Chapter 29—Civil Rights, Vietnam, and the Ordeal of Liberalism
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION I: How did the Kennedy and Johnson administrations attempt to address
economic inequality in American society?
I. Expanding the Liberal State
A. John Kennedy—Who ran for each party in 1960?
1. Election of 1960—What made Kennedy popular, and what gave people doubts about him? Who won the election and by
how much? What was Kennedy’s domestic plan called, and how successful was Kennedy getting it enacted (why/why not)?
2. Kennedy Assassinated—Where, when and by whom was Kennedy assassinated? What happened to the assassin?
3. Lyndon Johnson—Who was Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) and what was his background?
4. The “Great Society”—What was the “Great Society” and how was LBJ able to get it passed? Why was the election of 1964
significant?
B. The Assault on Poverty
1. Medicare and Medicaid—What were Medicare and Medicaid, what was their purpose? What was the “war on poverty”?
C. Cities, Schools, and Immigration
1. Housing and Urban Development—What was the Department of Housing and Urban Development designed to do?
2. Immigration Act of 1965—How did this act change American immigration policies of the past?
D. Legacies of the Great Society—What legacies did the Great Society leave on the federal government?
1. Failures and Achievements of the Great Society—What were some negative effects of the Great Society programs? What
were some positive effects?
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION II: What major events marked the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement
during the 1960s? What new voices became important within the movement?
II.
The Battle for Racial Equality
A. Expanding Protests—How did JFK feel about the civil rights movement? Why didn’t he do more?
1. SNCC—What was SNCC, and what happened movement did they help organize?
2. “Freedom Rides”—What was CORE and what were the “Freedom Rides”? What happened to the freedom riders? What was
the SCLC? Who was James Meredith and what happened to him?
3. Birmingham—What happened in Birmingham, and why did it affect national public opinion? Who was George Wallace, and
what happened at the University of Alabama? What was Medgar Evers and what happened to him?
B. A National Commitment—How did Alabama and Mississippi change JFK’s approach to the civil rights issue? What did he
do?
1. March on Washington—When was the March on Washington, and what happened there? How did JFK’s assassination affect
the national government’s push for civil rights legislation?
C. The Battle for Voting Rights
1. “Freedom Summer”—What was the goal of “Freedom Summer”? What happened to Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner,
and James Chaney? What happened in Selma, and how did it help change national public opinion?
2. Voting Rights Act—What year was the Voting Rights Act passed, and what did the act do?
D. The Changing Movement
1. De Jure and De Facto Segregation—Where was the issue of race becoming increasingly important during the 1960s? What is
the difference between “de jure” and “de facto” segregation? How did the topic of segregation change? What was “affirmative
action”?
E. Urban Violence
1. Watts Riot—Where did major race riots occur in the 1960s? What were the responses from the national government and
from whites in general?
F. Black Power
1. Shift from Integration to Racial Distinction—What was “black power”? What was the impact of “black power”? What were
some social examples of “black power”?
2. An Increasingly Divided Civil Rights Movement—What was happening to groups within the civil rights movement? Who
were the Black Panthers?
G. Malcolm X
1. Nation of Islam—What was the Nation of Islam and who was Malcolm X? What did he stand for? What happened to him?
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION III: What were some of the major Cold War events and policies of the
Kennedy administration?
III.
“Flexible Response” and the Cold War
A. Diversifying Foreign Policy
1. “Flexible Response”—How did JFK’s foreign policy contrast with Eisenhower’s? Where had the focus of the Cold War
shifted? Who were the “Green Berets”? How did JFK attempt to win favor around the world in a peaceful manner?
2. Bay of Pigs—What was the Bay of Pigs incident, and what happened?
B. Confrontations with the Soviet Union—What was the Berlin Wall, when was it constructed, and why was it constructed?
1. Cuban Missile Crisis—When was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and what caused the crisis? How was it resolved?
C. Johnson and the World—What topic dominated almost all the foreign policy of LBJ’s presidency?
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION IV: How did the United States become involved in the conflict in Vietnam, and
how did opponents at home begin to react?
IV.
The Agony of Vietnam—How did America’s intervention in Vietnam start? Who was responsible for America’s
involvement?
A. The First Indochina War—Who fought in the first Indochina War, and why?
1. The Vietminh—Who were the Vietminh? Who was Ho Chi Minh? How did America react to France’s involvement in
Vietnam? What happened at Dien Bien Phu?
B. Geneva and the Two Vietnams
1. Geneva Conference—What agreements about Vietnam occurred at the Geneva Conference?
C. America and Diem
1. Ngo Dinh Diem—Who was Diem? What happened to the elections that were supposed to occur in Vietnam in 1956? Why?
2. The NLF—What was the NLF and what was its nickname? What was its role? Who controlled the countryside in Vietnam?
What events made Diem very unpopular?
3. Diem Overthrown—What happened to Diem?
D. From Aid to Intervention—How did LBJ change America’s role in Vietnam?
1. Pressure for American Intervention—What was the pressure for America to intervene in Vietnam?
2. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution—What allegedly happened in the Gulf of Tonkin, and what was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
How did LBJ escalate the war further? What happened for the first time in March 1965?
3. Mounting Casualties—How many American soldiers eventually were stationed in Vietnam? How extensive was the air war?
E. The Quagmire
1. Strategy of “Attrition”—What was America’s strategy of “attrition”? How did the Vietnamese react to this strategy? What
was the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
2. “Hearts and Minds”—What was the policy of “pacification”? What did pacification ultimately change into?
F. The War at Home
1. Growing Opposition to the War—What were “teach-ins” and where/when did they start? From what groups in society did
opposition to the war grow?
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION V: Why was 1968 a pivotal year in 20 th century American history?
V.
The Traumas of 1968
A. The Tet Offensive—What was the Tet Offensive and when was it? How did Americans react?
1. Political and Psychological Defeat—How was the Tet Offensive both a defeat and a victory for the Viet Cong?
B. The Political Challenge—What candidate became popular in 1968, and why?
1. Robert Kennedy—How did RFK’s entry into the campaign change the race? What did LBJ that changed the race?
C. The King and Kennedy Assassinations—When, where, and how was Martin Luther King, Jr. killed?
1. Riots—What was the reaction to King’s death? What happened to RFK?
2. The “Kennedy Legacy”—What was the “Kennedy Legacy”?
3. Democratic National Convention—What happened at the 1968 Democratic National Convention? Who won the nomination?
D. The Conservative Response
1. George Wallace—Who was George Wallace and why was he popular? Who was Richard Nixon? On what issues did he
run?
2. Nixon Victorious—Why was Nixon victorious (what were most Americans interested in)?