Vietnam
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Tonkin Gulf Resolution
 Gulf of Tonkin - 1965
 N. Vietnamese gunboats
 Resolution gave LBJ
power to take “all
necessary measures” in
Vietnam
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Operation Rolling
Thunder - 1965
 USAF bombing attacks
 1965 – 184,000 troops in
Vietnam
 1967 – 480,000
troops/16,000 dead
 Gen. Westmoreland –
“light at the end of the
tunnel”
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1968
 Tet Offensive
 Massive invasion on U.S.
 N. Vietnamese attacked
U.S. positions in S.
Vietnam
 Attacks seen on TV
 LBJ doesn’t run for
reelection
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Election of 1968
 Democratic
convention in Chicago
 Herbert Humphrey
 George McGovern
 Antiwar demonstration
 Students for a
Democratic Society
(SDS)
 Richard Daley’s
response
 Richard Nixon
 Won election
 Pledged for “victory
with honor” in Vietnam