The Turbulent Years, 1960 1968

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CHAPTER 29

• The Turbulent Years, 1960 - 1968

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Early Tests

• JFKs Presidency
• Social Security increased
• Peace Corps
• Space research
• John Glenn
• Cubas Bay of Pigs failure
• Fidel Castro
• Soviet Union erects Berlin Wall
• Freedom Riders desegregate transportation
• Congress of Racial Equality
• JFK sees economy as first priority

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Social and Political Challenges

• James Meredith enters University of Mississippi
• JFK sent in 23,000 National Guards
• October 1962, Cuban Missile Crisis
• U-2 spotted Soviets nuclear missile silos in
  Cuba
• JFK blockaded Cuba
• Last minute negotiation avoided nuclear war
• JFK increases U.S. presence in Vietnam
• Ngo Dingh Diems government overthrown in
  military coupe in 1963
• U.S. has 16,000 advisors in South Vietnam

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The Rights Revolution Early Steps

• Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)
• Southern Christian Leadership conference
• Birmingham boycotters gain sympathy of white
  Americans
• March of Washington provides forum for MLKs I
  Have a Dream speech
• Feminist movement
• Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

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Tragedy and Transition

• Kennedy assassination, November 1963
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Jack Ruby
• Assassination controversy still exists
• Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) replaces fallen president
• LBJ and Congress passes Civil Rights Act over
  filibuster
• Created Equal employment Opportunity Commission
• LBJ wins landslide victory in 1964
• Firebombing and riots indicate problems ahead
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

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The Election of 1964
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The Great Society

• Johnson declares war on poverty
• VISTA
• Head Start
• Food stamps
• Medicare and Medicaid are created
• American Medical Association complained of
  socialized medicine
• Immigration laws are relaxed
• Immigration Act of 1965

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The Expanding War

• LBJ sends escalated forces in Vietnam
• 20,000 to 500,000 in three years
• Selective service
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• Relentless war with elusive enemy
• University campuses erupt in anti-war protests
• Students for a Democratic society
• New Left

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Vietnam War
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Rights Revolution Center Stage

• Major legislation improves civil rights
• Voting Rights Act (1965)
• Watts riots shock nation in 1968
• 14,000 National Guards, 34 people killed, 1,000
  injured
• Black Muslims and Black Panthers
• Stokely Carmichael
• Malcolm X
• Feminists push for Equal Rights Amendment
• National Organization of Women (NOW)
• Hippies and the counterculture

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The Struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment
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A Divided Nation

• Tet Offensive convinces many Americans Vietnam is
  lost cause
• General William Westmoreland
• LBJ chooses not to seek another term
• Assassinations
• MLK killed by James Earl Ray in Memphis in April
  1968
• Robert Kennedy killed by Sirhan Sirhan in LA in
  June 1968
• Democratic convention brings discord
• Hubert Humphrey wins nomination
• Republicans nominate Richard Nixon
• Nixon wins narrow victory

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Vietnam War
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Election of 1968
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Discussion Questions

• In assessing the presidency of JFK, what were his
  greatest achievements? Greatest failures? Why is
  he still so popular?
• What part did JFK play in increasing U.S.
  presence in Vietnam? What part did LBJ play?
• Discuss the presidency of LBJ and evaluate
  whether the Great Society was a success?
• After the Tet offensive, how did the American
  people feel about the Vietnam War? Were the
  problems of 1968, and after, indicators of this?