Presidents & Politics
1950s
1960s
In America, anyone can become president. That's
one of the risks you take.
-Adlai E. Stevenson, 1952 Democratic candidate for president
Truman
Kennedy
Nixon
1945-1953
1961-1963
1969-1974
Eisenhower
Johnson
1953-1961
1963-1969
On April 12, 1945, when President
Franklin Roosevelt died and Vice
President Harry Truman became
President, he told reporters, "I felt like
the moon, the stars, and all the planets
had fallen on me."
Most Memorable Moments:
Drop atomic bomb on Hiroshima &
Nagasaki 1945
 Signed United Nations Charter 1945
 Proposed “Fair Deal” to continue
and modify FDR’s domestic policies
of Social Security, fair employment
and public housing
 Korean War 1950
Truman
1945-1953
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=bhUC
marpJV0
Although commander during WWII
and considered a Cold Warrior, Ike
said, "Every gun that is made, every
warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft from
those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed.”
Eisenhower
Most Memorable Moments:
 Ended Korean War 1953
 Opened negotiations with Soviet
Leader Nikita Khrushev
 Signed important Civil Rights
legislation and ordered National
Guard enforcement of integration of
Little Rock High School in 1957
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commerc
ials/1952
1953-1961
“From this day forward, the
millions of our
schoolchildren will daily
proclaim in every city and
town, every village and
rural schoolhouse, the
dedication of our nation
and our people to the
Almighty.”
-- On signing a bill that
added “Under God” to
Pledge of Allegiance
Kennedy
1961-1963
"Let us never
negotiate out of
fear. But let us
never fear to
negotiate."
Most Memorable Moments:
 Increase “advisors” to
Vietnam 1961
 Bay of Pigs 1961
 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
 Peace Corps 1961
 Assassination 1963
 Launch Apollo campaign
"Conformity is the
jailer of freedom
and the enemy of
growth."
"Forgive your
enemies, but never
forget their names."
"Too often
we...enjoy the
comfort of opinion
without the
discomfort of
thought."
The Living Room Candidate - Commercials - 1960 - Debate 2
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
was thrust into the presidency by an
assassin's bullet. He took that legacy
and used it to advance civil rights.
Johnson
1963-1969
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever
devised by man for breaking down injustice and
destroying the terrible walls which imprison men
because they are different from other men.”
Most Memorable Moments:
 Vietnam War escalation (1964 Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution)
 Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Voting Rights Act of 1965
 Great Society social programs
 Declined to seek re-election in 1968
because of turmoil related to
Vietnam War
“Learn from your
dreams what you lack.”
“Boys, I may not
know much, but I know
chicken shit from
chicken salad.”
http://www.livingroomc
andidate.org/commerci
als/1964
Republican Richard Nixon rose to
the presidency in large part
because of the confusion set off
among Democrats by LBJ’s
decision not to run. While much
happened during Nixon’s terms of
office, he is remembered almost
exclusively as the only president
to resign from office.
Most Memorable Moments:
 Vietnam War
 Arms reductions with
Russia
 Watergate
http://www.livingroom
candidate.org/commer
cials/1968
Nixon
1969-1974
“The Chinese use two
brush strokes to write the
word 'crisis.' One brush
stroke stands for danger;
the other for opportunity. In
a crisis, be aware of the
danger - but recognize the
opportunity.”
“We cannot learn from one
another until we stop
shouting at one another until we speak quietly
enough so that our words
can be heard as well as our
voices.”