Chapter 17
The New Frontier and
The Great Society
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Starter #3: Tuesday 2/26
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 Read the Inside Story on page 526
 Why might radio listeners and television viewers
have had different opinions of the candidates’
performances in the debates?
 How were the campaigns affected as a result of the
televised debates?
Kennedy Becomes President
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 Kennedy vs. Nixon
 JFK represented youth & change
 Strong Anti-Communist tone
 Claimed that Soviets surpassing US
 Close election – 120,000 votes separated them out of
69 million
Kennedy’s Cabinet
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 Surrounded himself with young influential people
 “best and the brightest”
 Robert Kennedy (Bobby) – his brother made him
Attorney General
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
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 Castro took over Cuba in 1959 with a strong anti-
American message
 Signed trade agreement with Soviets in 1960
 CIA secretly training 1500 Cuban exiles to overthrow
Castro
 Planned a secret invasion to overtake Castro –
thought Cubans would join in
Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
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 New York Times reported the plan a week before




invasion
Failed to destroy Cuban air force
Land invasion on the shore of Bay of Pigs had little
chance of success
Expected anti-Castro uprising never happened
Strengthened Soviet – Cuban relations
The Berlin Crisis
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 West vs. East
 Early 1961 200,000 East Berliners escaped to the
West
 Threat of East taking over the West, so JFK build up
troops in the West
 August 13, 1961 Soviets put 25,000 guards on the
border and erected a barbed wire barrier around
West Berlin
Berlin Wall
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 Concert Wall later replaced the barbed wire fencing
 “A wall is a … lot better than a war”
 Wall separated families, neighborhoods, streets,
cemeteries
 JFK’s “I am a Berliner” speech
 June 26, 1963
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West Side vs. East Side
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Cuban Missile Crisis
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 October 1962 – closest US came to nuclear war
 Background
 Both countries taking a hard line
 Failure of Bay of Pigs, wanted another invasion of Cuba
 US put missiles in Turkey
 Soviets felt justified in placing missiles in Cuba
Cuban Missile Crisis
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 U-2 spy planes flew over Cuba and discovered
SAMs (surface to air missiles)
 Soviets denied, another U-2 flight found solid
evidence Soviets had lied
 Air Strike vs. Naval Blockade
 JFK decided on Blockade of Soviets into Cuba –
Soviets warned this would cause war
 World waited as Soviets neared blockade, and
they turned away
 Soviets said would remove missiles if we never
invaded Cuba – we agreed
 Set up hotline for US & Soviets to communicate
Starter #7, Tuesday 2/8
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 Based on the notes from yesterday:
 Why were U.S. – Cuban relations strained when
Kennedy took office?
 Why would a strong Soviet alliance with a Latin
American nation make the United States uneasy?
Starter # 14 Friday 2/10
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 Read the Inside Story on page 535
 How did the Kennedy family embody youth and
vitality?
 Describe Jacqueline Kennedy and what she did
while she was First Lady.
Chapter 17 Section 2
Kennedy’s 16 Thousand Days
 Kennedy’s New Frontier
 Youth and vitality Kennedy’s brought to White
House
Image and Reality
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 Understood power of media
 Pictures of activity (sailing, swimming)
 Used his wife and two young kids to create a
favorable public opinion

First young kids in White House since 1908
 Jackie was 31 when JKF was elected
 Made White House the nation’s unofficial cultural center by
hosting elaborate events
Kennedy and Congress
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 Liked Kennedy more than his policy of New
Frontier

Many Americans not reform minded
 Southern Democrats and Republicans joined
together to block Kennedy’s proposals

Due to 1960 close election, JFK needed to convience
Congress that the people agreed with his plan
 Denied the clear mandate: authorization to act
Continued…
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 Congress denied his acts to lower taxes for
unemployed, federal education aid, health care for
the elderly
 Bypassed Congress 1962, used media to pressure
steel companies to lower prices
 Helped lower class; raised minimum wage
The Space Program
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 Symbolized the New Frontier
 Asked for Congress’ funding of the unmanned
exploration of space
The Warren Court
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 Court responsible for changes to American society
 Earl Warren: Chief Justice who granted
controversial Court rulings which greatly extended
individual rights and freedoms
 Influential with Civil Rights
 Warren Court: 1960s issued series of decisions
concern several reforms
Voting-Rights Reform
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 Updated boundaries of legislative districts
 Some had not been updated since 1901
 Densely populated urban areas have same votes as rural
regions
 Violated 14th Amendment; denied voters equal
protections of the law

Reform guaranteed each citizen’s vote had equal weight:
“one person, one vote”
 Baker v. Carr
 Westberry v. Sanders
The Rights of the Accused
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 Extended the Bill of Rights to the actions of state
government
 Mapp v. Ohio – search warrants
 Gideon v. Wainwright – free attorneys
 Miranda v. Arizona – Miranda Rights
Religious Freedom
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 Engel v. Vitale: banned formal prayers in Public
Schools
 Violated 1st Amendment, that government would not
make any religion the nation’s official religion
The Kennedy Assassination
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 November 22, 1963 flew to Texas to help win back
support of Southern Democrats for re-election
Dallas in open car motorcade with Jackie
 Shots fired from building
 Died hours later, Johnson sworn in as President aboard
Air Force One

“The legacy of hope died with him. You never had
that same sense again that we were moving
forward.”
The Warren Commission
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 Arrested Lee Harvey Oswald with shooting of JFK
 Had connections with Soviet Union and Cuba
 2 days later during transfer Jack Ruby shot Oswald
 President Johnson named to commission to
investigate

After 10 months; determined no conspiracy
An end to a beginning
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 Assassination affected the nation
 Jackie planned funeral to rival that of Lincoln
 Buried hillside at Arlington with eternal flame
 Legacy: Improved relations with Soviet Union and
created the Peace Corps
Starter #4: Thursday 2/28
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 Read the Inside Story on page 541.
 Describe the “Johnson Treatment”
 Why was this treatment so effective in getting him
what he wanted?
Starter #5
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 Look at Chart on pg 546
 Which Great Society program do you think has been
most beneficial to American society? Why
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Chapter 17 Section 3
The Great Society
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 Johnson Becomes President
 While vice president, he missed the power he had in the
Senate


Opposite of JFK


Might have better served JFK in Senate, policies may have gone
through
Rugged, battle scars, crude language
Great Depression got job through NYA

State Director for TX, Congress, Senate
Continued…
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 After one year, elected Senate Majority Leader
 Close relationship with Eisenhower, many policies pushed
through, well liked Democrat
 Differed with JFK in policies
 Expanded role for government, concern for poor &
underprivileged
“All I have I would have given gladly not to be
standing here today.”
Enacting Kennedy’s Agenda
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 Vowed to carry on Kennedy’s policies
 New Frontier
“Let us here highly resolve that John Fitzgerald did
not live – or die– in vain.”
Creating the Great Society
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 Own presidency, pushed his policies
 Education Acts
 Aide to schools, college students, Head Start
 Health Care
 Medicare & Medicaid
 Improve quality of life, environmental laws
 Highway Beautification Act
 Major programs listed on page 546
Decline of the Great Society
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 Peak 1965-1966, passed 181 of 200 bills
 Midterm Republicans gained seats, slowed down
legislations
 Public Broadcasting Act 1967

PBS & NPR, alternatives to offerings of commercial
television and radio
 Truth-in-Lending Act 1967
 Lenders inform consumers of costs of credit transactions
 Great Society policies still around today
Johnson’s Foreign Policy
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 Vietnam War, caused decline in domestic affairs
 385,000 troops sent to Vietnam 1966
 Spent $2.5 billion each month
 “We cannot have guns and butter”
 Chose guns; stop spread of communism
The War on Poverty
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 JFK motivated by The Other America
 Excerpt page 543, not all Americans benefited from
postwar prosperity
 Notified first day of office
 Johnson gave it top priority
 War on Poverty; mentioned in State of Union
address Jan 1964

Passed the Economic Opportunity Act
 Job Corps: Work Training for unemployed
youth
 VISTA: domestic version of Peace Corps
Other Initiatives Passed
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 Tax Cut Bill & Civil Rights Legislation
 Economy grew 10%, unemployed declined
 Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Civil Rights in memory of JFK
The Great Society
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 Johnson had own plans…speech page 545
 The 1964 Election
 Great Society: term used for domestic policies
 Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate
Democrats made look like radical who would lead country to
nuclear war, referred to in Vietnam War
 Compared Great Society to communism


Johnson received 61% of popular vote
Continued…
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 Johnson Doctrine
 Sent troops to Dominican Republic to put down
uprising
 Justified by declaring not just local concerns when “the
object is the establishment of a Communist
dictatorship.”
 Improve relations with Soviet Union
 Negotiated first treaty since 1917
 Pueblo Incident
 North Korea captured US ship & crew
 Sent in 14,000, negotiated but kept the ship