St 9.4 Foreign and Domestic
Policies of the 60s and 70s
Presidents
John Kennedy

Kennedy articulated a “New
Frontier”


The new frontier was a goal for social
justice and Civil Rights improvements
He wasn’t able to pass legislation to
meet the goal

Mostly due to Southern Democrats that
didn’t want the Civil Rights passed
“Ask not what your country can do for you…
but what you can do for your country”

Kennedy in office in
1961


Young people were
engaged
Public service became an
honor

Peace Corp


American volunteers to 3rd
world
Increased Social Security
and min. wage
The Space Race

JFK promised a man on the moon by
1970




Spurred by sputnik and Soviet
cosmonauts circling the Earth
John Glenn orbited in 1962
Would occur under Nixon in 1969
Weapons Tech of the Space Race


ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)
Russians had IRBMs (intermediate
Range) by 1962
JFK and Foreign Affairs

Bay of Pigs invasion




Tried to overthrow Cuba
through CIA
Failed
Angered other Latin Countries
and pushed Cuba toward
USSR
The Berlin Wall


West Berlin prospered within
Communist territories 
refugees leaving East Berlin
USSR made a wall to keep
them in
Remember it was JFK that steered us
through the Cuban Missile Crisis
JFK’s assassination




Nov. 1963
Assassinated by Oswald in Dallas
Bewilderment and grief
Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) sworn
in aboard Air Force One
LBJ in office

Wanted to continue JFK programs
Met MLK Jr. about Civil Rights
 Pushed the Civil Rights Bill and the
Voting Rights Bill

 Kept
federal $ from segregated programs
 Created Equal Employment Opportunity
 Outlawed discrimination in public areas
 Also no “sex” discrimination
LBJ in Office – Domestic Policy
 “The

Great Society”
Programs designed to
fight a “War on Poverty”
(somewhat effective)
 Economic
Opportunities
Act
 Volunteers in Service to
America
 Job Corps
 Head Start
The Great Society

The greatest intervention of the
government since the New Deal


Would lead to Medicaid and Medicare
Increased effort to use the
government to promote social
welfare (protecting the people)
LBJ and Foreign Policy

Thought the US could fight and
promote domestic programs at the
same time

Called “Guns and Butter”
This led to inflation
 Also an inability to fully fund the Great
Society programs


Eventually lost public confidence
through the escalation of Vietnam
National Tragedies in ‘68

Assassinations



4 leaders killed by assassins since
’64


MLK Jr.
Bobby Kennedy
JFK and Malcolm X
Dem Convention riots in ‘68
Nixon elected in ‘68

In an era of liberal chaos
Nixon claimed the ‘silent
majority’



Worked hard, paid taxes,
went to church, obeyed the
law, respected the flag
Promised a return to law
and order
Also “Vietnamization” of
the war

US would train S.
Vietnamese troops to take
their place.
Vietnam At Home




Still Very Controversial
’70, invasion of
Cambodia to root out NV
along the “ho chi minh”
trail
Brought back protest
Kent State – protests


4 dead
More campus protests
Nixon on Civil Rights


Seemed to favor gradualism
Boldest initiatives involved business
and employment


Office of minority business enterprise
Philadelphia Plan – black construction
worker plan
Nixon Foreign Issues


Kissinger and Nixon removed
containment policy
 Instead flexibility –
talking, find common
ground, encourage
balance of power
“Rapprochement with China”
 Trade possibilities,
 Drive a wedge between
China and SU
 give US better bargaining
with SU over nukes

Also isolate N. Vietnam
during peace negotiations
Detente



Nixon to Moscow – met with
Brezhnev
Arms control and increased trade
SALT treaty – limited ICBMs and
anti-ballistic missiles
Watergate

Nixon implicated in a ‘seamless web’ of
criminal activity




Plumbers (Nixon’s fix-it men) broke into
Democratic headquarters at the Watergate
hotel to find information on Nixon’s opponent
The plumbers were acting without Nixon’s
knowledge
Nixon paid ‘hush money’ to arrested
Watergate burglars
Nixon later took responsibility but no
blame

Said he was too busy running country
Nixon implicated in the scandal

Arrested men claimed that Nixon
recorded the conversations


Transcripts eventually released
with sections blanked out


Nixon refused to release any taped
conversations
That made him look guilty and the
stuff that was left was racist and
paranoid and didn’t help the cause
Tapes eventually subpoenaed (SC
case), released and showed
Nixon’s involvement
The Middle East
OPEC and the Embargo




10/6/73 – Yom Kippur War; US backs
Israel
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC), mainly arab nations,
responded by halting oil shipments
US forced to ration energy
Impact lingered (ended ’74)

Costs increased dramatically (gas from 30 
75 cents); inflation; higher production costs;
shook American Dream
Ford in Office / Watergate
Legacy


’73 War Powers Act – limited pres ability
to use troops without declaration of war
Freedom of Information act


Hearings on FBI and CIA activities



Citizens could see all public/government
documents
To make sure there was no illegal activities
Ford controversially granted Nixon a
Pardon (crushed Fords approval rating)
Ford also offered amnesty to 350,000
draft dodgers (resisted on both sides)
Carter

Ford proved to be an
ineffective President



The public didn’t trust
him after the Nixon
pardoning
Carter represented a
small town, virtuous
man
Won a close race
against Ford
Carter – Foreign Issues



US needed to stress
democracy and human
rights
Gave up Panama Canal
Middle East and Camp
David Accords

Egypt recognized Israel;
Israel returned Sanai
Peninsula
Economic Issues


High inflation and unemployment
Carter fought inflation


Tight money supply and control of
deficit
Created high unemployment without
helping inflation
Persian Gulf and Iranian issues




Iran appeared to be a stable
nation in ’77
Revolution led Ayatollah
Khomeini to set up an
essentially Islamic nation
Khomeini ended shipments of
oil to US
Allowing the former Shah
into US for med. Treatment
created a conflict in Iran
Iranian Hostage Crisis


Iranian militants stormed US embassy
and took 179 Americans hostage
Wanted the Shah in exchange for the
hostages




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threatened execution
Sponsored by Ayatollah
US froze Iranian assets in US, but this
was ineffective
Carter ordered a secret mission to free
the hostages (disastrous)
Iranians displayed the corpses of the
failed mission
Carter’s Image Ruined


The Economic problems of the late
1970s and the Iranian Hostage
Crisis hurt Carter’s Image
Carter will be defeated by Ronald
Reagan in 1980