THE NEW
FRONTIER & THE
GREAT SOCIETY
U.S. HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 15
• New era of television politics takes place as the 1st presidential
debate occurs on September 26, 1960. Political candidates used
television to advertise their candidacy & television will replace
printed word as the language of politics
• Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy - Senator from
Massachusetts, Catholic, wealthy
• Republicans nominated Richard Nixon – Current V.P., Quaker,
struggled financially
• Kennedy won by a narrow margin both in the popular vote & in the
electoral vote.
• In his inaugural address, Kennedy spoke of “a new generation” &
asked citizens to take a more active role in making the nation better –
“ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do
for your country”
• SEE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CHART PG. 363
ELECTION OF 1960
• White House: Kennedy would place in his administration
the best & the brightest: McGeorge Bundy (Harvard
Dean) – National Security Adviser; Robert McNamara
(President of Ford) – Secretary of Defense; Dean Rusk
(President of Rockefeller Foundation) – Secretary of
State; Robert Kennedy – Attorney General.
KENNEDY’S CABINET
• Kennedy’s legislative agenda becomes known as the New
Frontier – education, health insurance for elderly,
Department of Urban Affairs. His initiatives did not find a
huge amount of support in Congress even though the
Democrats controlled both houses
• Successes included: defense spending, space exploration,
raise the minimum wage, Area Redevelopment Act,
Housing Act. Many of these initiatives aided the economy
by providing jobs & controlling jobs BUT it meant
engaging in deficit spending
• Setbacks: tax cuts, health insurance, federal aid to education
SUCCESSES & SETBACKS
• Presidential Commission on the Status of Women stated that gender
discrimination existed & women were not equally paid. The commission
proposed the Equal Pay Act which Kennedy signed in 1963.
• President’s Panel on Mental Retardation called for funding of
research into developmental disabilities & educational & vocational
programs for people with developmental disabilities.
• Congress enacted the Mental Retardation Facilities & Community
Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963 which provided
grants to build research centers & grants to states to construct mental
health centers.
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver, JFK’s sister, started a camp for people
disabilities at her home & it offered them a chance to be physically
competitive. This effort later grew into the Special Olympics
program.
WOMEN & THE DISABLED
• Kennedy wanted a more flexible response to containing communism
by building up of troops, conventional & nuclear weapons, &
expansion of Special Forces.
• Kennedy will continue to develop more effective relations with Latin
American countries by assisting governments already in power to stay
in power & to prevent any communist movements from flourishing.
American corporations will continue to have a presence in poor Latin
American countries where the people resented their presence as it was
seen as a form of imperialism
• Alliance for Progress was a series of cooperative aid projects in
conjunction with Latin American governments. Over $20 billion was
pledged to assist countries develop better schools, housing, health
care, & fairer land distribution.
• Peace program sent Americans to provide humanitarian services to
developing nations.
JFK & THE COLD WAR
• 1961: Yury Gagarin, a Soviet astronaut, will be the first person to
orbit the Earth
• Kennedy went before Congress & stated that this nation needed to
dedicate itself to having a man land on the moon before the
decade is out.
• 1962: John Glenn, American, will be the first to orbit the Earth.
1968: the Apollo capsule, launched using the Saturn V rocket, will
orbit the Earth with 3 men in side.
• July 16, 1969: Saturn V rocket lifted off from Florida carrying
Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, & Michael Collins.
• July 20, 1969 – Armstrong & Aldrin boarded the lunar module,
Eagle, & landed on moon.
• Armstrong will set foot on the moon declaring “That’s one small
step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”
COLD WAR IN SPACE
Yury Gagarin
John Glenn
Neil Armstrong,
Edwin “Buzz”
Aldrin, Michael
Collins
• Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba in 1959 & immediately
establishes ties with the Soviet Union, instituted drastic land
reforms & seized foreign-owned businesses most of which
were American.
• Eisenhower had authorized the CIA to secretly train & arm a
group of Cuban exiles known as La Brigada to invade the
island. Kennedy did approve the plan but with some changes.
• April 17, 1961: 1400 armed Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs,
south coast of Cuba to begin the invasion. Their boats ran aground on
coral reefs & Kennedy canceled their air support to keep U.S.
involvement a secret. Two days later Castro’s forces killed or
captured almost all of La Brigada
BAY OF PIGS INVASION
• June 1961: Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna,
Austria where Khrushchev demanded the withdrawal of
forces from West Berlin as the city was lying completely
within the Soviet zone. Kennedy refused.
RISE OF THE BERLIN WALL
• August 13, 1961: Khrushchev shocked the world by
erecting the Berlin Wall that started as barbed wire &
concrete posts. This event escalated the tensions between
U.S. & Soviet Union. The wall slowed the flow of East
German refugees & became a symbol of Communist
oppression
RISE OF THE BERLIN WALL
• Summer 1962: discover that Soviet technicians & equipment had
arrived on Cuba & military construction was in progress.
• October 22, 1962: Kennedy announces that long-range nuclear
missiles had been place in Cuba by the Soviet Union
• Kennedy orders a naval quarantine to stop the delivery of more
missiles & demands that the existing sites be dismantled.
• Secret negotiations would take place between the Soviet Union &
the U.S. Agreement reached: Soviet Union would remove the
missiles if the U.S. promises not to invade Cuba & U.S. agreed to
remove its missiles from Turkey.
• Khrushchev will fall from power in the Soviet Union after this
incident in 1964.
• Both the U.S. & the Soviet Union will proceed with huge military
buildup
• SEE MAP PG. 370
CUBAN MISSILE
CRISIS
Onlookers gather on George Smathers Beach in Key
West, Florida, to see the U.S. Army's Hawk antiaircraft missiles positioned there during the Cuban
missile crisis
• Earl Warren becomes Supreme Court Chief Justice in 1953 & the
decisions that are made by the U.S. Supreme Court during his time
dramatically changed & reshaped American politics & society
• Supreme Court made decisions regarding reapportionment:
• Baker V. Carr 1962 – ruled that federal courts had jurisdiction to hear
lawsuits seeking to force states to redraw electoral districts
• Reynolds v. Sims 1964 –ruled that states must reapportion electoral
districts along the principle of “one person, one vote”. This allowed for
citizens’ votes to have equal weight, rather than giving arbitrary power to
rural voters
• SEE ANALYZING SUPREME COURT CASES PG. 365
“ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE”
• Supreme Court began applying the 14th Amendment to extend the
Bill of Rights at the state level. 14th amendment states “no state
shall….deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due
process of law” which means that the law may not treat individuals
unfairly, arbitrarily, or unreasonably.
• Mapp v. Ohio 1961 – ruled that state courts could n ot consider evidence
obtained in violation of the U.S. Constitution
• Gideon v. Wainwright 1963 – ruled that a defendant ina state court had the
right to a lawyer regardless of his or her ability to apy
• Escobedo v. Illinois 1964 – ruled that suspects must be allowed access to a
lawyer and informed of their right to remain silent before being questioned
• Miranda v. Arizona 1966 – ruled that authorities were required to inform
suspects of their right to remain silent; that anything they say can & will be
used against them in court; and that they have a right to a lawyer (“Miranda
rights” today)
EXPANDING DUE PROCESS
• Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle of
separation of church and state:
• Engel V. Vitale 1962 – states could not compose official
prayers & require those prayers to be recited in public
schools
• Abington School District v. Schempp 1963 – ruled against
state-mandated Bible readings in public schools
• Griswold V. Connecticut 1965 – ruled that prohibiting the
sale & use of birth control devices violated citizens’
constitutional right to privacy
PRAYERS & PRIVACY
• November 22, 1963: Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas, TX by Lee Harvey Oswald
• Two days later Lee Harvey Oswald is assassinated by
Jack Ruby. Many speculated that this was done to
protect others involved in the crim.
JFK’S ASSASSINATION
• Led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren,
concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. A
reinvestigation in 1979 concluded that Oswald was part of a
conspiracy & that two persons may have fired at the
president. Other explanations ranged from it being a plot
from anti-Castro Cubans, a Communist-sponsored attack, &
a conspiracy by the CIA. In the end, Americans realized that
our government is sturdy & capable of surviving on through
any crisis.
• Today, there are still many questions that are still
unanswered & many theories of conspiracy still abound
WARREN COMMISSION
• Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office onboard Air
Force One with Jackie Kennedy at his side. Johnson will
attempt to pass many of Kennedy’s legislative agenda that
was left unfinished
• Johnson was a Texan at heart who spoke directly,
convincingly, & rough at times. He had served in U.S.
Congress for 26 years prior to become president & earned
a reputation of getting things done. This was
accomplished by building a consensus through favors,
twisting arms, bargaining, flattering, or even threatening
L.B. JOHNSON
• Johnson understood what poverty was as he had known hard
times growing up in TX
• Kennedy had plans for antipoverty programs & a civil rights bill.
Johnson knew that these would be extremely popular & would
continue supporting these initiatives.
• State of the Union Address 1964: Johnson declares “a war on
poverty in America” & by the summer of 1964 Congress will pass
the Economic Opportunity Act.
• Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) will run 10 new programs
aimed at young, inner-city Americans in an effort to put an end to
poverty. Some programs included the Job Corps, VISTA –
Volunteers in Service to America, Upward Bound, & a Work
Experience Programs
• SEE CHART PG. 373
• SEE ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES ON PG. 375
WAR ON POVERTY
• Johnson gained public approval but faced an election
in 1964
• Republicans nominated Senator Barry Goldwater, AZ,
known for his strong conservatism to run.
• Johnson will win in a landslide, 61% of popular vote,
& all but six states in the electoral vote
ELECTION OF 1964
• Johnson worked with Congress to create “The Great
Society”. Goals were not to confine government but to form
society. The ambitious vision encompassed more than 60
programs:
• Medicare – health insurance for all senior citizens
• Medicaid – health care for welfare recipients living below the poverty
line
• Elementary & Secondary Education Act 1965 – granted millions of
dollars to public & private schools
• Project Head Start – disadvantaged preschoolers to assist in education
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 – barred discrimination of many kinds
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – protected voters from discriminatory
practices
THE GREAT SOCIETY
• Department of Housing & Urban Development formed in 1965
would be a new cabinet agency
• “Model Cities” – authorized federal subsidies to many cities to
improve transportation, health care, housing, & policing
• Immigration Act of 1965 – ended the system established in the
1920s that gave preference to northern European immigrants &
opened the door wider to immigrants from all parts of Europe,
Asia, & Africa
• Water Quality Act of 1965 – required states to clean up rivers. This
was the result of a book, The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson,
where she discussed the effects of pesticides on the environment
• Wholesome Meat Act 1967 would set safety standards for food.
There would also be a truth-in-packaging law that set standards
for labels on consumer goods. This was sponsored by Ralph Nader,
a young lawyer at the time
• SEE CHART ON PG. 374
THE GREAT SOCIETY
• Impact of Great Society was limited. Many programs
did not work as well & others grew to the point to
where they were unmanageable & difficult to evaluate.
Costs of maintaining both the programs & the Vietnam
War would cause the end of many of the programs
• Programs that survived: Medicare & Medicaid,
Department of Transportation, Department of Housing
& Urban Development (HUD), & Project Head Start
LEGACY OF THE GREAT SOCIETY