1960’s
Cold War cont…
Kennedy Nixon Debate
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70 millions viewed
on television the
debate between
Senator Kennedy
and Vice President
Nixon
Most television
viewers said that
Kennedy had won
the debate
Election of 1960
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The United States presidential
election of 1960 marked the
end of the eight years of
Dwight D. Eisenhower's
presidency. Richard M. Nixon,
who had transformed the office
of Vice President into a
national political base, easily
won the Republican
nomination.
The Democrats nominated
Massachusetts Senator John F.
Kennedy. He was only the
second Catholic nominee in
history. Kennedy charged that
America was slipping behind in
the Cold War, both militarily
and economically. The vote
was the closest in any
presidential election dating to
1916, and Kennedy's margin of
victory in the popular vote is
video
among the closest ever in
American history.
Peace Corps
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one of Kennedy’s
first presidential
acts.
Through this
program, Americans
volunteered to help
underdeveloped
nations in areas
such as education,
farming, health care
and construction.
U2 Spy Plane
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Frank Powers flew a U2 that
was shot down over the
Soviet Union
US claimed the plane was
not a spy plane but doing
weather research.
USSR found pilot and plane
and uncovered the photos
from the camera
Video
Bay of Pigs

The 1961 Bay of Pigs
Invasion (also known in Cuba
as the Playa Girón after the
beach in the Bay of Pigs where
the landing took place) was an
unsuccessful United Statesplanned and funded attempted
invasion by armed Cuban
exiles in southwest Cuba. An
attempt to overthrow the
government of Fidel Castro,
this action accelerated a rapid
deterioration in CubanAmerican relations, which was
further worsened by the Cuban
Missile Crisis the following year.
Cuban Missile Crisis
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video
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a
confrontation regarding the Soviet
deployment of nuclear missiles in
Cuba. The missiles were ostensibly
placed to protect Cuba from further
planned attacks by the United
States after the failed Bay of Pigs
Invasion, and were rationalized by
the Soviets as equivalent to the
U.S. placing deployable nuclear
warheads in the United Kingdom,
Italy, Greece, and most
significantly, Turkey.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cont…
The crisis began on October 14,
1962 when U.S.
reconnaissance imagery
revealing Soviet nuclear missile
installations on the island were
shown to U.S. President John
F. Kennedy and ended fourteen
days later on October 28,
1962, when Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev announced
that the installations would be
dismantled. The Cuban Missile
Crisis is often regarded as the
moment when the Cold War
came closest to escalating into
a nuclear war.
Assassination of Kennedy
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Nov 22, 1963
Dallas, TX
“shot” by Lee
Harvey Oswald
Later, Oswald was
killed by Jack Ruby
LBJ
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Took over the
Presidency after the
assassination of JFK
Introduced the idea
of a great society
escalated America’s
involvement in
Vietnam
The Great Society
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The Great Society was a set
of domestic programs
proposed or enacted in the
United States on the initiative
of President Lyndon B. Johnson
Two main goals of the Great
Society social reforms were the
elimination of poverty and
racial injustice
New major spending programs
that addressed education,
medical care, urban problems,
and transportation were
launched during this period
Counter Culture

With a country in shambles, as a
result of the Vietnam War,
thousands of young men and
women took their stand through
rallies, protests, and concerts. A
large number of young Americans
opposed the war in Vietnam. With
the common feeling of anti-war,
thousands of youths united as one.
This new culture of opposition
spread like wild fire with alternate
lifestyles blossoming, people
coming together and reviving their
communal efforts, demonstrated in
the Woodstock Art and Music
Festival.
Vietnam War
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The communist-held North Vietnam was
opposed by the United States for its close
association with the Soviet Union and
China. Disagreements soon emerged over
the organizing of elections and
reunification, and the U.S. began
increasing its contribution of military
advisors even as Soviet-supplied arms and
munitions strengthened communist forces.
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which was
actually two separate incidents, (one
confirmed, one not) in 1964 on U.S. ships
in the Gulf of Tonkin triggered a U.S.
military assault on North Vietnamese
military installations and the deployment
of more than 500,000 troops into South
Vietnam. U.S. forces were soon embroiled
in a vicious guerrilla war with the Viet
Cong, the South Vietnamese communist
insurgent militia. North Vietnamese forces
unsuccessfully attempted to overrun the
South during the 1968
Vietnam War cont…
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Tet Offensive and the war soon spread into neighboring Laos
and Cambodia. With casualties mounting, the U.S. began
transferring combat roles to the South Vietnamese military in
a process known as Vietnamization. The effort had mixed
results. The Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973 formally
recognized the sovereignty of both sides. Under the terms of
the accords all American combat troops were withdrawn by
March 29, 1973. Limited fighting continued, but all major
fighting ended until the North once again invaded in strength
and overpowered the South on April 30, 1975. South Vietnam
briefly became the Republic of South Vietnam, a puppet state
under military occupation by North Vietnam, before being
officially reunified with the North under communist rule as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.
Man on the Moon
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Apollo 11 was the first manned
mission to land on the Moon.
The first steps by humans on
another planetary body were
taken by Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969.
The astronauts also returned
to Earth the first samples from
another planetary body. Apollo
11 achieved its primary
mission - to perform a manned
lunar landing and return the
mission safely to Earth - and
paved the way for the Apollo
lunar landing missions to
follow.