Kennedy and Johnson

1
Kennedy and Johnson

• The New Frontier, The Great Society.and Vietnam

2
Kennedy

• Election of 1960
• JFK only 43 years old
• Roman Catholic first one to run for president
• First televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon
• Election was extremely close
• Kennedy wins by only 119,000 votes
• Close than Bush and Gore in 2000

3
Domestic Program

• Speech US on the edge of a new frontier
• Focused on combating poverty
• Failed at getting many programs passed by
  Congress
• Space Program goal of landing a man on the moon
  by end of 1960s
• Programs all cut short by his assassination

4
Foreign relations

• Bay of Pigs US paid for Cuban exiles to invade
  Cuba to try and overthrow Castro
• Failed, big embarrassment to JFK
• Berlin Wall Soviets try and strangle West
  Berlin again
• Ich bin ein Berliner speech by JFK
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Forced Soviets to take missiles out of Cuba

5
Assassination

• Visiting Dallas November 1963
• Prime suspect Lee Harvey Oswald
• Ex-Marine, supporter of Castro
• Oswald murdered by Jack Ruby
• Unclear motives
• Warren Commission investigates, finds no
  conspiracy to kill Kennedy

6
Johnson

• Very different from Kennedy
• As a senator was seen as fearsome and
  intimidating
• Ran against Kennedy in primaries but lost
• JFK invited Johnson to be VP on the ticket
• Very frustrated as VP, but soon got his chance to
  exercise power

7
The Great Society

• Many of Kennedys programs had failed in Congress
• LBJ brought them back for votes
• Civil rights legislation and tax-cut bills
• Started calling these goals his Great Society
  program
• Included poverty relief, education aid,
  healthcare, voting rights, conservation, urban
  renewal and economic development

8
Election of 1964

• LBJ served out Kennedys first term
• Johnson easily defeats Goldwater (Republican
  candidate)
• 61 of the popular vote but more importantly 486
  to 52 in the electoral vote
• Democrats also get majorities in Senate and House
• Nothing in the way to stop LBJs Great Society

9
Great Society

• In some ways, could be considered an extension
  and expansion of FDRs New Deal programs
• Roosevelt and Truman (Democrats) expand
  government
• Eisenhower (Republican) roll it back
• Nixon (Republican) v Kennedy (Democrat) in 1960
  what should the governments role be?
• People voted narrowly for Kennedy and his agenda
• Johnson (Democrat) pushes to expand governments
  role

10
More of LBJs reforms

• Tax cut passed with an agreement to cut
  government spending
• Result economy takes off
• War on poverty
• Head Start preschool program for low-income
  kids
• VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) help
  for poor communities
• Aid to education over 1 billion to rural and
  poor schools
• Medicare and Medicaid low cost care to seniors
  and poor Americans who cant afford healthcare

11
Supreme Court

• Chief Justice Warren
• Most liberal court in American history
• Overturned many segregation laws
• Prohibited prayer in schools
• Took away restrictions on access to birth control
• Miranda Rule police must inform you of your
  rights when arrested

12
LBJ Foreign Policy

• Vietnam took up all of his foreign policy energy
• Publicly said he was against escalating the war
  in Vietnam
• By 1965 felt he had no choice but to prop up
  South Vietnam against the communist North Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin incident- staged to look like
  North Vietnam had attacked a US ship
• Congress approves sending more aid to South
  Vietnam AND gives permission to US military to
  strike back

13
Vietnam

• Gulf of Tonkin resolution gives Johnson a blank
  check to control every aspect of Vietnam
  involvement
• 3 million US soldiers end up serving in the war
• Tet Offensive North and the Viet Cong
  (communists in the south) attack US installations
  and troops on Vietnamese New Year
• Communists massacre anyone suspected of being
  pro-US
• US responds with My Lai massacre (p. 1035)

14
1968

• American society at a breaking point
• War resisters become more and more vocal
• Election year
• Johnson decides not to run a truly defeated man
• Robert Kennedy announces hell run for the
  Democrats but is assassinated
• Chaos at Democratic convention in Chicago
  police beat riots in the streets
• Democratic party very torn, Republicans nominate
  Nixon for their party