THE NEW FRONTIER AND THE GREAT SOCIETY

KENNEDY AND JOHNSON LEAD AMERICA IN THE 1960S

SECTION 1: KENNEDY AND THE COLD WAR

• The Democratic nominee for president in 1960 was a young Massachusetts senator named John Kennedy
• He promised to “get America moving again”
• Kennedy had a well-organized campaign and was handsome and charismatic

Senator Kennedy, 1958

REPUBLICAN OPPONENT: RICHARD NIXON

• The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon, Ike’s Vice-President
• The candidates agreed on many domestic and foreign policy issues
• Two factors helped put Kennedy over the top: T.V. and Civil Rights

Nixon hoped to ride the coattails of the popular President

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TELEVISED DEBATE AFFECTS VOTE

• On September 26, 1960, Kennedy and Nixon took part in the first televised debate between presidential candidates
• Kennedy looked and spoke better than Nixon
• Journalist Russell Baker said, “That night, image replaced the printed word as the national language of politics”

JFK: CONFIDENT, AT EASE DURING DEBATES

• Television had become so central to people's lives that many observers blamed Nixon's loss to John F. Kennedy on his poor appearance in the televised presidential debates
• JFK looked cool, collected, presidential
• Nixon, according to one observer, resembled a "sinister chipmunk"

JFK’S OTHER EDGE: CIVIL RIGHTS

• A second major event of the campaign took place in October, 1960
• Police arrested Martin Luther King for conducting a “Sit-In” at a lunch counter in Georgia
• King was sentenced to hard labor

Sit-Ins were non-violent protests over the policy of whites-only lunch counters in the South

JFK, NIXON REACT DIFFERENTLY TO KING ARREST

• While the Eisenhower Administration refused to intervene, JFK phoned King’s wife and his brother, Robert Kennedy, worked for King’s release
• The incident captured the attention of the African-American community, whose votes JFK would carry in key states

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King

Kennedy

FOCUS ON THE COLD WAR

• From the beginning of his term in early 1961, JFK focused on the Cold War (Soviet relations)
• JFK tripled our nuclear capability, increased troops, ships and artillery, and created the Green Berets (Special Forces)

CRISIS OVER CUBA

• Just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba presented the first big test of JFK’s foreign policy
• Openly Communist, Cuba was led by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro who welcomed aid from the USSR
• Relations between the U.S. and Cuba were deteriorating

BAY OF PIGS

• In March 1960, Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretly train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba
• Kennedy learned of the plan only nine days into his presidency
• JFK approved the mission
• It turned out to be a disaster when in April, 1961, 1,200 Cuban exiles met 25,000 Cuban troops backed by Soviet tanks and were soundly defeated

“We looked like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies and incompetents to the rest”

Quote from U.S. Commentator

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

• Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow
• Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev promised to defend Cuba with Soviet weapons
• During the summer of 1962 the flow of Soviet weapons into Cuba – including nuclear – increased greatly

• Kennedy made it clear the U.S. would not tolerate nuclear weapons in Cuba
• When surveillance photos revealed nukes ready to launch in Cuba, JFK said the U.S. would respond to any attack from Cuba with an all-out nuclear retaliation against the Soviets

KENNEDY RESPONDS

American president John F Kennedy making his dramatic television broadcast to announce the Cuba blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis 

13 DAYS

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• When

more Soviet ships headed for the U.S. with weapons, JFK ordered a blockade

• The first break in the crisis occurred when the Soviets ships turned back
• Finally, Khrushchev agreed to remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba in exchange for a U.S. promise NOT to invade Cuba

For 13 days in October, 1962 the world stood still as the threat of nuclear war gripped the planet

CRISIS OVER BERLIN

• In 1961, Berlin, Germany was a city in great turmoil
• In the 11 years since the Berlin Airlift, almost 3 million East Germans (Soviet side) had fled into West Berlin (U.S. controlled) to flee communist rule

SOVIETS SEEK TO STOP EXODUS

• The Soviets did not like the fact that East Berliners were fleeing their city for the democratic west
• Their departure hurt the economy and the prestige of the USSR
• Just after midnight on August 13, 1961 the Soviets began construction of a 90-mile wall separating East and West Berlin

East Germany begins construction on the Berlin Wall, which becomes a primary symbol of the Cold War and Soviet oppression

EASING TENSIONS

• Both Khrushchev and Kennedy began searching for ways to ease the enormous tension between the two superpowers
• In 1963 they established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin
• Later that year, the superpowers signed a Limited Test Ban Treaty that served to ban nuclear testing in the atmosphere

SECTION 2: THE NEW FRONTIER

• Kennedy initiated his vision in a program he called “The New Frontier”
• The economy, education, medical care for the elderly and the poor, and space exploration were all part of his vision

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THE PEACE CORPS

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• One of the first programs launched by JFK was the Peace Corps
• The Peace Corps is a volunteer program to assist developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America
• The Peace Corps has become a huge success

RACE TO THE MOON

• On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space
• Meanwhile, America’s space agency (NASA) began construction on new launch facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida and a mission control center in Houston, Texas

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A MAN ON �THE MOON

• Finally, on July 20, 1969, the U.S. would achieve its goal
• An excited nation watched as U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the moon
• Space and defense-related industries sprang up in Southern and Western states

Armstrong

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

TRAGEDY IN DALLAS

• On a sunny day on November 22,1963, Air Force One landed in Dallas with JFK and Jackie
• JFK received warm applause from the crowd that lined the downtown streets of Dallas as he rode in the back seat of an open-air limousine

JFK SHOT TO DEATH

• As the motorcade approached the Texas Book Depository, shots rang out
• JFK was shot in the neck and then the head
• His car was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors frantically tried to revive him
• President Kennedy was dead (11/22/63)

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON BECOMES PRESIDENT

• The Vice-President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, became President after JFK was assassinated
• The nation mourned the death of the young president while Jackie Kennedy remained calm and poised

A somber LBJ takes the oath of office aboard Air Force One with the Jackie next to him

LEE HARVEY OSWALD CHARGED; SHOT TO DEATH

• A 24-year-old Marine with a suspicious past left a palm print on the rifle used to kill JFK
• He was charged and as a national television audience watched his transfer from one jail to another, nightclub owner Jack Ruby broke through the crowd and shot Oswald to death

Jack Ruby, right, shoots Oswald, center, to death 11/24/63

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

• The bizarre chain of events led many to believe that Oswald was part of a conspiracy
• The Warren Commission investigated the assassination and determined that Oswald had indeed acted alone
• Recent filmmaker Oliver Stone isn’t so sure – his film, “JFK,” is filled with conspiracy theories

SECTION 3: THE GREAT SOCIETY

• A fourth-generation Texan, Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) entered politics in 1937 as a congressman
• Johnson admired Franklin Roosevelt who took the young congressman under his wing
• Johnson became a senator in 1948 and by 1955 he was Senate majority leader

Senator Johnson pictured in 1958

JOHNSON’S DOMESTIC AGENDA

• As soon as Johnson took office, he urged Congress to pass the tax-cut bill that Kennedy had sent to Capital Hill
• The tax cut passed and $10 billion in cuts took effect

THE WAR ON POVERTY

• Following his tax cut and Civil Rights Act successes, LBJ launched his War on Poverty
• In August of 1964 he pushed through Congress a series of measures known as the Economic Opportunity Act
• The Act provided $1 billion in aid to the inner city

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT

THE EOA legislation created:

• The Job Corps
• VISTA (Volunteers in service to America)
• Project Head Start for underprivileged preschoolers
• The Community Action Program which encouraged the poor to participate in public works program

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Project Head Start is still going strong

THE 1964 ELECTION

• In 1964, the Republicans nominated conservative senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona to oppose Democrat Lyndon Johnson
• Goldwater opposed LBJ’s social legislation
• Goldwater alienated voters by suggesting the use of nuclear weapons in Cuba and North Vietnam

LBJ WINS BY A LANDSLIDE

• LBJ won the

1964 election

by a landslide

• For many it was an anti-Goldwater vote
• Many Americans saw Goldwater as a War Hawk
• The Democrats also increased their majority in Congress
• Now Johnson launched his reform program in earnest

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BUILDING THE GREAT SOCIETY

• In May of 1964, LBJ summed up his vision for America in a phrase: “The Great Society”
• By the time he left the White House in 1969, Congress had passed 206 of LBJ’s Great Society legislative initiatives

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EDUCATION

• Johnson considered education “the key which can unlock the door to the Great Society”
• The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided $1 billion to help public schools buy textbooks and library materials
• This Act represented the first major federal aid package for education ever

HEALTHCARE

• LBJ and Congress enhanced Social Security by establishing Medicare and Medicaid
• Medicare provided hospital insurance and low-cost medical care to the elderly
• Medicaid provided health benefits to the poor

HOUSING

• LBJ and Congress appropriated money to build 240,000 units of low-rent public housing; established the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and appointed the first black cabinet member, Robert Weaver, as HUD’s first leader

Weaver

IMMIGRATION REFORM

• The Great Society also brought reform to immigration laws
• The Natural Origins Acts of the 1920s strongly discriminated against immigration by those outside of Western Europe
• The Immigration Act of 1965 opened the door for many non-European immigrants to settle in the U.S.

THE ENVIRONMENT

• LBJ also actively sought to improve the environment
• The Water Quality Act of 1965 required states to clean up their rivers and lakes
• LBJ also ordered the government to clean up corporate polluters of the environment

CONSUMER PROTECTION

• Consumer advocates also made gains during the 1960s
• Major safety laws were passed in the U.S. auto industry and Congress passed the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967
• LBJ said, “Americans can feel safer now in their homes, on the road, and at the supermarket”

SUPREME COURT REFORMS SOCIETY, TOO

• Reform and change were not limited to the Executive and Legislative branches
• The Judicial Branch led by the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Earl Warren did much to protect individual rights

Warren

WARREN COURT AND SUSPECT’S RIGHTS

• In Mapp v. Ohio (1961) the Supreme Court ruled that illegally seized evidence could not be used in court
• In Escobedo v. Illinois the court ruled that the accused has the right to have an attorney present when questioned by police
• In Miranda v. Arizona the court ruled that all suspects must be read their rights before questioning

IMPACT OF GREAT SOCIETY

• The Great Society and the Warren Court changed the United States
• No president in Post-WWII era extended the power and reach of the federal government more than LBJ
• The War on Poverty helped, the Civil Rights initiative made a difference and the massive tax cuts spurred the economy