SixtiesA 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.