The Turbulent
60s
The 1960s were in many ways both
the best and worst of times. On the
one hand, the postwar economic
prosperity peaked in the 1960s. At
the same time, racial strife, a
controversial war in Vietnam, and
student radicalism started to tear
the country apart.
The 60s included all of the following:
Civil Rights Movement: From MLK to Black
Power
The Brink of nuclear disaster in the Cuban
Missile Crisis
Assassination of JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, RFK
Vietnam Conflict, Civil Unrest & the
Woodstock Generation
In the election of 1960, Nixon ran against
Kennedy. TV played a huge role in the campaign;
the first televised debates reflected the youth and
vitality of Kennedy and the pale and uneasy
Nixon.
Kennedy’s religion became an issue, but in one of
the closest elections ever, Kennedy defeated
Nixon by a little over 100, 000 votes. Nixon
claimed the election had been stolen by
Democratic political machines in Texas & Illinois.
At 43, Kennedy was the
youngest man ever to be
elected president. In his first
inaugural address, he spoke of
“a torch being passed to a new
generation” and promised to
lead the county in a New
Frontier.
New Frontier Programs: Kennedy
called for aid to education, federal
support of health care, urban renewal
and civil rights,
Many of JFK’s programs stalled in
Congress; however, many were part of
LBJ’s Great Society Programs.
The economy flourished under JFK, mostly
because of defense spending.
Foreign Policy: Peace Corps established
in 1961: young American volunteers
would give aid in developing countries.
Bay of Pigs, 1961: failed attempt for
CIA plot to overthrow Castro by antiCastro Cubans, who were caught on
the beach and forced to surrender.
Berlin Wall built 1961: Soviet and US tanks face
off in Berlin, but JFK made no attempt to stop
the wall from being built.
Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviets were building
underground silos for nuclear weapons in Cuba.
JFK set up a naval blockade of Cuba; nuclear war
was threatened, but Khrushchev back down and
removed the missiles from Cuba in exchange for
JFK pledge not to invade Cuba. In 1963, the US &
USSR & 100 nations signed the Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty to end testing in the atmosphere.
JFK was assassinated in Dallas
on November 22, 1963.
JFK served for about 1000 days;
his administration would be
idealized and remembered as “
Camelot.”
LBJ believed that problems of housing, income,
employment, and health were ultimately a
federal responsibility, and he used the weight of
the presidency and his formidable political skills
to enact the most impressive array of reform
legislation since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.
He envisioned a society without poverty or
discrimination, in which all Americans enjoyed
equal educational and job opportunities. He
called his vision the "Great Society."
A major feature of Johnson's Great Society was the "War
on Poverty." The federal government raised the
minimum wage and enacted programs to train poorer
Americans for new and better jobs, including the 1964
Manpower Development and Training Act and the
Economic Opportunity Act, which established such
programs as the Job Corps and the Neighborhood Youth
Corps. To assure adequate housing, in 1966 Congress
adopted the Model Cities Act to attack urban blight, set
up a cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and began a program of rent
supplements.
To promote education, Congress passed the
Higher Education Act in 1965 to provide student
loans and scholarships, the Elementary and
Secondary Schools Act of 1965 to pay for
textbooks, and the Educational Opportunity Act
of 1968 to help the poor finance college
educations. To address the nation's health needs,
the Child Health Improvement and Protection
Act of 1968 provided for prenatal and postnatal
care, the Medicaid Act of 1968 paid for the
medical expenses of the poor, and Medicare,
established in 1965, extended medical insurance
to older Americans under the Social Security
system.
Johnson also prodded Congress to pass a
broad spectrum of civil rights laws, ranging
from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the 1968 Fair
Housing Act barring discrimination in the
sale or rental of housing. In 1965, LBJ issued
an executive order requiring government
contractors to ensure that job applicants
and employees were not discriminated
against. It required all contractors to
prepare an "affirmative action plan" to
achieve these goals.
Johnson broke many other color barriers.
In 1966, he named the first black cabinet
member and appointed the first black
woman to the federal bench. In 1967, he
appointed Thurgood Marshall to become
the first black American to serve on the
Supreme Court. The first Southerner to
reside in the White House in half a
century, Johnson showed a stronger
commitment to improving the position of
black Americans than any previous
president.
In 1960, 40 million Americans (20 percent
of the population) were classified as poor.
By 1969, their number had fallen to 24
million (12 percent of the population).
Infant mortality among the poor, which
had barely declined between 1950 and 1965,
fell by one-third in the decade after 1965 as
a result of expanded federal medical and
nutritional programs.
Gulf of Tokin Resolution, 1964: Congress
gives LBJ unlimited discretion to fight the
war in Vietnam.
2. 7 million Americans served in Vietnam
and 58,000 died. The attempt to contain
communism to prevent the domino effect
ultimately failed. The US pulled out in 1972,
and the South fell to communism in 1975.
1968: The Tet Offensive in Vietnam turned public
sentiment against the war
Martin Luther King and RFK were assassinated
LBJ says, “I shall not seek, nor shall I accept. . . “
Democratic national convention turned into
chaos in Chicago
Nixon was elected over Wallace and Humphrey