8. From Camelot to Watergate 8.1 The Triumphs and Turmoil of the 1960’s 8.2 Post Industrial America: Nixon to Carter 8.3 Conservatism Revived, 1980 - 1992 8.4 New Millennium, 1992 - Present 8.1 The Triumphs and Turmoil of the 1960's 8.1.1 JFK and Civil Rights 8.1.2 Nonviolent Radicals and Violent Conservatives 8.1.3 New Frontiers and Old Rivals 8.1.4 Reaching for the Stars 8.1.5 "President Kennedy Has Been Shot” 8.1.6 The Great Society 8.1.7 The Longest War 8.1.8 The Culture of Protest 8.1.1 JFK and Civil Rights 1960 • Sit-ins in Greensboro • Four Black college students sit at the Woolworth lunch counter • Denied service • Sparks a decade of public activism • John F. Kennedy elected President • “The torch has been passed to a new generation…” • Top priority: Cold War • “Best and brightest” worked on foreign policy Marching for Freedom • Students spearhead the movement • 1960: Woolworth sit-in • 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee • 1961: Freedom Ride • Congress of Racial Equality members purchased tickets for a 1,500 mile trip from Washington D.C. to New Orleans • Racially mixed group of 13 • One bus firebombed • One bus attacked by White mob Freedom Ride: May, 1961 • Anniston, Alabama: White mob burns bus carrying interracial group of Freedom Riders. JFK & Civil Rights • JFK: generally sympathetic, but not deeply committed to civil rights • Segregation hurt U.S. image worldwide • Feared loss of Southern vote in Congress • Appointed 5 segregationist federal judges • Allowed J Edgar Hoover to harass MLK and other civil rights leaders • Grassroots activists and violence forced JFK’s hand • 1962: 500 U.S. marshals protect James Meredith, first African American student at U. Mississippi 8.1.2 Nonviolent Radicals & Violent Conservatives Dr. King Plays “Chicken” • Birmingham • MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference planned 1963 campaign in Birmingham • Project C = confrontation • King wanted nonviolence to provoke hatred and violence • April 1963: Hundreds arrested • King put children on the front lines • Some as young as 6 • Police used water cannons • Kennedy forced a settlement • Southern whites caved under pressure Hosing Down Civil Rights Demonstrators Birmingham, Alabama: 1963 “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever” • Alabama Governor • Promises to “bar the schoolhouse door” to prevent desegregation at U. Alabama • Kennedy commits federal power to guarantee racial justice • June, 1963: “Our nation’s promise of democracy must be made now…’ • Hours later, Medgar Evers is killed in his driveway • Days later, JFK asks Congress to pass a civil rights bill “We Shall Overcome!” • March on Washington • August 28, 1963: 250,000 meet at Washington Mall to support Civil Rights Bill • Freedom Summer • Summer, 1964: more than 1,000 White students join Mississippi voter mobilization project • Freedom Schools: taught literacy and constitutional rights • June 21: James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman murdered Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech “When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Selma March: 1965 • Civil rights demonstrators march from Selma to the state capital at Montgomery. • This Life magazine cover shows that the civil rights movement had found a national audience. • Moments after the photo was taken, state troopers beat marchers with billy clubs. • Soon thereafter, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Malcolm X • The charismatic black leader called for black separatism. • Malcolm later tempered his separatist rhetoric. 8.1.3 New Frontiers & Old Rivals Camelot • 1959-60 Campaign and Early Years • “New Frontier” • Federal government will eradicate poverty, guarantee health care, and improve education • Will put a man on space • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) begins Apollo program • 1962: John Glenn orbited earth Nation-building in the Third World • Kennedy vs. Khrushchev • Khrushchev endorsed “wars of national liberation” • JFK called for “peaceful revolution” • Took steps to help nations’ through early growth • Oversaw a multibillion-dollar alliance for progress (Peace Corps) • 1961 Summit meeting is disastrous • JFK and Khrushchev disagree on ‘preconditions for peace’ The Berlin Wall • The wall separating East and West Berlin is a hated symbol of the division of Europe into democratic and communist camps. • November, 1961: East German soldiers stand guard as the concrete wall is constructed Tensions Mount • Bay of Pigs Invasion • Eisenhower left a partial plan to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro • CIA-trained rebels would conduct amphibious attack • April 17, 1961: complete fiasco • Anti-American sentiment throughout Latin America Cuban Missile Crisis • 1962: Soviets secretly deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba • U-2 spy planes gather evidence • Kennedy orders naval quarantine of Cuba • October 22: Kennedy addresses the nation and demands Soviet • October 28: compromise is arranged • U.S. will not invade • U.S. will remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey • Soviets will withdraw from Cuba 8.1.4 Reaching for the Stars To the Moon This moon’s-eye-view of the earth greeted the first men to land on the lunar surface. “One Giant Leap for Mankind” • Astronaut Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin descends from the Lunar Landing Craft. • Crewmate Neil Armstrong: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” 8.1.5 "President Kennedy Has Been Shot." 1963 Congressional campaign • Civil Rights tops domestic agenda • JFK goes to Dallas • Assassinated November 22, 1963 8.1.6 The Great Society Johnson’s Great Society • Great Society • Johnson imagines an America of abundance and liberty for all • Civil Rights: top priority • Signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Ends legal discrimination • War on Poverty • Economic Opportunity Act • Office of Economic Opportunity • Job Corps • Legal Services for the Poor President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973) • Johnson presidency shattered by trauma of Vietnam. • • 1968, so unpopular he was heckled everywhere he went. Giving Thanks for Medicare April 1965: An elderly woman shows her gratitude to President Lyndon B. Johnson for signing the Medicare bill Poverty in the United States, 1960–2006 • 1963-68: Great Society programs & poverty rate • 2000: the poverty rate fell to 11.3 percent • Lowest level since 1979. • Poverty threshold: tied to the consumer price index. • Poverty rate: the percentage of all Americans living below that threshold. 8.1.7 The Longest War Vietnam Conflict • Johnson inherited hostilities in Vietnam • Kennedy had sent 1600 “advisors” • LBJ: Tonkin Gulf Incident and Resolution expanded American involvement exponentially • U.S. destroyers “under attack” by North Vietnamese boats • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave Johnson full authority to repeal attacks • “Non-declaration” of war: Congress surrendered its war making powers to Johnson • Escalation: U.S. commits increasing ground forces “Spineless” • The United States supports South Vietnam. Vietnam Conflict II • American Soldiers in Vietnam • Faced an enemy’s guerilla tactics • Americanization: U.S. vs. communism • Vietcong soldiers were “wearing us down, driving us mad, killing us.” • War became a stalemate • Public Sentiment • Dropped steadily during the war • Because of use of weapons like Agent Orange and napalm • Specific incidents: My Lai Masssacre, Tet Offensive 1968 • The nation seemed to be coming apart • Americans frustrated over Vietnam, racial violence • Tet Offensive • January 31, 1968 (Vietnamese New Year) • North Vietnamese struck several cities at once South Vietnam • American public wondered if war was winnable Vietnam and Southeast Asia, 1954–1975 • Le Ly Hayslip’s memoir, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, describes the trauma endured by ordinary Vietnamese as a result of America’s fight against the Viet Cong: “In 1963—the year the Viet Cong came to my village— American warplanes bombed Man Quang. It was at noon, just when the children were getting out of school. My aunt Thu and her pregnant daughter-in-law were making lunch for her husband and four grandchildren when the air-raid signal blared… High Tech War • + Modern equipment (e.g., the helicopter) gave the Americans a military advantage. • - Lack of political purpose and a national will to win Vietnam Vets Protest the War, 1971 • Public opinion turned against the war. 1965: 15% of Americans favored withdrawal of U.S. troops • 1969: 69% considered the war a “mistake” • 1970: 52% supported withdrawal • April, 1971: eight hundred veterans threw away their Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, and other military honors to protest a war they no longer support. President Lyndon Johnson Haunted by Specters of Vietnam, 1967 8.1.8 The Culture of Protest The Free Speech Movement Berkeley, California, 1964 • The Free Speech Movement University of California-Berkeley was the first large- scale student mobilization • Became common throughout the 1960s. • Here a student trained in passive resistance is dragged by police to a “paddy wagon”. The Siege of Chicago: 1968 • August 1968: thousands of antiwar protestors demonstrates at the Democratic National Convention • Police & National Guard violently broke up peaceful “festival of light” by 2,500 members of the Youth International Party (Yippies)