CHAPTER 27: THE NEW
FRONTIER AND THE
GREAT SOCIETY
The Big Picture: John F. Kennedy said America’s
New Frontier lay in finding solution for “unsolved
problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets
of ignorance and prejudice…” In Lyndon Johnson’s
Great Society, every citizen had the right to health
care, education, housing, and equal opportunities.
Main Idea: President Kennedy
continued the Cold War policy of
resisting the spread of communism
by offering help to other nations and
threatening to use force if necessary.
CHAPTER 27 SECTION 1:
KENNEDY AND THE
COLD WAR
Kennedy Becomes President
• During his election Kennedy emphasized the “New Frontier”, he
meant frontiers of the mind, the will, and the spirit of man.
• Kennedy was also Catholic, first president to be Catholic.
• When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Georgia during a
protest, Kennedy called his wife and also helped get Luther
released from jail.
• Earned him the African American vote.
• Kennedy was the youngest
President, until Obama, to be
elected.
• Wanted to focus on change for America.
• Gathered a young cabinet to advise him.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
• President Eisenhower had authorized the CIA to train 1,500 Cuban
exiles in Central America to invade Cuba in a hope to overthrow the
dictator Fidel Castro.
• Castro was anti-American and signed a trade agreement with the Soviet
Union.
• Eisenhower cut off economic and diplomatic ties in response.
• The CIA hoped that an invasion of Cuba would inspire the people to
revolt against Castro.
• Kennedy authorized the invasion despite warnings from his advisors
against it.
• The Bay of Pigs invasion was a disaster.
• The plan leaked a week before the invasion, air raids were connected to the
Americans and the US connection to the revolt was exposed.
• Castro was prepared for the land invasion on April 17.
• Kennedy did not send any back up into Cuba to help overthrow Castro.
• Bay of Pigs invasion strengthened Castro’s ties to the Soviet Union.
The Berlin Crisis
• Kennedy did not send in backup in Cuba because he did not want
Soviet Union retaliation in Europe.
• Khrushchev saw the failure in Cuba as weakness and decided to push
against him in Berlin.
• Kennedy asked Khrushchev to meet with him in Vienna in an effort
to ease tensions between the two countries, Khrushchev used the
meeting as an opportunity to demand recognition of the
Communist Eastern European countries.
• Western Berlin was controlled by Democratic nations (United
States and Great Britain) while Eastern Berlin was controlled by
Communist Government (Soviet Union).
• Kennedy worried that the Soviet Union would use force to gain control of
Western Berlin, began making preparations to respond.
The Berlin Crisis
• August 13, 1961 Communist forces closed the crossing points
between Western and Eastern Berlin, Soviet soldiers were stationed
along the border between the two halves.
• Soon after a concrete wall was erected
that became known as the Berlin Wall.
• The Berlin Wall divided families,
neighborhoods, streets, and even
cemeteries.
• Eventually built a second wall
parallel to the first one that would
allow for the Soviet’s to patrol the wall.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Policies during the Bay of Pigs and the Berlin crisis pushed
Khrushchev to be more aggressive.
• Khrushchev was concerned about a second invasion of Cuba and also
American nuclear missiles in Turkey.
• Soviet’s responded by putting missiles near the Southern border of the
United States.
• American’s criticized Kennedy for being “soft on communism” as
Khrushchev began pumping more aid and missiles into Cuba.
• Soviet’s claimed that the installation of these weapons was defensive not
offensive.
• Kennedy reported the Soviet activity to the US public reporting that if the
claims were untrue “the gravest issues would arise.”
• Moscow replied that a US attack on Cuba would mean war.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Kennedy assembled a group of advisers called the Ex Comm to help him
decide on a response to the Soviet’s.
• Decided upon a blockade of Cuba in an effort to force the Soviet Union to
remove the missiles themselves.
• Kennedy went on television to tell Americans about the Soviet threat,
putting Americans on full alert.
• Kennedy prepped the country for war and to show Khrushchev the seriousness
of the situation.
• A Soviet ship was en route to Cuba with missile supplies on board –
Khrushchev warned that trying to stop them would mean war.
• Before they got to the blockade they turned back.
• Two days later Kennedy got a letter from Khrushchev stating that the
Soviet Union would remove the missiles if the United States pledged to
never invade Cuba.
• Kennedy accepted the offer and the Soviet Union removed their missiles.
Kennedy’s Foreign Policy
• Kennedy believed that peace should not be enforced by weapons
but by people and their link to humanity.
• Enacted programs that reflected his belief.
• The Peace Corps trained volunteers for service in third world countries.
• Alliance for Progress offered billions of dollars in aid to build schools,
hospitals, roads, low cost housing, and power plants to governments in
Latin America.
Main Idea: John F. Kennedy
brought energy, initiative, and
important new ideas to the
Presidency.
CHAPTER 27 SECTION 2:
KENNEDY’S THOUSAND
DAYS
Kennedy’s New Frontier
• John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie
Kennedy were portrayed in photographs
and by the media as young and energetic
which boosted his public image and
popularity with the American people.
• Kennedy’s plan to reform America became known as the New
Frontier, much of America was not reform minded in the 1960s.
• While he was popular with the American public he was not as popular with
Congress and was unable to get many of his initiatives passed.
• His popularity did help him solve problems outside of Congress.
• Kennedy was able to get a few initiatives passed that would help
the poor such as the Area Redevelopment Act and raising the
minimum wage.
Space Program
• The program that came to symbolize Kennedy’s New Frontier was
the space program.
• The Soviet Union was ahead of Americans in the space race.
• They had launched a satellite and also a human into space.
• Kennedy was determined to send a man to the moon to advance
the Americans above the Soviet’s in the space race.
• The space race was just as much a part of the Cold War as the arms
race and containment of Communism.
Warren Court
• Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during
Kennedy’s presidency, the Supreme Court would be responsible
for some major rulings during his presidency.
• Earl Warren did not have a strong civil rights record, promoted
Japanese internment during WWII.
• He did persuade the Supreme Court to ban racial segregation in the
nation’s schools in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
• In the mid 1900s State Legislatures had not redrawn the
boundaries of their districts to reflect their population, the
Supreme Court would rule in Baker v. Carr that this situation
would deny urban voters equal protection of the law.
• Required that the districts be redrawn so that everyone has equal vote.
Warren Court
• Warren court also extended the Bill of Rights to the actions of State
Governments.
• Mapp v. Ohio established that search warrants required by the 4th
amendment apply to state and local police too, not just federal agents.
• Gideon v. Wainwright established that the state must provide lawyers to
poor persons being tried for crimes.
• Miranda v. Arizona established that when making an arrest the police must
make them aware of their fifth and sixth amendment rights.
• The Warren court also ruled on religious freedom in America during
the Engel v. Vitale case that outlawed prayer in schools.
The Kennedy Assassination
• In order to win re-election Kennedy
travelled to Texas to campaign, he rode in
an open car on November 22 where he was shot and killed.
• President Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One.
• Kennedy’s death shocked the world and rocked the nation.
• Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for shooting President Kennedy.
• President Johnson formed a commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl
Warren, called the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of
President Kennedy. They reported that Oswald had acted alone.
Main Idea: President Johnson used
his political skills to push Kennedy’s
proposals through Congress and
expanded them with his own vision
of the Great Society
CHAPTER 27 SECTION 3:
THE GREAT SOCIETY
Johnson becomes President
• Johnson and Kennedy were opposites appearance wise, Kennedy
had appealed to the American public with his good looks and
charm, Johnson was crude and a large and sometimes intimidating
man.
• Johnson taught public school in Texas and
gave up his career for politics during the
Great Depression.
• His experience as a school teacher allowed him to
see poverty first hand and influenced many of his
policies.
• Promoted an extended role of government
that would help make people’s lives better.
Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda
• Johnson reassured the nation in Kennedy’s passing that he would
carry on Kennedy’s legacy including his programs including the New
Frontier.
• Kennedy’s interest in anti-poverty programs had been influenced by
Michael Harrington’s The Other America that countered the idea
that every American had benefitted from the postwar prosperity.
• In his first State of the Union address Johnson declared a “War on
Poverty”.
• He asked Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act which they
passed in August 1964.
Creating the Great Society
• After he was elected President he pushed even harder for his own
programs and his own vision saying that “There is work to be done.
We are on our way to the Great Society.”
• For his special interest in Education Johnson passed the first large
scale program of government aid to public schools.
• The Economic Opportunity Act supplied for a program for preschool
children of low-income parents called Headstart that would give those
children a “head start” before starting kindergarten.
• The Omnibus Housing Act provided housing for low income
Americans that created the Department of Housing and Urban
Development that was headed by Robert Weaver.
Creating the Great Society
• In July 1965 Congress authorized funds for states to set up
Medicaid that would provide free medical care for poor people.
• It also established Medicare a health care program for people over 65.
• Many of the Great Society programs were designed to help every
American regardless of their socio-economic status.
• Part of that was improving air quality and the environment through the
Highway Beautification Act and the Air Quality Act.
• The peak years of the Great Society were 1965 and 1966 in which
Congress passed 181 of the 200 programs proposed, many
Americans were concerned about the pace of reform and voted in
new Congressional members who would slow down the passing of
Great Society programs.
• Some programs such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was
passed, established PBS and NPR.
Johnson’s Foreign Policy
• Another factor in the decline of the Great Society was the
increasing involvement in the Vietnam War.
• 385,000 US troops were stationed in Vietnam and the US government was
spending $2.5 billion each month on the war.
• Pressure was on as government was attempting to pay for expensive
domestic programs and an expensive war.
• Johnson chose to fund the war over the domestic programs,
stopping the spread of Communism was his most important
priority.
• Declared that intervention was justified to prevent the spread of
Communism in Latin America, became known as the Johnson Doctrine.
• Sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union and work together to
improve world wide conflicts.