CHAPTER 29
The Turbulent Years
1960 – 1968
"We're all Africans in different shades of color." Dolores Huerta
"There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an
adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital
worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer." Martin Luther King, Jr.
[Where Do We Go From Here?]
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Be Angry at the Sun [1941]
"That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years. . . .
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.
Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs."
Robinson Jeffers
"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to
the manger even though he may have lain there for a very
long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for
instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red
Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not
admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact
that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly
wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their
place."
Sir Winston Churchill
Chapter Review
 Define the meaning of John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier;”
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describe the successes and failures of his administration.
Explain the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Explain the historical significance of the 1963 March on Washington.
Briefly describe the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, and identify some
of the domestic programs that comprised his “Great Society.”
Briefly explain the shift from conciliation to confrontation in the civil
rights movement of the mid-1960s.
Describe some of the reasons for the shift in the national mood from
hopeful and optimistic to angry and suspicious by the end of 1968.
Concepts
 John Glenn
 Fidel Castro, Bay of Pigs, October ’62 missile crisis, U-2
 Freedom Riders
 Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez
 Betty Friedan
 Fannie Lou Farmer, Stokely Carmichael, Black Power
 Lee Harvey Oswald
 Lyndon B. Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, War on Poverty
 Students for a Democratic Society, Tom Hayden
 Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Panthers, Huey Newton
 General Wm Westmoreland, Tet Offensive
 Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy
 Berkeley in the 1960s, Mario Savio, Free Speech Movement
 Jefferson Airplane, CSNY, Hendrix, Clapton, Beatles, Stones,
Bob Dylan
I.
Early Tests
 JFK increases Social Security, establishes Peace Corps, and sets out
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on “space race”
First crisis occurs in failed overthrow of Castro at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs
Soviet Union erects Berlin Wall
Freedom Riders desegregate transportation
JFK sees economy as first priority [Walter Heller cuts income tax]
II.
Social and Political Challenges
 James Meredith enters University of Mississippi
 Cuban Missile Crisis frightens world in October 1962
 Soviets build nuclear missile silos, and Kennedy orders them out
 JFK holds hard line, and Soviets give in
 Vietnam involves Kennedy and America
III.
The Rights Revolution: Early Steps
 Martin Luther King, Jr. galvanizes civil rights movement
 Birmingham boycotters gain sympathy of white Americans
 March of Washington provides forum for MLK’s “I Have a Dream”
speech
 Feminists also change country
IV.
Tragedy and Transition
 Kennedy assassination shocks nation
 James Garrison conspiracy theory, role of CIA
 Lyndon Johnson replaces fallen president
 LBJ accomplishes much in first months
 LBJ wins landslide victory in 1964
 War on Poverty
 Vietnam “The only woman I really loved was the “Great Society”
and I lost her for that bitch of a war, Vietnam.” LBJ
The Election of 1964 [Republican Convention in SF]
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V.
The Great Society
 Johnson declares “war on poverty,” with VISTA, Head
Start, and food stamps
 Medicare and Medicaid are created
 Immigration laws are relaxed
VI.
The Expanding War
 Aiming for containment, Johnson sends American troops
to Vietnam in 1965 -- EB’s Ernie Dominguez, Bob Ray
 University campuses erupt in anti-war protests
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UC Berkeley “Free Speech Movement,” Mario Savio
Vietnam War
VII. The Rights Revolution: Center Stage
 Major legislation improves civil rights
 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act
 Watts riots shock nation in 1968
 Black Muslims and Black Panthers arise as alternative
to MLK’s teachings
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Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver
 Feminists push for Equal Rights Amendment
 Hippies and the counterculture refuse to get
involved
The Struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment
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VIII. A Divided Nation
 Tet Offensive convinces many Americans Vietnam is
lost cause
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Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 LBJ steps down, and Democrats jockey for
nomination
 Both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy are
assassinated, 1968
 Democratic convention brings discord in Chicago

CSNY: “Chicago,” and “Ohio”
 Republicans choose Nixon, who wins narrow victory
 Herb Klein, press secretary
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Vietnam War
Election of 1968
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.