Sixties
A Confused Decade
1960 Election
• LBJ running
mate
• Kennedy won
because of his
impressive
show on the
first national
T.V. debate.
Richard Nixon
• Henry Cabot
Lodge
running mate.
• Lost by only
118,000
votes.
New Frontier
• Kennedy promised “to get
American moving again”.
• Idea was to improve the lives of all
Americans.
• Problems: unemployment, cold
war tension, missile gap, sluggish
economy, foreign aid, and civil
rights.
Important Stuff
• Dean Rusk – Sec. of State
• Robert McNamara – Sec. of
Defense
• Robert Kennedy – Attorney
General
• 23 amendment – District of
Columbia legal to vote
• 24 amendment – forbade poll tax
Bay of Pigs
• CIA was training an army in
Central America (Guatemala) for
a landing to overthrow Fidel
Castro.
• CIA was expecting the invasion to
trigger an anti-communist uprising
in Cuba.
Invasion
• April 17, 1961
• A force of
1,300 landed
a the Bay of
Pigs on the
south coast of
Cuba.
Complete Failure
• Landing site was too far from
mountains that gave protection.
• Popular uprising never came.
• Castro’s army pinned down the
landing force and wiped it out in 3
days – 1,200 taken prisoner.
Proved There
Were Limits
To Power!!
Berlin Crisis
• Khrushchev threatened to sign
treaty with East Germany which
would give them control of Berlin.
• Western powers: U.S., Britain and
France controlled Berlin.
Start of the Wall
• July 1961 Kennedy and
Khrushchev meet with no solution.
• U.S. activated an army into Berlin
in a show of force.
• August 13 Soviet began
construction of a wall between
East and West Berlin.
Show of Weakness
• Berlin Wall was a confession of
weakness but the communist felt
it was better than the
depopulation of East Germany.
• October Khrushchev dropped the
threat to sign a treaty with East
Germany.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• October 15,
1962
• U-2 spy plane
discovered
missile launching
pad under
construction in
Cuba.
Tension
• Kennedy orders the navy to
intercept any Soviet vessels
carrying missiles to Cuba.
• If missile launched it would be
considered a direct attack on
the U.S.
Stalemate
• Oct. 24 – 10:00 a.m. naval
blockade of Cuba begins.
• 12:00 Soviet ship meet U.S. ship
–Very critical time in our history.
–6:00 receive letter from Khrushchev
said Soviets would remove missile if
U.S. would not attack Cuba.
Small Victory
• Kennedy receives
second letter asking
to remove missiles
from Turkey.
• Oct. 27 Kennedy
answers 1st letter.
• Oct. 28 Soviets
agree to our terms.
Moon Program
• April 12, 1961 – Soviet Yuri Gagarin
becomes first human to orbit the earth.
• May 1961 – Kennedy announced it
was time for U.S. to lead the world in
space achievement.
• May 1961 – Alan Shepard becomes
first American to make a rocket flight.
Orbit the EARTH
• Feb. 20, 1962 John Glenn
become first American to orbit
the earth.
Peace Corps
• Idea came from Hubert
Humphrey in 1960.
• Plan was to send men and
women overseas to do
volunteer work in
underdeveloped countries that
requested American aid.
Latin America
• U.S. was worried about
communist influence in Latin
America from the outset of the
cold War.
• Aggression was never a threat.
• The dangers were poverty and
discontent of the Latin American
people themselves.
American Interest
• Most Latin American countries
were under control of military
or business interest, often in
league with American
corporations.
Resentment Toward the U.S.
• Because American investors were
often linked to the ruling class of
Latin American countries, demands
for social and political reform easily
turned into anti-Americanism.
• Because of its long history of
intervention, the U.S. was a
traditional target.
U.S. Took Steps to Ensure Balance
of Power
• 1954 CIA financed military coup in
Central American (Guatemala)
which would protect American
interest in that area.
• Kennedy “alliance for progress”
would provide funds for social
progress and help promote
democratic institution.
Good and Bad
• The steps helped to
improve education and
health care, but too much
money ended up in the
hands of big business and
aided military takeovers.
Ban on Nuclear Testing
• 1958 – U.S.
and Soviets
suspended
atmospheric
testing.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
• 1961 – Soviets resume testing during
the height of the Berlin crisis.
• Both sides used testing to gain
diplomatic leverage.
• 1963 – Kennedy proposed to ban
atmospheric testing and sign the
NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY with
the Soviet Union and Britain.
HOT LINE
• HOT LINE
installed
between
Moscow and
Washington
D.C. to prevent
nuclear war.
New Frontier Partial Success
• Problems: Medicare, aid to
education, new civil rights acts.
• Successes: space program,
nuclear test ban treaty, build up
nuclear might, peace corps,
prosperity had returned to U.S.
• Future Problems: war in Vietnam,
civil rights at home.
Kennedy Assassination
• November 22,
1963 President
John Kennedy
and wife went to
Texas to help
repair the
Democratic party
in Texas.
The Events
• 10:00 a.m. loaded
Air Force One in
Washington, DC.
• 11:37 a.m. arrived
at Love Field in
Dallas, travel in
12 car motorcade
through downtown
Dallas.
The Shots
• 12:30 as the motorcade passes the Texas
Schools Book Depository.
• 1st Shot hit Kennedy in the neck
• 2nd shot hits Texas governor in right shoulder.
Death
• 3rd shot hits
Kennedy in head
• 2:20 p.m. Kennedy
pronounced dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU83R7rpXQY
• 2:37 p.m. Johnson
sworn in.
Arrest
• Lee Harvey Oswald
was arrested and
questioned.
• Late Friday was
arraigned for murder.
• Sunday morning
Oswald was shot and
killed by Jack Ruby.
Warren Commission
• Chief Justice Earl Warren headed the
Warren Commission concluded that
Oswald operated alone and from his own
motives.
• Few events in history so deeply shock an
entire society.
• The search for people to examine its
conscience and to search for its lost
ideas went on for the rest of the decade.
Johnson Takes Over
• Nov. 27, 1963
– asked
Congress for
support and
pledges to
continue
Kennedy’s
programs.
War on Poverty
• Spring 1964 – Senate unlocks tax bill
• Johnson pledges “war on poverty” pushes
ten step program.
• Special fund to re-tain workers displaced by
computers
• Job Corps camps
• Vista
• Community Action Program
1964 Election
• Republican
Candidate –
Barry S.
Goldwater
• VP – William
Miller
• Limited role of
government
Lyndon Johnson
• Johnson broad
social concern
together with his
ability to get action
out of congress,
gave3 the
Democrats a
landslide victory.
Great Society
• VP – Running mate – Hubert
Humphrey
• Johnson spoke of a “Great Society”
• Meant an end to poverty and an end
to racial injustice, plus tax cuts
• Johnson passed: Medicare, federal
aid to education and new civil rights
bills.
1968 Election
• Eugene McCarthy – liberal, sole
platform to end the war
• Robert Kennedy – supported by
blacks, women and students.
–Killed by Sirhan Sirhan after
winning the California primary.
Assassination
• Continues a
long string of
Kennedy’s
suffering.
Third Party
• George Wallace collected 45
electoral votes.
• Platform: Law and Order
• Only 260,000 difference out of 71
million votes.
Hubert Humphrey
• Johnson’s VP 1964-68
• Vietnam war caused him the most
trouble
• At the start he defended the
unpopular administration policy.
• Later called for a halt to the
bombing of North Vietnam.
Democratic Convention
• Thousands of anti-war protestors
descended on the city of Chicago
• Mayor Richard Daley attacked protestors
• Inside the convention hall was bedlam
• Cal. & N.Y. protested the nomination of
Humphrey.
• There was a full scale war outside the hall,
police battled the demonstrated.