New Frontiers:

Politics and Social

Change in the 1960s

Chapter 31Lecture Outline

© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

LBJ

http://wwnorton.com/college/history/america9/full/ch/31/studyplan.aspx

The New Frontier

• Kennedy versus Nixon

– Vice-President Nixon was nominated for the presidency

representing by the Republicans, while the Democrats chose

Senator John F. Kennedy (JFK)

• The Vigorous New Administration

– JFK was the youngest president elected, he chose to select for his

administration leaders of industry instead of political appointees

Kennedy- Nixon debates John Kennedy’s poise and precision in the debates with Richard Nixon impressed viewers and voters.

The New Frontier• The Kennedy Record

– JFK’s domestic program was called the New Frontier.

– many of his programs blocked by partisans in Congress.

– did succeed in getting the Housing Act passed, which provided $5

billion for urban renewal over four years.

Kennedy’s Inaugural address:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxa4HDgfWFs

• The Warren Court

– The Supreme Court continued to be the decisive influence on

domestic life in this era.

• The abolishment of prayer in schools

• requiring a lawyer for every defendant regardless of ability to pay

• the notification of constitutional rights when being arrested are just some

examples of landmark cases.

Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement

• Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides

– When four African American

college students sat at a white-

only counter and refused to

move, the concept of the “sit-

in” was born.

– Few weeks later Student

Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee (SNCC) is born.

– In 1961, to test a federal order

banning segregation of buses,

the Congress of Racial

Equality sent groups of people

on trips across the country to

make sure the law was upheld.

"Freedom Riders" Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CAKAXR-AM

Freedom Riders Two activists are escorted by armed National Guardsmen on a bus to Jackson, Mississippi.

Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement

• Federal Intervention

– In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in troops to

enforce a federal law abolishing segregation at the University of

Mississippi when the governor refused to abide by it.

• Letter from Birmingham City Jail

https://youtu.be/sVd2RNM4PlQ?t=970

Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963 Eugene “Bull” Connor’s police unleash dogs on civil rights demonstrators.

Forest Gump at U of Alabama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eluXKOqxM28

“I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963 Protesters in the March on Washington make their way to the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now- famous speech.

“I have a dream speech” https://youtu.be/smEqnnklfYs?t=719

Foreign Frontiers

• Early Setbacks

– Bay of Pigs failed.

– Two months after that, he met with

Khrushchev, who bullied and threatened the

inexperienced Kennedy.

– Upon returning home, JFK called up the army

reserve and national guard.

– The Soviets would respond by erecting the

Berlin Wall, dividing West and East Berlin.

Foreign Frontiers

• The Cuban Missile Crisis

– In 1962, Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba. They were put

there to protect Castro from another attempted coup.

– JFK would place a blockade around Cuba, not allowing anything

in or out until the missiles were removed.

– On October 24, Soviet ships stopped short of the quarantine line,

and two days later, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles.

13 days movie trailer: https://youtu.be/-yfIoHXOO9E

Foreign Frontiers

• Kennedy and Vietnam

– South Vietnam was still being

supported by the might of the US.

– However, the premier was showing

an unwillingness to govern his

people wisely or listen to American

advice.

– As Communist forces continued to

invade the south, Kennedy

dispatched military advisers to the

region to train the soldiers.

– In the fall of 1963, the United States

supported a coup against the

premier and he was murdered.

• Kennedy’s Assassination

– On November 22, 1963, JFK was

assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald

Presidential assassination John F. Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One before its return from Dallas with Jacqueline Kennedy (right), the presidential party, and the body of the assassinated president.

Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society

• Politics and Poverty

– Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) had been added to the ticket to provide

balance to the inexperienced Kennedy.

– He would continue with Kennedy’s domestic program, and

through his leadership, had most of it passed.

– In 1964 he would announce a war on poverty aimed at educating

and elevating the nation’s poor.

• The Election of 1964

– LBJ would be nominated for president in 1964 and would face

Barry Goldwater, senator from Arizona.

– The result was a landslide, with LBJ winning 61 percent of the

vote

– Goldwater revitalizes conservatism

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 President Johnson reaches to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society

• Landmark Legislation

– In 1965, LBJ got Congress to approve his Medicare program,

which provided for health insurance for the aged. In the end, the

Great Society would generate 435 bills that would pass

Congress.

• The Immigration Act

– The Immigration Act abolished the use of quotas from the 1920s

Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society

• Assessing the Great Society

– Although there were many programs in the Great Society that

were successful, a good percentage of them were ill-conceived

and poorly funded.

– As a result, they did not have the impact they intended or had

unexpected effects

From Civil Rights to Black Power

• Civil Rights Legislation

– Congress passed the

Voting Rights Act of

1965, which ensured

all citizens had the

right to vote.

– It abolished literacy

tests and other state

policies designed at

keeping African

Americans from voting.

Selma movie trailer: https://youtu.be/x6t7vVTxaic

From Civil Rights to Black Power

• Black Power

– A race riot in Watts, a neighborhood in California, led off a

summer of racial violence in 1966.

• Malcolm X

– Groups of protestors supporting black power took to the streets,

and one of their leaders was Malcolm X. He would be

assassinated by a rival faction of Black Muslims in 1964.

Malcom X movie trailer: https://youtu.be/sx4sEvhYeVE

The Tragedy of Vietnam

• Escalation

– LBJ inherited the policy of preventing Communist supremacy in

Indochina.

– He did not see any reason to “save” Vietnam, but since the United

States was already committed, he saw no way to extricate the

advisers.

– On August 7, 1964, LBK appeared on TV and informed the

American public that the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy had

been fired on by North Vietnamese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin.

– He asked Congress for a resolution authorizing the president to

take all necessary steps to repel attacks against U.S. forces.

He would receive it.

– March 1965, combat troops began to arrive in Vietnam.

The Tragedy of Vietnam

• The Context for Policy

– LBJ’s decision to go

into Vietnam was

consistent with the

foreign policies of all

presidents back to

Truman.

– At the time, military

intervention was the

logical next step for

him to take.

– In a battle of wills, the

North Vietnamese

won, as public

support in the United

States eroded.

The Tragedy of Vietnam

• The Turning Point

– On January 31, 1968, the Viet

Cong launched an attack on South

Vietnam that was dubbed the “Tet

Offensive.” due to it occurring on

the Vietnamese New Year.

– Although it was beaten back and

was a staggering loss for the Viet

Cong, the American public viewed

it as a tremendous loss.

– LBJ’s popularity would decline

35%, leading him to announce that

he would not seek a second term

on his own in the 1968 election.

Ted Ed Ho Chi Minh Trail: https://youtu.be/poE_nNW9-yk

“How Deep Do You Figure We’ll Get Involved, Sir?” Although U.S. soldiers were first sent to Vietnam as noncombatant advisers, they soon found themselves involved in a quagmire of fighting.

The Tet offensive Many Vietnamese were driven from their homes during the bloody street battles of the 1968 Tet offensive. Here, following a lull in the fighting, civilians carrying a white flag approach U.S. Marines.

Sixties Crescendo

• A Traumatic Year

– The year 1968 was marked by tragedy. Martin Luther King Jr.

would be assassinated along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy,

who had just clinched the Democratic nomination for president.

• Chicago

– At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Mayor Richard

Daley ordered 20,000 police and national guardsmen to keep

order, but when they could not, anxious reporters broadcast the

riots across the nations.

Nixon Again