Modern AmericaModern America1960-20001960-2000

19601960• The election of 1960 was between Eisenhower’s

Vice President, the communist hunter, Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts

• In the first ever televised presidential debate the young and fresh-looking Kennedy appealed to the new television generation

• Kennedy was only the second Roman Catholic to be nominated for president and he had an Irish-American background

• But at 43 Kennedy became the youngest president

CamelotCamelot• Kennedy’s tenure was nicknamed the Camelot years • The First Lady was the fashionable socialite Jackie

Kennedy who did as much to promote the country as her husband

• With television the public could see the president playing with his children and on vacation and they relate to him as a family man

• Kennedy called his agenda “the New Frontier” and he wanted to extend the New Deal

• However even the Democratic Congress refused to co-operate

• One of the president’s goals was to put the first man on the moon

• In 1961 Alan Shepard, Jr., became the first American in space

• In 1962 astronaut John Glenn, Jr., became the first American to orbit the Earth

• Congress rejected Medicare – a social security program for the elderly

• Equally, Kennedy’s strong support for the Civil Right movement cost him the support of many whites

• November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas• While Oswald was being moved from Dallas jail to

another he was assassinated by Jack Ruby

• The Warren Commission determined the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone and there was no conspiracy

• Kennedy was succeeded by his Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson from Texas

• Johnson was a skilled politician and he was able to push much of Kennedy’s legislation through Congress

• Johnson’s plan was to create the “Great Society”• With Kennedy seeming to be a martyr, Congress was

more receptive to passing Johnson’s agenda• Medicare passed in 1965, as did Medicaid (paid for

medical needs of the poor)• Johnson urged the nation to wage “unconditional war on

poverty in America”

War on PovertyWar on Poverty• In response to Johnson’s request Congress created the

Office of Economic Opportunity, the Job Corps, and VISTA

• In the 1964 election Johnson faced the Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona who was ultra conservative and against big government and civil rights

• Johnson won because the Democrats portrayed Goldwater as an extremist

• In the early 1960s the economy was strong and could support the Vietnam War and social programs but gradually the cost of the war forced a reduction in social spending

19681968• The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon again• Nixon called for a return of law and order and

appealed to “Middle America” which was a good move after the liberalism of Kennedy and Johnson

• Nixon won and with his Vice President Spiro Agnew he set out to promote New Federalism

• His main goal was revenue sharing – allowing the states some flexibility in spending federal money

• His money made more money available but also created inflation

StagflationStagflation• Years of spending on the war and social

programs started to drain the economy and led to stagflation

• Stagflation is a stagnant economy with inflation• To avoid a disaster Nixon used Keynesian

economics and abandoned any idea of balancing the budget

• The economy improved, the debt increased

• In 1970 the Twenty-Sixth Amendment was passed and lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

• In the Korean War and Vietnam there had been no declaration of war and the president had sent troops – Congress demanded more power

• In 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Resolution (over Nixon’s veto). The Resolution limited the president’s use of troops to 90 days without congressional approval

WatergateWatergate• In June 1972 5 burglars at the Watergate Hotel

in Washington D.C. had been arrested• When they talked it became clear they were part

of a scheme to bug the Democratic national headquarters

• Nixon insisted he was not involved, but as the investigation progressed it became clear to all who was involved

• Nixon agreed to appoint an independent prosecutor, Archibald Cox, in an effort to clear his name

• Cox ordered Nixon to cooperate in response Nixon ordered Cox be fired

• In what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre” Two government officials resigned rather than fire Cox. A third official obliged

• In May, 1974 the House set up a special committee to consider impeachment

• While all this was going on Agnew was forced to resign because of bribery charges. Nixon appointed Gerald Ford the new Vice President

• The Supreme Court ruled Nixon could not hide behind executive privilege

• When it was clear Nixon was involved he resigned

Gerald FordGerald Ford• Nixon resigned and was replaced by Ford• Soon after taking office Ford pardoned Nixon• In the wake of Watergate the activities of the FBI

and CIA were investigated –Kennedy had hired a mobster to assassinate Castro and Nixon had the president of Chile overthrown

• Because a weak economy and distrust after Watergate the Democrats won the White House in 1976

Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter• Carter was a liberal from Georgia who

succeeded by claiming to be a Washington outsider

• Carter faced the same economic problems that had confronted Nixon and Ford

• He got into trouble with his own party when he tried to cut pork-barrel spending

• Carter made human rights his main agenda• He was able to bring Israel and Egypt together

for talks at Camp David in 1978 leading to a treaty the following year

Central AmericaCentral America• Carter was interested in promoting social and

political change in Latin America to stop communism

• In 1977 two treaties about the Panama Canal reached Congress:a) Panama would run the waterwaybefore taking over control in 1999b) Guaranteed the neutrality of the waterway, but allowed for the US to use force to defend the canal

• The Senate ratified the treaties by one vote

• Hard-line Republicans such as Ronald Reagan wanted to keep control of the canal

• In 1989 when the US was tired of the antics of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega the launched a military raid to kidnap the dictator

• Noriega was put on trial in Miami and convicted of drug trafficking

NicaraguaNicaragua• In 1979 Leftist forces ousted the US-backed dictator of

Nicaragua• The rebels called themselves Sandinistas• The Sandinistas tried to organize a rebellion in

neighboring El Salvador before the US stepped in• The United States helped secretly organize

counterrevolutionaries – Contras• President Reagan wanted to keep everything secret in

case the people thought this was another Vietnam• When the policies became public Congress withdrew aid

for the Contras

• Reagan persuaded friendly governments to help finance the rebellion

• Administration officials even used a secret fund of money that had been collected by selling arms to the Iranians

• Investigations into the Iran-Contras affair lasted months, but no evidence was found to attach blame to Reagan

The End of the Cold WarThe End of the Cold War• President Reagan was a hard-line anticommunist

who increased military spending• In 1983 he launched his costly and controversial

Star Wars Initiative (SDI) to defend the United States from attack by using satellites

• The program was abandoned in the 1990s as ineffective and too costly

• In the 1980s the control of the Soviet Union was being challenged by a union group in Poland, known as Solidarity

• In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the head of the Communist party and started to reform the Soviet Union

• He cut military spending and restarted détente with the United States and western Europe

• In 1987 at the Washington summit the two leaders signed the INF Treaty to limit nuclear missiles

• In 1988 George Bush, who had been Reagan’s Vice President became president

• In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down ending the Cold War

• In 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Commonwealth of Independent States appeared

The First Gulf WarThe First Gulf War• In 1990 Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded

neighboring Kuwait• The UN approved military action to liberate

Kuwait• In January 1991 the US-led Operation Desert

Storm started and lasted until February 28 1991 when Kuwait was liberated

The 1992 ElectionThe 1992 Election• Despite the success of Operation Desert Storm

the economy was faltering badly• Bush did little to help and in the months

following the war he watched his approval rating plummet

• By the time of the election people were looking for a change

• The Democrats nominated the youthful governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton

• The Republicans re-nominated George Bush

• The election changed when billionaire businessman Ross Perot ran as an independent

• Perot appealed to conservatives who wanted fiscal responsibility

• In July Perot announced he was not going to finish the race, but then in October he re-entered the contest

• In the election Perot took 19% of the popular vote – mostly dissatisfied Republicans

• Clinton won the election and promoted himself as a “new Democrat”

• But in the 1994 off-year elections the Republicans captured both Houses of Congress

• With control of Congress the Republicans attempted to stop the president

• By the time of the 1996 election the economy was riding the dot com boom and Clinton easily defeated Bob Dole

• However the Clintons were already being investigated for illegal investments in Arkansas, known as the “Whitewater” case

• The president was also charged with having an affair with a 22-year old intern, Monica Lewinsky, and lying under oath

• In December 1999 the House voted to impeach the president

• The verdict was not guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, so the president was allowed to remain in office

• Nevertheless his integrity was badly damaged and in the election of 2000 the president was of little help to his Vice President Al Gore

• In one of the most controversial elections in history George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and son of the former president defeated Al Gore by 5 electoral votes

• The main issue was the counting of votes in Florida (25 electoral votes). The Supreme Court stopped the recounting which gave the votes to Bush