Transcript The Frontier and the Great Society

The Frontier and the Great Society
1961-1968
President John F. Kennedy
• President Kennedy urged
Americans to work for
progress and to stand firm
against the Soviets.
• President Kennedy would
invite over a hundred
writers, artists and
scientists to his
inauguration.
Election of 1960
• The 1960 presidential election began
the era of television politics.
• The television debates of the 1960
presidential election had enormous
impact on its outcome.
• Following the first debate the media
focused more strongly on the
appearance of the candidates.
• The Democratic candidate John F.
Kennedy a Catholic from a
wealthy Massachusetts family.
• The Republican candidate,
Richard M. Nixon a Quaker from
financially struggle family.
• Television had been used during
in 1948 campaigns but in 1960
campaign it was used as a voting
tool.
• Democrats spent over $6 million
in television and radio aids and
Republicans spent $7.5 million.
• The campaign focused on the economy
and the Cold War.
• Kennedy felt the United States faced a
threat from the Soviets and showed
concern about a “missile gap,” in
which it was believed the Republican
administration was on the right track
with its foreign policy.
• Both promised to boost the
economy and portrayed
themselves as “Cold Warriors”
determined to stop the forces of
communism.
• Kennedy argued that the nation
faced serious threats from the
Soviets.
• In Cuba Fidel Castro was allying
himself with the Soviet Union.
• Nixon countered that the
United States was on the
right track under the
current administration.
• “I’m tired of hearing our
opponents downgrade the
United States,” the vicepresident said.
• Nixon also warned that the
Democrats fiscal polices
would boost inflation and
that only he had the
necessary foreign policy
experience to guide the
nation.
• Kennedy came under
scrutiny about his
religion.
• The United States had
never had a Catholic
president, and many
Protestants had
concerns about
Kennedy.
• The election of 1960 was one
of the closest in American
history.
• Kennedy won the popular vote
by 119,000 out of 68 million
votes cast the Electoral
College votes 303 to 219.
• In several states only a few
thousand votes could have
swung the Electoral College
numbers the other way.
The Kennedy Mystique
• John Kennedy’s youth,
optimism. And charisma
inspired Americans.
• In his Inaugural Address,
Kennedy declared “The
torch has been passed
to a new generation,”
and he called on his
fellow citizens to take a
more active role in
making the United
States a better place.
“My fellow Americans,”
he exclaimed, “ask not
what your country can
do for you- ask what you
can do for your
country.”
• Kennedy , his wife
Jacqueline, their children
Caroline and John and their
large extended family
seemed to have created for
media coverage.
• Reporters followed the
family everywhere.
• Kennedy’s family were the
youngest family to live in
the White House since the
Teddy Roosevelt family.
• Kennedy help to
inspire the nation with
his optimism, youth
and his ability to
handle the media.
• Kennedy was the first
to broadcast his press
conferences live on
television.
Success and Setback on the
Domestic Front
• Not everyone in the nation fell for Kennedy’s
mystique.
• Congress was also not taken with the new
President.
• With his new legislative agenda, known as
New Frontier, Kennedy hope to increase aid
to education, provide health insurance to
the elderly, create a Department of Urban
Affairs and help migrant workers.
• Although the Democratic
Party enjoyed large
majorities in both houses of
Congress, Kennedy was
unable to push through many
of his domestic programs.
• Many Republicans and
conservative Southern
Democrats felt the New
Frontier was too costly.
• Congress defeated many of
Kennedy’s proposals.
• Kennedy advocated the New Deal strategy of
deficit spending that had been implemented
during Roosevelt’s presidency.
• Congress was convinced to invest more funds
for defense and space exploration to create
more jobs and encourage economic growth.
• Kennedy also boosted the economy through
increase business production and efficiency.
• In an effort to get the economy moving
Kennedy also adopted supply-side ideas and
pushed for a cut in tax rates.
• Opponents felt the tax cut would only help
the rich.
• Kennedy asserted that lower taxes meant
businesses would have more money to
expand which would create new jobs and
benefit everyone.
• Congress refused to pass the tax cut because
many members it would cause inflation.
• However Congress did support Kennedy’s
request to raise the minimum wage and his
proposal for an Area Redevelopment Act and
a Housing Act.
• These two programs provided funds to poor
areas.
• Kennedy also helped women make stride
during the 1960s.
• Kennedy never appointed a woman to his
cabinet a number of women did work in
prominent positions in his administration
Including Esther Peterson assistant secretary
of labor and director of the Women's Bureau
of the Depart of Labor.
• Kennedy advanced women’s rights in
other ways as well .
• In 1961 he created the Presidential
Commission on the Status of Women.
• The commission called for federal
action against gender discrimination
and affirmed the right of women to
equally paid employment.
Camelot
• The Kennedy presidency became
known as “Camelot” largely because of
Mrs. Kennedy.
Warren Court Reforms
• Social issues were a focus during Kennedy’s
time in office.
• Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United
States since Eisenhower’s presidency and
the Warren Court took on a much more
activist tone which helped shape national
policy.
• The Warren Court took a stand on several
key issues such as the civil rights
movement, freedom of the press,
separation of church and state, and the
rights of the accused.
• Many of these decisions are still being
argued today.
• One of the Warren Court’s most important
decisions involved reapportionment or the
way in which states draw up political
districts based on changes in population.
• The Warren Court decided on the principle
of “one man one vote” which required state
legislatures to reapportion electoral districts
so that all citizens votes would have equal
weight.
• During the 1960s the U.S. Supreme Court used the
Fourteenth Amendment to apply the Bill of Rights to
the states.
• Due process required that the law not treat an
individual unfairly, arbitrarily or unreasonably, and
that courts must follow proper procedures and rules
when trying a case.
• The issue of separation between church and state was
reaffirmed when the Court ruled that states could not
compose official prayers and require prayers in public
schools.
• The decisions of the Warren Court were favored by
some while opposed by others but the Court had an
immense role in shaping national policy.
Court Cases
• Brown v. Board of Education – Segregation
in public schools unconstitutional.
• Reynolds v. Sims- State legislative
districts should be equal in population.
• Miranda v. Arizona- Police must inform
suspects of their rights during the arrest
process.
Court Cases
• Engel v. Vitale- State-mandated prayer in
school banned.
• Abington School District v. Schempp
State-mandated Bible readings in school
banned.
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JFK and the Cold War
• The Cuban missile crisis as the standoff
came to be called may have been the
most dramatic foreign policy episode
Kennedy faced.
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• President Kennedy
focused much of his time
on foreign policy as the
nation’s rivalry between
the Soviet Union
deepened.
• Through a variety of
programs, Kennedy
attempted to curb
communism and reduce
the threat of nuclear war.
• Kennedy felt that Eisenhower had
relied too heavily on nuclear weapons.
• Instead Kennedy supported a “flexible
response” where he asked for a
buildup of conventional troops and
weapons.
• This was costly but allowed the U.S. to
fight limited style of warfare.
• In adopting this plan Kennedy
supported the Special Forces
a small army unit created in
the 1950s to wage guerrilla
warfare in limited conflicts.
• Kennedy expanded it and
allowed the soldiers to wear
their distinctive “Green
Beret” headgear.
• To improve Latin American relations, Kennedy
proposed the Alliance for Progress a series of
cooperative aid projects with Latin American
governments.
• Over a 10 year period $20 billion was promised
to aid Latin America.
• In Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and the Central
American republics, real reform took place.
• In other countries the governing rulers used the
money to remain in power.
• The Peace Corps created to
help less developed nations
fight poverty trained young
Americans to spend two years
assisting in a country.
• The Peace Corps is still active
today and has become on of
Kennedy’s most important and
withstanding legacies.
• During this time of
increased tension
between the United
states and the Soviet
Union, the two countries
engaged in a space race
with each other vying for
dominance of the
heavens to enhance their
competitive positions on
Earth.
• Kennedy was determined that
the first humans to reach the
moon would be Americans not
Russians.
• In 1961 he recommended to
Congress that “this nation
should commit itself to
achieving the goal before this
decade is out of landing a man
on the moon.”
• Kennedy’s dream was realized
in July 1969.
Why the space program matters
• NASA research findings have advanced
knowledge of the nature of the universe and
people have applied them to many technical
fields and manufacturing processes.
• Moon boot material developed for space
program is used in many running shoes
today.
• The NASA tel-operator and robot technology
was used to develop a voiced controlled
wheelchair manipulator.
Global challenges Kennedy
Faced during his presidency.
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Spread of communism
Cuban missile crisis
Latin American relations
Reducing the threat of nuclear war
Crises of the Cold War
• President Kennedy's efforts to combat
Communist influence in other countries
led to some of the most intense crises
of the Cold War.
• At times these crises left Americans
and people in many other nations
wondering whether the world would
survive.
• Cuba and its leader Fidel Castro
began forming an alliance with
the Soviet Union and its leader
Nikita Khrushchev.
• During the Eisenhower’s
presidency the CIA had secretly
trained and armed Cuban exiles
known as La Brigada.
• On April 17, 1961, 1,400
armed Cuban exiles landed at
the Bay of Pigs on the south
coast of Cuba.
• Disaster struck as Kennedy
cancelled air support for the
exiles in order to keep United
States involvement a secret.
• Most of the La Brigada were
either killed or captured by
Castro’s Army.
• The Bay of Pigs was a dark
moment for the Kennedy
administration.
• After meeting with Soviet
leader Khrushchev, Kennedy
refused to recognize East
Germany or have the United
States- along with Great
Britain and France- withdraw
from Berlin.
• The Soviet leader retaliated by
constructing a wall through
Berlin stopping movement
between the Soviet sector and
the rest of the city.
• For the next 30 years the
Berlin Wall symbolized the
Cold War division between East
and West.
• During the summer of 1962 , American
intelligence agencies discovered that Soviet
technicians and equipment had arrived in
Cuba and that military constriction was in
progress.
• Photographs proved that the Soviets had
placed long range missiles Cuba
• Kennedy ordered it stopped but work on the
site continued.
• Nuclear holocaust was feared.
• Neither Kennedy nor Khrushchev
wanted World War III.
• Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba
and to remove missiles from Turkey.
• The Soviets agreed to remove missiles
in Cuba.
• The Cuban Missile
Crisis as it became
known brought the
world on the edge of
a nuclear war.
• Both sides agreed to
work out a plan to
ease tension.
• In 1963 the United
States and the Soviet
Union agreed to work
out a plan to ease
tension.
• In 1963 the United States and
the Soviet Union agreed to a
treaty banning of nuclear
weapons in the atmosphere.
• The missile crisis led to the
demise of Nikita Khrushchev
and the new Soviet leadership
was less interested in reaching
agreements with the West.
• The result was a huge Soviet
arms buildup.
S
November 22, 1963:
John F. Kennedy assassinated
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of
the United States, is assassinated while traveling
through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible.
First lady Jacqueline Kennedy rarely accompanied
her husband on political outings, but she was
beside him, along with Texas Governor John
Connally and his wife, for a 10-mile motorcade
through the streets of downtown Dallas on
November 22. Sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the
Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and
enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade
route
Who assassinated JFK?
Lee Harvey Oswald, born in New Orleans in
1939, joined the U.S. Marines in 1956. He was
discharged in 1959 and nine days later left for
the Soviet Union, where he tried unsuccessfully
to become a citizen. He worked in Minsk and
married a Soviet woman and in 1962 was
allowed to return to the United States with his
wife and infant daughter. In early 1963, he
bought a .38 revolver and rifle with a
telescopic sight by mail order, and on April 10
in Dallas he allegedly shot at and missed
former U.S. Army general Edwin Walker, a
figure known for his extreme right-wing views.
Later that month, Oswald went to New
Orleans and founded a branch of the
Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a proCastro organization. In September 1963,
he went to Mexico City, where
investigators allege that he attempted
to secure a visa to travel to Cuba or
return to the USSR. In October, he
returned to Dallas and took a job at the
Texas School Book Depository Building.
Less than an hour after Kennedy was shot,
Oswald killed a policeman who questioned
him on the street near his rooming house in
Dallas. Thirty minutes later, Oswald was
arrested in a movie theater by police
responding to reports of a suspect. He was
formally arraigned on November 23 for the
murders of President Kennedy and Officer
J.D. Tippit.
Who killed Oswald?
On November 24, Oswald was brought to the
basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his
way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of
police and press with live television cameras
rolling gathered to witness his departure. As
Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged
from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a
single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby,
who was immediately detained, claimed that rage
at Kennedy's murder was the motive for his
action. Some called him a hero, but he was
nonetheless charged with first-degree murder.
Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob
Rubenstein, operated strip joints and dance
halls in Dallas and had minor connections to
organized crime. He features prominently in
Kennedy-assassination theories, and many
believe he killed Oswald to keep him from
revealing a larger conspiracy. In his trial, Ruby
denied the allegation and pleaded innocent on
the grounds that his great grief over Kennedy's
murder had caused him to suffer "psychomotor
epilepsy" and shoot Oswald unconsciously. The
jury found Ruby guilty of "murder with malice"
and sentenced him to die.
In October 1966, the Texas Court of
Appeals reversed the decision on the
grounds of improper admission of
testimony and the fact that Ruby could
not have received a fair trial in Dallas at
the time. In January 1967, while awaiting
a new trial, to be held in Wichita Falls,
Ruby died of lung cancer in a Dallas
hospital.
The official Warren Commission report of 1964
concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part
of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or
international, to assassinate President Kennedy.
Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report
failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the
event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on
Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report
that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result
of a conspiracy" that may have involved multiple
shooters and organized crime. The committee's
findings, as with those of the Warren Commission,
continue to be widely disputed.
As their vehicle passed the Texas School
Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee
Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots
from the sixth floor, fatally wounding
President Kennedy and seriously injuring
Governor Connally. Kennedy was
pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas'
Parkland Hospital. He was 46.
Marilyn Monroe
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (later
baptized as Norma Jeane Baker) on June
1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California.
During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn
Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to
become of the world's biggest and most
enduring sex symbols. She never knew
her father, and her mother Gladys,
developed psychiatric problems and was
eventually placed in a mental institution.
Her 1954 marriage to baseball great
Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months,
and she was wed to playwright Arthur
Miller from 1956 to 1961. There have
also been rumors that she was involved
with President John F. Kennedy and/or
his brother Robert around the time of
her death.
At only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died on
August 5, 1962, at her Los Angeles home. An
empty bottle of sleeping pills were found by
her bed. There has been some speculation
over the years that she may have been
murdered, but it was officially ruled as a
drug overdose.
During her career, Monroe's films grossed
more than $200 million. She still remains
popular today as an icon of sex appeal and
beauty.
Johnson Becomes President
Great Society
• Lyndon Johnson took
office what seemed like
a prosperous time for
the United States.
• In reality however away
from the nation’s
affluent suburbs were
some 50 million poor.
• Kennedy and Johnson made
the elimination of poverty a
major policy goal.
• Days after the assassination
Johnson went before
Congress and urged the
nation to move on.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson was born and
raised in the “hill country” of central
Texas near the banks of Pedernales
River.
• Johnson differed from Kennedy’s
elegant society image.
• Johnson a Texan spoke directly and
roughly at times.
• Johnson sought ways to find
consensus or general agreement.
• His ability to build coalitions made
him one of the most effective and
powerful leaders in Senate history.
• By the time he became president
at the age of 55 he had 26 years of
congressional experience.
• President Johnson used his
considerable talents to push a number
of Kennedy’s initiatives.
• By the end of 1964 he won passage of a
tax cut, a major civil rights bill and a
significant anti-poverty program.
• Why was Johnson so concerned
about poor people?
• Johnson liked to exaggerate the
poor conditions of his childhood
for dramatic effect, but he had
in fact known hard times.
• Johnson in his State of the Union
speech in 1964 announced that
his administration was declaring
an “unconditional war on
poverty in America.”
• By the summer of 1964 Johnson had
convinced Congress to pass the Economic
Opportunity Act.
• The act established a wide range of
programs aimed at creating jobs and fighting
poverty.
• It also created a new government agency,
the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to
coordinate the new programs.
• The Neighborhood Youth Corps
provided work-study programs
to help underprivileged young
men and women earn a high
school diploma or college
degree.
• One of the most dramatic
programs introduced was VISTA
which was essentially a
domestic Peace Corps.
• In the 1964
presidential race
Johnson’s Republican
opponent was Barry
Goldwater of Arizona
a senator known for
his outspoken
conservatism.
• After his election in 1964 Johnson
began working with Congress to create
the “Great Society” he had promised
during his campaign.
• The Great Society was Johnson’s vision
of more perfect and equitable society
in the United States could and should
become.
• Between 1965 and 1968, over 60
programs were passed including
Medicare and Medicaid.
• Medicare was a health insurance
program for the elderly funded through
Social Security.
• Medicaid financed health care for
those on welfare or living below the
poverty line.
• Johnson’s interest in
education led to the
Elementary and
Secondary Education Act
of 1965 and to the
preschool program,
Project Head Start which
was administered to
disadvantaged children.
• Johnson urged Congress to
act on legislation dealing
with the deterioration of
inner cities.
• Congress responded with
the creation of the
Department of Housing
and Urban Development in
1965.
• Its first Secretary Robert
Weaver was the first
African American to serve
in a cabinet.
• A broad based program informally
called “Model Cities” authorized
federal subsides to many cities
nationwide.
• The Immigration Reform Act of 1965
played a key role in changing the
composition of the American
population.
• It kept strict limit on the number of
immigrants admitted to the U.S. each year.
• It also eliminated the national origins
system, which gave preference to northern
Europeans immigrants.
• Immigrants arrive in the U.S. from all parts
of Europe and from Africa and Asia.
• Johnson’s personal experiences and the
nation’s ability to finance programs were
what would inspire President Johnson’s war
on poverty.
• Among some of the programs or agencies
still in effect are Medicare, Medicaid, Head
Start, Department of Transportation, And
Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
• Conventional weaponry program,
foreign aid and the Peace Corps were
measures that Kennedy did to reduce
the threat of nuclear war and tried to
stem communism.
“I have a dream” was
a speech that Martin
Luther King Jr.
delivered in
Washington D.C.
• Enrolled in 1962
James Meredith at
the University of
Mississippi following
a Supreme Court
ruling that ordered
his admission to the
previously
segregated school.
• In 1967 Muhammad Ali was
stripped of his heavyweight
champion title after refusing
induction into the army
following a rejection of his
application for conscientious
objector status. The boxer was
arrested given a five sentence
and fined $10,000.
The Miss America
Pageant in Atlantic
City was picketed in
1968 by protestors
who believed the
contest place
emphasis on women’s
physical beauty as
being degrading and
minimizing the
importance of
women’s.
intellect.
Toy guns was
removed from the
Sears, Roebuck
Christmas catalog
after the
assassinations of
Martin Luther King
Jr., and Robert
Kennedy in 1968.