2. KENNEDY’S “NEW FRONTIER” SPIRIT
Complacent & comfortable as the 1950’s closed, Americans elected in 1960 a young, vigorous
president who pledged to “get the country moving again.” Americans were excited about the
political “passing of the torch.”

3. Who could have known how action-packed the ’60’s would be – identify what was
upcoming. Kennedy, the youngest president ever elected, assembled one of the
youngest cabinets. Which member of his cabinet created friction with the FBI?

4. THE NEW FRONTIER at HOME
From the outset Kennedy inspired high expectations,
especially among the young. His challenge of a “New
Frontier” quickened patriotic pulses.
Integral parts of the New Frontier included the
establishment of the Peace Corps (explain) ….

5. to achieving the goal of putting a man on the moon ….
* This goal was achieved in 1969.

6. … which was repeated two more times in the early 1970’s …

7. … and proposing medical assistance to the elderly and increased federal aid to education.
JFK came into office with fragile majorities in
Congress. Southern democrats threatened to
team up with Republicans and ax New Frontier
proposals.
To appease congressional conservatives, JFK
expanded the important House Rules
Committee, which was dominated by
conservatives.
A vexing problem for JFK was the economy –
what steps did the president take to heal
the ailing economy? Which particular step
was ironic for a liberal, democratic
president?

8. RUMBLINGS in EUROPE
A few months after settling into the White House, JFK had a tough meeting with the
belligerent Soviet Premier, Khruschev, in Vienna. What was the Soviet demand? How
did JFK respond upon returning home? The Soviet response was to construct the
Berlin Wall – what was the purpose of the “wall?”

9. Notice the cemented window openings on the building. The buildings are located in East
Berlin, but the street is located in West Berlin. The completed Berlin Wall would make it
even more difficult for East Berliners to escape to West Berlin.

10. FOREIGN FLARE-UPS and “FLEXIBLE RESPONSE”
Special problems for U.S. foreign policy emerged from the worldwide de-colonization of
European overseas possessions after WWII. “Brushfire wars” in Africa, Asia and Latin
America required a change away from Secretary Dulles’s doctrine of “massive retaliation.”
Explain Sec. of Defense McNamara’s strategy of “flexible response” as an
alternative.

11. STEPPING into the VIETNAM QUAGMIRE
The doctrine of “flexible response”
seemed sane enough, but it contained
lethal logic – explain.

12. How did the situation in Vietnam
highlight the pitfalls of “flexible
response?”

13. CUBAN CONFRONTATIONS
Although the U.S. regarded Latin America as its backyard, its southern neighbors
feared the U.S. JFK incorporated a “carrot & stick” approach to contain the spread of
communism in the region. JFK inherited a CIA-backed scheme to deal with communism in
Cuba. Explain the series of events that led to the disaster known as the Bay of
Pigs.

14. The Bay of Pigs blunder, along with continuing American covert efforts to assassinate
Castro and overthrow his govt., naturally pushed the Cuban leader even further into the
Soviet sphere. Krushchev lost little time in taking advantage of Cuba’s situation. Explain
the Cuban crisis. Describe the fallout from this crisis.

15. THE STRUGGLE for CIVIL RIGHTS
Kennedy had campaigned with a strong appeal to black voters, but he proceeded gingerly to redeem
his promises – why did he move so slowly on civil rights? What was his rationale? But events
soon scrambled his calculations. Violent white reactions to black sit-ins ….

16. … and groups of Freedom Riders that fanned out to end segregation in facilities serving
interstate bus passengers forced the Kennedy Admin. to join hands with the civil rights
movement.

18. Describe JFK’s relationship with Martin Luther King. In which area was initial
progress made?

19. Was the Civil Rights struggle more
peaceful, or more violent?

20. Watching developments on television screens, a horrified world saw peaceful civil rights
marchers, some of them children, repeatedly repelled by police armed with dogs, hoses,
clubs, and cattle prods.
Jolted by these confrontations and stung by international criticism, JFK delivered a
memorable televised speech on June 11, 1963. What did it call for?

21. In August Martin Luther King led 200,000 black & white demonstrators on a peaceful
“March on Washington” in support of the proposed legislation. There, he gave his famous
“I have a dream ….” speech.

22. THE KILLING of KENNEDY
Violence haunted America in the early 1960’s and it took center stage on November 22,
1963. While riding in an open limousine in downtown Dallas, JFK was shot in the head by a
concealed shooter and died within seconds. Identify the primary figures involved in
the assassination. Does any conspiracy surround the shooting? Vice President Lyndon
Johnson was promptly sworn-in as president on a waiting plane. How did Johnson handle
the dramatic transition?

23. In 1964, as America’s younger generation continued to mourn the tragic Kennedy
assassination, the Fab Four, better known as The Beatles, …

24. … “invaded” the U.S. when they performed on the Ed Sullivan Show and ushered-in a new
teen culture. “Beatlemania” had begun.

25. THE LBJ BRAND on the PRESIDENCY
Lyndon Johnson, six feet three inches tall, hailed from the populist hill country of west Texas.
Provide a background and/or profile.

26. As president, Johnson quickly shed the
conservative coloration of his Senate years to
reveal the hidden liberal underneath. He pressed
Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill to honor
JFK’s legacy. What other Kennedy programs did
he champion?
Johnson dubbed his domestic program the “Great
Society,” a sweeping set of New Dealish economic
and welfare measures aimed at transforming the
American way of life.

27. What were the poverty statistics that alarmed LBJ?

28. The Appalachian region was, and remains, one of the poorest regions of the country.

29. JOHNSON BATTLS GOLDWATER in 1964
Johnson’s nomination by the Democrats in 1964 was a foregone conclusion. Thanks to LBJ,
the Democrats stood squarely on their most liberal platform since Truman’s Fair Deal
days.
The Republicans nominated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a champion of
conservatism. The American stage was set for a historic clash of political principles.
Identify Goldwater’s platform?

30. Explain the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the subsequent Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. How did
this impact the election?
On election day, Johnson won in a landslide and swept lopsided Democratic majorities in
both houses of Congress. What factors accounted for Johnson’s landslide victory?

31. THE GREAT SOCIETY CONGRESS
Johnson’s huge victory temporarily smashed the conservative congressional coalition of
southern Democrats and northern Republicans. Democrats enjoyed a 2-1 margin.
Congress poured out a flood of legislation, comparable to the New Dealers in the 100
Days Congress of 1933.

32. Great Society programs came in for rancorous political attack in later years.
Conservatives charged that poverty could not be papered over with greenbacks and that
the billions spent for “social engineering” had simply been flushed down the drain.
In the end, describe the “balance sheet” of Johnson’s Great Society programs.

33. THE BLACK REVOLUTION EXPLODES
In Johnson’s native South, the walls of segregation were crumbling, but not fast enough
for long-suffering African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal
govt. more muscle to enforce school-desegregation orders and to prohibit racial
discrimination in all kinds of public accommodations and employment.
Why were African-Americans in an ugly mood even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act?
Explain the issue of voting rights. Describe the Voting Rights Act and its impact. And, what
were the provisions of the 24th Amendment?

34. BLACK RAGE
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was
one victory, albeit an important
one, in the continuing Civil Rights
crusade.
Increasingly, violent voices began
to be heard in the black movement.
This rising bitterness was
highlighted by the career of
Malcolm X, a brilliant black Muslim
preacher who favored black
separatism and condemned the
“blue-eyed white devils.”

35. The African-American community became increasingly split between Martin Luther King’s
course of moderation and Malcolm X’s course of violent activism. The civil disobedience
advocated by King came under heavy fire from younger black radicals.
Explain the phrase “Black Power.” What was
white reaction to this?
Despair deepened with the assassination of
MLK in April, 1968. Describe the
impact/significance of his death.

36. In the end, King’s legacy of moderation and civil disobedience prevailed. White Americans
were increasingly moved to act on behalf of Civil Rights for Black-Americans as brutal
white repression was shown on television. The Soviet Union took pleasure in highlighting
the embarrassing violence.

38. COMBATING COMMUNISM in TWO HEMISPHERES
Foreign flare-ups threatened Johnson’s political life. Explain the problem for LBJ in the
Dominican Republic. Additionally, Johnson was floundering deeper into the Vietnam
conflict. Americans watched LBJ’s step-by-step escalation. What was “Operation
Rolling Thunder?” How did Goldwater react to Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam?

39. VIETNAM VEXATIONS
America could not defeat the enemy in Vietnam, but it seemed to be defeating itself.
World opinion grew increasingly hostile – why? Domestic discontent also festered as
the Vietnamese entanglement dragged on. Anti-war demonstrations increased,
increasing numbers of draftees dodged service, and many Americans felt pangs of
conscience at the spectacle of Americans burning peasant huts and blistering civilians
with napalm. Describe the war opposition in Congress.

40. Over-commitment in S.E. Asia also tied America’s hands elsewhere. Johnson had to
contend with expanding Soviet influence, the Six Day War in the Middle East, and the
North Koreans seizing the U.S. intelligence ship, the Pueblo. Describe each of these
events.

41. VIETNAM TOPPLES JOHNSON
Hawkish illusions that the struggle was about to be won were shattered by a blistering
communist offensive launched in late January 1968 – explain the Tet Offensive and its
impact/significance. Explain Johnson’s political dilemma.

42. With an increasingly insistent voice, American public opinion demanded a speedy end to
the war. Opposition grew so vehement that Johnson could feel the very foundations of
govt. shaking under his feet. He also suffered through hells of personal agony over
American casualties.
Adding to Johnson’s political woes,
military leaders requested 200,000
more troops.
The military’s request split
Johnson’s Administration.

43. LBJ meanwhile was being challenged from
within his own party as the 1968
presidential election approached. Who
were the challengers?
What was Johnson’s response to their
challenge? Describe the impact of his
response.
It was rumored that Republican Richard
Nixon was working behind the scenes with
North Vietnamese representatives to
ensure that the war would continue through
the campaign.

44. THE PRESIDENTIAL SWEEPSTAKES of 1968
The summer of 1968 was one of the hottest
political seasons in the country’s history.
Johnson’s heir apparent for the nomination was
Hubert Humphrey, who was supported by the
party’s apparatus.
But Senators McCarthy and Kennedy were
dueling in several state primaries, with
Kennedy’s support gathering ever-increasing
speed.
Fatefully, on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was
assassinated at a political event in California.
Kennedy’s assassination would throw the
Democratic Party into disarray.

45. Surrounded by bitterness & frustration, the Democrats met in Chicago in Aug. 1968.
Angry anti-war zealots, deprived by an assassin of their leading candidate, streamed
menacingly into Chicago. Describe what happened at the convention?
Amid the tumultuous atmosphere, Humphrey won the nomination on the first ballot.
What was Humphrey’s war platform?
Scenting victory as the Democrats divided, the Republicans nominated Richard Nixon –
why was he the Republican’s choice? Identify the third party candidate and its
platform.

46. VICTORY for NIXON
Vietnam proved a less crucial issue than expected. Why was it a difficult decision for
voters? Nixon, who had lost a close election to Kennedy, won big in the electoral column,
but won more narrowly in the popular vote column. His biggest “failure” was not capturing
party control in either house of Congress.
How did the third-party do in the election?

47. THE CULTURAL UPHEAVAL of the 1960’s
The struggles of the 1960’s against racism, poverty, and the war in Vietnam had
momentous cultural consequences. Everywhere in 1960’s America, a newly negative
attitude toward all kinds of authority took hold. Disillusionment sparked many young
people to abandon their traditional moral rudders.
This disaffection of the young reached crisis proportions in the tumultuous 1960’s. One
of the first organized protests against established authority was the so-called Free
Speech Movement in Cal.

48. But in only a few years, the clean-cut Berkeley activists and their sober-minded sit-ins
would seem quaint. Some became radical political rebels, while others turned to mind-
bending drugs, tuned in to “acid rock,” and dropped out of “straight” society. Others “did
their own thing” in communes or “alternative” institutions. Patriotism became a dirty word.
The “counter-culture” was blatantly opposed to traditional American ways.

49. The 1960’s also witnessed a “sexual revolution,” though its novelty and scale are often
exaggerated. This “revolution” ranged from the introduction of the birth-control pill to
marches advocating gay rights.
Launched in youthful idealism, many of the cultural “revolutions” of the 1960’s sputtered
out in violence and cynicism. Identify the three Ps of the upheavals. As the 1970’s
approached, what was the main factor for the upheavals subsiding?