Kennedy and the Cold War Kennedy’s New Frontier Johnson’s Great Society The Kennedy and Johnson Years ( ) The Kennedy and Johnson Years (1960–1968)

Kennedy and the Cold War Sec 1: Kennedy and the Cold War Kennedy Defeats Nixon in 1960 Main Idea: The 1960 Presidential election pitted Vice President Richard M. Nixon against Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. Televised debates, the first in that nation’s history, played a large role in Kennedy winning the 1960 presidential election. In these debates, Kennedy looked youthful and healthy whereas Nixon looked sweaty and ill. Interestingly, this disparity was caused by Kennedy’s use of makeup and Nixon’s refusal to wear makeup; Kennedy had been recovering from a cold and Nixon was rather healthy. People who watched the debates on TV believed Kennedy the winner, but those who listened on the radio believed Nixon to be the winner. The issues in the election were primarily the economy and the Cold War. Kennedy expressed concern about a suspected “missile gap,” that the Soviets had more weaponry than the US. For his part, Nixon pushed that Democrats economic plans would cause inflation, and only he had the foreign policy experience to lead the nation. Kennedy’s religion was also an issue. Because Kennedy was Catholic, Protestants worried that the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, may dictate to the President. Kennedy responded directly in a speech that he believed “in an America where the separation of the church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president, should he be a Catholic, how to act.” The election was one of the closest ever. Kennedy won by 119,000 votes out of 68 million cast, and 303 to 219 in the electoral college.

Kennedy and the Cold War Sec 1: Kennedy and the Cold War Kennedy Launches New Cold War Strategies Main Idea: To fight the Cold War, Kennedy worked on building the nation’s military and establishing programs to help third world countries. In the building the military, Kennedy was pursuing a policy of flexible response. Unlike Eisenhower before him, Kennedy wanted to build up the nation’s conventional weapons in order to provide a plethora of available responses to military crisis. Kennedy wanted to have more options at his disposal than resorting to the nuclear option all the time. Kennedy also wanted to increase focus on Latin American nations. Many Latin American nations were controlled by a few wealthy families while extreme poverty crushed the overall populace. These conditions often resulted in left-wing, communist leaning movements to overthrow the government. When the US became involved it was often in support of the current rulers and in opposition to the leftist movements. To improve relations with Latin American nations and discourage communism, Kennedy proposed the Alliance for Progress, a cooperative aid effort between the US and Latin American governments. Over a 10 year period the US promised $20 billion to help Latin American nations establish better schools, housing, health care, and fairer land distribution. Results were mixed. Some countries saw real reform while in others the local rulers used the money to keep themselves in power. The Peace Corps was another program aimed at assisting less-developed nations. After rigorous training, volunteers agreed to spend two years in nations that requested assistance. Projects included creating sewage systems, training medical technicians, teaching English, and building roads. This program still exists and is one of Kennedy’s most enduring legacies.

Kennedy and the Cold War Sec 1: Kennedy and the Cold War Confronting Communism in Cuba Main Idea: Kennedy’s first confrontation with Cuba is known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. In this plan, originally approved by President Eisenhower, the CIA trained Cuban exiles, known as La Brigada, to launch an invasion in Cuba, supported by US military planes. Even though Kennedy allowed the plan to continue, he removed the air support. Once the exiles landed in the wrong part of Cuba, without air support, they were quickly halted by Cuban forces. This was a major blunder for Kennedy and the US. A standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union occurred in October 1962 when American spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. This was worrisome for the United States because Cuba is only 90 miles from the United States and missiles located in Cuba could reach the majority of the US. Ultimately, nuclear war was avoided after a tense 13 day standoff where the US imposed a naval blockade around Cuba and demanded the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba. In the agreement, the Soviets promised to remove their missiles from Cuba if the US promised to never invade Cuba. This was the public agreement. Secretly, the US also agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey, which posed a similar threat to the Soviet Union as the ones in Cuba did to the US. Additionally, a “hotline” was installed between the US and Soviet Union in order to facilitate direct communication between the two nations, which served to lesson tensions of the Cold War.

Kennedy and the Cold War Sec 1: Kennedy and the Cold War The Berlin Crisis Main Idea: Tension between Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev over the division of Germany led to the construction of the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin. Remember, Berlin was divided into east and west following World War II. West Berlin was influenced by the Western Powers—the United States, Britain, and France—and East Berlin was influenced by the Soviet Union. One major issue with this scenario was that Berlin as a whole was deep inside East Germany, which had been Soviet dominated following World War II. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had different desires. Kennedy wanted East and West Germany reunited as one Germany, but Khrushchev wanted all of Berlin under Soviet control. This became apparent when the two leaders met in Vienna, Austria in June Khrushchev’s response was to build a wall around West Berlin, to which Kennedy responded by ordering troops to West Berlin. Neither side could claim much of a victory in the confrontation. For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a visible symbol of Cold War divisions.

The Presidential Election of 1960 Chart: The Presidential Election of 1960 CHART

Effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis Quick Study: Effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis QUICK STUDY

Kennedy’s New Frontier Sec 2: The Ford and Carter Years The Kennedy Style Main Idea: John F. Kennedy had charisma that appealed to the American people and he promised to improve society when he was elected President. However, one criticism of Kennedy during the 1960 campaign was that he was all style and no substance. Kennedy’s Domestic Program Main Idea: Upon taking office as President, Kennedy sought to increase aid to education, provide health insurance to the elderly, and create a Department of Urban Affairs. These were key areas of Kennedy’s domestic program, which he dubbed the New Frontier. Kennedy also sought to improve the economy, expand civil rights, and establish space exploration. Government investment in space exploration served to boost the nation’s economy as jobs were created. His plans to provide health insurance for the elderly and aid to education were both blocked by Congress, which despite Democratic majorities in both houses felt no allegiance to Kennedy, especially Southern Democrats. In regard to women’s rights, Kennedy created a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, which called for federal action against gender discrimination and affirmed the right of women to equally paid employment. In 1963, at the Commission’s urging Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. In 1961 Kennedy convened the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation. The Panel’s initial report contained 112 recommendations, most significantly was the aim of less reliance on institutional care in favor of residential treatment, along with educational and vocational opportunities.

Kennedy’s New Frontier Sec 2: The Ford and Carter Years The President Is Assassinated Main Idea: On November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for reelection. Kennedy and his wife were traveling in a motorcade through the crowded streets of Dallas as shots rang out. The President had been shot. Twice. Once in the throat and once in the head. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he was pronounced dead minutes after arrival. The man accused of killing Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, appeared to be a confused man. He was a disillusioned Marxist who had spent some time in the Soviet Union. Two days after the assassination, Oswald was shot to death, on national television, while being transferred between jails. Oswald’s killer was a local night club owner named Jack Ruby. The strange circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s assassination lead to the creation of Warren Commission, named for Chief Justice Earl Warren, tasked with investigating the assassination. Despite the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone, conspiracy theories have abounded, but none have gained wide scale acceptance.

The Kennedy Years Transparency: The Kennedy Years TRANSPARENCY

Political Cartoons: Civil Rights Analyze: Political Cartoons: Civil Rights ANALYZE

Johnson’s Great Society Sec 3: Johnson’s Great Society Johnson’s Rise to Leadership Main Idea: After Johnson became President, he continued to promote many of Kennedy’s ideas including declaring war on poverty and getting the Civil Rights Act passed. Just days after taking the oath of office—the same day Kennedy was assassinated—on Air Force One, Johnson appeared before Congress and urged them move forward with Kennedy’s idea and ideals. The America that Johnson took the helm of seemed bustling and prosperous, but outside the affluent suburbs was another America, one of ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-educated poor people. This “other” America was brought to light in Michael Harrington’s 1962 book, The Other America. Harrington’s book revealed that the truly poor numbered some 50 million and resided mainly in city slums, Appalachia, the Deep South, and on Native American reservations. Johnson was a skilled legislator, he had 26 years of Congressional experience already, and expert coalition builder. He knew any legislation linked to Kennedy would be popular, and that Kennedy had antipoverty and civil rights legislation in the works at the time of death. Thus, in his State of the Union Address—just two months after Kennedy’s death—Johnson told Congress, “Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty and some because of their color and all too many because of both.” He concluded by declaring an “unconditional war on poverty in the United States.” By the summer of 1964 Johnson had convinced Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act. This act marked inadequate public services, illiteracy, and unemployment as the roots of poverty. The act created 10 new programs, mostly directed at young people living in inner cities. Some of the major programs included: Neighborhood Youth Corps, Job Corps, VISTA, and Upward Bound.

Johnson’s Great Society Sec 3: Johnson’s Great Society The Great Society Main Idea: After winning the election of 1964, Johnson began working with Congress to create the Great Society he promised in his campaign. Johnson had plans to better the lives of Americans, which included legislation to improve healthcare and education, and policy changes that allowed more immigrants to enter the country. Some of the major pieces of legislation resulting from this period were the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (prohibiting discrimination in variety of ways) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (protecting voters from discriminatory practices). In total, the Great Society encompassed 60 programs passed between 1965 and Some prominent programs were Medicare and Medicaid, which provided health care to senior citizens and the poor respectively. With regard to education, Johnson pushed the Elementary and Education Act of 1965; this act gave millions to schools for textbooks, library materials, and special education programs. Additionally, Head Start was created to children who had “never looked at a picture book or scribbled with a crayon.” The Immigration Act of 1965 transformed the immigration system from a national origins quota system to world-wide line, open to all people in all parts of the world. The Supreme Court and Reform Main Idea: During the 1960s the Supreme Court acted liberally in its rulings on many controversial social and political issues, such as voting rights, the constitutional rights of lawbreakers, and school prayer.

War on Poverty Chart: War on Poverty CHART

The Warren Court Transparency: The Warren Court TRANSPARENCY

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