KENNEDY AND THE COLD WAR
(CHAPTER – 20 / SECTION -1)
 What were some of the factors
that helped John F. Kennedy win the
presidency?
The 1960 Election
The two candidates Richard Nixon (Republican) and John
Kennedy (Democrat) differed very little on the
issues during the campaign.
A main determining factor that may have swung the election
toward Kennedy was the first televised debate.
 Kennedy was younger, relaxed, tanned and had a more
appealing visual style.
 Nixon was older, appeared tired (because of the endless prep for
the debates), had a five o’clock shadow (that was covered up
with a lot of make-up, which ran as he perspired) and appeared
visually unsure of him self (his eyes wondering as he spoke).
A poll taken after the debates had both candidates winning.
(How could that happen?)
Early in the campaign Kennedy reassured the voters
that being a Catholic would not interfere with
his ability to serve as president. The fear existed that
the Pope would direct or control the policies within our country.
Another boost to the Kennedy campaign occurred when civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. was in prison and Kennedy called to
offer him support. King thanked Mr. Kennedy, but
never publicly endorsed him for president.
Kennedy was able to win the election based upon the following:
 Voter restlessness
 An economic recession
 Kennedy’s poise during the TV debate
 Kennedy’s frankness about the religious issue
 Coming to the aid of Martin Luther King, Jr.
 His good looks and charisma
 His well-organized campaign and the Kennedy family’s wealth
John Kennedy won the overall election with a margin of the
popular vote of less than 119,000.
The Kennedy Era
At 43 years of age Kennedy became the youngest person ever
elected as president of the U.S.
His charming and very well educated wife and the two young
children, John and Caroline, were adored by the public.
Mrs. Kennedy had a great sense of what it means to preserve
tradition. The White House was to become a show case in which
foreign and domestic leaders were to be impressed with the
surroundings.
Mrs. Kennedy spent money and hours redecorating the White
House, which had been neglected for several years.
A New Military Policy
Flexible Response was a nuclear strategy implemented
by President Kennedy in 1961 to supersede the previous policy of
Massive Retaliation.
Flexible Response was implemented to develop
several options, other than the nuclear
option, for quickly dealing with enemy
aggression.
One thought to attacking communism was to apply economic aid
rather than military.
The strategy sought to target an enemy's military force first, not its
civilian population. The strategy was conceived by, Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara and many view it as key to France's
exiting of NATO’s integrated forces.
 What were the results of the Bay
of Pigs invasion?
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs is a bay on the southern coast of the in
Cuba. It is the site of the failed invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained
Cuban exiles in 1961 intent on overthrowing Fidel Castro.
The Kennedy Administration had banked on the Cuban population
rising up to help the American fighters take down Castro, who had
established a communist dictatorship in Cuba; but when they
received no such help, the mission became a horrible failure.
US-Cuban tensions had grown since the revolution and the
overthrow of ruling President General Batista on January 1, 1959.
The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations had judged that
Castro's policies including the nationalization of US assets on the
island and Cuba's increasing ties with the Russia could not be
tolerated, and moved to overthrow him.
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US Reactions and re-evaluations
The failed Bay of Pigs invasion severely embarrassed the Kennedy
administration, and made Castro wary of future US intervention in
Cuba.
As a result of the failure, CIA Director Dulles, deputy CIA director
Cabell, and Deputy Director of Operations Bissell were all forced
to resign. All three were held responsible for the planning of the
operation at the CIA.
The CIA wrote a detailed internal report that laid blame for the
failure squarely on internal incompetence. A number of grave
errors by the CIA and other American analysts contributed to the
debacle:
 The administration believed that the troops could retreat to the
mountains to lead a guerrilla war if they lost in open battle.
The mountains were too far to reach on foot, and the troops
were deployed in swamp land, where they were easily
surrounded.
 They believed that the involvement of the US in the incident
could be denied
 They believed that Cubans would be grateful to be liberated
from Fidel Castro and would quickly join the battle.
This support failed to materialize; many hundreds of thousands of
others were arrested, and some executed, prior to the landings.
 The CIA's near certainty that the Cuban people would rise up
and join them was based on the agency's extremely weak
presence on the ground in Cuba.
 Castro's counterintelligence, trained by Soviet Bloc specialists,
had infiltrated most resistance groups. Because of this, almost
all the information that came from exiles and defectors was
"contaminated."
 CIA operative had interviewed Cubans in Havana prior to the
invasion he said, "...all I could find was a lot of enthusiasm for
Fidel Castro."
Many military leaders almost certainly expected the invasion to
fail but thought that Kennedy would send in Marines to save the
exiles.
Kennedy, however, did not want a full scale war and abandoned
the exiles.
A Washington Post article, "Soviets Knew Date of Cuba
Attack", reported that the CIA had information that the Soviet
Union knew the invasion was going to take place and did not
inform Kennedy.
Moscow actually broadcast an English-language newscast four
days prior to the invasion and predicted the invasion by the CIA to
take place within a week.
The invasion is often criticized as making Castro even more
popular, adding nationalistic sentiments to the support for his
economic policies.
 How was the Berlin crisis resolved?
Berlin Wall

Because of dissatisfaction with the economic and political
conditions an increasing number of people left the GDR.

From January to the beginning of August 1961, about 160,000
refugees were counted. Also, the international political situation
was tense.

In 1958, the Soviets delivered their Berlin ultimatum,
demanding that the western allies should withdraw their troops
from West Berlin and that West Berlin should become a "Free
City" within six months.
Construction of the Wall
Early in the morning of Sunday, August 13, 1961, the GDR began
under the leadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin
and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and
antitank obstacles.
Streets were torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected.
Tanks gathered at crucial places. The subway and local railway
services between East and West Berlin were interrupted.
Inhabitants of East Berlin and the GDR were no longer allowed to
enter West Berlin, amongst them 60,000 commuters who had
worked in West Berlin so far.
In the following days, construction brigades began replacing the
provisional barriers by a solid wall.
After 1961, citizens of West Berlin were no longer allowed to enter
East Berlin.
Later in 1961, the forced evacuation of houses situated
immediately at the border to West Berlin began.
Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of
the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties and
democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to
keep our people in."
The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein
Berliner".
Nearly five-sixths of the population was on the street when
Kennedy said the famous phrase.
He remarked to aides afterwards: "We'll never have another
day like this one
At least 100 people were killed at the Berlin Wall. The last of them
was Chris Gueffroy on February 2, 1989.
 What were the effects of the Cuban
missile crisis?
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation
between the Soviet Union and the U.S. regarding the Soviet
deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba.
The missiles were placed to protect Cuba from further planned
attacks by the United States and were rationalized by the Soviets as
retaliation for the United States placing deployable nuclear
warheads in the Britain, Italy and most significantly, Turkey.
This incident became a tense standoff between the U.S. and the
Soviets over nuclear weapons.
(Why were those countries important?)
The crisis started on October 16, 1962, when U.S. reconnaissance
showed revealing Soviet nuclear missile installations on the island,
and ended twelve days later on October 28, when Soviet leader
Khrushchev announced that the installations would be dismantled.
Kennedy's Options
After the Bay of Pigs disaster, the USSR sent conventional
missiles, jet fighters, patrol boats and 5000 soviet soldiers and
scientists to Cuba.
Meanwhile, the U.S. still didn't know for certain if there were
nuclear weapons based in Cuba, and the USSR was still denying
such claims at this stage.
Then in Oct 1962, U-2 spy planes photographed missile sites being
set up.
At that point The U.S. had several courses of action:
1. Do Nothing:
For: USA had more nuclear power at the time and this would
scare USSR away from conflict.
Against: Khrushchev would see this as a sign of weakness.
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2. Perform a Surgical Air Attack (destroy
nuclear bases):
For: It would destroy the missiles before they were used.
Against:
1. The army could not guarantee destruction of all the missiles
2. Soviet lives would be lost
3. Could be seen as immoral, attacking without warning.
3. Invasion:
For: Invasion would deal with Castro and missiles, US soldiers
were trained well for this.
Against: There would be a strong Soviet response.
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4. Use Diplomatic Pressures (e.g. using UN to
intervene):
For: It would avoid conflict.
Against: If USA was told to back down it could be a sign of
weakness.
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5. Blockade:
For: It would show USA was serious but at the same time would
not be a direct act of war.
Against: It wouldn't solve the main problem- the missiles
already in Cuba.
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The effects of the crisis were:
 It was a particularly sharp embarrassment for Khrushchev and
the Soviet Union because the withdrawal of American missiles
from Turkey was not made public.
Khrushchev's fall from power two years later can be partially
linked to the embarrassment at both Khrushchev's eventual
concessions to the US and his ineptitude in precipitating the crisis
in the first place.
 They were seen as retreating from circumstances that they had
started — though if played well, it could have looked like just
the opposite: the USSR gallantly saving the world from nuclear
holocaust by not insisting on restoring the nuclear equilibrium.
 Cuban exiles switched allegiance from the Democratic Party to
the G.O.P.
 Castro banned flights between Cuba and Miami
 U.S. military commanders were not happy with the result and
told the President that this was "a great defeat for the Russians"
and that the US should invade Cuba now.
 For Cuba, it was a betrayal by the Soviets whom they had
trusted, given that the decisions on ending the crisis had been
made exclusively by Kennedy and Khrushchev and not with
Castro.
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 Why was the hot line installed?
______________________________________________________
The Cuban Missile Crisis spurred the creation of the Hot
Line, a direct communications link between
Moscow and Washington D.C.
The purpose was to have a way the leaders could communicate
directly to better solve a crisis and avoid a war.
 What would the Limited Test Ban Treaty
eventually do?
Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
On August 5, 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the
United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.
After Senate approval, the treaty that went into effect on October
11, 1963, banning nuclear weapon testing in the
atmosphere, in outer space, and under water.
The continued testing of atomic and then hydrogen devices lead to
a rising concern about the effects of radioactive fallout.
As knowledge of the effects of fallout increased it became apparent
that no region in the world was untouched by radioactive debris.
Apprehension was expressed about the contamination of the
environment and of resultant genetic damage.
While not banning tests underground, the treaty prohibited such
explosions if they caused "radioactive debris to be present outside
the territorial limits of the State under whose jurisdiction or
control" the explosions were conducted.
In accepting limitations on testing, the nuclear powers accepted as
a common goal "an end to the contamination of man's environment
by radioactive substances."
(Did it succeed in its purpose?)
The New Frontier
(CHAPTER – 20 / SECTION -2)
 What did Kennedy believe the
government could do to solve the
problem?
 What programs, laws and
accomplishments resulted from
Kennedy’s beliefs?
New Frontier
New Frontier program was John F. Kennedy’s domestic and
foreign policy proposals.
Beliefs:
It was intended to boost the economy, increase government
spending, engage in deficit spending, lower taxes, increase
international aid, provide for a national defense, and to boost the
space program.
Kennedy made a point to control monopoly prices, and although
this made him unpopular with large companies, it prevented
consumers from being forced to pay more than a product was
worth.
He also was an advocate of civil rights, and although he was
unsuccessful at passing legislation during his lifetime, he paved the
way for the reform that would come later.
Results:
Congress increased defense spending, increased the minimum
wage, extended unemployment insurance, and provided assistance
to cities with high unemployment
Mandate
This narrow victory sent a Kennedy a clear mandate that the public
was still not fully supporting his agenda.
Beliefs:
The US should offered volunteers, economic, and technical
assistance to developing nations.
______________________________________________________
Results:
On the international scale he accomplished two major things. The
first of these was the Peace Corps.
 The Peace Corps sent teachers to poorer nations to help
increase education levels and bolster their economies
An independent federal agency of the U.S. designed to promote
mutual understanding between Americans and the outside world.
The program was an outgrowth of the Cold War designed to
oppose the Chinese and Soviet challenge to Western influence in
the widely open Third World arena of superpower competition.
More than 180,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps
since its inception
Critics of the program claimed the program would be nothing but a
haven for draft dodgers.
Others doubted whether college-aged volunteers had the necessary
skills. The idea was popular among college students, however, and
Kennedy continued to pursue it.
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Belief:
The Alliance for Progress was an aid program was
to encourage economic development and democracy in Latin
America. It also provided aid in health and education in Latin
America.
In March 1961, President Kennedy proposed a ten-year plan for
Latin America:
The charter called for:






an annual increase of 2.5% in per capita income,
the establishment of democratic governments,
the elimination of adult illiteracy by 1970
price stability, to avoid inflation or deflation
more equitable income distribution, land reform, and
Economic and social planning.
Results:
 Overall seven countries reached the target goal of 2.5 percent
GDP, twelve nations didn't reach the goal
 Adult illiteracy was not wiped out, although it was reduced. But
in some countries the number of people going to universities
doubled or tripled.
 Health clinics were built across Latin America. However,
success in improving health care was hindered by population
growth
 Of the 15 million peasant families living in Latin America, only
one million benefited from any kind of land reform. The
traditional elites resisted any land reform
 The most significant failure of the Alliance for Progress was
the number of new dictatorships that emerged in the region
during the 1960s.
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Space Age
After the Soviet Union launched a cosmonaut into space in 1961,
Kennedy challenged the US to put a man on the Moon by 1970.
The technology race between the U.S. reached a new level when
the Russians launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite sent into
an orbit around earth.
The Sputnik program was launched by the Soviets to demonstrate
the viability of un-manned space satellites. The name "Sputnik"
means, in Russian, "fellow traveler", and also "satellite".
The U.S. responds by establishing the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). The NASA Incentive was also created to improve
math, science and foreign language skills in public schools.
The launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957 shoved the US
satellite program into crisis mode.
Playing technological catch-up, the United States launched its first
Earth satellite on January 31, 1958, when Explorer 1 documented
the existence of radiation zones encircling the Earth.
The Space Race Begins
On April 12, 1961 the Soviets successfully launched the first
manned rocket into space. Inside was Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin. During his 90 minute flight he orbited the earth
once. Russia again had bested the U.S. in the space program.
America’s effort to put a man into space was called the
Project Mercury. NASA’s requirement for the new
space cowboys, chosen from a group of military test pilots was:
 Could not be taller than 5’ 11”,
 Weigh less than 180 lbs. and,
 Had to be under the age of 40.
On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced the seven selected astronauts
to a media circus.
They became as popular as any rock or movie star of the time. The
creation of the space program had no connection to the Cold War.
It was more of a symbol of national strength.
Just 23 days after the Russian space launch NASA sent Alan
Shepard Jr. as the first U.S. man into space.
Later that same month President Kennedy committed
the U.S. to land a man on the moon before the
end of the 1960’s.
The Apollo Program was a series of spaceflight missions
undertaken by NASA devoted to the goal of landing a man on the
moon and returning him safely to Earth.
This goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in July 20,
1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on
the moon...
(The achievement of landing on the moon symbolized what?)
Beliefs:
Set the goal of landing on the moon before the end of 1960s and to
increase spending on the space program
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Results:
 U.S. astronauts orbited the Earth and finally landed on the moon
 Science programs expanded, new industries, new technological
developments
 The rapid population growth of Southern and Western states
Overall, Kennedy’s New Frontier Program was successful in
boosting the economy, as well as paving the way for many
political, international, and social reforms.
 What reform proposals did Kennedy
make that were rejected by a
conservative Congress?
Legislation and Programs
Medical
In 1963 Kennedy, who had a mentally retarded sister, submitted
the nation's first Presidential special message to Congress on
mental health issues.
Congress quickly passed the Mental Retardation Facilities and
Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, beginning a
new era in Federal support for mental health services.
The act assumed responsibility for monitoring community mental
health centers programs. Great success as there was a six fold
increase in people using Mental Health facilities.
However, the Medical Health Bill for the Aged
(later known as Medicare) was proposed and
Congress failed to enact it.
Housing
In March 1961 Kennedy sent Congress a special message,
proposing an ambitious and complex housing program to spur the
economy, revitalize cities and provide affordable housing for
middle-income and low-income families.
The bill proposed spending $3.19 billion in
which the major emphasis was on the
improvement of the existing housing supply
never was enacted by Congress.
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Education
The support of federal aid for education never materialized under
the Kennedy Administration.
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Equal Rights
The President’s Commission on the Status of Women was
an advisory commission established on December 14, 1961, by
Kennedy to investigate questions regarding women’s equality in
education, in the workplace, and under the law.
The commission, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt until her death in
1962, was composed of 26 members including legislators.
The commission's final report documented widespread
discrimination against women in the workplace.
Among the practices addressed by the group were:





Labor laws pertaining to hours and wages,
The quality of legal representation for women,
The lack of education and counseling for working women, and
Federal insurance and tax laws that affected women's incomes.
Recommendations included affordable child care for all income
levels,
 Hiring practices that promoted equal opportunity for women,
and paid maternity leave.
In early 1960s, a full time working women was paid on average 59
percent of the earnings of their male counterparts.
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Wages
Amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act in
1961 greatly increased the minimum wage for previously covered
workers to $1.15 an hour effective September 1961 and then to
$1.25 an hour in September 1963.
 In 1963, what proposals did
Kennedy make but never had the
chance to guide through Congress?
Promises that Kennedy never had a chance to fulfill






Medical care for the aged
Rebuilding of blighted urban areas
Federal aid for education
War on poverty in America
Investigation into racial injustices in the South and a national
civil rights bill
Tax cut.
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Two main reasons were that


He did not have the votes in Congress, which was controlled by
a conservative coalition
He was assassinated before he could put all of his plans into
action
______________________________________________________
In reality Kennedy focused more on foreign policy than on
domestic programs.
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The Kennedy Assassination
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated as he
drove through the city of Dallas, TX.
Over the next few weeks America watched the multiple events that
led to the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected
killer of President Kennedy.
Then two days, in the basement of the Dallas police department,
Oswald was murdered by, Jack Ruby. The death of Oswald
left many unanswered questions.
To help answer some of these questions President Johnson formed
the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination
of President Kennedy.
The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren
Commission, from its chairman, Chief Justice of the U.S. Earl
Warren.
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President
Kennedy concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing
Kennedy.
The Commission’s findings have since proved extremely
controversial and have frequently been challenged.
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Overview
On November 26, 1963, The Washington Post advocated the
formation of an investigative commission.
Johnson, by executive order on November 29, 1963, created an
investigatory commission.
During its investigation, the commission heard testimony from 552
witnesses and the reports of 10 federal agencies, including the
Secret Service, the FBI, the Dept. of State, the CIA, and
military intelligence.
The hearings were closed to the public unless the person giving
testimony requested otherwise; only two witnesses made that
request.
After a 10 month investigation (and about 5 weeks before the
presidential election), the Warren Commission Report was
published.
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Findings
The commission concluded that:
 Only three bullets were fired during the assassination
 That Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three bullets from the Texas
School Book Depository behind the motorcade.
It noted that three empty shells were found in the sixth floor
sniper's nest in the book depository, and the rifle was found (with
one live cartridge left in its chamber) on the sixth floor.
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The commission's determination was that:
 It was likely that all injuries inside the limousine were caused by
only two bullets, and thus one shot likely missed the motorcade,
but it could not determine which of the three.
 The first shot to hit anyone struck President Kennedy in the
upper back, exited at his throat, and likely continued on to cause
all of Governor Connelly’s injuries,
 the second shot to hit anyone fatally struck Kennedy in the head
4.8 to 5.6 seconds later.
The commission concluded that the first bullet entered Connelly’s
back, exited his chest, went through his right wrist, lodged in his
left thigh, and later fell out onto his stretcher at the hospital.
Many conspiracy theorists argue that this "magic bullet"
exited Connelly in nearly pristine condition, which is actually not
the case.
The bullet does appear undamaged from one angle but is actually
severely flattened on one side. This theory became known as the
single bullet theory, and it is important because there was not
enough time for one shooter to fire twice in the apparently very
brief time between the injuries of the two men.
The Zapruder Film displayed the position and reaction of
the two men and has become a source of much contention and
disagreement.
The Warren Commission Report also details flaws in the U.S.
Secret Service security at the time of the assassination.
Procedures in place and not in place combined with events of the
day presented security lapses that allowed for the assassination.
These included:


Not telling Dallas police, specifically, who 'authorized
personnel' were, to stand on bridges or overpasses
Not having in place the policy of searching all buildings,
windows, and roof tops surrounding the path of a motorcade



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Not properly and thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those
in potential close contact with Kennedy and those who were
potential threats to Kennedy—that program was new and
undermanned in 1963
Generally insufficient personnel to accomplish the task at hand
of planning and executing the motorcade
Incomplete coordination of information between U.S. and local
law enforcement bodies
Not having a car with a bulletproof top available for the
President (one had been proposed in October 1963 but had not
been acted upon, and no such car had existed because such a car
would have a top difficult to add and remove on demand)
When on the phone with FBI Director Hoover, a week after the
assassination, Johnson asked him if he had a bulletproof car.
Hoover replied "Yes, I do." Johnson asked if he should have one,
he was told, yes.

Letting the motorcade slow down dramatically at several
turns—which probably gave ample times for shots
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Aftermath
Upon its release in 1964, all files of the Warren Commission were
sealed from public view for 75 years (until 2039) by executive
order of President Johnson.
Kennedy assassination related documents that have not been
destroyed are scheduled to be released to the public by 2017.
Comments were apparently made on this behind closed doors, but
these did not reach the published report.
The CIA urged its agents to use their "propaganda assets" to attack
those who didn't agree with the Warren Report.
Doubts about the Warren Commission's findings were also
expressed well before 1968 from President Johnson, Robert
Kennedy, and four of the seven members of the Warren
Commission all stated some level of skepticism about the
Commission's basic findings.
THE GREAT SOCIETY
(CHAPTER – 20 / SECTION -3)
Johnson’s style was very different than that of Kennedy.
Kennedy possessed charm and grace, while Johnson was clumsy
and crude.
Johnson had more political experience than Kennedy and was able
to obtain compromise.
 Answer the following Programs or
Laws and their Objectives or Results
War on Poverty
Was proposed by Johnson designed in response to that over 35
million Americans lived in economic conditions associated with a
national poverty rate of around 25%.
The War on Poverty speech led Congress in 1964 to establish the
Economic Opportunity Act approving $1 billion
that would be used for youth programs, antipoverty measures,
small business loans and job training.
This legislation created:
 VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Job Core Youth
Training Program
 Head Start an education program for underprivileged
preschoolers
 Community Action Program that encouraged poor people to
participate in public-works programs
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Results and Legacy
In the decade following the 1964 introduction of the war on
poverty, poverty rates in the US dropped to 11.1% and has
remained between 11 and 15% ever since.
In 2004, more than 35.9 million, or 12% of Americans including
12.1 million children, were considered to be living in poverty with
an average growth of almost 1 million per year.
2009 earning guidelines for poverty are:
Single adult $10,830 / Married Couple $14,570 / Family of Four $22,050
1964 Elections
President Johnson won the nomination of the
Democratic Party and selected Hubert Humphrey as his V.P. There
was no V.P. after the assassination of Kennedy.
Barry Goldwater was the Republican candidate and
was viewed as being an extreme conservative that would lead the
U.S. into a nuclear war. A 60 second commercial sealed
Goldwater’s fate for election and Johnson won in a landslide
victory.
The Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed
President Johnson to end poverty and racial injustice in 1965.
In addition, several major initiatives in the areas of education,
health, urban problems, transportation, consumer protection, and
the environment were launched during this period.
The Great Society was loosely based on the New Deal instituted by
FDR and initially from JFK’s stalled New Frontier programs.
Unlike the New Deal, which was a response to a severe economic
crisis, the Great Society emerged in a period of unprecedented
prosperity.
Other programs funded were the US school system, the Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) for helping low income people
attain better housing. Robert Weaver, the secretary
of HUD, was the first African American
cabinet member.
New Reforms
Tax-cut:
Economic growth; an increase in consumer spending, business
investment, and tax revenues; a reduction in federal budget deficit
Civil Rights:
Prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin,
and gender; granted the federal government new powers of
enforcement.
Economic:
Funded youth programs, antipoverty measures, small business
loans, and job training; created the Job Corps, the VISTA
volunteer program, Project Head Start, and the Community Action
Program
Education:
Provided federal aid to help public and parochial schools to
purchase textbooks and new library materials and to offer special
education classes
Medicare:
This policy provides hospital and low-cost medical insurance to
most Americans age 65 or older in helping them meet their
medical expenses.
Medicaid:
Extended health insurance to welfare recipients Medicaid is the US
health insurance program for individuals and families with low
incomes and resources.
It is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is
managed by the states.
Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are eligible lowincome parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and healthrelated services for people with limited income.
Immigration:
Johnson’s policy replaced the national origins system with a new
immigration quota system that allowed more non-European
immigrants to settle in the U.S.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
The act restricted immigration into the U.S. The Act governs
primarily immigration and citizenship in the United States.
As a result of the 9/11 attacks, the INA has undergone a major
restructuring regarding the admissibility and removability of
terrorists suspects.
The INA defined three types of immigrants:
1. Relatives of US citizens who were exempt from quotas and who
were to be admitted without restrictions
2. Average immigrants whose numbers were not supposed to
exceed 270,000 per year
3. Refugees.
The Act allowed the government to deport immigrants or
naturalized citizens engaged in subversive activities and also
allowed the barring of suspected subversives from entering the
country.
Environment:
The developments of science and the impact it has upon the
environment was disclosed in biologist Rachel Carson’s
book “Silent Spring”.
In this book Carson points out the hazards of the pesticide DDT.
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Consumer Protection:
In the 1960’s lawyer Ralph Nader raised concerns about
safety of car designs. His efforts led to the development of the
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle
Safety Act. This allowed new standards and regulation of
these standards to be set by the federal government.
Six times as many people drive today as in 1925, and the number
of cars in the country has increased 11-fold since then to
approximately 215 million.
The distance traveled in motor vehicles is 10 times higher than in
the mid-1920’s. Despite this steep increase in motor-vehicle travel,
the annual death rate has declined from 18 per 100 million vehicle
miles traveled in 1925 to 1.7 per 100 million in 1997- a 90%
decrease.
Many changes in both vehicle and highway design followed.
Vehicles were built with new safety features including head rests,
energy-absorbing steering wheels, shatter-resistant windshields,
and safety belts.
Roads were improved by better delineation of curves (edge and
center line stripes and reflectors), use of breakaway sign and utility
poles, improved illumination, addition of barriers separating
oncoming traffic lanes, and guardrails
The Warren Court
The important accomplishments of the Warren Court were the
strengthening of the rights of suspects and other rulings
strengthened democracy making the legal system fairer for the
poor.
Decisions made under the court were:
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Ban of sanctioned prayer in public schools
State-required loyalty oaths unconstitutional
Limited the power of communities to censor books and films
Free speech could include the wearing of black arm bands at
school to protest the war
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Congressional Reappointment
The Warren Court would address the issue of
Reappointment, or the way in which states redraw election
districts based on the changing number of people in them.
In 1960 80% of the US citizens lived in the suburbs & cities, yet
many of the states had failed to change their districts to reflect this.
This allowed rural areas to have more representatives than cities
serving in Congress.
Court Cases
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Ruled that school segregation is unconstitutional
Baker v. Carr (1962)
Established the principle of “one person, one vote”; asserted
that federal courts had the right to tell states to reapportion districts
for more equal representation
Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
Ruled that evidence seized illegally could not be used in state
courts also known as the “exclusionary rule”
Gideon v. Wainwright (1962)
Required criminal courts to provide legal counsel to those who
could not afford it
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
Ruled that an accused person has the right to have a lawyer present
during questioning
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Ruled that all suspects must be “read their rights” before
questioning; established the Miranda rights