1. The New Frontier
JFK and the Cold War

2. A War Hero Wins the White House
PT-109
"It was involuntary. They sank my boat.“
Kennedy V. Nixon
Debates, Economy, Missile Gap & Catholicism
Narrow Victory:
New Frontier Promises
Peace Corps
Increased Aid to Education
Health Insurance to the Elderly
Dept. of Urban Affairs
Equal Pay Act & Women’s Rights
Secure Civil Rights for Black America
Community Mental Health Construction Act & Cognitive Disabilities
Eunice Kennedy Shriver & Special Olympics

3. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address
We will attempt to identify aspects of Kennedy’s platform through the language of his Inaugural Address.
His intention was a brief and focused statement…
What’s the focus?

4. Space Race
“ I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon.”
1962- John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth
1965- Three men orbit the moon
1969- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon. “the Eagle has landed.”
Michael Collins piloted the command module
“This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

6. Kennedy and Communism
Flexible Response- Less reliance on Nuclear Weapons; more on Special Forces (ie Green Berets)
Refocus on Diplomacy, especially in Latin America
The Bay of Pigs – Eisenhower & Kennedy
The Berlin Wall - Kennedy reaffirms commitment

7. The Missiles of October
The American Spirit – p (TP 1. on 513)
1. Was the Cuban Missile crisis a turning point in the Cold War? Who actually ‘won’ the confrontation over the missiles? Was Kennedy’s Diplomacy courageous or foolhardy?

8. “Eyeball to eyeball, they blinked first”
Thirteen Days
October 28, 1962, JFK & Khrushcev reach a public and secret agreement.
Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, & US public declaration never to invade Cuba.
Secretly, the US agreed that it would dismantle all US-built ICBMs deployed in Turkey.
Only two weeks after the agreement, the Soviets had removed the missile systems
Creation of the Hotline Agreement and the Moscow–Washington hotline, a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C.
HUMILIATION FOR THE SOVIET UNION
Brinkmanship
Pioneering game theorist Thomas Schelling called this "the threat that leaves something to chance.“
Eventually, the threats involved might become so huge as to be unmanageable at which point both sides are likely to back down.
“Eyeball to eyeball, they blinked first”
– Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State

9. Kennedy and Civil Rights (More Later)
Across the nation, more than 70 percent of African Americans voted for Kennedy, and these votes provided the winning edge in several key states. When President Kennedy took office in January 1961, African Americans had high expectations for the new administration.
EEO, Freedom Riders, Integrating Ole Miss & Alabama (School House Door Speech), March on Washington,

10. The Assassination of Kennedy
Dallas, TX
11/22/63

11. Johnson’s Presidency
The Great Society

12. November 22nd,1963
With Jacqueline on one side and Claudia “Lady Bird” on the other LBJ is sworn in.
“The ideas and ideals of (Kennedy) so nobly represented must and will be translated into effective action.”
“Kennedy’s death commands what his life conveyed- that America must move forward.”

13. LBJ’s Resume 26 years of Congressional Experience
Congressional Staffer
Member of the House of Representatives
U.S. Senator
Majority Leader
Vice-President
26 years of experience

14. “The Johnson Treatment”
Reputation of being “overpowering and intimidating”
Invaded personal space: nose to nose
“Persuasive and personable rather than elegant and charming”
He got things DONE
Did favors, twisted arms, bargained, flattered, threatened, etc.

15. The Texan’s Style

16. The Great Society Sweeping Economic Change New Deal-esque
Lots of Public Support
-The Other America (1962) - Michael Harrington

17. Full story: http://www. washingtonpost

18. Pros/Cons of the Great Society

19. War on Poverty
“There are tens of millions of Americans who are beyond the welfare state.
Taken as a whole there is a culture of poverty…bad health, poor housing, low levels of aspiration, and high levels of mental distress. Twenty percent of a nation, some 32,000,000.”
Michael Harrington, author of the Culture of Poverty 1962
The American Spirit p
(TP 2. on 513)

20. War on Poverty
“The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.” -LBJ 1964
Medicare and Medicaid (1st Medicare cards went to the Truman's)
Head Start
HUD
Job Corps
Water Quality and Clean Air Acts
Highway Safety Act
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Gun Control Act of 1968

21. Evaluating the Great Society from the Washington Post
LBJ was elected in 1964 with what was then the biggest landslide in U.S. history. Just two years later in the midterm contests, his party lost three seats in the Senate, 47 in the House and eight governorships. Republicans would win five of the next six presidential elections.
Among those presidents was Ronald Reagan, who memorably said that the United States had waged a war on poverty and poverty won.
Reagan wrote in his diary on Jan. 28, 1982: “The press is dying to paint me as now trying to undo the New Deal. I remind them I voted for F.D.R. 4 times. I’m trying to undo the ‘Great Society.’ It was L.B.J.’s war on poverty that led to our present mess.”
The irony, of course, is that while Reagan and other presidents tried to eradicate Great Society programs, nearly all survived in some form, and spending on them continued to rise. The federal government has grown even larger — more than five times as big as it was in 1960, in real dollars — while public faith in it stands near all-time lows.
“That’s the paradox of the Great Society,” said Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution. “It has never been more entrenched.”

22. Executive Order 11246
Uses an already established phrase: “Affirmative Action” to state that…
Ensure applicants are employed and treated without regard to their…
Race, Color, Religion, Sex, or National Origin.
Also required contractors with 51 or more employees and contracts of $50,000 or more to implement affirmative action plans to increase the participation of minorities and women in the workplace if a workforce analysis demonstrates their under-representation

23. “The Daisy Ad”
Lyndon Johnson's 1964 "daisy" ad implied that Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater might lead the world to nuclear war.

24. Johnson/Humphrey

25. The American Spirit p472-477 (TP 2. on 513)
“WE SHALL OVERCOME”
Civil Rights Legislation Under LBJ
Civil Rights Act 1964
Voting Rights Act 1965
Executive Order
Thurgood Marshall on the Court – 1967
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The American Spirit p
(TP 2. on 513)
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965, established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors

26. Compare and Contrast FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s Great Society
Compare and Contrast FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s Great Society. To what extent did the president’s use federal power to advance social and economic goals?